Interview With 1stAngel

Welcome to the Artists Blog!

When did you first become interested in art?

Thanks to my mother’s interest and skills in art and photography, I was exposed immediately from birth to this way of looking at life. At a very early age I would watch her work in our home retouching negatives for a photography studio, I would look at a suitcase full of family photos over and over and over, I would look through a life drawing book she had. (I still have this life drawing book in my possession with my Crayola scribbles all over it.). So I would say there has never been a time that I do not remember being around photography or art and when I was not sketching or drawing or looking at art or photos from an early age onward.

I enjoyed sketching from drawings found in books to see how well I could duplicate the drawings of others…I especially liked drawing dinosaurs.

I got my first camera when I received my Eagle Scout badge and have had a camera ever since then.

After high school I branched out farther in the media I used and it was only then that I began to think that I was “artistic” and that it was one of my talents.

I always received encouragement from my parents to pursue my interests…in art as well as in other things. I don’t recall any particular encouragement from my teachers in that regard. I took one photography class and it was very helpful with composition and for developing an aesthetic eye. I took two classes (still life and life drawing) in junior college and they were not helpful. Everything else I have learned on my own through reading, applying, trial and error, learning from art-major roommates in college, keeping my eyes and ears open, etc.

Staff of Life

Has your style changed from when you first began as an artist?

The range of styles I apply myself to has dramatically increased with the advent of the availability of computers. Before that, I primarily did realistic, impressionistic, fantasy sketching and painting. I have now added abstract, fractal (which sort of needs a category of its own, although it can be seen as abstract), science fiction/alien, and surrealistic styles.

What style of art do you use most?

My style is to have many styles and to not be limited in that regard. If something appeals to me, I like to try my hand at it. I guess I could say I have a theme as opposed to a style and that theme would be that art should have impact and communicate something valuable to the viewer. And, by the way, I do not distinguish photography from art. To me they are on the same continuum and they are both art. Of course you can take snap shots that should not be called “art” but you can also scribble absent-mindedly on a canvas and that is not “art” either.

What medium do you use?

In the past I used acrylics and sketching. I have done sculpture in wood and terra cotta. I have done a little with pastels. And of course there is photography, always of the 35mm type. Now I work almost exclusively in the digital medium which blends photography, painting, the virtual reality of 3D modeling, texturing, lighting etc., scanning (such as bringing in flowers from a field and scanning an image of it directly on my scanner), computer generated patterns… in other words if I can make something digital or digitally, I will use it to create a final print.

Ancient Sunsets

What made you choose that medium?

I chose digital art due to the huge range of possibilities it provides me to unleash my creativity. I love the way my art now looks, and I would be hard pressed to duplicate them in traditional media.

Do your ideas come from life or imagination?

They come from both. In fact that is an interesting distinction. For me, they blend back and forth, into and out of each other. I imagine things related to life and in the hard world of reality my imagination gets stimulated, especially in natural settings. I also see both “life” and “imagination” as being real…just different worlds which are tied together by associations and sensations and the memory of those sensations. When it comes to where my ideas come from– there are aspects of discovery, such as with photography, fractal manipulations, parameter twiddling in graphic computer programs–aspects of construction, such as arranging a setting for photography, arranging elements in a 3D virtual reality, building and/or posing 3D models, building up layers in a paint program, —and aspects of creation, such as using every means at my disposal to create exactly the look and feel of a scene I see in my minds eye.

In all of these aspects of the creative process, and at any point of the process, ideas can and do come to me. All of which provide ideas and direction to my art, not to even mention just going about my life in which almost anything I do or see can potentially set off an associational stream of thoughts and ideas…some of which end up as paintings/prints.

How do you choose your images and colours?

When it comes to colors, I know what I like when I see it, but I am not sophisticated about color selections. I frequently like to ask my wife about her impressions…she even has to help me pick out my ties since I seem to have no clue what goes with what. My wife is also a great art critic and helps considerably in that regard.

My strength, I believe, is I in my images–composition, forms, textures, relationships, metaphors, perceptions, impressions, etc. When it comes to how I choose the images and their associated characteristics I believe it comes from an interaction between who and how I am in dialogue with what I focus on in the normal flow of life.

I have an active inner life and I am very intuitive, so things “coming to me” easily and unexpectedly is a common occurrence. I sometime react to inner things and sometimes to external things. I pretty much never go looking for ideas. Ideas have a way of coming into my mind as a full-blown scene, and they will grab hold of me so forcefully that I can’t let them go until I have found a way to adequately duplicate what I see in my mind’s eye.

Then there are times I see possibilities and I dive into that area or approach to see if the possibilities will work out for me. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t.

Other times, I purposefully get into a playful, exploratory mode and start fiddling with alternatives and follow my hunches with no concept of where I might be going except that I want to create something…then I just keep backing out and deleting and adding in and testing and adjusting until something comes into shape or focus and voila there it is!

With photography, it is usually more a matter of exploration and discovery, if I am clever enough to bring my camera with me just in case.

Bast Temple

Who is your favourite artist?

I suppose my favorite artist is my mother, who died in January of this year. She lived in a small town and never achieved any fame except among those who knew her in her own community. As she was maturing she took all the college courses in art she could, ran a photography store in her home for years, and created excellent oil and watercolor paintings, many of which now hang in my home.

