What is art? If you ask Wikipedia, the answer will be: \”Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas.\”
Furthermore, Wikipedia lets us know that; \”there is no generally agreed definition of what constitutes art, and its interpretation has varied greatly throughout history and across cultures.
In the Western tradition, the three classical branches of visual art are painting, sculpture, and architecture. Theatre, dance, and other performing arts, as well as literature, music, film and other media such as interactive media, are included in a broader definition of the arts.\”
So by this definition I\’m an artist with experience in several fields of artistic expression. I don’t really see myself as an artist that creates art. I see myself as a person who enjoys playing around with artistic expressions.
I love mixed media expressions. When I paint I tend to do my best work when working with large format, typically 50×70 centimetres or larger. Bold colours, magazine and newspaper cutouts, and other effects are put together to make an eye-catching picture. The picture itself should be decorative and colourful, but when zooming in on the smaller elements, a deeper and more reflective meaning should present itself.
In this way, I think that my artwork is multi-levelled and seeks to trigger something within the depth of the viewer\’s mind and heart.
This is what I want with my artwork. To trigger something that was hidden. To inspire a reflection in the mind of the viewer, to motivate a person to look within.
My digital artwork is also multi-layered composition. In digital art, I combine my own text with pictures and design to make a whole. The picture itself should be eye-catching, and when you look closer the text should engage you, inspire you and motivate you.
Seldom do I build a design from scratch, manipulating, tweaking and adjusting to create the output that I want. Mostly because it\’s really time-consuming and partly because of my amateur skills in digital design. But when I do, and the inspiration flows and I\’m able to manifest the vision in my head, seeing the result is really satisfying!
I am not skilled at all in photo or paint-programs. I know their basic functions, and that\’s about it! I can manipulate a picture by changing colours, light and shade, cropping and deleting background and simple stuff like that. And the same goes for paint programs.
When I do digital artwork I often select one of my texts and go in search of a picture that can underline or emphasise that text. I\’m really fond of Pixabay.com and all the magnificent pictures and artwork found there. This site is a gem for amateurs like myself, and I\’m ever so thankful for the artists that share their work with me for free.
With my text and a picture from Pixabay, I start creating what I call TxTArt Tiles. This is Instagram-sized composition where the whole should be eye-catching, and the text is the central element. In addition to my text and the picture, I add backgrounds, frames and simple elements. I tend to use uniform colours and try to stay away from fancy details, as these TxTArt Tiles are to be viewed on mobile phones and tablets.
I have also created a TxTArt Tile series with a plain design in black and white. B&W has a different voice, so to speak. It\’s more introverted and offers the viewer a more contemplative experience. It\’s not less powerful, it expresses a different power, maybe a more intellectual power where the text speaks for itself.
In 2020&2021 I produced a series of TxTArt Tiles with pictures of Nepali youths. I found the pictures on Facebook amongst friends and friends of friends. To my surprise, these profile pictures triggered a creative nerve in me, and reflections, poems and quotes presented themselves in my mind.
I like to think that my texts became beautiful because of the inner beauty of these Nepali youths and the pureness of the Nepali culture and soul. This process of finding inspiration in the face of everyday people is utterly fascinating, and the texts that I wrote through this process are some of the most beautiful texts that I have written.
I am ever so thankful for the brave and friendly Nepali youths that let me use their personal pictures to create beautiful TxTArt Tiles!
In the future, I hope to do more painted mixed media art, and I really want to explore mixed media on wooden backgrounds, so that I can use even more exciting elements like metal, stone, fabric, etc, together with my own written material.