As an artist I’d say that the three most influential aspects of my art are 1) movies, 2) comics/cartoons and especially superheroes, and 3) satire. I’ve always admired animation and cartoons because of how difficult they are to create and how fun they are to read/view. When my sister was growing up she experienced the dinosaur obsession and my brother went through the truck phase, but I only had one interest; superheroes and action figures. Sure I played with the plastic animals at nursery school and participated in sports outside, but from about ages 1-7 everything else was done half-heartedly. In the early stages of my life prior to preschool my mornings consisted of cheerios, strawberry milk and the same Broadway recording of peter pan. Every morning for at least 2 years my sister and I would wake up at 6 wake my parents moments later and by 6: 25 both of us would be in the playroom eyes glued to the TV playing the same movie we could both recite by heart. Eventually we got bored of this, but it took a while for us to outgrow this tradition. What I’m trying to say is that though I’m not usually well prepared, when it comes to certain areas like my mornings as a toddler and Art, I usually know where I want to go with my project or what I plan to accomplish from 6-8 in the morning. While it can be really nice to have an idea from the start more often than the idea I am imagining in my head is too elaborate or difficult for me to recreate perfectly and this always disappoints me. I have always been told to keep it realistic and simplify my ideas but for me it’s really hard to do that. I guess sin theory if I stuck to ideas that were always achievable I wouldn’t experience as much disappointment but it’s not easy to let go of an idea. While the complexity and practicality of these ideas I have are a large factor in the disappointment, time is also and always has been an issue. Its usually a combination of shortage of time and lack of skill that interfere with fulfilling my ideas but hopefully over time I will become good enough at art and time management that In order to succeed I wont have to change what’s in my head.
-Eric
