Marketing to Family and Friends: How to Blow Your Campaign by Failing to Prepare

January 30, 2008

Family and friends are going to be affected by a creative individual’s career.

Written by NDK Creative Artist · Filed Under Business, Marketing

Conclusion - Lena Semenkova Feature

January 25, 2008

Is Digital Photographic and Illustration Manipulation Art?

Yes, it is. Why? Because it has come of age and is no longer about technique, but about the use of technique to master the visual language and say something meaningful.

The moment that occurs, regardless of the proficiency of the artist, you have art occurring. Because now you have communication happening, and not just an empty communication devoid of message, meaning or substance, but a communication that stimulates the recipient intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, and culturally. You have full awareness as a viewer and a sense of marvel at the skill of the creative individual who has packaged a concept visually and made possible a realization that informs your own life, integrating seamlessly with it, in an almost undetectable fashion. Anything else is not art, because art is, at its most fundamental, a communication.

Lena Semenkova photo by Sergey Schelkunov

The question: “Is this art?” Is answered when you answer the following questions:

Does it communicate?
What does it communicate?
How well does it communicate?
What is the effect?

There is more to say about these questions and the range of answers given. But these are the fundamental questions to ask to determine whether or not something is art or not.

But people (and entire societies) forget this, and when they lose this fundamental principle and observation communication standards dive, in the end all you will see are the bones of a civilization left, the art that survived a people who decayed.

I titled this Feature Lena Semenkova: Camouflage of Contradictions for Lena is full of these seeming contradictions, doesn’t like groups that use the F-word, but will use it herself when she feels like it, among other equally and sometimes more colorful expressions. Has a spirituality and connection to God that she frankly admits while shunning all religions as she borrows their buildings to commune if she needs to, and she knows she doesn’t need to; and I think that’s the modern sensibility of spirituality today. It’s nobody else’s business, just yours, unless you trust others not to abuse your belief.

Full of contradictory camouflage, perhaps. But antisocial? It depends by which standards you’re going to measure her worth and value, but choose wisely, for becoming a trifle or a gem in this remarkable woman’s life is swiftly determined. Lena’s art illuminates the crises this world faces personally, socially, culturally at this time. Her collection is art that makes a collective statement about our new millennium and who we are within it, and we have some work to do if we are to heed the insights Lena offers us with her work, and thus it is collectible 21st Century art.

Lena Semenkova is a digital artist whose technique, while not up to her own standards yet, is already building a large following at deviantArt, the online community that purports to be the largest in the world and probably is. Among many who post their creations there, she is without a doubt standing up there with the best of them, something the staff at Deviant have already recognized, when they awarded her the coveted DD and featured her work on the homepage of the most trafficked art site in the world (something we didn’t know until we had interviewed her). To shine at such an early period in her career is in no small measure due to the astounding use of visual metaphor, which denotes a way of thinking and conceptualizing that is remarkable. It’s not all about the technique, or the mastery of the technique, Lena’s ability to communicate demonstrates mastery in the visual sphere and this is why we featured her in the Free Articulator.

This self-styled Psychobitchua is an adventurous, fearsome and courageous spirit who battles her own terrors, with an indomitable and indefatigable will, and a frank admission of their existence. Then she’ll tell you she’s shy. And she is, in reality, all these things, and therefore a fine human being, who demonstrates the ability of the artist at a high level. The ability to be.

We’ll keep you up to date with Lena’s career as and when it moves forward (just subscribe to be informed), in the meantime, browse her gallery and collect her prints—this is one of the new millennium’s finest visual communicators.

The Free Articulator and Lena Semenkova are grateful to photographers Sergey Schelkunov and Kotka who graciously gave permission to Lena for their work to be included in our first Free Articulator Feature. Their work is excellent and we are intrigued enough to talk to them about it in later Features. Stay tuned and thank you for your attention.

If you know an artist you think may appeal, drop us a line and send us their site. Features are by invitation but we consider all that come to our attention.

Do let us know what you thought of this, our first Feature - leave a comment. Or Articulate Now.

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Written by NDK Creative Artist · Filed Under Creative Artists, Features

The Points of the Creative Artists’ Code: Thirteen - No one ever said you have to agree

January 24, 2008

In this thirteenth article discussing the points of the Code of a Creative Artist, NDK talks about the power of individual choice versus the sheep mentality when it comes to the direction your works of art take. - Joel Falconer, Editor-in-Chief

Written by NDK Creative Artist · Filed Under Creativity

Review: War - Lena Semenkova Feature

January 24, 2008

War, most women seem to shy away from the topic. It’s usually a male preserve, though here and there you find a women beginning to encroach upon this one time exclusive domain of men, and that is still a subject debated, though I for one believe women should have the right and the experience of war, so they know what it really is about and not some distant event, speaking purely from a combat perspective. War is an abomination, and most particularly in this time when it is no longer a noble activity fought for anything more than power and control of resources

Lena’s image War is odd. It’s odd because, on one level of consideration, among all the other images it’s seems to be a strange topic for her to be engaging. But it is odd on other levels too.

