The artist called himself as: Dot Art Dude, all the way come from Metairie, Louisiana, United States.
His unusual art is something that I want to learn more from him. He is also a good friend of mine that I know from Blog Catalog. If you visit Dot Art Dude’s Blog Catalog profile, you will see that he runs long listing of multiple blogs beside DotArt Blogspot, which you can join them as blog neighborhood if you are already become a Blog Catalog member.
Here is an online interview I have with him last week:
How you describe yourself?
I am a 43-year-old artist who generates ideas faster than I can produce them. Besides drawing and painting, I also enjoy working in photography and video. My other interests include: Apple Macintosh, education, film, music, politics, psychology, science, sociology, technology, theater, writing and wit.
On a blog post which titled Thumbnails for Next Batch (published in November 15, 2007) it looks like you tried to arrange your painting elements on to some
kind of story board before you paint them to a canvas medium.
Do you always follow this process to all your paintings?
Using the piece of enamel board to arrange my Post-It thumbnails was just a means of presenting them in a photo on my blog. The Post-It thumbnails became a part of my process when I wanted to add dots to a grid painting. Working out a pattern of dots first was more important than just starting anywhere.
Prior to my dot art, I worked more by intuition. It was after college that I reacted against thumbnails. The art I created when I had less pre-planning was more exciting for me at that time. Even though I now use thumbnails for my dot art, I often change what I'm doing along the way. Working out the design on my small canvases is more necessary.
Any insights in your creative process?
The dot pieces begin as an idea on a list. Each one comes from one of the following: an experience, a place, a film, an object or an art show. These are items that made an impression on me. I then take the idea and draw a simplified representative thumbnail. From there I choose colors for the background and the dots based on the origin of my idea.
There are three basic ways I arrange the dots: grid-like, alternating and random. With each new piece I experiment with my techniques. The newer works have become more complicated than earlier ones. As I paint more canvases my process continues to evolve.
My process is a bit slow since I work in stages. Often I'll stop so I can look at a piece from a distance. Sometimes a design is just not working and I have to make an adjustment. Once in a while I'll have to let a piece sit a while until I have a solution.
You produce abstract paintings, but I think they are more like
decorative paintings to me. What is your opinion about this?
Yes, they are decorative. Unlike my earlier artwork, I am able to sell these consistently to both tourists and locals. Sure my other works sell too, but I have a finite amount space to store art at home.
This is the first time I have been able to work in series and not become bored. Each piece is different enough to keep me excited about what I am doing. With each new piece I continue to innovate my technique.
Since I've been making dot art, I now notice the use of dots everywhere I go. This past year, there was a Vatican mosaic art show in town. Even though mosaics are made up of squares, I found the show interesting because of the artwork I'm doing.
What is your main concern in choosing colors for your artworks?
The colors come from the original inspiration for my idea in some way - whether direct or by association: an experience, a place, a film, an object or an art show. Even though, I'm asked to do bright colors because they sell better, I'll stick to the relevant colors.
Katrina Hurricane and the damaged caused by the flood apparently affected him deeply...but in someway, his paintings were developed more than before.
What interests you most to bring inspirational sense to your
paintings? And why?
The themes I choose are ones that are important to me - individual moments if you will. They help me stay passionate about the pieces so I can finish them. I want my pieces to communicate my joy of painting.
Producing these paintings has become a coping mechanism for me following Hurricane Katrina and the flood. There are constant reminders that I face daily. By the same token there are improvements over what existed before. This area has a tendency to resist progress and preserve the past.
Do you have any significance reason why you give a geometric shape of art to your style and how it reflects the human condition and our connection to nature? Please give any example of your painting collections to explain your answer.
Five years ago, I was working with a grid pattern on four paintings while teaching art to high school students. Use of a grid grew out of trying to explain principles of design to them. When I was not satisfied with how the paintings were turning out, I decided to add dots to kill the harshness of the triangle shapes in the paintings.
Using Post-It Notes to help organize what I was doing, I drew dots in geometric patterns. I then added these dot patterns to my paintings. As I continued to work this way, I kept looking for new patterns to try. I didn't want to keep repeating the same patterns. As the summer movie season arrived I found ideas in movies I saw.
Not until my evacuation to Memphis did I find a way to regularly paint the dots and not repeat the patterns. I started keeping a list of subjects: an experience, a place, a film, an object or an art show. Each one is a moment from Memphis, or more recently, New Orleans.
Mo has also invited us to see his new uploaded paintings on his Flickr account :
www.flickr.com/photos/moart/
What is a good art supposed to be?
I believe good art should be moving. It should make a viewer stop and reflect on it. It should resonate the presence of its creator.
"In the booming of digital era euphoria", how you find your self in it?
I see the digital era euphoria as a wonderful period of opportunity to have my art seen by people around the world and receive feedback about it from viewers and my fellow artists.
Who is your favorite artists and why?
Takashi Murakami is my current favorite artist. I'm intrigued by his “super flat” art that mixes new and old traditions of a “floating world.” He works two-dimensionally and three-dimensionally. Too often I see art that looks like a rehash of an art movement from before the 1980s. His work is exciting to me.
Your avatar is unique, can you explain about your curent avatar?
The current paintings I'm blogging about in detail were made from my stay in Memphis. The ones from events after that are sometimes related to pictures I've taken. I bought a digital camera in late October '05.
My current avatar is based on lobby rug colors from the Renaissance Arts Hotel in the New Orleans Arts District (formerly Warehouse District - revived area initiated by the 1984 World's Fair). The lobby, restaurant and atriums are filled with art. I thought I should explain that to you since you have included the painting in the article. In effect I'm telling you something I haven't yet covered in my blog.
My point is I'm slowly working through the past art in more detail now that there is some distance. By now I have a better perspective on these pieces. In fact some have more meaning(s) now than when I first created them. Also, my current production is still kind of slow when I make newer ones.
If you like the art you see here, most pieces are for-sale. You can contact him directly from his DotArt Blogspot Blog or from his Blog Catalog profile.
My greatest appreciate to you, Mo! It was a fun trip to understand more about your unique art style. All the best to you!
Mo's artworks prior to DotArt:
Mo's artworks that lead to "DotArt":
Mo's artworks site that are not "DotArt":
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