CAMERON GRAY

..Sur-re-al-ism: a style of art and literature developed principally in the 20th century, stressing the subconscious or nonrational significance of imagery arrived at by automatism or the exploitation of chance effects, unexpected juxtapositions. There are many artists who come to mind and are held in extremely high regard, both past and present: Dali, Picasso, Pollock, Bacon,to modern day influential artist's such as H.R. GIGER. Editor TARA Ciampa and I were searching online at about 2:30 am on GOOGLE for new images to represent "DREAMS" for up coming articles, and we both immediately found together an image that incredibly, and absolutely stood out amongst all the rest... that one image being of CAMERON GRAY's...

First question always seems to be the most important for readers who follow or try to emulate a certain artist's techniques: What mediums are you working in.. oils, acrylics, brush or airbush, use of any Photoshop, the average size of your final paintings.

..I work with a wide mixture of mediums, be it painting, sculpture, video, music production or digital illustration. The works you are referring to are created through a continuous blending and marriage of traditional and digital mediums. There are some things I can do traditionally and others that I can achieve with current technology, so I don't limit myself in any way when it comes to working. Each image is created at a fairly high resolution which allows the images to be scaled to suit a clients desired size when it comes to being printed.

..While I work, the traditional elements are scanned or photographed and then recomposed in Photoshop to fit in with the the digital elements, such as 3d models and digitally created textures, which is how I achieve the paint like feel of my works and why they're quite often mistaken as purely traditional paintings.

..I'm a huge advocate of utilizing technology in the creative process, for me it's always been a blend of paint and digital not one or the other. The two mediums mix and compliment each other so well, I'm surprised there is still the traditionalist camp and the digital camp when it comes to creating art. Why be limited to one when you can have both.

..Do you do a "pre-sketch" of the image, work from a photo reference or live models?

..I like to identify a variety of possible concepts for the one idea when I'm planning an image, so I'll generally do a lot of sketches. One of the things I like to do is right down keywords that are floating around in my head at the time, then I recompose those words to form a concept for the artwork. In doing this I tend to uncover subconscious thoughts, feelings or ideas which I obviously haven't dealt with yet and that need to be confronted. This could explain why I feel I've taken another step forward in my life when I complete a new work. It's not just a feeling of I'm happy I've finished this, it's more like I'm in a new place now.

..I also use music, films, dreams, nightmares, and other people as a motivator in coming up with ideas. Sometimes I'll listen to one song for hours on end and create my vision of how that music could appear if it were visual. One of my latest works is titled "Just Like Heaven", after the song by The Cure. I must have listened to that song for weeks on end and never got tired of it. The piece depicts an angel in personal need that has lost her halo and a wing. The butterflies work together to create a new halo for her by using themselves, the small bird whispers words of guidance to the young angel.

..I have always personally found that artists especially learn from and are very personally influenced by and from other artists, or personal events that changed a direction of their life.

..Absolutely, I would never have become an artist if it weren't for the events that happened to or around me, both good and bad. But I also wouldn't have become an artist if it weren't for two teachers of mine who had faith in me and pushed me very hard. I've always been heavily influenced by everything around me and when I started looking at other artists work, it had a profound effect on how I began to view art, the world and myself. One of my early artistic influences was the works of David Ho.

..It was as if he had a key to my mind and could walk into it whenever he liked. It influenced me so much that some people thought my work was actually David's work. That's when I realized it was time to work on developing my own style instead of emulating everyone else's work. But when you're that young and introducing yourself to art, all you do is emulate your idols work until your own skills and knowledge take that next step which allows you to begin venturing out on your own.

..The bio on your website states that you have been painting for the last 7 years and are not yet satisfied with what you are doing artistically. Very interesting statement...

..I'm just entering my eighth year now and I still feel that way. I should clarify that I'm extremely happy with what I've achieved so far being only 23 years old. I won my first major award at -17- and published my first book at -21-, so I can't complain in that regard. From that biography statement, I guess as I reach a certain level or accomplishment with my work, I look ahead and see something even better that I wish I had the skills or knowledge to be able to achieve.

..There's always something that I want but can't quite reach at any given time. It's probably like that for all artists, I just find myself never being comfortable in the same spot for too long, so I finish a piece and move on to the next one quite quickly without spending much time sitting and enjoying the last one. Being at Uni has really helped me to reflect on myself and my goals for what I want to achieve. It's also opened me up to many more ways of creating art than I anticipated. I'm very happy with what I'm doing artistically, I'm just never happy with where I'm at artistically, there's always something better over the horizon that I'm constantly trying to reach.