A red-head, her long hair flowing over her armored shoulders blends into a smear of color that creates a long tail that appears to form the lower half of her body. The form and style is like an elongated capital letter ‘S’. Where her waist would be there is none, just the hair like some mermaid’s tail, swirling off into the background like some parody of a glossy hair commercial for shampoo or hair dye.

I wouldn’t recommend this brand. If you read the label it would seem that the constituent ingredients consist of blood and skulls.

This female warrior’s two arms are prominent in the picture. As she faces us her left arm is upraised to her face making a fist. On first impression it resembles the stereotypical defiant gesture that proclaims “I’m tough! Bring it on! I’ll pulverize ya!”

Her arm is tightly bound in a black leather bracer replete with shiny buckles and the impression is more fetish than function.

An ornate metal cross is chained across the back of her hand, but it is not large enough to afford protection. It seems more of an accessory.

Her right arm is held out horizontal to her right hip and extends towards us into the foreground. It forms a perch for a large dark-plumed eagle, whose gaze is directed to his left, out of the tall, narrow frame of the picture. The symbol of a nation? Depending from its hooked beak upon a silvered chain is a tiny skull. I guess it’s a free accessory that comes with the hair dye. There are rings on its talons. An eagle, a war bird instead of a poodle; very clever, Lena.

“…a war bird instead of a poodle, very clever”

It is her head that is most odd. She wears “a helm” that is so strangely designed that it sets the entire tone of the image offsetting the darker elements with something outrageous and ludicrous. It is difficult to describe this but I’ll have a shot.

Fastened by chains a headdress rather than a helm, assumes a precarious position perched upon her forehead. Two sets of paired chains, hang from spokes that extend outward from a circlet also made of thin coiled chain that circles the crown of her head. There is no protection from the implements of war here; I can see her hair through the circlet.

Extending from this circlet are ten far-too-long metal spokes, eight of them are simple. One of them has been flattened and ornately stamped and molded to form an ornamental nose guard. It’s in the six o’clock position. In the 12 o’clock position is the crowning glory. Instead of a spoke a large plume, perhaps an ostrich feather extends upward, increasing her height and making her completely noticeable.

“…lips artificially plumped”

The expression on her face and the pose is also initially looking a bit threatening. But, as you look to her eyes and her very full red lips I see something else. Her lips are full, the lower lip in particular is a pillow in the style Angelina Jolie became famous for, inspiring many young women to have their lips artificially plumped. Trailing from the corner of her mouth, almost as if placed there for effect is a drool of blood. It’s an artful detail, that sets off the impression that this fashionable young thing has just finished delicately consuming something sinfully delectable.

“this is a blood feast”

It’s the eyes that create this impression. They look sideways, out of the picture in that feminine expression that says “I hope nobody caught me eating (looking so bad).” You get the impression she would break into a nervous uncomfortable and gleeful giggle, if you were to say something; it would be as if you have caught her eating chocolate when she shouldn’t be. Only it’s not chocolate she’s been consuming, this is a blood feast.

On one level this work of digital art says to me (some) “Women flirt with death today” as if it is some fashionable accessory instead of the bloody banquet that it is. It speaks to me of a fashion industry that often trivializes the serious subjects of life and death, and that there is something obscene about this fascination. I’m not denying it can be fun too.

It seems to me that Lena’s portrayal of war, says it all. War is ludicrous. Nothing noble about it. Nothing fashionable about it. Nothing practical or useful about it.

TFA: There is another image, the last one I’d like to look at. It’s War. Among all the others it has such a rushed appearance; it is almost a smear on the canvas. A women, all dressed up in battle gear, appears out of a swirl of skulls and blood, as if straight from a bloodbath. It is a violent image. The figure looks as if she has just been feasting. It amazes me how you employ such subtleties, such tiny details to change the meaning. It’s as if you’re saying, “Women are just as guilty of the crime of war as men are.” What inspired War?

Lena: When I finished this piece deep at night, I raised my head to see the unhealthy orange light outside. The neighboring house was burning. No shit.

TFA: Wow.

Lena: I find it symbolical. The topic of war doesn’t let me go, I’m thinking about a few other pieces. This is probably the answer to your earlier question about how crisis affects art. You asked if the global crises we obviously have now affected my art and art in general. I usually don’t think about what inspires and affects me in a global perspective, but the tension in the air probably makes me think about a maiden at war rather than maiden in the garden, sewing and drinking tea with her happy family.

TFA: That’s a pretty radical viewpoint, running counter to much of how women, and female culture, portray themselves.

Lena: I read somewhere that a hurt woman is much more dangerous and crueler than a man.

TFA: This image, War, also makes a mockery of high fashion. The armor is more fashionable, than functional. It’s still important to her, how she looks; that her face is able to be seen. Even though it is partially covered.

