Today we bring you the stunning and prolific work of Dutch visual artist Roderique Arisiaman, better known as Dracorubio. Below he enlightens us with his reflections and insights on motivation as he progresses through his second year of taking a self-portrait every day.
In your own words, Dracorubio, tell us a bit about yourself and how you got started in your art:
“I’m a Dutch artist, working with photography, photomanipulation and design. On the side I also do ceramics and paintings, and tattooing and woodcarving are on my list of things to do when I grow up.
I worked as a 3D animator/designer and Motion Graphics Artist for a few years, but dropped out, because I got lost in the complex virtual world of 3D too much and found I was wasting my time building intricate virtual things, instead of creating and telling stories.”
“My sphynx cats drew me into photography as I wanted to tell the world how beautiful, gracefull and overall goofie they where. Using Flickr as my main stage of sharing my images with the world, I came into contact with the 365 concept (a project where you make a selfportrait every day for a year, post it and comment on each others images) and developed a means to create and tell a visual story everyday for a whole year.”
When did you first discover your creative talents?
“I’ve always been interested in stories and as a child I could just wander my storybooks for ages. I continue to be visually stimulated by cartoons, movies, art and the world around me. My art is actually a product of the drive to create and tell stories. From childhood drawings, through art-classes in high-school, right up to the Utrecht School of Arts, where I gained a Bachelor Degree in media-design, animation and visualfx.”
Can you tell us about some of your work?
“I tend to be all over the place with my work. Doing a selfportrait everyday, it can be hard to keep in a certain theme or series, depending on the day, mood and available time a shot gets taken, manipulated and processed. Some of it is a pre-planned concept, some of it is experimental and some are simple snapshots. Depending on my mood, I either spend a lot of time to build a set, make-up and light, or I arrange a simple shoot and do intense photoshop editing. The work gets very personal with me being the main protagonist in my images.”
You are currently working on your second 365 project, what inspires you to keep going and how do you keep yourself motivated?
“I have to eat and sleep everyday too, it has become a part of my daily routine. I’m even contemplating doing a year three or even a year four. I tried stopping after my first year, but felt the need to keep shooting and creating on a daily basis. It’s the simple deadline of 24 hours that gets me to produce.”
“If I get an idea, and don’t act on it, it will probably never happen. I’d postpone it until ‘that moment’ or ‘later when I have time,’ but those moments never come. It’s an act now or act never situation which feels comfortable with me for now. It can take up a whole evening, where I’d rather watch television, but that’s always preferable to spending every night watching television instead. Where’s the creativity in that?
And I think the online community is also a very important aspect of the drive to go on. The community is my audience and I am its audience in return. The vast amount of people sharing their world visually and connecting through the medium is stunning, addictive and fun.”
Share with us something funny that has happened to you recently.
I got my drivers license, something I never expected to get in my life.
How would you describe your style?
“I’d describe my style as experimental. Always looking for something new and trying out different techniques and approaches to an idea. What I’d like to accomplish with an image is that you can feel it and dream up your own story from it.”
What are your influences or people you look up to for inspiration?
“Magic, science fiction and fantasy are of huge influence in my work. H.R. Giger, Clive Barker, Tim Burton, Edgar Allan Poe are great people to look up to. But also the people around me and in the visual community are just as inspiring. Inspiration is all about seeing, understanding, appreciating and interpretation. It’s an evolution of an idea into another idea. There should be a thing called outspiration too.”
Describe yourself in 5 words.
“creative… chaotic… sensitive… geek… online”
Lastly, any words of advice for aspiring artists?
“Be yourself, be inspiring. Make your art part of your life, live, breathe and taste it. But also allow yourself to fail, learn and experiment.”
Many thanks, Dracorubio, for your time and words of wisdom.
For more inspiration check out Dracorubio.com, follow him on Twitter or see his large collected work on flickr.
Source: Dracorubio
Written by Paul Caridad and Benjamin Starr
