Tell us about yourself, how did you become an artist?
I feel like I was born into it. I remember being as young as three years old and endlessly drawing on white paper with my older brother. I don’t recall putting a pen or pencil down since then. I’d draw at home, at church, at school. I’d draw everywhere!
What is your background? and how did it inform the focus of your creative exploration or the medium you're currently working with?
I have a background in graphic design — I love that. I love the limitlessness that comes with what you can do on a computer and I thought, ‘why not take your love for drawing and digital creation and marry the two?’
Once I went out and committed the act of creating digitally, I was blown away with the clean-ness, colors, and overall compositions that I ended up with - and that was years ago in Microsoft Paint! Now, in my humble opinion, my lines are even more clean and steady, I have better color choices, and I am working to make sure the compositions are what I want them to be.
What ideas interested you in the beginning of your practice, which ideas have you continued to explore, and where have they led you?
Just drawing and putting something out there into the world is where I began my practice. ‘Oh, just draw something, let it have no meaning or significance, and let the world see it and put it out into the world’ was my thought process. I would create what I loved aesthetically and just show it to the world. With that being said, I want to make it clear that there’s nothing wrong with that. Anyone can sketch, draw, paint, sculpt whatever they want, and release it into a public space, however, I wanted my visuals to have something to them, a story, or something personal to me.
As far as ideas that I’ve continued to explore, I’d say that they have been personal experiences. Even though each visual that I produce has a different figure, or figures, somewhere beneath the surface of those visuals is how I was feeling that day, what I had gone through before, or maybe it’s a story that I heard from someone close to me. Now, I am trying to be more conscious and implement my life even more into my work, regardless of the ever-changing figures involved, general tone, or fun aesthetic they possess.
Who were and are the biggest sources of your inspiration?
The late, great Al Hirschfeld. After having watched “The Line King” documentary I was not only inspired by his life story and art but how, in some senses, our styles are kind of similar, mostly regarding the fluidity of the limbs.
Where do you find inspiration?
Inspiration is literally everywhere. I can get inspired by a conversation that I’ve had, a conversation that someone repeated back to me, TV, film, music, my writing, my experiences, Photography, other art. I try to keep my eyes open and receptive to what’s out in the world.
Is there are a single work, project, or series that is pivotal in your current trajectory?
I deeply feel like my latest visual, "But I Loved You…" is pivotal in the direction that I am going. I feel like I’m telling more stories with my colorful, seemingly-fun art, and I really like it.
My other visuals, "BOY". and "Daybreak", which were completed prior, are also pivotal to my current trajectory. Since they were completed first, they laid the foundation for visuals like "But I Loved You…" to even exist.
How did it begin? and how did it evolve?
For the visual, "BOY.", I had always had this looming vision in my head of a male figure with a blue hue behind him. I had envisioned the whole composition, and months prior I had difficulties transferring my exact vision from my head into something I can physically see. Even with the general framework that I laid, I wasn’t getting what I wanted. I held onto it still, and eventually, I went back to it and began developing it. Once I began laying down the flat colors on top of the framework, I started to like what I was seeing. As time went on I kept adding, even subtracting, until I got to a place where I knew it was completed.
"Daybreak" was something that I had not thought of or anything like that, it just came up out of me experimenting and knowing that I had to get the ball rolling and create something. I wanted to have another go at creating one of my figures in a profile pose. Unlike with "BOY.", the framework for this visual I deeply loved, so much so that I honestly didn’t want to even go through with developing it. I held onto it for days. I knew I had to work on it and I did. It went through a lot of color changes and concepts until it got to a place of being complete.
"But I Loved You…" came from a dream that I had, and I feel like those are also important to document as they are experiences as well. The people in your dreams are usually people you’ve seen, met, had some interaction with in real life, but the person in my dream was none of those things. In the dream, I walked up some stairs and this person, at the top, was so kind to me. Once I ended up on the stair landing and walked up the next set of stairs, a bright light flashed behind me. I turned around, and they were on the ground, dead. I remember waking up and bawling uncontrollably, so much so that I felt a little odd about it since it was someone I didn’t know personally in real life. It felt that real. At such a fast pace I had known this person and built a connection that it stung when I saw them dead.
Later on that day I was like hey, dreams are experiences worth talking about. I normally forget my dreams once I regain full consciousness, but this one was seared into my brain. I developed a looping animation of a female figure repeatedly submerging in her tears. The repeated submerging symbolizes the many times the dream would replay in my head. I still think about it ’til this day.
What were important lessons in the process that you’ve carried forward with you?
One important lesson that I carried with me is to step back. I love working on my art, it is always such a fun time, but sometimes I will spend long hours, days even, in the development process. In some cases, it can be fun to get lost in all the many ways you could go, and sometimes it’s good to put things on hold and take a moment to breathe and come back to it later. Even on rare occasions, where I can see a whole visual in my head and have confidence that I can replicate it in real life, I need to stop somewhere before I ruin it entirely.
What are you working on now?
The work never stops. I have more visuals that have been completed, "(keeping secrets)" and "Loverboy". I am just planning on when to release them so that they can each have their respective moment. Once they debut, I have even more work to do — and I mean that in only the best of ways! Things will play out on izosceles.com as well as on my Instagram.
If you could go back in time to the very beginning of your art practice and give your younger self a single piece of advice what would it be?
“Believe in you” would be what I would tell myself. It’s not at all like I didn’t have anyone believing in me, rather I didn’t really see this art thing for myself as something that you can put your all into and for there to be something out on the other side.
About the Artist
Based in Dallas, Texas
American visual artist Izosceles produces vibrant, fun pop-ish visual compositions that are irresistible and attention-grabbing. The artist had been drawing since a young child, heavily influenced by pop cartoons that they have carried with them into adulthood. The artist hopes to make cartoons and fun visuals a serious contender in the art world that are just as worthy of admiration and attention as fine art paintings.
View Artist Profile
izosceles.com
