Artist Spotlight — TwistedVacancy – SuperRare 💎
We recently interviewed Twisted to get some deeper insights into his one of a kind story and process and we’re excited to share it with the CryptoArt community.
Q: Tell us a little bit about yourself and your background. How long have you been making art, and why did you decide to focus on digital art?
A: I’m TwistedVacancy from Indonesia. I suffer from D.I.D. (Dissociative Identity Disorder) so I’m pretty chaotic inside, but it’s now under control. Haha. I first made art as part of my therapy to keep my focus and get a hold on everything. I always kept my pieces for myself until a friend encouraged me to publish my works and build a career as an artist. I’ve been around creative industries working closely with many talented artists for more than 9 years, but never actually published my own works until recently.
Q: Your artworks have a very unique and distinguishable style — how long did it take you to develop your own style?
A: I developed my style through trial and error for more than 4 years. In the early days when I developed how to put the complexity of subject matters from my visions into compositions, I tried to give my pieces lots of life and color and the result didn’t satisfy me. It didn’t really express what I was feeling, my mood. Even when I didn’t make art professionally, it was always important for me because it was part of my therapy. When it didn’t really represent my mood it often frustrated me, and i thought this kind of therapy is stupid. Then I spent time researching color theory and exploring dozens of color palettes from artists like Wes Anderson, Tadanori Yokoo and Hanna-Barbera. I also researched popular colors from several eras.
It takes quite a long time for me to mix everything in my artworks because sometimes i’ll find a particular color that I like but it doesn’t fit well with the others. Yep, the colour theory really matters. After all these years I’m still developing my style. There’s plenty of things I still don’t know and always room for me to grow and explore. I’ll never stop learning.
Q: What kinds of themes/stories do you typically express through your work?
A: I like to create a universe from my visions that represent issues ranging from social-politics to pop culture. I play with many allegories and put hidden messages wrapped in sci-fi or twisty subject matters with an immersive feel. I want the art to be enjoyable even if you don’t want to bother to decipher the code/meaning. I’m inviting all of you to explore those fragments of dimensions.
Q: What do you hope people feel when they look at your artworks?
A: I represent many moods in my pieces and I think an artwork is kinda personal to each individual. I hope every piece I’ve created resonates with your inner voice, triggering memories from particular moments and giving different perspectives towards a subject while altering your reality the moment you take a closer look. I’m inviting everyone to see different things with the other personalities they have, to feel inspired, to understand other perspectives, to unlock several sides in their head that maybe they didn’t know were there.
Q: Tell us about your artistic process from start to finish. What kind of equipment/software do you typically use for your digital artworks?
A: My work process is back and forth between Adobe Photoshop and Adobe After Effects. I start from paper for several objects, tracing my drawings manually onto my ipad since i don’t do auto-trace (lots of people call me dumb for this). I add details and coloring manually by stroking each shape separately. I don’t use any paint-bucket tools since it gives a really different feeling on every edge. After that I use photoshop to enhance colors and after effect for animations. It’s a long process, but I believe the struggle and time spent gives more value to each piece I create.
Q: How long do you typically spend on a piece?
A: It really depends, but I usually spend between 3–7 days on a piece. Since I’m actually chaotic inside I don’t have a linear timeline, and often juggle between several pieces for several weeks.
Q: Who are some of your biggest artistic influences?
A: I have many artistic influences, but I have a special interest in Japanese artists like Tadanori Yokoo, Eizin Suzuki, Kazuma Kaneko, Takayuki Takeya and Yusuke Nakamura.
Q: Where does the name TwistedVacancy come from?
A: This name came to my head several years ago. Due to my disorder there are lots of things and voices going through my head at almost every second. Even with all these voices running through my head I still felt emptiness. I then learned to draw a string from that emptiness to the voices inside my head which resulted in new perspectives towards everything. I’m using this name derived from my conditions to represent all my works of art. Many voices that represent many aspects of life. TwistedVacancy is a fictional character from non-fictional stories — it can be me, it can be anyone, it could be you in another form of life. I’m thinking of passing this name to someone else someday and letting it continue for generations. I’m curious how many stories TwistedVacancy can tell to everyone and how many voices he can represent through all the works entitled to him.
Q: You’ve seen some very fast and early success as a #CryptoArtist on SuperRare, selling your first 12 pieces for an average price of 4.5 ETH (the highest average of any artist who has sold more than 1 artwork). We’ve also noticed you take your time, tokenizing only 1–2 artworks per week, and always promoting your works and bidding wars for each separate piece very well on social media. Do you plan to continue this focus on scarcity and quality over quantity?
A: I keep scarcity in mind every time I create a piece because I want them to be as valuable as possible for collectors. I appreciate everyone who enjoys and collects my work. As I pave my path and build my career I want to ensure that every piece is not just a collectible, but also a good future investment for my collectors. I’m very thankful to the early collectors who have believed in me and put their trust in me, supporting me to keep producing thoughtful works. My road is still long. Even with my current achievements I’m still nothing without everyone in the community who supports me and gave the thoughtful advice that got me here. Hats off, can’t mention everyone one by one but you know who you are and I owe you big time.
Q: What advice would you give to new artists joining SuperRare?
A: Always create your piece wholeheartedly. Really, it’s worth the pain and it gives each of your pieces more value. Don’t be shy to ask for advice or input from others. Get to know everyone. Don’t be afraid to share any knowledge you have. Supporting each other is a must. Be a good friend. Do collab works! They are a fun and great way to exercise and improve your style. There’s tons of good advice that I get from other artists and collectors and I can’t really list it one by one, but I promise you this: reach out to me personally anytime! I will gladly help.
Q: Who are some of your favorite artists on SuperRare and why?
A: It’s really exciting to see that everyone on SuperRare has unique styles and come from many different backgrounds. There are some artists that I pay close attention to since I learned a lot from them and their styles. Like how Trevor Jones adds technologies to create more interactivity, successfully bringing a work of art to the next level. How XCOPY brings the chaos to every piece. How Reinhard Schmid makes my imagination go wild. Matt Kane and Van have styles that open a new dimension for me in exploring art. FrenetikVoid & GiantSwan who are always aesthetically strong in their works.
Q: What has been your all-time favorite moment since joining SuperRare?
A: I remember the day I joined SuperRare Trevor Jones tokenized his first piece in collaboration with Alotta_Money and sold it for over $10,000. I was here to see his historical moment and it was an important day for me. I’ll never forget that moment and all the excitement I had watching that unfold. Really encouraging for me.
At SuperRare we’re building a social, creative economy on Ethereum.
Published at Wed, 29 Jan 2020 22:05:49 +0000
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