Lena: Women are guilty because they choose to cook dinner instead of keeping men from fighting for oil. Women still have that “stepping aside when guys are playing” instinct.

TFA: Ah, yes.

Lena: I was inspired by Highlander 4 movie. Horrible movie. But they had amazing costumes of those modern motorcycle-riding-Vikings.

TFA: Yeah. I can’t help think of a woman wearing armor made out of knives and forks and kitchen utensils, now! [Laughter]

Lena: And a pan instead of helmet. Fork is dangerous weapon. Four holes with one strike. Think about it. Even Wolverine makes three with one strike. Thus, fork is cooler than Wolverine himself.

You can buy Lena Semenkova’s War now. Click here to purchase.

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Written by NDK Creative Artist · Filed Under Creative Artists, Features

Review: Prisoner of Conscience - Lena Semenkova Feature

January 24, 2008

Psychobitchua didn’t want to talk about this particular image, but I do because like The Kingdom the image says a lot about her talent as a visual artist. The model in the picture was originally nearly nude, artfully draped with beads and pearls and ‘precious’ metals that had her looking as if she was fresh from a sheik’s sandy desert home where clothes are only needed to keep the body from losing moisture.

Prisoner of Conscience by Lena

Our featured artist has so skilfully adjusted this image that you’re overwhelmed by the first impression. This is a stunning piece of work, displaying Lena’s immense talent and ability to create illusion. Study this picture and you’ll begin to see how Psychobitchua has artfully employed her skill and our mind’s wish to see what it thinks it sees to work for this image. Truly, Prisoner of Conscience is an astounding homage to one of her great inspirations, Johnny Depp.

But what’s it saying? A woman in piratic garb is on all fours, kneeling, perhaps on the rocks of a seashore we cannot see, and which for all we know maybe some isolated patch of rocky reef far from land. She is surrounded by the endless swells of the ocean. Her head is thrown back and up, in an almost wanton pose, as if she seeks to allure, but not quite. There is something fake here. The title is an intriguing one, and it took me a while to figure this one out to at least my satisfaction, and I’m only partially satisfied, I assure you.

This female pirate is a prisoner. Yes, she is chained and shackled to the reef by a metal stake which is driven into it. But where is her conscience? And what does her conscience have to do with this image? Is she shackled to her sexuality, to her gender? A pirate trapped in a woman’s body? Is this beautiful, wanton pirate the prisoner, or are we?

There are no more clues in this picture; only questions that endlessly engage and that is what art is all about.

Art engages the viewer in an endless story, never providing all the answers, but stimulating the imagination to participate in its own stories.

The secret of the Prisoner of Conscience may never be revealed, it may remain locked up in Lena’s (or our) beautiful mind forever, and perhaps that’s the best place for it to be, so that we are always engaged in creating our own stories, with our own conscience.

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Written by NDK Creative Artist · Filed Under Creative Artists, Features

Review: Red Skull - Lena Semenkova Feature

January 24, 2008

Red Skull by Psychobitchua

Red Skull seems to be such a departure from everything else Lena does and that alone makes it interesting. I’m not usually a fan of still life art, though it seems to be almost a traditional requirement for all fine artists to paint still life images, or bowls of fruit as studies in preparation for more complex works.

I know from reading and many discussions with Marcelle La Cour, and with other painters, that the way Fine Artists (including film makers and photographers) look at light is very different from how most of us consider or even observe it.

Also, Lena’s images are generally about people, they contain and refer to humanity in a very clear way, and this artwork maintains that human connection.

Red Skull seems to be something of a commentary on alcohol. A kind of fat hip flask, with a grinning crazy one-eyed red skull wearing a pirate’s bandanna on his cranium, staring out of his label.

The label is a crisp parchment on the surface of the glass and the name of this hooch is clearly blazoned: Red Skull in the lower foreground of the label. What is in the bottle, and there is definitely something in it, is dark and shadowed and blends seamlessly with the shadows that are slightly behind and to the right of the image as we look at it; this is a very subtle message.

A monarch butterfly is perched on the cap as if about to sip or seeking entry to the contents of the bottle. It cannot get in. At the foot of the bottle just below the label and to its right as we look at it is another butterfly. It is quite plainly lifeless, a victim of the contents. And below this in faded typeface is the caption “Try in this life…OR ANOTHER” and a small red ‘X’ is the period.

Alcohol, has always for me, represented man’s flirt with death, for it is a poison, and when one drinks, one is drinking controlled amounts of a poison, and most people never seem to realize that this is what they are doing.

I know from later discussion with Lena that this particular piece was a commission, and for me it’s a clever statement that says more than most still life images, which to me are always more a demonstration of technique, than a communication of any substance with few rare exceptions.

