— The featured artist of the 77th issue of Living the Photo Artistic Life magazine is AWAKE artist Gitama Day of New South Wales. It’s wonderful to be able to interview Gitama here on Quill and Camera . . .
Q: What got you started in digital photo artistry? And how has your journey progressed up to now?
I bought my first computer 27 years ago whilst I was a mature aged student at Uni practicing Printmaking and Photography … A whole new world opened up and I had so much fun scanning in and playing with my etchings and wood cuts, exploring new ideas and text to take back into the studio. It was mixed media without getting my hands dirty, and the best thing was being able to fix mistakes in a jiffy until I was totally happy with the result.
A friend came to stay … he was just embarking on publishing his first book of digital art … and I will never forget his generous sharing of all his tips and tricks and we sat together for a couple of days as he took me though my first project of turning a photo of my daughter into an angel using layers. It was sooo exciting. And ater that I was off and running.
I went on to be published in the well-known Australian magazine Wellbeing with twelve of my digital images of the zodiac (all from my own photoshoots with models). And then besides being asked to create covers for other magazines, I also received many commissions to create fantasy portraits. I went on then (over several years) to create three reasonably successful Oracle decks (using mostly Fractals and Polar Coordinates) that were distributed all over Australia and New Zealand and dribbled out to the UK and Europe. It was keeping the bread buttered and I was happy as a clam.
Last year I finished up a 6-year job illustrating a series of books (all with digital art) for a local author. It was the perfect job except that I was restrained within the confines of creating and interpreting another person’s vision. When it came to its conclusion I was like a race horse bolting out of the gate and so happy to get back to doing my own thing.
Q: What inspires your work?
Inspiration for me is ubiquitous. It comes at me from everywhere. I know that sounds like a throw off answer but it’s really true. One only has to look through my computer and external hard drives just to see how many folders of materials I have to serve for inspiration. Usually though what catches my eye can change from one day to the next — it’s all so subjective according to whatever is trending on my “inspiration wavelength.”
I love the Symbolist painters: Gustave Moreau, Odilon Redon, Marc Chagall (a favourite). My bookshelves are full of art books.
Sarolta Ban, Erik Johansson, Stefan Gesell, Jarek Kubicki are just a couple of my new favourites. An oh, yes: Rusty McDonald too.
Deviant Art and Pinterest are also such a great source to get the mojo dancing.
Then there is Nature and Music and the way I feel when my grandson puts his arms around me or my little dog snuggles closer on a winter’s day. Inspiration really is everywhere and often it ends up translated onto my computer screen and carried into what I am currently working on. It’s a wonderful symbiotic relationship between life and art, with the Muse as a willing conduit.
Q: What does living an artistic life mean to you?
Let’s face it . . . creating art rarely makes for a lucrative business. (I learned quickly to tighten the belt.) And it can be a lonely venture working as a digital artist. (Fortunately I enjoy being alone.) But once I was bitten by the art bug at a young age all my other ideas of what I could do with my life ended up thrown out the window; and really I have never looked back or wanted to do anything else. At times (mainly to keep the wolves away) I’ve tried other things, but it was always like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.
I know I still have a very long way to go to become as adept as I would like … but in the end it’s not really about that, it’s about what makes my innards sing … it’s about feeling excited because there is this huge window of quiet where I can create without being disturbed … it’s about dancing a little jig around the house because I am just on the way to nailing an image I really love.
So to sum it up with a simple answer:
Living an artistic life, to me, is everything.
Q: How do you approach your work? Any particular process you tend to follow?
I often go in with an idea of how I want a piece to look, what I want it to say … or at least what mood I hope to convey through it … But sometimes an image will take off on a completely different tangent. When that happens, I try to back off, relinquish control, lay down a couple of elements and just play until something takes shape.
Sometimes looking for the right elements for an image takes ages, and in some respects longer than anything else because on the hunt I seem to stumble upon so many other fabulous things that spark ideas all their own — which then carry me off in some other direction before coming back around to the original image a few hours later. Sigh! It’s all grist for the mill. Time for a cup of tea.
When all the essential elements are in place and tidied up, that’s when the fun begins, as I am sure it is for most artists (time for a preliminary jig). And the post-processing for me is so much fun … choosing colors, tones, textures, and lighting to manipulate a mood feels tremendously satisfying. These are the magic hours.
I love experimenting with blending modes, Look Up Tables, dodging and burning. And I love carrying my work into the NIK software suite and Topaz Studio at the end to give my pieces a painterly look.
Q: What’s your next step as an artist? Where do you wish to take your work next?
At the moment I am experimenting with some mixed media. I print one of my images and then layer on encaustic wax and other elements — pastels and oils — scratching back, then adding more layers just to see how far I can push things …
As I work, I am really not sure where it is going but I am interested to see where it lands. I have fallen in love with the wax, so I was thinking about branching out into some abstract encaustics … which I could then bring back into my digital work. I am also experimenting with sublimation printing and have been printing my images onto aluminium panels, cushion covers, and tiles.
(Most of this was inspired by a blog that Sebastian wrote titled “Presentation = Impact.” Have a read! It’s so inspirational.)
I am not too concerned with selling or exhibiting right now (although I do have a wee exhibit coming up soon). I celebrate with those fabulous artists from the group that get published or exhibited, but at this time I really don’t feel a pressing need to pursue anything like that myself. That does not mean to say that I am not over the moon at being asked to do this interview and being the featured artist in an issue of our magazine though.
Q: Any advice or tips for aspiring digital artists?
Go all out and challenge yourself. Freely bite off more than you can chew … and if it’s too much you can always go back to nibbling for a while.
There are so many great tutorials and guidance to help you get to where you wish to be. I have learned things here that have made my jaw drop (and wish I had known years ago!) Because there is nothing like that fabulous feeling when you discover some new technique that has just taken your image to a completely different level. That’s always jig worthy!
Be sure you share your work along the way — with your family and friends, but most of all within your artistic community. I feel so grateful for having joined Photoshop Artistry, then AWAKE and the KAIZEN Group. I really cannot express how much joining this community of other artists has meant to me. Embrace that opportunity and draw inspiration from being part of something grand.