Interview wit an artist and creator Sarah McKoy
Sarah also was the winner of the first Alien Worlds/Landscapes comp.
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AV – How does being a creative person and pursuing your creativity affect other aspects of your life?
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SM – I’ve always had an urge to create. As a child, I sketched; as an adult, I thought up poems and stories; many of them never making it to paper. Now that I’ve retired and gone back to photography, I think creativity has become my life in a way.
In day to day living, I find myself looking at things with an artist’s eye: the capture of an image, the reworking of that image, and the display or presentation of that image or piece. I’m socializing more, making plans and taking photographic day trips. I am more inclined to initiate a conversation, than be drawn into one. I’ve had two showings of my work with a third coming up in November. These are things that I never visualized I would be doing in my latter years.
In all, I think I am a better person because of this pursuit. I am less intense and more relaxed.
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AV – Tell us about one person or moment that has made your time on redbubble particularly special or meaningful.
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SM – I would have to say that that would be you.
I’ve always been a Trekkie, so to speak. Star Trek, Star Wars, anything futuristic and otherworldly interest me, even the books I read. David Weber can not write fast enough for me. Until I saw your work, most of my photography dealt with the actual subjects and their final presentation to the viewer. It was all about what I visually saw, with a few embellishments to improve it.
When I came across the group Sci Fi – Multi Genre, now renamed Sci Fi, I was fascinated. Your work in particular, giant alien vistas, suddenly made me realize that there was more I could do with my photographs. I began to see my earth landscapes with alien skies. My earth landscapes transmuted into alien landscapes.
I guess this was the ultimate goal of a friend on mine, Sassafras, who persuaded me to join RB knowing I had become bored with my photography.
I mean how many pictures do you take of statues?
How many do you take of buildings?
They are all alike. No they are not!
Each is a moment in time, different lighting and different shading. Then after viewing your creations, I saw that they could become different settings on different worlds.
A building could even become a spaceship traveling through space at warp speed.
I thank you for that, for letting me see that a door was not closing, but opening.
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AV – Show and tell us about five works on redbubble that moved or inspired you.
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SM – That’s a hard one. There are so many accomplished artists here on RB, producing so many fine works.
Her portraitures are nothing less than magnificent. Mystery, Secluded, Wicked, even God Bless, are all inspiring work. I can’t pick any one picture. She showed me what one of my mentors has been telling me for a while; move in on your subject!
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2 Sports Photography
Oddly enough, a group not an individual, inspired me to do a piece in my Journal entitled A Race Well Run. This group was Sports Photography. Everyone captures that excellent athlete, the jock as it were. I wanted to show that a race, just like everything in life, has many different components, and many different people participating. I think the human race is better for it.
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His sky and cloud vistas taught me to push the limits of my skies.
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4. AlienVisitor
Ice World, Blue Horizon, and other works from the artist, AlienVisitor, made me look at scale, balance, and color. I continue to see things that I need to experiment with on my own work, hopefully to improve my images.
At this point, I really can’t boil a few artists down from the many that I have seen and wanted to emulate in some fashion. I’ve seen different artists in different genres that I’ve admired. If you look at my gallery, you might think that I was having an identity crisis. You find pictures of almost everything in my gallery.
I would also like to say that I am very happy to be a part of the Red Bubble community. It has allowed me to see the works of people all over the globe, beauty of which I would otherwise be unaware. I’m spurred on by the feedback I get from my own work.
Be Well,
Sarah
Thank you for this Sarah, its been many years since I “blushed” quite this deeply.
“May you create well and prosper”
AV