The shoes of Van Gogh for example (and you have to see them to believe this) are to me a remarkable still life painting because it is such a detailed rendition that the shoes cease to be oil on canvas, rather you feel like they are real shoes and that is such a remarkable demonstration of technique that it is no wonder they have taken on a life and fame of their own. Red Skull, like all of Lena’s art works, says something about the realities of life and this is why I picked this still life image as part of this Free Articulator Feature.

The Red Skull has for me a jaunty, piratical air to it, it flirts with death, in some cruel macabre joke, “Avast, ye swab! Drink this little death to have some fun! Not too much mind!”

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Written by NDK Creative Artist · Filed Under Creative Artists, Features

Interview Part 3 - Lena Semenkova Feature

January 24, 2008

The Works! Surreal Quality! Faces of Time in Global Crisis

Lena has a vast and constantly growing collection of material. If you were looking for an artist bent on creating a career in the visual arts out of a large body of work, you would not need to look much farther than Lena’s gallery at Deviant Art, and eventually, her own website. Read more

Written by NDK Creative Artist · Filed Under Creative Artists, Features

Review: All the Snowflakes Must Die - Lena Semenkova Feature

January 24, 2008

All the snowflakes must die by Lena

I did not understand this image, and yet I thought I did. But I didn’t until long after I had talked with Lena about it. As always, Lena gives precious few clues, but she does give a few as you’ll see in the interview that follows this review.

With a title like All the Snowflakes must die I was almost certain that this was about global crisis. I mean, here is a stark black and white image of a cloudy night sky providing the backdrop to the foreground images of two lampposts, one on the left dark, and the other lit brightly. Each has three globes. Perched atop one of those on the right lamppost is a snowy white owl looking out of the picture directly at us.

Another owl is perched in a tree, central to the picture and between the lampposts. Its spidery moss-entwined branches appear to be making every attempt to wrap technology and put it out.

Additional snowy white owls (spectators of this scene) perch on the left lamp and one more is in the background on the left.

Central to the picture between the forking branches of this mossy tree struggling to survive in a wintry landscape, clawing its way out of the thick blanket of snow is a web. Wrapped within its central and lower threads are the feet of a young woman, dressed all in white.

A white woman, all in white, even her hair is white. She is draped over the branches, her feet tangled and she is not struggling, she is simply limp, lifeless. Her head rests atop a mound of snow, her trunk and lower body are supported by two forked branches that cross the image horizontally in the lower third of the picture.

A wreath of white petals almost lost in the glare of the foreground light reflecting from the snow, adorns her hair. A spot of blood has spattered just below marring the snowy pillow that is her head’s resting place.

Her left arm encircles her waist, the elbow bloodied, the sleeve adorned by some stray rivulet. It seems she accepted her fate with some attempt at grace and dignity, despite the undignified pose.

To the left of this dead snowflake, at the base of the dead lamppost (its light is extinguished), is a skull half-buried in the snow, one socket blindly observing the scene before it. Snow falls in a sprinkle all around and the branches are laden with it.

The young woman appears to be almost a ballerina, and I remember Lena mentioning her dream of being a ballerina and am struck by the realization that the snowflake is a dead dream. The dead dream of being a dancer, a snowflake full of grace floating across the stage, demonstrating the grace, femininity and unique beauty of a woman.

As I consider this it seems to me that the world is captured in this web, and that the world is this seemingly fragile web of reality, the society that specializes in killing dreams dead, stifling them through the mechanism of its apparent wisdom, a wisdom that nonetheless kills people, in its own blindness, while convincing itself of the purity of its amply feathered wisdom; soft feathers that keep it from the cold light of daily living and dying.

The death of creative dreams, of the glorious feeling of hopeful fantasies lies here, spread-eagled on the beautiful soft, cold deathly blanket of the world’s reality. It is society we see here. Society killing creative individuality, while pretending it does not.

At the same time, I also perceive another level here. There is a relationship to global crisis, and specifically to climate change, but this is only I think, the superficial reality, as nothing Lena does with her art is superficial. Nothing. Lena’s work demands: that we look; that we study; that we consider at length the meaning.

TFA: Is the snowflake a global crisis themed picture?

Lena: It’s not a global crisis-themed picture. At least, I never thought about it that way. It was my Christmas card. And probably the way to destroy a bunch of disgusting childhood memories I still have. I was a snowflake on all the Christmas kindergarten shows. [Laughter]

Now I could ask the obvious gauche sort of question here, that any tabloid would be delighted to delve into, hunting dirty little secrets and imagining all kinds of trashy titillating garbage. But I refrain from engaging that prurient part of human nature.

Lena: The snowflake is horrible. It’s very poorly done.

No, it isn’t. It is very artfully done. The only thing that was horrible here was my initial superficial attention to what this image had to tell me. All the Snowflakes Must Die is a picture about the creative crisis that exists in a materialistic society that specializes in destroying what it believes are fantasies. But it is from fantasy that reality is drawn. Thus it is society—the collective mass of individuality—that makes nothing of reality, and not the artist who does so. The artist sees the reality all too clearly, and society doesn’t like that too much, for it forces each of us to consider who we really are, and what we are really doing. Thank you, Lena, for directing my attention so skillfully to what you had put right in front of me and others to see.

