A 12-YEAR old artist from Ballinspittle could hardly believe it when TikTok videos of her art work passed the 6m mark over a week ago.
Within a few days, there were an additional 200,000 likes, and the number of followers for videos of the artwork grew to 320,000.
‘It’s crazy. I can’t believe it,’ the artist, Edie Collins, said. Her mom, Orla, agreed, ‘It’s surreal.’
‘I’ve loved art since I was really small,’ said Edie, ‘but it was only during lockdown that I became a bit more serious and spent lots of time in my bedroom, drawing.’
On New Year’s, Edie posted her first colourful drawing – a picture of Billy Eilish – one of her favourite singers on her account edie_does_art.
It got about 100 likes, which is good but nothing compared to the 2m views some of posts have been getting throughout the month of November.
‘When the number of people following Edie passed the 1,000 followers mark last, June, we were ecstatic,’ said Orla, who manages Edie’s account because of her age.
‘We had no way of knowing it would exceed 320,000 – a number that is increasing at a rate of 10 to 15,000 with each passing week.’
Edie, who is a pupil at Ballinspittle National School, is dyslexic so the appreciation of her art is great for her confidence.
Some people have sought to commission works, but Edie will only do that for special, local occasions, because she simply does not have the time.
Edie recently posted her first video on YouTube. It got 8,000 subscribers and 20,000 views.
Edie also has 2,600 followers on her Instagram account.
Meanwhile, one of her drawings – another picture of the singer Billy Eilish – took third prize in the 2020 The National Texaco Art Competition and was featured in a recent Southern Star.
