LAURIE ROWAN - STORYTELLING
STORYTELLING
DESCRIBE YOUR WORK IN THREE WORDS.
Fun, wobbly, tactile.
WHAT DOES YOUR ART FOCUS ON?
It focuses on collective behavior and nonsense logic. It revolves around characters who are built for a predetermined function. I hope to evoke empathy and joy. I’d say my creations sit somewhere between animalistic rituals and mechanical structures.
WHAT TRIGGERS YOUR IMAGINATION?
Things that are a little off-kilter. For instance I love unintentionally creepy life size fiberglass figures you find at seaside resorts, like a hot dog applyingketchup to itself or an ice cream licking its own face. I spend a lot of time looking at ceramics, folk art, animals and sculpture.
WHO’S HAD THE MOST INFLUENCE ON YOUR ARTISTIC GROWTH?
As sentimental as it sounds, my wife Lucy. Sheis an artist herself and we bounce off each otherconstantly. She deals in the physical, creatingfrom wool, clay and fabrics and that’s definitely influenced the tactility of my animations.
HAS INSTAGRAM INFLUENCED YOUR WORK?
Instagram has influenced my work. Since gainingfollowers it’s made me committed to creating personal work with more regularity, as I now have a home for it. There’s also a great sense of community there, it’s really encouraging and enriching to engage and form friendships with other artists.
BESIDES YOUR COMPUTER/PHONE, WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU CANNOT WORK WITHOUT?
My sketchbook and brush pen. It’s how I begin every concept and I work closely to my original hand drawn work, as it’s where my instinctual self-expression comes from, so I tend to trust it and resist the urge to clean it up.
NAME THREE INSTAGRAM ACCOUNTS YOU FOLLOW RELIGIOUSLY.
@tux_and_fanny
@oritoor
@bransonofgod
TELL US ABOUT YOUR BIGGEST FAILURE.
My biggest failure was not finishing things. Not fully committing to generating my own work and defining exactly what it could be. Settling for short-term comfort instead of long-term gain. Procrastinating basically. For instance, 10 years ago I was offered the chance to publish a book of my short stories and I didn’t pursue it. A few years later I had a fundamental shift in outlook, reflected a lot on the finite nature of time and developed a determination not to stagnate, to always be producing, moving forward and defining new goals..
YOUR FIVE ALL-TIME FAVORITE MOVIES?
Akira Synecdoche, New York The Grand Budapest Hotel American Splendor The Act of Killing
YOUR ALL-TIME FIVE FAVORITE MUSIC TRACKS?
This Must be the Place - Talking Heads IZ-US - Aphex Twin
Sundome - Battles
Ayo Ayo Nene - Mor Thiam
New Track - Francis Bebey
WHO IS YOUR DREAM COLLABORATION?
I’d love to make a game. I’m a huge fan of Play dead studios and side scrolling immersive puzzle plat formers like Another World and Flashback. So something to that end, someones killed at world building, Eran Hilleli mainly.
WHAT KEEPS YOU GOING?
Enjoyment and progress. The more I do, the more the world my characters inhabit extends, which in turn helps to define the internal logic that underpins my work and makes it cohesively mine. It’s all exploration, so that makes it exciting to see where it might lead.