You can buy Lena Semenkova’s All the Snowflakes Must Die now. Click here to purchase.

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Written by NDK Creative Artist · Filed Under Creative Artists, Features

Review: Ghost Rider - Lena Semenkova Feature

January 24, 2008

Ghost Rider by Lena Semenkova

When I look at Psychobitchua’s Ghost Rider, an image Lena and I never talked about, I think of a certain Texan leaping his war horse with its flaming mane over the graves of all the people he’s sent to their deaths, against the backdrop of a blood-red moon. His face is the pasty gaunt skull of death, and his garb is black like his mount, whose face, like his, is a skull devoid of flesh and expression. However, the horse’s skull is wreathed in flame that extends into the mane.

The Ghost Rider is an iconic image of immense power that sears its way into your mind and is reminiscent of western movies and in some odd way the Marlboro Man. Must be the smoke.

When I look at this I see a movie poster, and I guess I must have Bush-on-the-brain because the American Western is so often filmed in Texas and it seems to me these days that America rides the dark horse of death towards the Apocalypse. I wish it were otherwise. Ghost Rider would make a great T-shirt.

When I did talk to Lena about this image, it was when she was reviewing what had been written prior to publication and she introduced me to the famous Johnny Blaze. I felt like I’d been living under a rock, if only briefly. My comic reading days are long past, though I’m in need of a revival and am glad to hear that Marvel has taken its comic art online. It turns out at that Nicholas Cage starred in this movie and I do remember seeing the original movie poster for it, but not, unfortunately, the movie. DVD, definitely.

Lena: I wouldn’t want to give the fucked politics the face of Bush. He’s a fucker of all fuckers, but I don’t like giving politics a particular recognizable face. Because people tend to automatically start to blame that face and only that face forgetting to blame themselves. Ghost Rider was a comic and later a movie which was hated by everybody and loved by me.

TFA: Why did you love it so much?

Lena: It’s a good idea, with good visual images and characters. They put the demon of water, the demon of wind and the demon of earth as the three main villains. They were led by satanic creature obviously representing fire. I found it very smart and the demons were visually cool.

TFA: And why did people hate it?

Lena: Fans always hate the movie version of their favorite comics or videogame. Plus, people tend to hate B-movies in general. Bryan Singer was an exception when he made the movie adaptation of X-Men comics. But X-Men has an exceptionally social storyline itself, plus Singer is an Oscar-winning director who can make the stupidest character human and believable. I can forgive much if I like the general message of the images. I saw Elizabeth: the Golden Age today, and it’s visually perfect. I mean, perfection, each scene is like a painting. While the plot is sometimes absent.

If Lena wants to go into the movie poster business or expand her talents into the area of creating graphic novels, I foresee a bright future ahead.

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Written by NDK Creative Artist · Filed Under Creative Artists, Features

Interview Part 2 - Lena Semenkova Feature

January 24, 2008

Accounting and Economics to Visual Artist, Photographer and Writer

Lena has a degree in economics from the university she attended in Kiev, but talk to her about economics and she is adamant about how studying this for 6 years nearly drove her insane, but she persisted and achieved the degree. Then she decided to take up graphic art and see if she could make something of it and has been involved in writing fanfiction since 2001.

Within 6 months of making the decision to get a job as a graphic artist she had a job and was employed. Lena has also worked as a translator and her written and spoken English are fluent, and she is able to maintain her fluency as her current boss at the graphics company is English. She also speaks Russian, Ukrainian (first language), Polish, and German and the latter only “if you put a gun to my temple.’

Ask Lena about economics and she’ll simply say, “I’m done with economics.” Enough said. Business: no. Art & creativity: yes. With local photographers she participates in photostalking in and around the environs of Kiev, with occasional excursions to other Ukrainian cities.

From what I’ve learned and experienced as a result of introductions and talking to Lena, they are a very supportive and active social group.

Lena has also been mentioned in Unknown Artists by Future Magazine who said:

“Incredible photomanipulations. She has her very own style.”

They pegged Lena as one of the up and coming artists who deserves more exposure. We agree.

Cruise the comments at her gallery and you’ll find many accolades from peers.

Copyrights, Permissions, Photo Stock Artists, Accolades, Models, Results and Recognitions

TFA: You mentioned earlier “All the permissions and releases are an especially painful topic to me.” Why is that?

Lena: Yes. The copyrights and permissions…I start to feel like a loser running after models asking for permissions.

There are good photo stock artists who provide good quality stock and have very loyal and easy rules to follow. And they are always in touch, so you can contact them and discuss commercial use, usage for specific designs, posting on other sites, etc.

Other stock providers don’t allow pretty much anything except using their stock on dA with no commercial use at all. Or they demand to discuss the idea of your work with them before you even start it. I don’t know what the idea will be like when I finish the work, I can’t discuss it beforehand. The final result may have nothing in common with the initial concept.

