dA love for everyone! #126

                                    

Tell us what defines you as a person.
While I believe that mostly everything I've encountered has shaped who I am on some level, I think that my pursuit of knowledge, desire to push the boundaries of what I can do, and desire to help out others are my most defining characteristics.


How did you find out about deviantART and why did you join the community?
I don't recall how exactly I discovered DA; I was just starting exploration of digital artwork and wanted a place I could host artwork and perhaps interact with other artists, and I believe that someone recommended this website to me.

It was a while before I actually started being more involved in the artistic community due to personal commitments that ate up a lot of my time.  It's hard for me not to be seriously involved with something and refrain from being active in the community, so once I had more time, I started checking out the website more and discovered some really cool looking fractal artwork.  After looking around for resources and ways to interact with other artists, I learned about the chatrooms and saw a few links to #Aposhack, at which point I began visiting that chatroom and pursuing fractal artwork. Since then, I've been trying to give back to the fractal community for the help it gave me when I started out.


When and how did you discover your passion for art?
First off, I apologize for the long wall of text, but there is some backstory necessary in my opinion.

When I was in elementary school, I developed a growing hatred of artwork because it was nothing more than a popularity contest and an assumed application of conformity.  One of the most obvious examples of this was during a study in "pointillism" shading where the teacher yelled at me for tapping my pencil on the paper for "making too much noise." There were many examples besides this where trying to inject my personality into artwork caused scorn, but this is one of the most relevant examples that was directly fueled by ADHD -- I was enjoying every second of making something, regardless of how silly it was, because I was able to keep my whole mind occupied while doing so.  In being consistently told that I shouldn't do what I enjoyed doing because it annoyed the teacher, I became very cold and turned off by artwork for years, as I didn't have any vested interest in something that appeared to seemingly detest nonconformity and my own being.

I don't know when exactly this changed, but for a good deal of years I had worked in administrative positions in forums and had some friends who made signatures and avatars for members, including myself.  I recall asking how they went about doing so at one point, and was given some tutorials, a link to GIMP, and had many conversations with them about creating digital artwork.  I found it to be very interesting, but didn't take it seriously for a fair amount of time.  I became interested in 3D abstract artwork as well, as the wild geometry and colors fascinated me, and eventually saw some fractal artwork while browsing DA and really was captivated by how it looked.  From that point onward, I started pursuing fractal artwork, and found fractal artwork to be able to engage my mind entirely.

That wasn't enough, however.  After working with fractal artwork for a while, I noticed that there were a large number of fractals created using rigid combinations of certain variations in specific ways, and wanted to come up with my own style that that would be both visually interesting, different, and flexible to work with.  Ironically, an unsuccessful string of attempts to recreate a fractal someone made (which I now know of it as a "terdragon") formed the basic techniques I use to create most of my artwork now.



What inspires you the most and when do you think your creativity is at its maximum?
My own mind is the greatest source of inspiration that I have at the moment, as it makes most of the executive decisions behind my artwork and demands to be injected into what I create.  It has a desire to see "epic" scenes, as I unfortunately have not the ability or time to pursue drawing, as much as I would love doing so.  Texture, color, lighting, and depth, in that order, are artistic elements that I strive to incorporate in my artwork.

That is not to say that there are numerous factors that I pull from -- nature, fire, music, and video games -- but if my mind doesn’t want to do something, I generally am at a dead standstill until I am able to get it interested again.  When it feels that it is on a roll, I have trouble stopping myself from getting things done and will go stir-crazy until I can get to a point where my mind will release me from doing so.


What do you think you'd be doing if you hadn't chosen this path?
Hah. I honestly don't know. I feel that there's so much I am able to accomplish and pick up (especially during that point in my life) that, if I didn't pursue this, what I could be doing is anyone's guess.


What do you think it's your most meaningful deviation and what makes it special? Does it have a story behind it?
Much of my artwork has a story behind it and holds meaning to me.  I don't really have a favorite per say: there's some things I really enjoy looking at, and some things that I don't enjoy as much.  

With as much as I consider the chaos of my mind an integral part of creating artwork, Fissure of Chaos is probably where I'd start: "...I've always had a goal of making a piece of artwork that I'd call somewhat fitting of my username.  Pretty silly goal, but nonetheless one that I think I've been able to address...It contains all my favorite color combinations (fire, blues, purples), has textures, contrast, saturation, blurs, and is highly active and abstract.

Remember means a lot to me personally as well, perhaps more so, as it was a turning point in my own stylistic exploration with fractal artwork.  It's the first of the "paint-like" style I have used liberally since creating it, and additionally was an exploration with softer, non ultra-saturated and contrasted colors.



Do you have any insecurities regarding your art?
I'd be lying if I said I didn't. Recently, I've probably been a bit too obsessive over framing...to the point where I think that some of my newer stuff looks downright awful.  I'm intimately familiar with the artwork I create and ways I create it, so sometimes I obsess over the technicalities moreso than appreciate its appeal from an abstracted viewpoint, so the hardest part is letting myself detach my dislike for elements in what I produce long enough to find elements I like and even out the balance between them.


Did art ever helped you to deal with your life problems?
It's a distraction.  It's stress relief.  It's not something I'm intending to do to put food on the table, as I'm currently getting a computer science degree (for video game design).  It definitely is a way I manage stress and keep my mind distracted from overloading, not to mention keep it engaged in doing something to sate my hyperactivity.


What is the one thing you always wanted to do but never got a chance to?
If it's related to artwork, I've always wanted to be able to do digital painting.  If it can be unrelated entirely, as strange as it sounds, I want to ride an ATV in some beautiful, picturesque location that allows me to roam freely.  And with a camera too



A few words for our fellow artists?
There are a few things I would want to say.  

1)  Ask questions, and don't consider anyone unapproachable unless you have learned otherwise.  I have learned many things from asking questions to people -- and some people go out of their way to be helpful.  You could miss out on a lot by not asking, and there's a lot more to gain than to lose by doing so.  Some people even enjoy being able to help out and see others thrive...

2)  Look for joy in the little things. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't set a few large goals, but if you don't enjoy the small things that you're able to do when creating artwork (be it use of colors in certain areas in your artwork, how shapes flow, or otherwise), then you're missing out on ways to build up confidence on your own that allow you to tackle larger projects and be ambitious in your own right.

3)  Don't be afraid to try new things -- or to empirically imitate qualities in artwork that you like.  Bear in mind that it takes some amount of time to learn anything, so be patient as you are trying to do this.

4)  When you first are trying something new, try to break it down into parts:

- "What do I want to accomplish by learning this?"
- "What do I want to learn?"

Note that there are multiple things that can go into each section, but the key point of this is to force separation between what you eventually want to do with the steps required to get there. Focus on what you want to learn, but do not let your desire to accomplish something with it interfere with learning it!