I thought my journey was filled with dead ends and detours. Looking back on it now, I see it was all necessary to guide me to where I am today. Every feeling of success or failure and every experimentation has shaped who I am as an artist.
2003-2007 / College
Over the course of 4 years, while working full-time, I pursued a graphic design degree at a local community college. During that period, I dove into creating art digitally, primarily using Adobe Illustrator, where I became skilled with the pen tool, creating vector art using only points and lines. Much of my work had a minimalistic aesthetic, with emphasis on clean lines and white space. This preference has guided me through my entire art journey, as I'll demonstrate below.
2007-2021 / Lost at sea
Post-graduation, I fell into a rut and lost motivation, leading me to drift around for years. I had minor gigs as a technical illustrator, graphic designer with a local newspaper, creating logos for friends, and working on numerous personal projects. Unfortunately, I was too unfocused, lacked confidence and didn't chase an 'adult career' related to creating.
2022 / Discovering NFTs
In early 2022, I discovered 1/1 art NFTs and was blown away by the community aspect of crypto Twitter. There was so much support for art, and a constant open dialogue between artists, collectors, and curators. I couldn't believe how easy it was to connect with anyone at any time and how open people were to sharing their knowledge. After spending 6 months just learning about the space I felt inspired (and ignorant) enough to start my own art project, which was short lived. While I won’t dive into those project specifics anytime soon, there was one thing that came from it that sent me down the path I’m on now.
APR 2022 / The De Stijl Box
While working on said dead project, I created a very specific piece: a De Stijl-inspired box. I cannot recall the exact spark that spawned the idea. Maybe it was a seed planted during a history lesson in college, stored away in my brain for later use. What I do know is that my fondness for minimalism likely led me towards De Stijl. I continued to work on that project for another month or so, until the urge to dive deeper into De Stijl pulled me in another direction. I wanted to attempt abstract art, something I had never done before. I had my newfound inspiration, and was ready to see where it would lead me.
JUN-JUL 2022 / De Stijl experimentation
Why De Stijl? At this point, I wasn't well educated on its history, but I fell in love with the simplicity of the compositions and the color palette. My past explorations with personal projects shared some basic concepts, which I believe led to a deeper connection with this art movement compared to any other I’d seen. I aimed to replicate the style and the see if I could build upon it to create something uniquely my own.
“Start copying what you love. Copy copy copy copy. At the end of the copy you will find yourself.” - Yohji Yamamoto
Soon after I started trying to create my own versions, I began feeling frustrated that I couldn't replicate what Mondrian had built. I was following the rules of the movement (horizontal and vertical lines, primary colors + black +white), but I was having trouble connecting with my work, though I wasn't sure why. I loved the style and assumed that was enough. Things were coming out messy, quite the opposite of what I was aiming for, and I was becoming disinterested.
“If you just mimic the surface of somebody’s work without understanding where they are coming from, your work will never be anything more than a knockoff.” - Austin Kleon, Steal Like an Artist
SEP 2022 / Ukraine Flag
I wasn't ready to give up, but I needed to remove a constraint. I was trying too literally to create a Mondrian piece but the issue was that, well, I wasn't Mondrian. I chose to stick with the vertical and horizontal lines and ditched the color palette.
Around that time, the Ukraine war was all over the news. I selected the two-color flag as a good starting point. There were numerous variations, but the key discovery with this experiment was adding a multi-color effect to what would typically be a singular color. So in place of one shade of blue, I used light blue, medium blue, and dark blue. This introduced movement and depth in a way that I wouldn't have been able to achieve with the standard De Stijl color palette. I felt like I was making progress, so I continued forward.
SEP 2022 / Vinnie Hager CryptoPunk and an epiphany
While working on the flag I continued to soak in art from others. In early September, I came across a post from artist Vinnie Hager that truly altered my path. He had blended his unique style with a CryptoPunk. This sparked an idea in me...why not try to bring a bit of De Stijl into the present, and re-imagine existing NFTs that I vibed with, helping me build a stronger connection with the work. I would no longer have a blank canvas, which felt a lot less scary.
My new constraints would be:
Vertical and horizontal lines
A defined form (shifting from abstract to mosaic)
OCT 2022 / SMB derivative
I began by recreating an Solana Monkey Business NFT. I chose a pixelated image, which allowed me to create a grid that acted as a guide for my rectangles and squares. This was the beginning of a forming process, and it was quite exciting. I brought forward the multi-color enhancement from the Ukraine flag, which allowed me to introduce variety to each section of the image (hat, face, etc.) without adding clashing colors, which might confuse the viewer as to what the image was.
NOV 2022 / Pokéball & Skull
After a process had started to form, I continued to play, in order to narrow in on a style and workflow that was uniquely mine. Like many others, I wanted my work to stand out as something different. I was focused on using De Stijl as the foundation but also to separate from it enough so that I no longer felt like I was simply imitating it.
