What feels like many years ago I went through a phase of creating these short abstract gif animations. I was fresh into the digital art and I had just gotten started using Procreate. My mind was ablaze from several years of going wild on canvas, inspired by Pollock, Basquiat, to name a couple. Expressing ideas, emotions, without the hindrance of established structure, was high on my list of figuring out how to do.
There’s these moments of innocence and ignorance that leave a space for special things to happen. Looking back on these now as I add them to my website portfolio, I’m drawn back into how blunt yet engaging they are. My inspirations were direct, listening to a song, what does it feel like? What colors come up in my head? How does stuff move, why? Thinking about a moment… what’s the background color, do I use a sharp edged brush or a soft one? Are there structures that click together or does it all just get thrown together like in a washing machine?
A lot of thoughts came up as I was creating these, and even know I remember clearly. The canvas size, and I don’t mean in pixels, but the iPad I was using to work, really affects me. Before I picked up electronics to create like this, the canvas sizes I was working on were getting steadily bigger. I like big. I like to wave my arms around, get messy, EXPRESS. Yet, in this new arena, the focus was on a surface measured in inches. How do I bring all that was growing in mass and momentum into something so small? And, all the techniques I had built up with tools, my hands, whatever, to paint…but now, with only a pencils and fingers…
But I didn’t want a direct translation. That’s why I love these so much as the transition. I took the core ideas and concepts and worked to refine them into the limitations I was presented with…not get frustrated, not let myself fail, to grow. Animation and abstraction into a melded idea of personal expression. What was animation anyways? Lol… a path I most definitely dove deeply down. The movement, the repetition, the possibilities for entrancement and spreading of vibes n ideas.
These pieces bend my mind a bit, as I look at them now. There’s a whole bunch of ‘fuck you’ in them as I dove directly in, not trying to check any boxes of what would be considered ‘fine’ art. Embarrassingly simple yet frustratingly complex if you decide to think about it. Easy to do, until you try and do it, cohesive and with intent, yet still improvisational and abstract. A willingness and courage to just try it, and not just try it, but display it, well it, grow it…
A piece of my history created and minted (attached to the blockchain) at an insane time in art and technological history on a market that changed the world for so many people, Hic et Nunc. These vibes opened up so many doors internally and externally and helped to move me forward personally and professionally, even if it didn’t feel like it at the time. The wonders of perspective, hehe.
Each of the pieces has its own caption, a snapshot of my mind at that moment. One huge thing I love about NFTs and the blockchain, the power to (almost) permanently record our ideas…not just paintings to be preserved, but a living chain tying so much of the world together in so many ways. A redefinition of the value of creativity, art, ideas… New pathways for independent minds to traverse and survive by. More options for people who continually have them taken from them…
I follow the way my gut leads me, so far it’s been pretty good. There’s been some hiccups…maybe the last year + of skulls?, but even then, there’s always a reason. The hardest part is to trust it. With these abstract animated gifs, I think I did a pretty good job.
