William Kentridge
"Which artist has most influenced you?"
The artist that has most influenced me is Syd Mead, primarily known for creating the concept art for various environments and vehicles in the Blade Runner movies. I have always had a love for the aesthetic of near-future environments that take on a cyberpunk tone, something that I try to explore in my own work.
The point that William Kentridge makes that I found both important and interesting is that of one's favorite artist changing as they get older and progress through their career. The influence of Syd Mead in my work is something that I did not understand as being through Syd Mead specifically, but through my interest in the science fiction genre that he had been so influential in until I discovered him last year.
"What exhibition had the most influence on you?"
Though I viewed it very recently, Pat Lay: Hybrid was the first time I was at an exhibition and truly went "this is up my alley," with the people I went with immediately noticing that I would be inspired by the work. I love geometric forms and explorations of technology, and looking at Pat Lay's work immediately reinforced my love for the subject.
"What other creative fields/disciplines influence you?"
I am a person who always enjoys learning new creative fields. Outside of class I am an independent musician under an alias working through a distributor. I also work on video editors for video projects. The combination of video, visual art, and audio projects all contribute to my decisions as a visual artist, with music having an especially strong influence on the tone of my more personal works.
Firelei Báez
"Is there an experience that influenced you to become an artist?"
I have always been toying with computer software for as long as I can remember. One of the moments that convinced me I could become a digital artist was that of interacting with my friends and siblings in calls during middle school and high school. For the sake of jokes and humor, I would sometimes cut backgrounds out of images to combine them and add color effects on them, such as bashing an image of my own face onto a character someone said I look like. My brother and his now fiance, who is a package designer, were both shocked at how fast I could create these images, especially because I had no proper schooling for them. Later during my senior year, I decided instead of going for a STEM major or nursing in college, I'd go after graphic design.
"Have you ever made a choice that was influenced by someone's critique or feedback?"
It is definitely important to keep an open mind with other peoples' critique and feedback. The first time this really came into effect was with two pieces I made between 2019 and 2020 with shapes. The first piece had too many inconsistencies with shape sizes and strokes, and had this poorly done gradient background. One of my friends who does digital drawings told me to try flat color, as the shapes lent themselves to them. The second piece, titled "Neon Throne," is now the cover to one of my more successful tracks as a musician.
 |
| Neon Throne |
"What advice would you give to an aspiring artist?"
I still have much to learn, and I think there is a beauty in trying new things. Always have fun with the work you are making, and never feel afraid to try something new. You might fall in love with it.
Glenn Ligon
"What is your favorite museum?"
Though I have not been to many museums, my first time ever going to an art museum was going to the MET in New York. That was the first time I ever felt the grand scale of many art pieces that I had seen, coming to appreciate the amount of time and effort that goes into art more than I did going into the museum.
"What do you think your influence has been as an artist?"
I'm much more published as a musician than an artist, but I like to think that my influence is related to ideas of collaboration. I would not be a successful musician if not for the people that trusted me with a big project, and I think there is something beautiful in working with other people.
Charles Atlas
"Which collaborators have influenced your work?"
Under the alias "RyuuAkito," I had the pleasure of working with Cheshyre, a musician whose work I had kept up with for a little over a decade when I worked with him in 2020. Not only did he show me a lot of skills in music and how to be successful, but his album covers also greatly influenced my future geometric works.
Working with my classmates is something that has been very valuable in both the relationships I've made and the lessons I've learned with them. I am the type of student who regularly walks around a studio to see what everyone else is working on and asking questions. I would not be the artist I am today without everyone's help.
"What's the nicest thing anyone has ever said about your art?"
Somebody told me that they felt like they could understand how my brain works by looking at both my art and my music, with an almost systematically chaotic nature to them. As someone who puts a lot of his emotions and experiences into his work, this was something I was really happy to hear.
Le'Andra LeSeur by Ksenia M. Soboleva
What inspired LeSeur? Compare what motivates you to create meaning.
- LeSeur was inspired by the body, using her own in her own work. She states that "language for me is embedded in the body... as long as I continue coming back to the body as the source, the way I can create almost feels limitless" (Soboleva). There is a strength in how she uses her body as a way to explore ideas of identity and tension. She is also inspired by ideas of emotion, specifically uses light and color in her work to explore feelings such as that of freedom. Le'Andra LeSeur also takes her own experience as a Black, queer woman as an inspiration for her work.
- I am motivated by my own feelings and emotions in my work. I often put a lot of my negative emotion into pieces and music, feeling like art and music can often be a way to express one's emotions.
memories of flash
I often try to learn the fundamentals of a medium in order to create experimental work, as I believe in learning the basics and then trying to break them to make something new. Emotion is a universal thing for people, and I enjoy leaving things for interpretation whether this is through questions of "why did you use these colors in sequence," or "what does this silhouette mean?"
How does your choice of material, process, aesthetic, content, etc. reinforce your message?
My primary medium is that of digital pieces, and I enjoy using sharp geometry, silhouettes, and typography to deliver my messages. I also employ a combination of mostly black and white compositions with small spashes of color for emphasis. I believe in the idea of creating art that can be thought provoking, not delivering an entirely obvious message. Many of my silhouette works are often thought of as being oddly foreboding to look at, but not with a clear purpose. I believe in using digital tools to create a sense of mystery in my works.
 |
| DON'T LEAVE ME HERE |
No comments:
Post a Comment