Lena: It would be great, actually. “Before” and “After” is a good idea. I always show my works like that so people would see that some effort was, in fact, involved.

TFA: Yes, it adds value when you demonstrate effort. Excellent. Thanks. “loyal and easy rules” do you mean: logical?

Lena: I mean “loyal” as “not strict.” Can I use that word in such a context? The new tendency between the stockers is to demand money for stock. If the quality is good and the stock is useful, then yes, okay. Good quality professional stock is never free. I’d never buy stock, I’d rather go and take the picture of myself or a friend, or my sister, but for others - okay. If it’s inspiring for you and it’s good - you can buy it. But people often want money for crappy stock, really.

TFA: The whole process seems to be quite frustrating, who are some of the stock providers that you use that you find easy to work with because their process is easy and more understanding of your requirements?

Lena: You want me to give you links? Because I’d pimp them, they’re great people to work with.

TFA: Yes, give me links. We’ll pimp them. [It never ceases to amaze me how language is being assimilated, adapted and adjusted for new usage by the next generations]

Lena: I adore Zoe. I got a DD [Daily Deviation – a coveted way of recognizing good work on dA] thanks to her. She does amazing poses.

Poses are an important issue, I really like dynamic, realistic or unusual ones. Because if you look through the stock, you’ll see tons of saddened static maidens that are completely useless.

I thought I could never make myself switch from fan-art to original art, but Sophie made this procedure quite painless.

Ida really supports me with everything I do and I’m really grateful for that. I need to look through my gallery to see who else is there. [Laughter]

TFA: What do you mean by dynamic poses?

Lena: It’s like when you take a picture of a running man when he’s really running and when you ask a man to freeze and strike a pose like he’s running. When you look through these 2 pictures, you can see the huge difference between them while the pose is the same. Oh, this guy, (MJ Ranum) he’s amazing. He provides professional HQ (High Quality) pictures and doesn’t demand money for that at all, doesn’t want to be begged for permission for days. He’s just great.

[Does one get the sense that like the music industry, the visual art industry is also moving away from currency as a medium of exchange and that the next generation is beginning to abandon the use of money altogether? I’m seeing it start to happen, and as always, the arts is a barometer and predictor of the future. What better way to disenfranchise the wealthy of their power, than to make the symbol, and the substance itself, irrelevant.]

TFA: In perusing your gallery I observed that you do very little with male models and male images. Have you done any work with male figures other than Cuthbert Allgood?

Lena: It’s not my fault, there are very few good male stockers. Very few.

TFA: [Laughter] Perhaps they’ll take the hint now.

Lena: I’d love to work with more male characters, I really would. But men don’t like to pose in general.

TFA: They don’t. Why is that I wonder? In this day of equality… [ironic chuckle] you’d think they would insist on their right to be treated beautifully.

From Fan-art to Original Work to Lena’s Themes

Having dealt with the rather interesting relationship between stress, conflict and creativity we head the conversation back in the discussion of themes in Lena’s work.

TFA: No worries. Earlier you said Sophie made “this procedure of switching from fan-art to original art quite painless” what do you mean by that?

Lena: Well, I did fan-art before I started to do original art. Do you know what fan-art is?

TFA: Not really. Do explain. I’m guessing it’s making derivatives of characters from other stories. e.g. Harry Potter, or other art. For example: when a fan draws a wookie.

Lena: I’m a fan of it, actually… Well, if I did fan-art based on the King Arthur movie (which I did, long ago), it would be a real Keira Knightley standing next to that communist castle and I would have to agree that I don’t own any rights to the picture of the actress and agree that I will never be able to sell the final product and just do artworks for fun.

TFA: Ah. So with these more original pieces you can actually create and sell the works. Why is it hard to switch from one to the other and how did Sophie make that easier?

Lena: But fan-art is a good practice. Yet it does spoil you, because celebrity pictures are much higher quality to begin with. So when you switch to original art, you have to work with amateur stock, which was a real shock for me. I was a member of fan-art forum Creative since August 2004. In 2006, after a few deadly hacks by one Russian dickhead who thought he was a cool hacker or something, Creative was closed. That was when I joined dA because I simply had nowhere else to go. And I had to start doing original art. It was very hard at first, I bitched about it a lot, and a fellow former Creative member, John Delano who was and still is a huge authority and inspiration to me, showed me Sophie’s account to prove that stock can also be inspiring.

TFA: It’s a shame how one person can ruin a good thing for so many, but it’s great to see artists helping each other. When you’re creating fan-art, you said that “you agree that you will never be able to sell the final product” - who do you agree that with? Is it an actual formal process?

Lena: I grabbed her picture right away and made Little Fish. Since then I do original art and absolutely can’t do fan-art anymore. [Laughter] It’s not an actual formal process, but if Jerry Bruckheimer catches you selling artworks with Jack Sparrow’s promo pictures, you most likely will get your ass spanked.

