EvokeOne - v5

XXXI

Current Exhibit Into The Void View exhibition View previous exhibitions

Alexander An interview with X: Hollywood's featured artist

Introduce yourself. What is your name, where do you live, what do you do - the usual.

My full name is; Alexander Friis Vinther - Once mistaken for being the name of a special agent, actually - The place, where I try to exist is Denmark. As for what I do; exactly whatever I want to do in every situation - I am not sure of anything other than the fact, that I choose myself.

A few random questions: Who is your favorite artist? What is your favorite color? And what would you do if I handed you a million dollars right now?

Ah, favorites. Well, I am not one who favours particular artists, but: I can relate to Picasso for his bold statements concerning the process of making art. I get lost in Asger jorn, Knud Nielsen (and contemporary COBRA artists') stimulating abstractions. The truest thing to favour are artworks themselves, if I am to mention a few, then: Scultura Figurata - Asger Jorn, The Absinth Drinker - Pablo Picasso, and Jackson Pollock - Blue Poles, Salvador Dalí - The persistence of memory, etc.

I like pale colours in conjunction with contrasted/saturated colours, and if I was handed that sum of money, I would invest it - As of now I do not need any help.

Where/how did you come up with the alias Cut Thru Me? This is an interesting, almost morbid sort of name.

If I was to explain the story in long terms, I would start like this: "I was scheduled for work in the dishwasher section", but to cut to the chase, I noticed a bottle of 'heavy-industrial-cleanser', orange-flavoured for restaurant use in particular on a shelf at my dad's restaurant; I liked the strict but flourishing way CutThruMe sounded and looked, ah, and the fact, that it was flavoured with a citrus-fruit.

The morbid element as you think of it, the 'cut'(ThruMe implied) part, my true intention, and my personal definition of its use is this: to reveal to the world what lies hidden, the meaning of choice, manifested in my visual primitives.

As far as art is concerned, how did you become interested in the first place? I notice that you do both traditional and CG work. Did you begin with traditional and then move to computers, or what?

My grandad is a painter slash graphic designer, and I have always found his picture books interesting - He fed me Joan Míro, Picasso, Kandinsky, etc. almost intravenously from birth. But the catalyst, the epiphany, came with forum posting: I noticed 400x100 pictures as signatures beneath almost everybody's posts, and liked how they helped in creating a different atmosphere, everywhere I went.

Why are you an artist? Is it a form of relaxation, is it a hobby, is it something you plan to continue later on in life? What do you try to convey through your work?

My before mentioned definition: 'To reveal to the world what lies hidden, the meaning of choice, manifested in my visual primitives,' holds true, as to why I am an artist. When I paint I am far from relaxed. I have bottles and cans everywhere, Brahms, Mozart or Tchaikovsky playing at full volume, At some point, when I reach a certain degree of euphoria instigated movement, the pencils seem to start moving by themselves, the sound of music disappears and the painting takes shape.

What provides the inspiration for what you do? Are there any artists, musicians, or people who inspire you?

The way I experience the world is the biggest inspiration, my own thoughts, my own existence - This might sound egoistic, but one has to keep in mind, that my comprehension is compiled of the way other people affect me as well.

Can you give us brief overview of how you create your work? Do you start with a concept sketch or just dive in? Do you paint by hand or go digital? How long does everything take? Give us the details here.

I sketch out roughly at first, choosing contrasts and deciding and forming shapes, usually using blue colours. Then I add details; compose and arrange the colours and shape areas.

I really like your work "The Great Manifest of Despair." Can you tell us a bit about it? How did you achieve such bold color contrasts - are they digital or hand painted?

That piece is pure digital, I simply used the brush tool at various sizes; soft and hard edged - What is more, I copied entire layers all the time, scaled and mixed them, and used them to construct the image, along with a lot of colour balances.

What advice can you give to the community about being an artist? How can we stay away from falling into the trap of being trendwhores?

By all means fall in that trap, but step out of it, when you feel ready and before it is too late. When deciding to start a painting, refrain from observing and studying specific artworks of other people, which you just so happen to like - at least, refrain from copying them.

Alright, now for the final statement. Give us one sentence to live by - in art and otherwise.

"Computers are useless, they can only give you answers". Haha.

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