Name: Aim Ren Beland
Specialties (i.e inker, penciler, computer colorer, painter): Very DIY. Jack of all trades with a background in Illustration.
Style / Genre: Auto-bio, political. I enjoy making work that brings the audience to a place of empathy for the subject, or that can communicate a discourse with a new lens. My work tends to focus on contrasts or juxtapositions of social expectations.
Contact info: Can be reached at aimbeland@gmail.com or on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and of course my Website.
Page rate for commissions: 25-30 USD per hour.
Rate for Prints of original work: My zines & print shop can be found here.
Current affiliations: Not currently signed with any publisher or distributor at the time of this interview.
Previous work: Pages in Yewon Kwon’s “Pallor Pink Vol. 5: TO THE EXTREME (2018)”, two Northside Comic Artist anthologies “Memories” & “Hallowzine 2018“, and in South Side Weekly’s: The Comic Issue 2019.
Current projects: I’m currently involved in a lot of organizing as one of the coordinators for CAKE.
What was your first project that made you feel like a real artist and how did you get it? I was to be asked to apart of “F*cking Forty“. I had only recently moved to Chicago after school, and a large number of Chicago comics folx were involved in the project. It was my first time making a comic from someone else’s script, first time having a critique outside of Art School, and I really appreciate the community that formed around the project.
What is your primary inspiration when creating art? Finding new and creative ways to best communicate a concept.
What other artists do you use to learn technique? The list is endless. Some of my favorite artists at the time of this interview are James Fenner, Aspen Eyes, and Asharah Saraswati.
Where would you like to see yourself in five years with your art? Hopefully, by then I will have found the magical balance between work, sleep, self, and social.
What would your dream project be? Something longer form, or perhaps working with someone I admire. Something with a budget and distribution.
Final four questions –we ask everybody
Q) When the zombies take over the world where will you be?
Probably a zombie. Or dead. Once my glasses break or contact subscription runs out I’m a goner.
Q ) How do you identify Jedi, lesbian, Ninja, gay, vampire, bisexual, were-wolf, transgender, pirate, asexual, fairy, aromantic, sith, intersex, Spartan, non-binary, wizard, genderfluid, queer, …? ?
Transmasc non-binary. Queer. Gay. Fifteen year old me would of indeed said “vampire”, but ten year old me might of said “were-wolf”.
Q) What piece of art, be it in the form of music, a book, a film or picture, do you think people must experience before they die?
I feel this question might depend on the era, location, and class you were born into.
Q) Give one fact that most people would not believe about you?
I’ve been paid to draw animals with erections. That might not actually be that surprising.
