Tilteed

Artist Interview: Quakerninja

Curator’s Statement:

The complex symmetry of ‘Crime in Owl’ shows a level of depth that not even this artsy curator can only dream to achieve in her work. No doubt then, I am forever jealous of his massive attention to detail. Plus, owls are just amazingly cool, especially for this night owl.

What was the inspiration behind this piece?

I had drawn an owl before that was pretty popular so I wanted to do another one to see if I could get some of the same buzz going. I just took the word ‘criminal’ and made it ‘crime in owl’, so it’s an owl with it’s wings all locked up, like it got in trouble for something.

What’s a day in the life of QuakerNinja?

Well the days are pretty boring, I’m a night owl. I spend some time promoting some shirts I have, checking emails, eating a late breakfast, usually of some granola based cereal. Seeing what’s going on the twitter or Emptees forums. What I have been spending most of my time on lately is watching other artists on ustream, lots of really talented people who do different kinds of artwork. I find watching other people create things interesting.

How did you get into art?

My success in the visual arts comes from a failure in the preforming arts, I was a drama nerd in High School and took classes at the community college level in the hopes of becoming an actor.

I had a few projects here and there, including my very first job as a supporting actor in Martyred the Chet Bittermen story, a true story of a missionary who was kidnapped in Columbia. The play took me on an 80 city tour of Canada at the tender age of 18 and I have always cherished those memories. I saw more opportunities as a do it yourself kind of guy, in the visual arts so I turned my focus to that eventually getting a B.F.A. in fine art from the University of Hawaii where I studied Polynesian art history. I try to incorporate some of my past experiences into my artwork weather that’s using my improvisational training to think of new ideas on the fly, or arranging a composition in a theatrical way, or using a symmetrical tribal mask style. I am not the best at drawing true to life so I have taken the other direction and tried to explore more textural and abstract lines and moment in my work while still hanging on to what it is I am trying to communicate. I am more concerned with helping the eye move around the piece then the structure of the subject.

What do you find your biggest struggle when designing?

Like many of us just getting started is hard. There are a few exceptions but mostly I don’t put a lot of time into early sketches or concepts, I like to just get to it and see what happens.

I have noticed this more with digital work, I get zoomed in at 600% and end up putting way to much detail into a piece. So that is something I need to be mindful of.

A lot of your pieces have a symmetrical style. What is your favorite non-symmetrical piece you’ve created?

Death of a Satyr is one of my favorites and probably the one I am most critical of. It was my first attempt at trying to draw more then one character, and I think it has some good qualities, but I went to far with the details. I’ve been a little shy about doing anything else like it, and every time I look at it I view it as a disappointment. Side story, I was showing off some early sketches to my friend Killer Napkins and complaining about how to draw the goat feet, and it was he who suggested adding water at the base. Good call. I have used water, sheets, the edge of the shirt, filagree, and other tricks to avoid drawing feet.

I’ll sit down and learn how to draw them someday, but it’s not a chore I am looking forward too.

Do you have any links you’d like to tell others to check out? Perhaps a place to watch you work?

I have been keeping busy.

I have recently joined the artcast network. It’s a place where artist that draw live via ustream and other streaming sites can meet and follow other shows. I would encourage anyone to join, It’s a great way to met new people and something about having a schedule really helps me produce more work if I want to or not. I have several pieces to show for it that I would not have otherwise drawn if I didn’t need something for the show including this Crime In Owl shirt. I have had my personal website http://www.quakerninja.com in development for a while now and that is soon to open its doors. I will have 8 posters for sale including Death of a Satyr in all of its 11x17in goodness The original Zombie attack owl, and some others you may have seen around the shirt circuit.

http://twitter.com/Quaker_Ninja
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/newman-tv

Last but not least, our random question of the day: Would you care for the chicken or the fish plate?

My pick is Tuna that way I can have both fish and chicken because it’s the chicken of the sea.

I remember seeing a real tuna for the first time. It was not in the wild it was on a plate at a fancy hotel restaurant, I had thought that it was can sized, nope that’s one big sea chicken.

Thank you Jaden, and team Tilteed.