Artist Interview #1: Who Is the Artist behind Yrdgz on Editional
We are starting a new series of interviews with some of the popular artists on Editional (see 10 popular artists original post). We thought it’d be inspiring to get some insights about their creative process and their background.
Our very first interview is with the mysterious artist, Yrdgz, whose doodles and photographic series are fascinating and pushing the boundaries between techniques.
What is your story in real life?
Real-life me spends most days working in an Italian Restaurant. Any free time is usually spent catching up on the news, binge-watching something on Netflix, and creating art. More often than not, all three at the same time.
What is your digital artist story?
As far as digital art goes, it’s a fairly new creating process for me. My go-to medium has always been analogue photography (35mm film, Instax film, and Polaroids). A few months ago I stumbled upon an article about Kevin Abosch and his work in tokenizing art pieces, and then another on VESA’s “Artevo” process and I was intrigued. It made me take a further look into the process of putting art on the blockchain, which domino-ed into “blockchain art” which is an entirely separate beast and I’ve gone down the rabbit hole to find myself here. It’s been a blast, so far, and I find myself being excited about the future of the art space more than ever before.
When did you start creating digital art?
It wasn’t until I came across Editional that my creative output started to shift. My first few creations were photographs or doodles that I had done, but seeing the content being put out by some of the amazing artists on the app drove me to experiment a little bit more. So I stepped out of the cozy comfort of old-school and analogue and into the creative madness that was purely digital. Instantly, I was obsessed with pushing the limits of colors and patterns and details that made me curious, and all done from the comfort of my iPhone.
How did you hear of Editional?
I came across an article that was retweeted on my feed that had come out the day the app was released. I downloaded it instantly just to give it a quick look, thinking I’d probably never end up using it — but I was hooked.
Can you explain the creation process of one of your pieces on Editional?
I think one of my favorites is “this was a selfie. polaroid emulsion lift.” The Polaroid was an attempt at a self-portrait that I took in 2014. The shot came out underexposed and I just tossed it aside thinking it was no good. It wasn’t until 2016 that I decided to try my hand at emulsion lifts of Polaroids that I brought that one back out as a test. The resulting image didn’t yield much of a result, but I took a scan of it because I liked the way it got stuck and stretched on the paper. After coming across Editional, I took a dive into my photo archives and came across the image and something in me wanted to edit it with as much contrast as possible. Funny how in 2014, I disliked it because it was too dark, and now in 2019, here I am making it as dark as possible. The original Polaroid scan can also be found on Editional, here: https://edition.al/5394
What is your favorite piece in your Editional collection?
Hands down, my absolute favorite piece is “T***R#digitalart” by Osavage. I had gotten the notification that he’d created a new piece and I fired up the app, hit “claim” and my transaction got stuck while all editions got claimed in a heartbeat. Oh, I was so heartbroken! I commented that I was willing to trade anything with anyone who got it, and Alegria took me up on it, and sent me his 2nd edition of it. It’s just such an intriguing piece; the shadowy figure and the moody tones — I’m obsessed with it, truly.
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What advice would you give to someone who want to start creating digital art?
Make what feels right to you. In the last few weeks I’ve experimented with various forms of creating digital art, trying to find my groove. I was so used to a more straightforward way of creating with film, that I took a lot of liberties with the digital realm and all of the applications at my disposal. I feel that with my “pastel world series” and my recent digital self-portrait paintings, I’m finally figuring out what my creative aesthetic is and what the next few projects will look like moving forward.
Follow Yeli:
- On Editional: https://editional.com/users/yrdgz/created
- On Twitter: https://twitter.com/yelitzardgz
- On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whatwordsmiss
