As an artist, designer and creative explorer I use this site both as a portfolio of my recent art work, designs and home to my blog where I discuss ideas, news and areas of this great wide world that pique my diverse interests ...and yes, my real name is
zissou.
Artist Statement
Instead of using my imagination and various media to tell stories based on fantasy, I often use them more as a practical toolset to help me represent a realm of our human existence that can't be captured and displayed by film or a static photograph.
I have spent much of my life interested in offering an alternate representation of the less visually quantifiable human emotions - like love, hope, fear or potential. Sure, you can imply a sense of whether two people are in love by their facial expression or their body language in a photograph or on film but there is so much more that the camera can't capture.
I find fascination in the idea of visualizing residual feelings, thoughts or relationships that can exist among us. Imagine for a moment your mind, instead of being tuned to interpreting light through your eyes, could interpret emotion; if you could see the people in front of you in terms of what they were thinking about or how their lives may have intersected in the past or in the future.
The forms in my work can seem vaguely human or have representational elements to them. This is intended more as a device to imply natural physical presence. The real goal is to allow the viewer/participant to focus on the idea of these emotional interactions.
Aside from the subject matter, I also love that form, color and texture, appreciated with any of our senses, can elicit such an incredible range of powerful emotion and as long as my works spark that in others, I will remain an artist.
Artistic influences and process
Brought up on a late-twentieth century western European visual diet, my work has been variously influenced by artworks from Umberto Boccioni, Marcel Duchamp, Hans Bellmer, Francis Bacon and Ando Hiroshige and the Art Nouveau movement to name but a few.
This blended with a fascination of photography and film and the concept of capturing a moment. I have also been drawn by a diverse range of natural phenomena from camouflage to the forms and interactions found in plants, animals and insects and from an early age, been heavily influenced by street art, music, and fashion and the tech-driven world we now find ourselves in.
I have developed a creative practice using both advanced technology and classical form and mark-making tools whose respective processes have ended up informing each other.
Design Statement
While my artistic works are personally driven in concept, my design work is often brief driven, however, I consider this site my personal creative playground, so the majority of the design pieces on display here are personal explorations rather than commercial work - although with sufficient interest, I'm open to developing some of them into products.
