I’ve always been impressed by Fabien Barral‘s work (I covered his Manouchian posters here). The organic feel he incorporates into all his creations makes me want to go into my garden and hug plants or something. Although everything is digital, you do get the impression he got his hands dirty picking leaves, branches and other tree stuff from his garden and pasting it onto the paper. His hands must be ink-stained because of all the swashes and paint stripes he uses. In other words, he makes paper come alive by creating this jungle of shapes and colors in which I can smell the the forest after the rain.

Well, I guess that’s enough lyrical praise for today. Make sure you also check his blog at Graphic Exchange.

Following the previous post about art through code – here is Erik Natzke‘s work. Incredible how such an organic feel can be created with entirely digital tools. Erik himself says how he wishes he could do this with real paint.

In contrast to Keith Peter’s work, code is used here to create a tool (paintbrush) instead of coding the ‘pixels’ of the artwork itself. The debate remains if coding an artwork is not so much creating something new but rather mirroring mathematics. But this is a fallacy of the human mind seeing any piece of art which might seem highly complex can be translated into a mathematical formula. What else is the code captured in a JPG but a simple rendition of a seemingly complex visual which could be rendered even more truthful to the mathematical ‘pure form’ by increasing the complexity of the code.

So the difference is in the consciousness of the human mind behind an artwork. When coding an artwork you are supposedly ‘conscious’ of every ‘pixel’ you create whereas with Natzke’s brush your consciousness, because of the limitations of our brainpower, is not grasping the complexity of what your hands are doing. But it’s still an imitation of a mathematical formula which hasn’t necessarily been created in the universe (yet) but which exists as part of the endless creations mathematics can bring forth.

Weird how, often, human consciousness formulates its own limitations as ‘chance’ just because it cannot grasp the complexity.

I came across these great prints at Graphic-Exchange and love the fact this is black & white. Often clients underestimate the cost of large format color printing. In that case A1 colorless prints are a good alternative. Martino & Jaña Design really got it right with this poster set. The painted typography makes it all come alive without the need for any color. Great balance between the first impression which gives enough info without getting up close and the detailed wording flowing throughout the poster which provides all extra info. Upon viewing this poster you just got to believe this festival will be nothing less than magnificent.

• Full name: Simon Goinard Phelipot
• Age: 26
• Country: France (Orsay)
• Profession: Illustrator | Art director
• Website: Resonance-Art.com

It’s taken some time for you to feature in our interview series seeing the enormous amount of work you’ve been facing lately. Can you show us some recent works and the story behind each of them?

Sure, I’d love to. The painting below represents Amon, a character from an animated short which is currently under production. The story is based on the idea of ‘travel through matter’ and consists of a series of portraits like this one.

This is the cover for the second episode of the Ma’at comic book series published in France.

Chrestomathy, a cover done for a book collective of some really nice artists.

What are the 3 key words or themes which you want to express through your art?

Sensualism, Matter and Tension between abstraction and figuratism.

If not an artist, what job would you have?

It could have been nice to have Socrates or Epikuros‘ job in the Agora.

What should every beginning artist definitely (not) do?

You should try to know who you are, and should not try to get a style, you are your style, just be yourself.

How long does it take to create one piece of art?

A good piece of Art : a life.

Is there anything bizarre or weird which helps you to be creative? e.g. mud baths?

Chateau Figeac or Chateau la Tour (all good St-Emilion wines in fact…)

If you had to choose: color or form?

You know this question is just as masochistic as choosing to cut your arms or your legs,right?

Which art tools would you take with you when moving to the moon?

My mind i think.

Favourite book?

On the Nature of Things by Lucretius.

Who’s been a great inspiration to you and your work?

Kandinsky, for his visionary mind and for the lucidity of his work.

Magritte is known for painting his wife very often, unlike other artists painting strangers all the time. René and Georgette Magritte (and their dog after the war) seem to me a romance worthy of their own novel. Seeing them fool around in the black&white videos they show at the museum tells a lot about the people behind the art. But the amount of paintings he made of his wife disturbed me a little as well. This painting was reproduced about four times because buyers kept asking for it. I wonder if I would so happily sell nude paintings of my wife to people. Isn’t this some kind of pimping? Anyway, I guess women prefer their husbands painting them nude and selling it instead of having strange women pose nude all the time. I guess nude painting always has its complexities for couples.

This is a painting which was bought by Sabena, the old Belgian Airlines now called Brussels Airlines after Sabena’s bankruptcy in 2001, to be used for their brand identity. The actual painting I’m referring to is different from this one and called ‘L’oiseau de ciel‘ (this one is ‘La Grande Famille’) but I couldn’t find a higher resolution. Differences are that the bird flies the other direction and the sea is actually the landing strip of Brussels Airport by night. Apparently it was sold after the bankruptcy to help raise money for the employees.