Beyond that I like, and in one way or the other have been influenced by: Remington, the Hudson River School artists (especially Church), Ansel Adams, Georgia O’Keefe, Wyndberg, Dali, Rodin, Lincoln Fox, Umlauf, Valton Tyler, Dore’, Rembrandt, Michael Angelo, the unknown artists who created Egyptian and Asian sculptures, Edward Curtis, and many more…and that does not even mention all the contemporary artists whose work just blows me away it is so good.

What is your favourite piece of work by yourself?

That is a hard question…it is sort of like saying which was your favorite sunset…not that I am saying my art comes anywhere near a sunset, but they each tend to stand on their own and it is not easy to prioritize. I guess I would have to pick, “Going for Water.” This painting (I call my prints “paintings” because the creation process is exactly the same whether or not I ever touch a brush) is one that involved associations as well as the completion of an inner image.

I was visiting the Pecos National Ruins in New Mexico and looking at the remains of the pueblo which was mostly foundation stones, and as I read about what the pueblo had been in its hay day, it came to me that it would be neat and fitting to attempt to create my own 3D model of the pueblo in order to reconstruct (i.e. revive) the past. As I worked on this thought I got out my Edward Curtiss book of old photos of Indians, my books on the Anasazi, some books on pueblos looking with particular interest for candid shots so I could break away from the posed shots you usually have, etc. This effort led to a picture forming in my mind, so I set about creating it.

Going For Water

Creating the pueblo as a 3D model was a challenge for me as the applications I was working with kept not acting like I thought they aught to. Getting little square boxes is no big deal, but getting the rounded corners, openings, etc. just like I wanted with good texturing was a challenge since I had a lot to learn

I won’t go into any more detail than to say I posed the model used for the woman and then painted on her clothes using the mouse. I made and designed the pots. I used my photos for several different aspects of the scene. I have no idea how many different applications I used before I was through but it was a bunch. It took me about 4 months of work to complete this, but I think that I achieved the look and feel that I wanted.

How much time (on average) does it take to complete a work?

From 1/300ths of a second (photography) to about 4 months.

How well do you take criticism?

I think I take criticism well, although I don’t take it to heart unless I have high respect for the source. Good criticism is a blessing that leads to improvement.

What do you do to overcome a ‘block’?

I don’t have problems with a block, because I don’t ever approach art/creativity in a “should” manner. I have a real problem with financial or marketing aspects coming into play with my art. Although it is satisfying and validating for my work to be purchased, that is not at all a driving force. I think that I avoid the block issue by keeping the marketing objective out of my frame of reference.I either want to create some art or I don’t, and when I want to, I am already in the flow–the easiest time for me is when I play rather than when I create my own objectives regarding how I want it to come out. Frustration only comes in when I know what I see in my mind’s eye, but I can’t bend the applications to my will.

How do you know something is ‘finished’? Is it easy to walk away?

It is easy to have a “false finish” and I have learned to try to look at the painting for a day or two by printing it out and hanging it in my cube at work. Then I start seeing things I had overlooked and I can go back and edit it some more…one of the advantages of working with computer graphics. When I stop finding errors, I am through.

Have you had exhibits in galleries?

Not in any physical galleries. I have my work on display for sale in my Imagekind galleries.

Behind The Curtain

Have you any exhibits in galleries planned for the future?

No.

What are your plans for the future?

Art and creativity have been a passion throughout my life but practicality has led me to work as a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor (3 years), a Psychologist (25 years–I retired my license in about 2000), and a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (in this field for 9 years) working as a Quality Analyst in the Performance Improvement and Transformation department of a large hospital (my current job).

With all these I have been plagued with needing to commute for 2 hours a day, so my opportunity to work with art has been “catch as catch can.” So my plans are to retire and finally be able to put much more effort into my art, photography, and writing. I also want to get more and more involved in sharing and making my art available through the medium of the internet.

What advice would you give new artists?

Recognize that if you are interested in being an artist, you already are one–all that remains is to get out of your own way. There are two areas to keep in mind.

(1) Allow your unique perceptions and means of expressing yourself to flow without criticizing the creativity itself.

(2) Develop the technical skills and knowledge so that your “tools” are always “clean and sharp” because your creativity can be no better than your skillful use of the tools at hand for its expression. It is only in the area of the technical side of things that criticism is appropriate and needed–be critical of yourself and accept criticism from others as grist for the mill…not necessarily as facts (they perceive from their perspective and we are all limited in that way)…but to develop your critical eye and sense of aesthetics. Look at the work of other artists who produce works you like, immerse yourself in Nature, and push the boundaries of your knowledge, understanding, and wisdom at all times and you will not only be inspired but you will be making significant progress in your quality as an artist.

Thank you for the interview Clyde….Your answers were very impressive and will help many newcomers to the artworld, I know. As to Art and Photography being the same thing…Oh I totally agree with you, especially in this digital age. However, when I tried to make this one section under the umbrella art, too many people didn’t agree, hence Artists AND Photographers. I add that this may change in the near future

Again, thank you so much and much success in the future!

You can view more of Clyde’s images at http://clydegrauke.imagekind.com