We have quite a family of former Creative members on dA. People like Selfish-Eden, BloodyVoodoo and NightGraue became my friends, as close, as distant online communication allows.

Lena: Returning to the fan-art versus original art topic, I never understood why artists who make amazing original art, have such horrible fan-art wallpapers on their desktops. Once I started to do original art, I understood why. You start to feel greedy and sorry to waste good ideas on things you can never put your name on. I have a horrible celebrity desktop myself now. [Laughter]

TFA: Is that the All of your demons desktop?

Lena: No, All of your demons was the last good desktop I did. I just keep it there as a requiem to the fan-art artist in me.

TFA: Cool. Thanks. And thanks too for the expansion on fan-art. Let’s go back to where we left off on our last session…themes.

Themes, Cynicism and Booby Prudery!

Let’s dispense with the prudish stuff first - Little Fish.

Lena: It’s a mermaid.

TFA: Ah. Yeah, can’t make that out from the thumb.

Lena: The funniest thing is that I didn’t plan to make a religious statement there. Long after the artwork was published there, people started to talk about a cross and a fish as a hint on Christianity. I didn’t think about it at all. I’ll send the file to you.

TFA: Now, why is Little Fish considered to be mature content? I don’t see any genitals in sight. Nothing at all strikes me as warranting such a label. I’m surprised.

Lena: If you look really, really closely, you’ll see the boobs. And “boobs are BAD for kids.”

TFA: Pfft. Kids are raised on boobs! Boobs are good for kids! This is such nonsense. In NZ there is a whole controversy going on with law to be passed permitting women to breastfeed in public. I hope it goes through. So if I look real close eh? (chuckle)

Lena: I’m very aware of that. But still, boobs are bad. For 13-year-olds who surf the net and saw so many online porn that my mermaid’s boobs would probably go completely unnoticed.

TFA: That’s a very powerful image. Spiritually and with the title as well. It almost looks like she’s on a pile of skulls at first. Mainly the color, size and shape of the rocks I suppose. And I love how the mermaid has no obvious tail. I think it’s very tastefully done. And very provocative of thought.

Lena: I don’t like elves, mermaids, fairies and all that stuff. It’s everywhere and it makes me depressed. [Laughter] So the tail had to go out of the way.

TFA: I’m a bit the same. My fantasy is all about new creatures. I have 14 new races. And that’s just the races. Not even the creatures. Elves, fairies, dragons and trolls…no thanks.

Lena: Hobbits. Gah, hobbits are horrible. When I was into writing sort of fantasy, I was inventing new creatures myself, too. No dragons, no, no, no.

TFA: I developed a whole new horse idea too. And I have two other creatures for riding. One is so tall!

Lena: Unicorns. Death to unicorns.

TFA: Yes, death to unicorns.

As a note, people should understand that what is being discussed here is in the guide of metaphor and simile, and the topic is the lack of imagination and the fixation on creatures associated with the fantasy genre, that have not changed nor developed for a very long time. It is the ubiquity of these creatures that is the problem, and the lack of new creatures to capture and fire the imagination. I call this locking in the genre. It stultifies imagination and kills creativity.

Themes

TFA: I was asking you if you were aware of themes in your work. Here’s how we got into that…are you aware of the thematic nature of your work? i.e do you consciously select subjects that have a certain similarity, that seem to explore certain themes that you return to? Are you deliberately focused on such things?

Lena: People told me that. [Laughter] I may be addicted to some themes…. Sometimes I select themes to work with, but mostly they are born in the process.

TFA: Ah, so you become aware of them afterwards, or as the work unfolds?

Lena: In the process. Yes. I portray different negative things and negative aspects of positive things. That’s what I do; because, I suspect, I’m pretty cynical.

TFA: I was asking you to identify some themes you’re aware of. So now we have a couple: Negativity. Global crisis. Is, for example, All the snowflakes have to die a part of that one?

Creativity

If there’s one thing we like to delve into it’s the different approaches that people take when it comes to creativity, and the philosophy and methods they adopt. I was utterly fascinated by the consistency of Lena’s ability to present a story in pictures that at once intrigued and captured, so we started out looking at a work that seems to address some core elements that we are all familiar with in society today: sex, money, beauty, violence, blood, spirituality, religion and chance.

Fortune - Telling a Story With Pictures

When we look at Fortune we see that it has a bunny sitting in a pool of blood. Blood that also spatters the canvas. The bunny seems to be a clever fellow, he’s done what all the clever bunnies do…take up residence in a hat. The angel’s two wings are made of dollar bills, her head hangs down and we see her beaded halo, a card with a cross above her bent head. She clutches her stomach, to stem the flow of blood that appears to have been caused by a gun she holds, almost listlessly, in her hand. Blood spatters her thighs and left hand. A deck of cards, is scattered about her, peppering the foreground and covering nearly half of her right wing. Lena’s sister Sasha, also an illustrator, modeled for this particular picture.

