— One of the earliest great success stories among our AWAKE artists, Caroline Julia Moore (UK) has become a creative powerhouse in the past two years, both as a conceptual photographer and as a digital artist … She is not only seeing her work published everywhere, but is one of the 14 elite content designers producing material each month for the KAIZEN Group, a regular contributor at ShiftArt, and something of a celebrity with software developers like Auto FX and Corel.
Q. What’s your favorite part of being an artist (or of living an artistic life)?
It really is a way of life, and I feel incredibly lucky to be able to do this full time. To have a creative outlet is so fulfilling. This year I have really loved taking portrait photographs. I visited the gallery that I have work in and a woman there said that she felt I had the ability to capture the essence of a person’s uniqueness and soul in my work. What an absolutely wonderful compliment. I try to see things from an unusual perspective, not only in the literal sense but also more metaphysically. It has been so humbling to have met and become friends with so many models, stylists, and photographers this year. We share such a vision and a burning desire to keep creating, keep experimenting, keep on seeing and feeling.
Q. What excites you the most about creating content (for our AWAKE and KAIZEN groups specifically)?
The photography is just a blast. But when it comes to creating textures, I think I simply love to get my hands dirty. I started out as a more hands-on artist and have combined this more and more with digital work over the last few years. There is something beautiful about mixing medias, colours, and texture. I like to be able to watch colours merge and the wonderful randomness of placing drops of ink or watercolour on paper and watching it take on form. There is such infinite variety in creating. The materials sit within their drawers in my living room waiting to take on a life, tiny memory potentials. And the journey doesn’t end with materialization. Textures made in the physical world can be layered digitally, merged with images. And then used by other people in their own creations — how exciting is that?!
Q. Have you been artistic (or “artsy”) your whole life?
Yes, and in particular the concept of colour has fascinated me from since I can remember. It is what we perceive as being real but colour is in fact an almost abstract concept. Caused by the interaction and absorption of light. It is as though you can see sound waves emitting from certain colours and our senses are rendered malleable. And creating is such an incredible, incredible thing. Like a super power — you can not only show what you feel and see in your own mind but you can create worlds. I struggled so very much growing up to fit in with the outside world, to belong, to feel comfortable with the thousands of ideas quizzing round my head all the time. Creating gave me some control over it all and an outlet to escape to and in which to become absorbed.
Q. What’s your favorite artistic medium right now? And what about it do you love? (And do you have any advice or tips for anyone else thinking of taking it up?)
My absolute first love is Photoshop. It is like holding the key to thousands of doors. I used to get frustrated drawing and painting when I couldn’t get something to look how I thought it would: the vision in my head. Photoshop now feels like an extension of myself. I can’t believe that I avoided it for so long, thinking it would be too complicated. My advice would be to never fear anything; or, to be more precise, if you fear it, push yourself to overcome that fear. Empower yourself. There has never been anything that I wanted to express that I couldn’t achieve in Photoshop. It allows you to be a magician! Where I could never explain or articulate the muddled hot mess that is my head at times, or the absolute wonder and magic that obsesses me, I can now show people, help them see.
Q. Do you have a typical way you begin a work of art when you sit down to create?
When I set out to make a set of textures I tend to be pretty organized. I have a huge array of materials which is set out according to medium. Big drawers filled with inks, acrylics, structure gels, water colours (and I could list lots more!) … I will usually feel compelled to work with a particular medium and will set out a selection of colours. I try not to begin until I have a pile of paper (or other appropriate medium) to work on. Since I am generally impatient, I make sure I have stuff like heat guns out so the work can be dried and ooooohed over as soon as possible. Plenty of rags and tissues on hand, and preferably cats out the room (learned from textures with added paw prints!!!)
Q. If you had to come up with three words to describe how you see yourself as an artist (or your life as an artist), what would they be?
Extraordinary … (such a layered word: both being extra ordinary and different). Complicated. Emotive.
Q. Do you maintain a pretty regular production schedule, or does it just depend on the season (or on your mood from week to week)? And how many hours a day would you say you spend creating?
I go through phases where all I want to do is create and where there is never enough time in the day to get everything done. I can spend 8 hours straight on a composition. I can spend hours making textures, scanning them in, adapting them and blending in Photoshop. Intensive days of portrait and conceptual photography. Generally intensive working in this way has a price to pay: days of sleeping, or weeks just wanted to read books. I have learned to be kind to myself and to understand that sometimes I will not have the energy to create. It took a while for me to stop panicking that I would never be creative again. It always comes back. If you are a creative person you create implicitly. The days where you rest or read, for example, you may dream up ideas, be filled with inspiration.
Since I have been creating as a means of working I have tried to moderate production a little more. Pace things, try not to burn out. It isn’t easy. At the start of the week I will draw up a schedule of what I want to achieve. I will plan and book various photoshoots in advance. And it helps to have deadlines — things get done that way! (Well, most of the time.)
Q. If you had to come up with your very own “3 Steps to Becoming a Better Artist,” what would your list look like?
First — See your whole world with a creative eye. Look more intensely at what is around you, look for wonder in small details, be inspired.
Second — Create, create, and create even more.
Third — And this is a really, REALLY hard one: Try not to compare yourself to others. You are your own voice.
Q. If you were to write a quotation at the start of a journal, something to reflect on every day, or something to guide you in your life — what would it be?
I wrote this in a journal at the end of last year: “Tear into 2016 like it is an unspeakable force that you do not need to tame; merely understand. Think of every moment, whether great or horrendous, as though it is a miracle given just to you. Take all of the tiny occurrences around you and turn them into magic. Believe in yourself; leave a trail of spellbound wonder following in your wake. Every moment is a door to a beginning.”
These words are also important to me: “These are pieces of me that are too strong for colour. My journey of coverups. The things I want to un-see are in reality the very things that saturate a new understanding. When we learn the brittle, snapping, harsh way, we build on our humility. I became a little wiser and untangled the past. Falling seven times, stumbling more. Elevated by invisible wings that stitched over my mistakes. So much to see, so much to feel, so much to accomplish and to conquer. The terrible sadness of every moment that went wrong are scales that are falling. A stronger light shines and these entrapments are just bones. The bones of me, a new foundation. The sorrows I have put to rest.”