Q. The works that you did create then later manipulated, why weren't you satisified with them in the first place?
A. The ones that belong to me, are the ones with the pictures of me, and then the ones with no pictures, only different brushes in photoshop (Tragedy, Empty Inside, Glass). I don't like the pictures of me and I feel the need to change them because I look in the mirror and see this face everyday... people look at me everyday and see the same person. By changing the ways I look digitally, I bring the "me" on the inside, out to the "me" visually. I show people what I am, and how I view myself. The ones I created with just brushes in Photoshop, just show a more pure version of manipulation. Just like painting, you start out with a bare canvas and your brush and your mind work in a collaboration to communicate with viewers.
Q. What is important about photography, to you.
A. Photography is like digital manipulation, is taking something that exists, and showing it to the people who weren't at that moment. You're taking something and showing that you lived in that moment. In photography, you're taking a moment, a second, a 1/60th of a second to prove your existance. You have a chance to show the world through your eyes. Show somebody a scene from a completely different perspective, a way they may not have seen it.
Q. What about painting, or in this case, digital art?
A. Again, it's all about creating. Bringing something to life. Taking a mental image and being able to put it down for others to see. Taking a felt emotion and being able to convey it so others understand. Everyone always says, "I wish you could read my mind", but that's what painting and digital art does. Lets others see what you see on the inside. Painting is the purest form of art, starting with a blank canvas and no limits. Next comes digital art where you're given a blank canvas and your only limits are the brushes you have or the boundaries of the programs. Then is manipulating, you start with something, and you have the chance to bring it to life in a different way. You have the limits of dealing with that particular picture, but then you can also fly and do anything to it. Then there's photography. You take it as you see it, you can alter it in the darkroom, but photography is a memory of what was/is.
Q. Where do you get your motivation?
A. Looking at others' artwork motivates me a lot. I'll see something and it will spark my mind to do something else. Also song lyrics, quotes, or something literary I've written. I'll write a poem then add a picture to it.
Q. Words are an important factor to your digital art, there's hardly any that haven't got any words, where does that come in?
A. In case I don't get my emotion across in the work, I add a quick something to it for it to strike something. For example, the picture of the couple holding each other, but all you see is the torso's, and it says "hold me". Now, that picture could mean a variety of things. It could be passionate, it could be a goodbye, it could be a new found love, it could been an old love, it could have been a couple breaking up, it could have been a couple joining. When I say "hold me", I mean it in the sense of being lonely. In my mind this couple has been going through some hard-times. One or the other decided it was too much, and just wanted to be held again. It can also be a lonely person, just looking for someone to hold him/her. I think that was the state of mind I was in when I did it...
Q. Where do you get the words you adapt to your work?
A. Song lyrics or my own writing. Or I'll work on a piece and just try to imagine the picture as the situation was happening in front of me, I take the first thing I feel, and put it in.
Q. Where is your inspiration?
A. My friends support. I have one special friendship, and in this one my friend supports my art a lot... even when I feel like giving up and even when I've done the worst work ever, he enjoys it. That picks me off my feet saying; " well, I don't like that one, but I could like next one." Also from my ex-photo teacher/mentor Ms. Bernard. I don't know that I would be as open minded about art or even just about life if it wasn't for her. The things she taught me completely turned my life into the person I'm now, artistic. I don't know that I'd feel as full in my life if I didn't have that. My art helps me so much, and I wouldn't have discovered it if she didn't teach it to me.