Welcome to installment number two of my year long series! This month I want to talk about my friend Mani and the colorful art he creates. I first met Mani years ago when we worked at Michael's together and I've watched his progress with his art page over the years. His page started really showing up on my feed more and more and I could tell he was getting serious with his art! I know he really utilizes Patreon which I feel like requires a lot of effort so I commend him for that for sure! Nowadays he sets up at a local artist market regularly and is really establishing a local presence! Go Mani :) Untitled by Mani Blunt I absolutely love this piece. The tree, the butterfly, all of the parts I feel like are so well done and matching. It wasn't even until I saw the piece a second time that I noticed the snail! The best part of this one is the tree to me, the leaves look straight out of an illustrated storybook. It has both weathered and fragile elements to it.... As soon as Mani posted this one I knew it was my top favorite. The original has sold, but prints are available! Artist Q&ATell me about your current medium. For the last year, I’ve been focusing on alcohol-based markers, colored pencils, and pigmented acrylic inks. I’ve found that, even with the limited number of colors available, I can do a lot of fun things with ink-washing techniques from a minimal palette. What medium did you start with? It’s difficult to pin down that exact answer, since I’ve been playing with art for longer than I can remember… but I did a lot with pencils and colored pencils in my early stages after determining that art was my biggest passion. What is a medium you’ve always wanted to try? I would love to be able to get into sculpting or whittling some day, to make figures and not just flat images. What subject matter do you feel most drawn to? Emotions and mental health… growth and discovery. I tend to gravitate towards subjects representative of “life from death” in reflection of my own transformations and regrowth after introspective discoveries. My other focus is also my “inner monster” that I use to represent navigating through life as a person within the LGBT spectrums, in a society that raised me to hide and suppress myself. When did you realize you wanted to make a career out of your art? When art became less about what others wanted me to practice, and more about being something that I enjoyed and could make others happy through, I started more seriously considering finding ways to utilize my talents more regularly. Tell me about a current piece in progress. Currently, I’m making some final touches on a 5x7 piece, which is going to be used as the prize of a contest on my Discord community! The contest involves a currency of watermelon emoticons, so I’m focusing the design on something that represents my brand (wolves) and watermelon. What is a struggle you think you share with other artists in your community? Pricing is a huge struggle for me, and that seems to be a common consensus… how to price yourself in a way that is respectful of your own time and effort, doesn’t hurt the economy of other artists, but is also within a reasonable and attainable range for clients. How do you balance making art for money and for fun? While it’s important to get through the projects you’ve promised to clients, you definitely have to give yourself some downtime for personal projects. This allows you to experiment with techniques, and gives you a reprieve for more freedom of expression. Art can be professional work, but if you don’t allow yourself room to breathe, you may find yourself burning out quickly. What is your favorite painting technique? Ink-wash has been my favorite medium and technique to explore. I’ve learned a lot from watercolor and oil painting, and some from digital; but it will never cease to impress me how much I can do with inks and how versatile they are. What artists inspire you? One of my early inspirations was Allison Strom (Shirotsuki on DeviantArt, AllieBirdSeed on Tumblr); she made such whimsical pieces that connected me to other realms within my imagination and kindled the flames of my love for fantasy. She was so warm and cheery to meet back in 2010, and watching her travel across the country and continue to grow in her craft for years to come was encouraging that, some day, that could be me. I have many more from across the years, but my current inspirations are more recent and closer to home. I’ve only known them for a brief few weeks, but between Philip Bawasanta (Phil Tomato) and Ryan Barry, I’ve been introduced to a network of international artists who genuinely want to help each other grow. As artists within the professional industry, I’m in awe of how they both work through their craft and tackle their daily struggles within society. What do you want to contribute to the art world? One of my favorite compliments that I’ve received on my art is that “It helps me feel less alone in the world.” I want to make pieces that move people, that connect with people, things that inspire people and make them feel. I’m not afraid of showcasing my odd tastes and styles, getting a few uncomfortable grimaces here and there, if it means two to three times as many people feel less ostracized from seeing someone else like them. Everyone deserves to feel loved and be seen… even us “odd ducks”. What’s your favorite piece of art advice? Practice. Practice always, practice everything, and keep pushing your limits and comfort zones. Draw as frequently as you can, even if some pieces don’t feel as refined as others. Too many artists will stop producing art because they feel it doesn’t meet their standards, but they haven’t put much time into it; we see amazingly talented people producing beautiful works, and instantly assign in our heads that our quality should look the same. Everyone has starting points, stepping stones, and things to learn. The only way to the top is to keep climbing. If this is your passion, please keep moving -- I promise you it’s worth it. Tell me about your favorite piece of artwork you’ve ever done. I can honestly say that I love a lot of my pieces for their aesthetic and heartwarming qualities… but, at this time, I would have to say that my favorite piece of artwork is still “Fear and Monsters”. It depicts a humanoid form, with a monster’s skull and fur, lying in a pool of blood and surrounded by clouds of shadow and smoke. Within the clouds are the words “I’ve met many demons and supped with monsters; but the ones I fear most will always be humans.” I made this piece to represent a lot of things in my life… from my physical and social gender transition (assigned female at birth, but transmasculine), to the social “taboo” of mental health struggles, down to just being outside of the cookie-cutter “normals” and status quo. For much of my life growing up, I was the odd one out that people didn’t generally want to be around; I was a decent enough person, but I didn’t fit their ideals of what a “normal girl” would be like. I didn’t know how to talk about my struggles with depression and suicidal thoughts--especially not when my own mother denied that they existed, and declared that I was just seeking attention. I wanted to be seen… without drawing attention to myself. I never knew how to find that balance, and was often left out of things until I started pretending to be the person my parents and peers wanted me to be. I fell into the trap of a “people pleasing” mentality. I wanted to be loved for who I was… but no “normal” human would understand me. Only the fellow misfits and outcasts would spend enough time with me to get to know me. To this day, this is my most meaningful piece of art in my portfolio, and is the one that speaks the loudest to the fellow “Monsters” who can relate.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
YouTubeArchives
February 2020
Categories |