The essence of doors is seriously questioned here. Is the door the hole in the wall or the wooden screen closing the gap? Does the hole make the door as gap-closer redundant or does it reinstate its true function by again giving way to what lies behind? True philosophy, René, true philosophy.

This reminds me of some of the Muse albums (BTW: wow for their new album cover and can’t wait to hear the sounds!) which feature random poles or people or teddy bears in mathematical patterns in the air or on the ground. The impersonality of mathematics and numbers gets replaced with human people. Do the numbers get more human or the humans more impersonal?

This reminds me of a song my fiancee has on CD in the car and I’ve finally managed to sing along to. It’s by the Great Big Sea, called The Mermaid and very funny. If you need some uplifting music while you’re driving, their songs can definitely help.

Lastly, I want to point at Magritte’s signature which is used on posters and other print materials everywhere and which I’m very jealous of. It just works.

• Full name: Pomme Chan
• Age: 28
• Country: Originally from Bangkok, Thailand. Now live and work in London, UK.
• Profession: Illustrator / Typographer
• Website: www.pommepomme.com

Before we dive into some cheesier questions … You’ve recently made name with a project for Volkswagen. Can you tell us a little more?

Sure. You can find the animated versions of my work here. The brief and concept were pretty concrete so I knew what I had to do. It was great fun doing these designs as all of them are 100% hand-drawn. I just scanned them in and put them together on the computer. All the colors are real paint. We’ve done many revisons over time which means I had to redraw everything quite a few times. But that was a challenge I was glad to face to make the client happy.

They also printed these designs on the vans themselves. To be honest , I’ve never been a fan of putting stickers on cars but this turned out better than I thought it would. This project was a great merge of qualitative design with a commercial goal, I learned a lot from it.

Okay, let’s dive into some random questions. Which dead artist who has greatly inspired you would you want to meet if you could?

Salvador Dalí. His imagination has always amazed me. If I could meet him I’d like to hang out with him for a day.

What are the 3 key words or themes which you want to express through your art?

Secret, Geometric and Fun Fare. These 3 are all interesting themes for me. Sstrangely I’ve never used them just yet. I should really start doing some drawings with these words in mind.

If not an artist, what job would you have?

Hm … interesting question. Maybe the Interior Designer for which I graduated 7 years ago. Definitely something that’s got at least a little to do with Arts. I couldn’t imagine myself being an accountant or lawyer. I just hate text book and numbers …

What should every beginning artist definitely (not) do?

I always tell students that they shouldn’t rely too much on their computer. The problem with computers is that everyone has the same program and can use the same technique.

How long does it take to create one piece of art?

Depending on how much detail is required and on my mood. Some works can be beautifully finished within 2 days. Others take a week if I’m not really into it. But for commercial work it’s important to get it done before the deadline. I’ve never missed one, luckily!

Is there anything bizarre or weird which helps you to be creative? e.g. mud baths?

Dreaming. I know a guy who sleeps with a special small pillow and he draws or writes down what he dreamt right after he wakes up. This is how he developed a complete TV commercial once! My inspiration comes from dreaming.

If you had to choose: color or form?

Definitely Form. For me, once you get the form right, color is just the icing on top. Some works are even nicer just plain black and white.

Which art tools would you take with you when moving to the moon?

I’m obsessed with black ink and nice paper. So I take that everywhere with me. If I had to move to the moon , could I bring some water color, too?

Favourite book?

One and only: The Red Tree by Shaun Tan. Amazing children’s book that always makes me smile at the end. (YOU have to read it!)

Can you tell us the story behind some of your pieces?

Hide and Seek – Originally  Hide and Seek was commissioned by Topshop as a T-shirt design but they found it a little too dark for the concept. We ended up using other images which were totally different from this. Hide and Seek is my first of a few typography designs which I plan to do more of this year. About the concept – basically I was thinking of a game, Hide and Seek in a scary way (cf. Saw movie ). It’s a grown-up game that we all play in terms of man seeks woman, career, money, etc. But somehow we don’t always get what we want.

Let’s Fly Away – This was for an exhibition in San Francisco curated by a friend. It had to be something about ‘Escape’. For me, I think if I could escape I would fly away somewhere. I created each character with the shape of a bird in mind and gave them wings. I really enjoy doing this kind of pieces.

Queen Tree – I used to do typo A-Z experiments a long time ago but one day lost all my original artworks. I redrew this Q for my mailout (some time next week)  and my Art-Director (Darren Firth at www.madebysix.com) and I both agree that this is one of our favourites.  If you have a closer look at the Q, you’ll see there are some tree elements and wood textures.

For more info about Pomme Chan and her latest work, visit www.pommepomme.com.