Fortune by Lena Semenkova TFA: “Fortune” is one of your bloodier pieces. A gun, blood, money, and an angel who appears to have shot herself (I can’t help wondering if the bunny is controlling her mind and lead her to this act of self-destruction as she tried to destroy the evil bunny). We see cards fluttering around her as she hangs her head, this Money Angel, with wings made of dollars. It’s another provocative piece of work. Loaded with meaning. When did you create this one?

Lena: Did you see “Smokin’ aces” movie? Because it was strongly, I mean, strongly inspired by it. And “Smoking aces” came out in spring, I believe. The most amazing action movie I’ve ever seen. It pretty much shows what I think about money.

TFA: I love the little touches of the vine and the singed bullet hole in the canvas. I never saw that particular movie, should I?

Lena: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s amazing.

TFA: So tell me about this digital painting.

Lena: It represents the way big money works. They give you wings, but you end up bleeding; because money is surely the wrong material to build wings from.

TFA: Beautifully put. And all that is definitely in the painting. Well, this is a very powerful piece that seems to depict, for me anyway, all the ways in which money promises everything, but delivers mostly shattered dreams and hopes, tragedy. I find that this sort of thinking characterizes all your work, your ability to work with visual metaphor draws me to your work in ways that other works never draw me. There is, in short, meaning in your work.

Lena: I know a hella lot of people who think that to become as rich as possible is a perfect plan for this life.

TFA: Yes. And most deal in misery to make it.

Lena: It’s sad and scary. And makes me think that maybe I don’t understand something essential about this life.

TFA: Yes, I grok. I’m not beyond similar considerations myself. But, a powerful work, and one worthy of consideration. I hope it is viewed and purchased by many.

Lena: It’s pretty much what movie was about, too. I even left a huge “thank you” letter on the director’s blog for providing me with the great idea in perfect action covering. Sun-Ok [Sasha] looks like Alicia Keys’ character in the movie. So it’s good she was around to pose.

TFA: How long did it take you to put “Fortune” together?

Lena: It is a popular work in my gallery. I’m proud and happy and stuff. And have plans to make such wings from fake printed dollars in reality. It would be very cool. I don’t remember how long it took. It was long ago. But it’s one of the “fast” works, so around 6 hours on and off.

TFA: How did you build this one up? And were you in a frenzy to “get it out” to “capture the concept”? Did she watch the movie with you?

Lena: No, Sun-Ok is just that cool. Yeah, we watched it together. Twice. And then a few more times. I finished a bleeding character and wings from dollar bills were the only thing that would fit there. So I put them there.

TFA Is the pose she struck from the movie?

Lena: Kind of.

TFA: So how did you build this one up? Did you start with the canvas?

Lena: No, I finish things with the background. See, when I get inspired by something, I start to develop ideas in my head and in the end I can’t say what was really in the movie and what I made up in my head after.

TFA: Ah, backgrounds are usually last?

Lena: I don’t find backgrounds essential most of the time. I care about the character and keep the background very simple and easy.

TFA: Right, so you do them last and focus on the things that are most important.

Lena: I was never interested in landscapes, that’s for sure. I need someone to be there to tell a story about.

Real art tells a story.

TFA: Does finding the visual metaphors come easy to you, or is it a struggle? And is this why you see the movies so much? To use them to feed your imagination, so you can extract the maximum from the visual banquet you’re offered by the movie?

Lena: I’m telling stories to myself, first of all. I love movies because they create another universe around. And they are a powerful source of inspiration. I may not care about the movie in the end, developing my own ideas from it.

Tarantino said something about it, about movies being a start point to the idea to form. I’m very fast with the ideas and metaphors for myself, I see them everywhere. Symbols, you know.

TFA: Yes. I was just interested to see if it is as natural for you as it appears to be.

Lena: I’m cynical as hell. I minimize the meaning of things to get to the essence. [Laughter]

TFA: I think the ability to think symbolically is essential to the ability to give meaning to form, particularly when it comes to visual works. Tell me, why are you so cynical?

Most people see cynicism as being highly negative. But you’re using it very constructively and creatively, or so it seems to me.

Lena: I’m cynical because I’m afraid to trust and believe. I guess.

TFA: Afraid to trust and believe what? Or who?

Lena: Good things. Positive things.

TFA: Ah, yes, my favorite pet hate saying comes to mind… “Too good to be true.” Can you describe what you mean by minimizing meaning; how do you do that?

Lena: Oh god, I don’t know how do I do that, I just see the symbol instead the more complex… events.

TFA: There is not much ponder, or thinking about, it is there.

Lena: When I think too much of the idea, I end up doing a hopeless piece of crap. So I prefer not to get my brain involved. My art teacher repeated it often: thinking doesn’t help the process of creation. It only restricts it.

TFA: Aye, free articulation is what is needed.