Interview

Oct 19

Dominic Brown

Dominic Brown, born 1983, is a contemporary artist from The Netherlands. He is known for his pioneering and groundbreaking use of digital techniques to create his unique artistic creations. He produces paintings, murals and fabric designs, which can be divided in three main categories: portraits, landscapes and abstractions. His densely layered compositions are recognizable at a glance and are the result of several juxtapositions in color, form and techniques. They are dynamic and spontaneous yet are balanced and well thought out in equal measure. Dominic finds his inspiration mostly in ancient civilizations, for example Egyptian or Greek, but also Mayan, Incan and African influences can be found. He focuses his attention on murals, hieroglyphs, symbols, mythology and architecture from the sites he visits, e.g. like just recently in Mexico.

Dominic mixes these diverse sources of inspiration into his very own and unique visual language. That is largely due to his unique creative process and the way he combines the use of the many different techniques and materials he masters. It may be surprising for people to discover that, for an artist who has been influenced by computer-technology for most of his creative career, every new artwork from Dominic takes birth from drawings in a sketchbook with a pencil. Only after he has completed his drawings, they are scanned and the digital phase begins as he reworks and perfects his drawings into a colorful composition. When the digital file is ready, according to his level of exigence, Dominic prints it on canvas, Aluminium composite panel Dibond® or wood in the highest quality, and usually in a limited edition. However, this does not end here and for the artist manual labor resumes at that point and each work is finalized in its own unique way with different materials such as texture gel, colored markers, paint, glitters and/or small leaves of gold. Dominic prints his works once on canvas, and creates them to become originals with all the mentioned techniques. He offers limited editions on tapestry prints, museum quality plexiglass prints and other materials. He is working on 3D-printed techniques and aim to offer new form of limited editions, that always come with signed certificate. Never was the term ‘mixed media’ so appropriate. The whole process stems from Dominic conviction that art shall be innovative and shall go beyond the traditional art practice. This definitively shows that the boundaries between different media are indeed fading and that artists like him are at the forefront for guiding others so to fulfill the promise of this new artistic tradition. In the early days, and before his artistic life starts, Dominic got inspired by Turkish culture so full of wealth and sensuality, by Greek mythology so rich in artistic reference in several domains and by ancient Egypt treasures. When he got older, he also developed a fascination for the Mayan mysteries and Incan civilizations. Dominic sees the traditional tribal masks from Africa as a way for communicating with the past. He believes that the emotion or message that the artist has expressed many hundreds or thousands of years ago could not have been transferred more vividly if through a painting, drawing or a symbol. The lines and colors used by the artist elicit a certain emotion from the audience. With the use of his own lines and colors, Dominic, too, seeks to communicate with people throughout the world e.g. with a generic and ideal wordless language. According to him, something that does not have a time or language barrier will never perish.

What is your background and how did you start your journey in the art world?

“I grew up with Picasso prints of colorful, weirdly shaped faces in the house, and in combination with travels to Greece, Turkey and Egypt that fueled my interest becoming an archeologist. Later, I wanted to become paleontologist but Jurassic Park then killed that dream. And so, I became a teenager without a real purpose ahead of me, not knowing what I wanted to become. Then, I met a friend who was drawing a lot and I started doing so too, and combining drawing with photoshop, scanning my images into the computer and working them out. I've had fulltime call center jobs where I was drawing a lot of the time while selling to customers. This helped me to draw from a subconscious part. Since 2012, I live from my art by creating large Modern Mural projects in my home country, with the government as my satisfied client and selling my artworks internationally.”

What inspires you?

“Old cultures and their symbolism, music, technology and science, art, dance, nature, space, struggles, women and travelling.”

What themes do you pursue? Is there an underlying message in your work?

“I have been creating portraits that are a mix of man, woman and robot around 2008. Seeing now, that this theme has really become a thing in media, I find that funny. I really believe that artists see or feel things that are about to happen. Just look at Kindinsky's paintings in which you can find computers and robots too. So, maybe it’s about humans changing in the fast technology and our connection with the universe.”

“I really believe that artists see or feel things that are about to happen.”

How would you describe your work?

“Powerful, energetic, colorful and mysterious.”

Which artists influence you most?

“Kandinsky, Picasso, Matisse, Gaugain and Van Gogh.”

What is your creative process like?

“I start drawing with pencil on paper, usually while listening to music or in the park, hearing birds or the wind; which all influences the kind of lines I put down. Then, I scan that image into the computer and work it out with photoshop, often combining it with previously scanned images. Then, when the work is finished, I offer it as limited editions in the highest quality finishing available. I make one original, that is printed on highest quality canvas, that I then start painting on, making it unique and giving the work depth and love. Besides this, I am also working on 3d printing my 2d works, very exciting stuff to share soon.”

What is an artist’s role in society and how do you see that evolving?

“I believe that artists feel things that are in the air and find way to express that in whatever form of expression they use. And looking back at history, its always been the artists that told the story of their time, so it goes two ways. That’s why I love being an artist so much.”