Town Herald Reviews

[hanhepi]'s Interview with [Skydancer]

Skydancer is one of our Elders on Elftown. He is also one of the Masters of Building, has been one of the Featured Painters on Mainstreet, has been on the daily_poem , is one of the Christmas Painters , works for The Town Herald , and is one of the Donors of Art and one of the Halloween Poetry Donors after participating in the Halloween Poem Competition – 2004 . He has also donated over 1600 graphics to Elftown! He is a very strong supporter of the arts community within Elftown and has been working hard to develop resources for the traditional figure and fantasy arts. And as a Native American traditionalist , he supports and is active in the issues of the Native American movement and tribes.

Hanhepi: What medium are you most comfortable working in?
Skydancer: Graphite/prism a - photography - PhoDigital©

Hanhepi: Do you have a favourite piece that you have done?
Skydancer: Nope, I am not bound to my work, it is an expression of the spirit of either the subject, or the vision of what I was experiencing at the time, but there is nothing of my ego or self esteem attached to them, they stand totally alone from me once they are done, and I go on to the next.. They are not what I am, just what I do. :-) so there is no particular favouritism involved.. I might be disappointed that I was unable to properly capture or express the image, but that is about it. There are a few that I am particularly happy with the outcome, but that is a very different emotion.

Hanhepi: If you could be from any fantasy race, which would you choose?
Skydancer: Dragon, though not the dragons that most people in the western culture think of. More of an eastern dragon, one that is an elemental and a guardian of the natural world. ‘Tis my way of connection.

Hanhepi: What area(s) of your work do you think need the most improvement?
Skydancer: Technical expertise. That and the tools to really work as I wish. I am some what handicapped by the lack of materials and resources, so there are many things I would do that I simply cannot because for instance my computers are not able to handle the work, or I do not have the studio space to work at the size and mass I would choose to. When I was sculpting, I had a welding shop to use, so my work was fairly large.

Hanhepi: What area do you think needs the least?
Skydancer: Inspiration and imagination, I have way more of that than I can ever use.

Hanhepi: What made you decide to join Elftown?
Skydancer: Actually, a fellow that I met that is a photographer turned me on to it. Though as is so often the case, he is not very active himself. We shot Samantha up on Grandfather Mountain together

Hanhepi: What is your favourite subject to create art about?
Skydancer: The unseen spirit in nature. That comes out in Elftown a lot as fairy of course, but it can also be Native American art and themes, now and again the various goddesses that express the living earth, things like that.

Hanhepi: What's your least favourite?
Skydancer: industrial or urban grunge, warfare, bloody and whatever you call the style today of angst and pain.

Hanhepi: What does art mean to you?
Skydancer: It is quite literally something that I have to do. It is the expression of the gifts I have been given and my way of connecting with, communicating to the world and my own friends, and sharing that which is the only real thing I have to contribute to the spirit of life and light.

Hanhepi: Where do you find the most inspiration for your art?
Skydancer: Two. Individuals I meet, and the mountains.

Hanhepi: When did you start creating art?
Skydancer: Hmmm around 1970-72 was the real start, once I was out of the Navy and living in Milwaukee. I did Stabiles and a sculptural form of string art.

Hanhepi: When artists' block hits you, what do you do to overcome it?
Skydancer: To be totally honest, it never has. What does happen is that I find myself so entangled in visions and inspirations that my energy becomes exhausted and I cannot work. In which case I go hiking, biking or just get out into the mountains, usually with my camera, sometimes with a model and just explore and have an adventure.

Hanhepi: Who is your favourite artist?
Skydancer: Wow. That is really tough. Brian Froud, Clyde Caldwell, Jessica Douglas. DaVinci... I cannot say I have an absolute favourite. I have many that I deeply admire.
Hanhepi: Do you ever doodle and get really awesome ideas for a piece from that doodle?
Skydancer: No, I never doodle. I have a freakish phobia about not wasting a blank page. If I start something, I have to finish it to some level before I can set it down. Actually, That may not be exactly true.. I think perhaps I doodle with my camera and from those images, comes inspiration for the creations of my fairies for instance. I suppose I just feel that when I create, I owe it to the creation to give it everything I have, like a child in a sense.

Hanhepi: Do you listen to music while you create?
Skydancer: No, though I may have background noise, but music to me is in itself, a creative process, be it playing or listening to it. Usually when I am working, I prefer silence and my own thoughts.

Hanhepi: Do you have any pets?
Skydancer: Not at the moment, though in the past I have had many. However I am quite friendly with the resident spiders.
Hanhepi: Did your past pets have any influence on your Art?
Skydancer: No, not really. They are companions, but have never really been a part of my art. All of my pets / companions have been either quite large and outdoors critters, or rather small, living in terrarium types, though the Tegu and the skunk were definitely household, but I was not doing this sort of work then
Hanhepi: What's a Tegu?
Skydancer: Large South American lizards. Most species are large, ranging in adult size from just over 3 feet long to over 4 and a half feet long. Basically land dwelling lizards that look a bit like Komodo dragons but much smaller. I had a black tegu, and red tegu. Both were about 5 feet, and free roaming in the house. They are generally carnivorous and tend to fill the niche in their natural habitat that foxes do here.

Hanhepi: How does your family influence your art?
Skydancer: Not. There is almost no connection between myself and my biological family. Frankly, my friends are very few, unlike most people, I only consider a friend someone that is so close as to be nearly family. The very largest majority of people I know are actually acquaintance. And those that I do call friend, usually end up in front of my camera, so in that sense, in that they are models for my work, they affect a certain number of my works, but never the overall journey, style or expression of my work.

