Southern Soul Daily

By: Courtney Glover McElwee    5-24-2018 Today I interviewed the artist Eleanor. Eleanor is a creator of “cute and creepy” art. She’s known by the name MsCreeptales on DeviantArt. She started out as a traditional artist who’s been creating for as long as she can remember. The very first thing she remembers drawing was an “OC” drawing, an original character. She’s always been the creative type and has been creating on DeviantArt for three months now. Now  she does digital art, stories, and poetry. Her unique and assorted creative gifts have collected her quite a few watchers, friends, and fans. Go check out Eleanor’s art @  https://mscreeptales.deviantart.com/gallery/

By: Courtney Glover McElwee 5-23-2018 Today I interviewed the artist named Kage also known as HonouNoKage on DeviantArt. Kage is in her early twenties and lives in a suburban area in Texas. She focuses on manga-styled illustration of the “flowery” sort. Flowery meaning big, expressive eyes, and flowing hair, etc. Her art also has a bit of “guro” influence. Guru is a term for genres that deal in more grotesque subject matter. When asked how long she’s been drawing she said, “Truthfully, I recall it as being something I always just sort of did. The dates in my sketchbooks go back about eleven years, so that’s about how long I’ve been more or less serious about it.” The first thing she remembers drawing, when she was a small child, was a purple butterfly with wings that curved around like swirls. She remembers it being a sort of mindless doodle, but it’s one of the few early memories she has. She was about 12 years old when she actively actually start...

By: Courtney Glover McElwee 5-22-2018 Today I interviewed the artist Tj. She’s known as TheFaeryKing on DeviantArt. Tj is a teenage artist from Memphis, Tennessee who has been drawing since she was a small child. When she was about 9 or 10 years old she noticed an improvement in her style and technique. Her style of art is cartoons and comics. “Most of my art seems to be focused on things that seem bright and colorful without context, though there’s odd undertones,” Tj remarked. Since 2013 she ‘s been actively trying to improve her technique. I asked her about the first piece of art she ever did, “My first proper ‘refined’ piece was an eye on fire floating through space. It wasn’t very good, but I still have it and it makes me happy to see how much I’ve improved.” When asked what inspired her to start creating art, she replied “A lot of things. Originally, I just wanted to draw since a lot of other kids were doing it, too. I used to write before, but I got too depressed...

By: Courtney Glover McElwee     5-21-2018 Just today I had the pleasure of interviewing the artist Dae. Dae is known by another name, Digital Sailor of DeviantArt. Dae, or D’Arcy to her friends, is a Korean American artist who loves to create pixel art. Dae is 18 years old and lives in Mississippi with her family. She was born in Seoul, South Korea and immigrated with her family to Mississippi when she was only six months old. Her beautiful name Dae means greatness in Korean. Dae mostly creates with pixel art. Pixel art is a form of digital art where images are created and edited at pixel level using a graphics editing software. The effect is a visual style similar to that of mosaic art, cross-stitch, and other types of embroidery techniques. She started taking a serious interest in art when she was 13 years old. For the last five years she also dabbled in digital art, but decided pixel art was her true calling. She originally started out as a traditional a...

For those of you who use Spotify, you may notice some missing music on the website. Spotify recently implemented it’s new “hateful conduct” policy this past Thursday. Several artists have had their music deleted from the site’s playlists due to the new policy. The Spotify website was quoted saying, “We don’t censor content because of an artist’s or creator’s behavior, but we want ou r editorial decisions-what we choose to program-to reflect our values.” The company spokesman said: “Our policy at this time is to not actively promote artists we feel are not in line with our values. We will not be removing their catalogs. This policy will evolve over time as we move forward.” Two of Spotify’s artists that have recently been affected by the new policy include R. Kelly and the rapper known as XXXTentacion. No word yet on who may be next to have their music affected by this new policy. R. Kelly was reportedly not happy with Spotify’s decision. Spotify’s new “Hateful Content a...

The difference between hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism is that one is caused by an underactive thyroid gland while the other is an overactive thyroid gland. The thyroid glands are small glands, almost butterfly-shaped, situated in the front of your throat as the base. Hypothyroidism is an underactive thyroid gland. This is a condition in which the thyroid gland does not manufacture enough of specific important hormones, causing a chemical imbalance in your body. The two important hormones being triiodothyronine and thyroxine, also known as T3 and T4. These two important hormones have a huge impact on your body and health, affecting all aspects of a person’s metabolism. Hypothyroidism primarily affects women in the sixties and older. Untreated, it may lead to such things as obesity, infertility, joint pain, heart disease and even an enlarged thyroid (goiter). Most symptoms of hypothyroidism can include fatigue, sluggishness, weight gain, high cholesterol levels, depre...

By: Courtney Glover McElwee 5-19-2018 I recently had the opportunity to interview a good friend of mine, Chase (C.D.) Baumann. He’s a traditional artist and regular on DeviantArt. Chase is thirty years old and currently lives in Sioux City, Iowa with his family. His prefered subjects of art are kemonomimis and anthropomorphic, along with model aircrafts and tanks. He’s been drawing his entire life and first started out with drawing aircrafts. “I made an attempt to draw a Valkyrie warrior when I was a sophomore in high school. I remember it being decent, but it was probably really crude and simplistic.” He first started drawing people in 2008, but didn’t start doing traditional art full time until 2012. Those four years were pretty busy with him working part-time and going to college full time. When asked what the first thing he ever drew was, he responded “I have no idea, It was probably an airplane when I was three. I do recall trying to draw a Hawker Typhoon back in kindergar...