Tell us a little about your background and how you became an illustrator/animator?
Puddle jumping sums up my background properly. I’m continually sucked into one path after another. I started seeing a pattern echoed through each, people and people’s minds fascinate me. Needless to say I spent half my life studying psychology dreaming to become a psychiatrist and unwrap people from the inside out. Unexpectedly a reoccurring dream urged me to abandon psychology and pursue my childhood passion of art. After studying people’s desires for so long, to ignore my own would have been foolish. I left the psychology world behind and dove head first into pursuing my art interest. I felt animation would unite my art and psychology experience, enabling me to create stories that pull at the very frame of people’s minds. After graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in Media Arts & Animation I started my own 3d animation company called Folklore Studio.

You have a very unique style that is just a pleasure to look at, how did you come up with this look?
The majority of my artwork and style are an indirect reflection of myself born of personal experience, my dreams, and willingness to create artwork that illuminates a fond memory. The style discovered me, my creations speak to me on a subconscious level defining what the end result will be, I just open an inner channel and let my subconscious takes over.

One item that resonates in my work is the swirl. The swirl is a symbol of proportional perfection but what I’m drawn to more is the visual appearance of having no beginning or end is could easily travel on forever. A swirl has an underlying energy that dissipates from the central origin and reaches out to the viewer.

I must not forget my weapon “coffee� it heightens my superhero powers and allows me to create unique yet stylistic surreal and dream-like landscapes. It is part of my ritual one that mustn’t disturbed.

Tell us a little about Folklore studio and where you would like to take this?
Folklore Studio is a small 3D animation company. Although we would love to see our company grow and work on bigger projects I would like to keep the company small and personal.

Could you take us through your design process from the point you are told the brief to presenting the final work?
My ritual begins with Bjork’s music. On my right a watercolor palette red facing towards me, paintbrushes systematically arrange brush facing up. On the left solid lead pencils sharpen tips facing towards my precious 1987 Sanrio Electric Pooch Eraser. The devil is in the details the process can be short or long it’s really up to the day. A tightly woven leather whip is attached to my desk, I crack it once and my boyfriend hastily brings me my Dunn Bros Coffee Cup filled to the brim. I take a sip, slide on my handmade cat ear hat, and open my palm leaf Sketchbook from Indonesia. I take another sip, pick up my lead pencil, and let my subconscious flow onto the pages.

I’m a go with the flow artist I throw a few lines on the page and build on what I see or how the piece talks to me. It’s not a widely productive method, as the end result may not reflect my initial goal. I try not to hinder a direction I’m pulled into as there’s always more paper around for me to give it another go at my initial goal.

My best ideas are hidden in my sketchbooks. I take the strongest ideas and finalize it onto a piece of Arches Cold Press Watercolor Paper. I start off by lightly sketching in the key elements with my Sanford Pro Mechanical Pencil. Then the fun begins when lay down the first colors starting off with light and moving towards the darks. I finish it off with white swirls bestowing magical powers with my special white Uniball Signo pen. Sometimes I will dip my work into coffee the coffee stain takes on a life of its own and adds the finishing touches.

What would you like to be doing the whole time if money was not an issue?
Creating more personal 3d animation projects.

What single piece of advice would you give to an aspiring illustrator?
Carry a sketchbook everywhere! Variety will drag out your Multiple Personality Artist (MPA) try different sketchbooks and paper quality types you may find a hidden artist within. Also keep in mind a perfectly bound sketchbook has too many boundaries cut, burn, and drag your sketchbook through the mud “texture is key.�

Where can our readers see more of your work?
You can view more of my company work at www.folklorestudio.com
I will be launching my personal website soon at www.innerswirl.com

Folklore Studio first 30 minute animation is coming in April 2007. So please look out for it.

Interview conducted by Nick, thank you Kao

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 8th, 2007 at 3:44 am and is filed under Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.