Psychedelic Art: Stephen D. Ferris | Artist of the month NOVEMBER
Posted under: Art and psychedelic lifestyle
Here we are one more time bringing you the best psychedelic art around this magic world! This month we've talked with a great artist and a nice person: Stephen D. Ferris. He loves rain and pan-fried perogies. Stephen's drawings are vibrant pieces that will bring you to a brighter and misterious world! Let's start!
First of all, we'd love if you explain us a little of your trajectory: who is Stephen D. Ferris, why did you decided to paint, since when have you been painting and what do you want to reach with your art?
I am a self taught artist out of, B.C/Canada. My artwork can be describes as, geometric/psychedelic/intuitive/abstract/optical/graphic/minimal I started about 4 years ago randomly. I was a bad art student growing up, I had average traditional art game. I started with black and white, pen and ink, with the basic repetition of basic patterns, experimenting slowly with size, distance and space. I worked almost exclusively with black and white, mastering my optical design, styles and formulas. As an artist, I always wanted to get to the point, where I can do it full time and scrape by. I have reached that point and will enhance my artistic style at an even faster rate. I recently moved to Edmonton/Alberta. I did most of my work out of a small town in Northern B.C.. I had a stagnant 4 year stint in, " Fort st. John" art career wise, until recently. The scene style was older and traditional and my style and design, didnt translate at all over to what they were doing aesthetically and content wise but it allowed me to focus and get hundreds of paintings and drawings done off the radar. It was definitely a low point in my life,having my style in such an isolated ,area of Canada. I was concerned that if anything happened to me, that all my lifes artwork would end up in the garbage dump, since it wasnt even good enough for the local art " community"on any level but I moved on quickly and looked to the internet and promoted it with massive success, fishing for fresh new people outside of the sliver of an art scene and slowly carving my own scene in the area. It all worked out well time wise because last year the " Fort st.John art gallery" hired awesome, gallery managers out of Ottawa, familiar with the art world, they scooped me for my first, massive solo show , instantly,other shows in the region followed quickly . It definitely opened alot of doors and gave me confidence as an artist to move forward and past, with my artwork,The rest is history.
In most of your paintings we can see geometric patterns, dots patterns, triangles, colors that remember us the things you see when taking magic mushrooms, ayahuasca and psychoactive substances... Where do this paintings come from? What do you want to represent with these?
My art is highly optical and I like to push off kilter depth, I think alot of my circle drawing hit the, 'Party note''. I draw as I go, with no end plan, I just tie as many ideas together as possible and go till I think it looks good. Once I start a painting , I will go non stop till its done, regardless of time. The hour hand of my clock flies as I drill my painting. I can truly get lost in a painting when making it and never have an end point in my mazes.
Most of your paintings are "Untitled". Why is that? Why don't you name your artwork?
I do a lot of work and I don't like to tell the viewer or hint at what I think or see. It is completely up to their imaginations and own creativity to read into it. I love to here what a serious viewer sees in my artwork. People point out awesome stuff, I dont see all the time, I prefer it that way.
You have published the artbook "BLACK AND WHITE", a collection of your best black and white works. Can you tell us about the meanings and creative process of this huge collection?
I have created so many works over the years ,that I wanted to compile a book with all my best ,black and white works. Most of them are long gone or , destroyed, lurking on my old computer so I wanted to put them out, so they are never forgotten.
You have these black and white paintings and these colorful paintings. How do you decide if one work will be colorful or black? It's a mood thing?
I just branched out with color over the years, I just had piles of black and white works laying around and bought a bunch of paint pens and started coloring them. People really liked them so I almost do exclusively with color now. I still personally prefer my black and white works.
In some of your paintings we can see animals like birds or plants like dandelion. What's your connection with nature?
I just like to try new things and have recently been digging animal drawings and I have had alot of positive feedback over it. I take random photos and try to put my own personal style into them. It has been really interesting seeing my spin on animals. I will definitely be doing more of those in the future.
Your artwork is very dynamic and it seems to have his own rhythm. How do you make this? Does music inspire you?
I always draw to music, its my favorite part about painting , it tends to guide and pace me , with the rythem and moods. I listin to lots of /Tech house/Minimal Techno/Downtempo/IDM/Minimal dnb/garage, I prefer darker,moodier, minimal styles. I like to hear clever sounds and slick repetition, less is more .
And the last one and maybe the most personal: can you tell us how do you imagine a better world?
It rains, pan-fried perogies, everyday and you can never get too full.
You can reach Stephen D. Ferris here:
Website: www.stephendferris.com @stephendferris
December 1, 2014