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Today’s Artist Interview Is With Blue Bliss From Brooklyn, New York.

Whopple:  How long have you been an artist?
Blue Bliss: Since I was 4 years old… I vividly remember that was when I first realized I was an artist, even though I hadn’t yet made any art.

Whopple:  Tell us about your first attempts to be creative.
Blue Bliss: I started making comic drawings when I was 4, the first one I did was a response to the question “is it true blonds have more fun?” (being a brunette myself, I must have wondered if I was missing out on something important that only blonds could experience, how unfair that would be!) I did a comic strip where the first panel showed a robot thinking about the question; then in the next panel it puts on a blond wig. In the last panel it is rushing forward, laughing and saying Whee! because it turns out to be true that blonds really do have more fun…

After that I filled many notebooks with comic strips and copies of pictures I saw in books and magazines. Pretty typical for an artist starting out in life I suppose. I also had a mentor, which was a stern old man in my head who would scold me if I weren’t making enough art. Don’t know where he came from, perhaps he was the spirit of a dead artist who had adopted me as his apprentice…?

Whopple:  Do you make a living with your art?
Blue Bliss: Yes, I always have and hopefully always will! There have been some really lean times (broke) but I never really considered taking up a different line of work. If I ever get to the point where I’m too feeble to live as an artist, I hope I’ll have the strength to drag myself to the top of some cliff overlooking the ocean, where I can dramatically expire.

Whopple:  How many hours a day do you create?
Blue Bliss: I’m at my computer making art at least 8 hours a day, 7 days a week. And then oftentimes, just when I’m ready to go to bed, I’ll start looking at my day’s work while brushing my teeth, and then I’ll see
something I want to change or fix and can’t stand to wait till the next day so I’ll end up working for another hour or so.

Whopple:  How did you pick your creative medium?
Blue Bliss: I used to be a painter of paintings and large murals… I really like the feeling of actual painting with paint, it makes me feel very sane somehow. I used to say (to myself) that I had painted a
million miles…. But I had also been born with an interest in sci-fi and cybernetics, and finally when I saw the world of murals turning towards digital prints, I saw the writing on the wall, so to speak, and got my first computer. Though I had no idea how to use it and was afraid that anything I did might blow it up, from the first time I turned it on I never stopped being fascinated.

The first thing I did on getting up in the morning would be to go to my computer, and then spend all day there figuring out how to make art with it. It’s still that way with me, and I have only made one actual painting with paint since the first time I turned on my computer. Maybe it picked me!

Whopple:  What are your inspirations?
Blue Bliss: I try to stay open to being inspired by everything… I really believe that potential sources of inspiration are everywhere and infinite, and it’s up to me to be receptive. That being said, I also am finding more and more that I should pay close attention to my own very immediate and intimate impressions and sensations, that is the beginning and source of inspiration and expression. Right now,I am working on images for a picture book about New York City; when I first moved here I found myself unexpectedly moved by the architecture and history of NYC, and also by impressions of a kind of stern glamour as I walked around the city at night and shot photos in rain, fog and snow. The city is very moody and evocative at these times, and I’m trying to include my sensations into imaginary noir narratives in my images and sketches for the book.

Whopple:  How do you recharge when your creativity hits the wall?
Blue Bliss: When I have trouble putting out, as it were, I spend time taking things in: being fed by movies, other people’s art and writings, music, etc. I also go for long walks along the waterfront, and I sometimes get ideas then or just let myself daydream and be energized by the vistas and the movement.

Whopple:  What was your first job?
Blue Bliss: I started out by freelancing as a graphic artist and illustrator, though I had no experience or any idea what I was doing. I had studied glassblowing and painting in college, so I wasn’t exactly ready to hit the ground running as a designer. Fortunately I had a boyfriend who was a great illustrator and who mentored me, though he was as clueless as I was about the business side of things.

Still, I was young and free and basically living La Vie Boheme on a budget, so I managed to get through the begining stages, just barely!

Whopple:  What are your favorite snacks when you are creating?
Blue Bliss: Chocolate always works; when in doubt try chocolate, Food of the Gods. Think I’ll have one now… Also caffeine works up till the point where I can’t take it any more…

Whopple:  What gives you hope in the world?
Blue Bliss: Two things give me hope: one is that I believe that no matter what humans do to screw up the biosphere, after we’re gone the Earth will repair itself and go on for millions and billions of years.
Okay, three things – the second thing is that when I’m taking it all too seriously, I remember that I, we and all our works will vanish someday, in as little as a few thousand years, so why get worked up about it all as if it somehow mattered unto eternity? This is related to the first thing that gives me hope… I guess it’s all about looking beyond myself and beyond all the things that cause me to despair. The third thing is that I want to live long enough to find out what the next generation of telescopes and space probes will discover. Thinking about the infinite wonders of the universe gives me hope. And what if humanity made first contact with an alien race the week after I died? Gotta stay around to find out what happens next!

Whopple:  What do you wish you could do?
Blue Bliss: To slip the surly bonds of commercial work.

Whopple:  What are your artistic goals?
Blue Bliss: I aim to work and play with other creatives at the mountaintops of artistic endeavor.

Whopple:  What has been your most exciting moment as an artist?
Blue Bliss: It’s hard to name just one, my career has included many moments of ecstasy, as well as agony. If I had to pick just one, it might be when I went to a premiere of the movie I worked on, “A Scanner Darkly”,
and saw people lined up around the block outside the theater to see it. The time of working as an animator on that movie was definitely one of my very favorite experiences. (You can see some of my own work from the movie on my graphics website, www.houseofbliss.com.

To See More Of Blue Bliss’s Artwork Please Visit The Following:
Fine Art At: www.blueblissgallery.com
Graphic and Animation At: www.houseofbliss.com

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Classifications:  Digital Fine Art