Hanhepi: When/if a friend critiques your work, do you feel they are being honest?
Skydancer: Yes, generally. They tend to lie though to your face about how they feel about what you are doing so as to not hurt your feelings personally, rarely about the work though.

Hanhepi: When drawing from a model, do you think their/its "flaws" should be represented or perfected in your work?
Skydancer: I do everything I can to present them just as they are, while interpreting the spirit within them as I see it. Body wise, they are what they are, I do not see flaws or perfections, but then I also prefer natural people to plastic models. I do both phodigital and traditional work, so it can go both ways, but I normally express what I see, and I do not trim or airbrush or try to make them something other than what I see. In fact that is why I usually do not do commission portraits, since I do not believe in touch ups.

Hanhepi: Do you use art to reflect, or change your mood as you create?
Skydancer: No. My mood is generally not relevant to the work.

Hanhepi: What other mediums have you tried?
Skydancer: hmmm. Wood, glass, metals, stone and pyrography (wood burning). Ummm, oils and acrylics, lapidary and jewellery making. So, lets see, sculpture, painting, oil and acrylic, never really got into watercolor, all sorts of metal work, stone sculpting and large stone placement works, like mounds and standing stones, things like that,. Photography of course, Prismacolor, graphite and pen and ink are my major mediums these days. I am not a media artist, I play with lots of things. Chuckle...Well , Hmm. Pencil, i.e. graphite. Coloured pencil, Prismacolor and Derwent being my favourites. Dip pen and ink, love really black India ink, and I have an ancient bottle of it I still use to work with. I used to use .. oh drat.. technical pens, but they clog like crazy on me. I have dabbled with oils and acrylics, body painting, using make up even as paints on a canvas. Set design and painting, I have been on stage, both as a stage manager and an actor, I have sung up to the levels of state competitions in both solo and choral competitions in high school and in college. I have doing body armour of the baroque style, been in the SCA and crafted weapons, helms, decorative armour parts, that sort of thing. I have work with lapidary and jewelry work, doing mostly fantasy and movie inspired jewels, and a lot of nature inspired works. though I do not have the resources for that any more. I have done both commercial and fine arts photography, working at one time with studios associated with Universal and Disney when they were building the theme parks in Fla. I have not however worked directly for either Disney or Universal.

Hanhepi: Lapidary?
Skydancer: Lapidary is the cutting and polishing of stones, be they gems or semiprecious for jewellery mostly

Hanhepi: If you won/were given/sold a piece of art for several million dollars, roughly how much of that do you think you would spend on more art supplies?
Skydancer: All of it. I would purchase or have rebuilt an older jeep, get a good solid airstream and redo it for a living studio, out fit it with supplies and equipment and whatever was left would go into a fund to make money to pay for fuel and supplies indefinitely. After I paid anyone whatever I might owe them, which really is not a great deal, but no less important.

Hanhepi: When you start a piece, do you work on it constantly until it is done, or do you tend to leave it for long periods of time and come back to it sporadically?
Skydancer: Most of the time I work in one long session, though with digital work, because of the very long times it can take for the computer to process an effect, I do sometimes work on more than one work at a time. If I leave a work, it is really unlikely I will ever come back to it. When I learn something about a work that I could have done better or differently, I almost never come back and change it, rather I apply what I learned to the next work.

Hanhepi: What kind of references do you use while working?
Skydancer: The original photo of the person I am working on, or photos I have taken of places I am using for backgrounds. Now and again a book on techniques or process for the media I am using. In other words if I am using photoshop, I might have recourse to a book about how to use the damn thing.

Hanhepi: What pieces are you currently working on?
Skydancer: The 2005 Frost and Snow Fairy Calendar. That is 13 pieces

Hanhepi: How long does it usually take you to do a piece?
Skydancer: Anywhere from a day to 4 days.
Hanhepi: Oh that isn't too bad. I figured your stuff took months.
Skydancer: No, usually, if the computer is being reasonable, I can render out a work in a few days, of course that means it is running all night too. Some of the prettier effects like the smoke for instance are really tough on the machines. A pen and ink takes me about a day generally. A full colour usually several days, but then I usually work at least 12 in or larger. The computers just depend on how elaborate or intense the work is. The more layers the more pain and agony for the machines. Most of my pen and ink work is actually done with stipple so that can get intense at times.

Hanhepi: Do you practice the aspects you feel you need to improve on?
Skydancer: Honestly, no. I never really practice anything, a work is a work, and I suppose I work out the kinks by working.

Hanhepi: What general advice can you give to all the artists who read this?
Skydancer: Find what excites, what drives, and what feeds your soul, then follow it no matter what or who may say otherwise. Express your soul and then turn it loose. Do not allow yourself to become imprisoned by your art, since in the end, the inspiration and the talent come from the divine spirit, whatever you might think the source is in your own belief, and as such, it belongs to the universe, not to us. I think one of the most damaging things to artists is the struggle between artists about who is best, who owns an idea, and attacking each other over such very silly things. There really is nothing new ever, and all we ever can do is interpret, express and reflect our own souls in our work. No one really owns anything, not that I think anyone should go copy another artists work, but I do think that there should be openness to the simple idea that many people are influenced and inspired by the same things, and work that looks very similar, is simply a possibility. We should never, ever as artists be competing amongst ourselves, but if anything we should be competing for the souls of our fellow spirits against the cultural and corporate mass consumption of all that there is in the world.