"Imitating your heroes is not flattering them. Transforming their work into something of your own is how you flatter them. Adding something to the world that only you can add." - Austin Kleon, Steal Like an Artist
DEC 2022 / Monster Friends & the stained glass effect
As the year wrapped up, I was growing more comfortable with my processes. I continued to explore, this time drawing inspiration from the universe created by Zen0, particularly his Monster Friends series. For a couple of weeks in December, I focused on recreating his pixel art in my newfound style. While I was experimenting, I introduced a few new steps that resulted in a stained glass appearance. At the time, I wasn't aiming for the glass-like effect; I just really liked the result. It wasn't until a few people pointed it out that I saw it.
This marked a pivotal point in my development and one that eventually led me to explore stained glass as a medium!
JAN 2023 / Pokésaics...revisiting abstract
For 5 months, starting from the moment I saw Vinnie's punk, I focused on applying my day-to-day learnings, mainly on pixel art. I had found a comfort zone there, a place I could tweak my process without going too far off-course. I wanted to revisit what sparked all of this. It was time to give abstract another chance.
Mondrian had a very specific set of constraints with De Stijl. By this point, I had created a set of rules of my own that I was ready to utilize. This time, I knew I needed to have a specific idea or subject in mind to give me something to aim for. My north star was a focus on color, and I chose something I loved from my childhood: Pokémon.
Pokésaics were a direct result of having a clearer direction, better guidelines, and a refined process. I was able to create abstract pieces that represented childhood memories which I connected with, and truly enjoyed creating. The name Pokésaics is a blend of 'Pokémon' and 'mosaic'. I utilized the colors of each creature to accurately represent them in an abstract form. I felt this was a successfully re-entry into abstract art, and with that, I was feeling ready to start working on my first series.
MAR-APR 2023 / Glass journey begins
Up until this point, nearly all of my work had been digital. It was my comfort zone, my medium of choice for the last 20 years. The decision to try a new medium was inspired by a few things:
1. Steal Like an Artist - Austin Kleon
In his book, Austin talks about the importance of working with your hands and how restrictive the computer can be. I wanted to explore freeing myself from relying solely on technology to create.
“The computer is really good for editing your ideas, and it’s really good for getting your ideas ready for publishing out into the world, but it’s not really good for generating ideas. There are too many opportunities to hit the delete key.” - Austin Kleon, Steal Like an Artist
I completely resonated with this, as it often feels difficult to know when the work is done as there are endless opportunities to undo and try a different idea.
2. AI art
The rapid progression of AI had me contemplating how I could create work that stood out from what will likely be an influx of art in the coming years. As the technology advances, it becomes increasingly more difficult to tell it apart from human made (non-generated) work. I believe it's important to note that, while I initially had negative feelings towards this new technology, my mindset has shifted to one of curiosity and admiration for those pushing the boundaries.
3. Feedback that my developing style had a stained glass appearance
There was an unintentional development in my work (Zen0's Monster Friends) that gave some of my pieces a stained glass appearance. While I was unaware of this prior to it being mentioned, I was intrigued by the potential to work with my hands and create something both unique and more difficult to replicate.
My first two pieces didn't incorporate my newer style, but were instead used as learning experiences with a new medium.
MAY-JUN 2023 / Art on display
In January, I had set a goal for myself to incorporate in-person art events into my life. Up until that point, everything I had done was online, and I wanted to experience the more traditional side of the art world.
I was very intentional about chasing this goal. From May to August, my work was exhibited in the West Michigan Area Show 2023 at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts. There were over 500 entries for the show, with only 63 being accepted and exhibited. Mine was one of only two digital works included. This was my first competition entry and was a humbling experience, being part of an incredible event with so much beautiful art. I plan to write more on this in the near future.
In June, I also had two pieces on display at the Arcus Gallery for the 2023 KVCC Alumni Art show.
West Michigan Area show (left), KVCC Alumni show (right)
Next - 'Animalia'
My upcoming series 'Animalia', which I'll detail in my next entry, embodies what I've learned in terms of storytelling and from my style explorations. To date, it is the most connected I've felt to my art. It offers insight into my passions and points to where I plan to go next in my artistic journey.
Closing
Over the course of the last 18 months, I've devoted more time to art than in the previous 15 years combined, this is a fact. My drive to continue exploring, and improving my craft is stronger than ever. Who knows where things will be a year from now. One thing I can guarantee is that I'll still be creating 💜.
...
Lastly, let's quickly revisit that magazine cover I made over 15 years ago.
My recents works with the Pokésaics, my West Michigan Area Show piece, and 'Animalia', share a very similar feel. A version of this style has been at the core of my preferences since college, it just wasn't as obvious back then. It's amazing to me that by digging into the past, I'm only now seeing how it has influenced the present and will shape the future.
Comentarios