SNS meets Elijah Anderson

For the release of The SNS 574 we turned to NYC based artist Elijah Anderson aka Space Hose to put his signature style across the campaign. We headed to his studio to talk over the process and where he draws his inspiration from.

Text by Jonathan Padilla

SNS : Hey Elijah, thanks for having us. Can you introduce yourself and tell us what you do?

Elijah : Hey, no problem! I appreciate the offer.

My name is Elijah Anderson, and I’m and artist/illustrator currently living in Brooklyn, NY.

SNS : We are super excited about the illustrations you have created around our collab with New Balance. What can you tell us about that?

Elijah : Same here! Definitely feel lucky to have the opportunity to work on such a fun project.

Basically, the whole theme of the campaign is “Inspired by Nature”, so I’m doing multiple illustrations around product shots of the shoe that have different “nature” elements. One of them is forest themed, another mushrooms, and another is bugs and flowers. I’ve never had the opportunity to create drawings on top of product shots like this, so it’s been really fun integrating the two.

On top of that, we are also doing a placemat coloring page for the Kyoto cafe, in which customers will be able to color in one of my nature scenes with crayons that will come in a custom SNS box!

SNS : Love the placemat! Seems like you had fun on this project. Is that usually the case with the projects/work you take on?

Elijah : Thank you! Most of the time, yes, especially because each project is usually a totally new thing/process. There’s fun in the challenges that come along with that. I do get frustrated at times, and it is difficult to find a balance of work and personal projects, but I always try to remind myself to feel grateful that I’m able to live a sustainable life doing what I love to do.

SNS : Thats important, and humbling. Are you working on any personal projects at the moment?

Elijah : Kind of! Once we finish this project up, I’m really just trying to start experimenting and playing with some ideas I have for a couple shows I have coming up in a few months. So, it isn’t exactly “personal”, but some personal play/studio time is necessary for that to happen!

SNS : For sure! Something that stands out in your home studio is your music equipment. What can you tell us about it and how important is music for you?

Elijah : Music has always been a big part of my life. I was more focused on playing music than I was on art for a long time. I played drums through middle school and high school, then ended up studying jazz performance for a year in college. When I moved to New York I stopped playing as much, because I document store my drums and I started to focus more on drawing. A friend of mine is super into synthesizers, so I naturally gravitated towards getting some of my own as a more portable alternative to my drum kit lol. Really just fun to zone out with them for a while, I never really record anything...

SNS : Thats cool, I feel like we all need outlets as creatives to keep us going. What would you say are some records that inspire you?

Elijah : For sure! Ahh that’s a tough one lol. Different records at different times for sure, I think everything I’ve liked has inspired me in some way. One of my favorite jazz records is “Daahoud” by Clifford Brown and Max Roach. Always find myself going back to certain albums too- lots of Larry Heard recently, WizKid, Mndsgn, new Alchemist tape is dope! But yeah, constantly changing moods when it comes to tunes! Lots of options these days lol

SNS : Solid rotation you have going.

SNS : Lastly, what does the rest of 2021 look like for you?

Elijah : A bit of travel next month and December, abut mostly prepping for some upcoming shows I have next year. I’ll be showing stuff at des pair books early January in LA, and at Saturday’s NYC (Crosby st) around spring time!