..The "darker-styled" images seem to be a big part of you work. One might interpret expressions of sadness, desperation, perhaps even pain or insanity...

..Ah yes, I get this all the time. I wish I could just let a television crew inside my mind instead of me trying to explain this. The beauty (and the burden) of creating art is that you can never hide your true self from anything you create. If you don't allow yourself into the work you create then why create in the first place? Otherwise it's not art, it's just a document. I never try to hide anything that is wanting to be expressed when I'm working on something, so quite often a work could take a completely different turn for no apparent reason. I find that by letting myself create based on instinct and feelings I become much happier with the final product. It feels complete in that respect, not contrived.

..The darker works have definitely been my most popular so far. I think I've matured in the way I treat an image that is turning out dark or macabre. For the first few years the works would just be violent or aggressive in nature even gore had a regular appearance at that time. I got sick of it pretty quick because I hadn't yet learned how to express those darker aspects of mankind. But I enjoy creating dark art, so I needed to find a more refined way of creating them so over the past few years the dark works have become darker, but in a more mature or cerebral way. When I say darker, I don't mean in a horror sort of way, I mean I attempt to reach darker areas of the human mind.

..Hollywood has always had a reputation for calling out the best artists in the business sooner or later...

..Next time you're talking to Hollywood give them my number for me then... Ok, time for me to put on my Mr. Pretentious hat. Seriously though, that's true but there are so many hundreds of thousands of brilliant artists out there and the guys working in hollywood are the cream of the crop. I'm just a toddler compared to them.

..The closest I've come to Hollywood was an offer from Fox Studios Australia to exhibit some work at an end of shoot party in Sydney. There were over 700 cast and crew there including Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. I don't know If I'll get any closer than that. Working in films has always been one of my dreams, I occasionally work on concept art for music videos and short films, but mostly my work has been picked up by bands and authors who want cover art so the film door hasn't quite opened for me yet.

..Do you have a preferred way that you like having your works displayed and distributed into the public: gallery shows of originals, in print publication, online.. All of these methods repackage your work in some way.

..Definitely galleries, but I never limit myself if there's a chance for exposure. Galleries seem to be the most respected way of displaying work. You can put any old piece of crap on a gallery wall and because it's on a gallery wall people will still love it and over analyze it. Gallery representation is probably the hardest thing to achieve unless you fund the exhibition yourself.

..I must point out though that the internet is the cheapest, easiest and most effective way to gain an audience for your art. I'm a part of just about every online art community and forum there is, and the exposure you can receive is fantastic. There are some great connections to be made on the internet if you approach it respectfully. Around 85% of my royalties and profits come from online sources, if you can't find a market for your work locally, jump online and the whole world opens up.

.Does being based in Australia help or hinder your works being received here in the states, or is that even a concern with your work?

..I guess if I lived in the states I'd be much more accessible to different events and exhibitions, but the US has been really great to me. Most of my sales come from the states, with Australia and the UK following. I would prefer to have more interest from Australia but my particular style of work doesn't seem to fit in with what's going on here at the moment. I don't like to follow the current trends because I don't see the need to conform to the flavor of the month styles that many artists do. If everyone is following everyone else then you begin to lose diversity in contemporary art.

..I just do what I do and if it becomes popular then that's great but I'm not too fussed about sugar coating the themes that I depict in order to get someone to like them. Art is too much like fashion, it's all about the what's hot now, and what's selling now. I try to create work that has a more universally timeless vibe to it so that it's not forgotten as each phase passes. The beauty of current technology is that it doesn't matter where you live, if there's an internet connection you can find an audience and create a platform for your work.

..Sometimes the simplest question becomes the hardest to answer... What's next for you and your artworks in the next -5- years... or maybe -10- years from now...

..Well for this year I'm spending all of 2008 on a visual exploration of the links between science, philosophy and art. I'll be experimenting with some new ways of working and trying to add more depth to what I've already learned in regards to image making.

..The next 5 to 10 years is a real tough one to answer. I would love to be able to teach other young artists how they can mix both traditional and digital mediums together and share my ideas and methods of working. I haven't seen a single class, course or unit that teaches people how to embrace both mediums and how they both compliment each other. At this time in history digital is fast overtaking traditional mediums so It's important to accept where digital is taking us, but we still need to hold onto and utilize the ideologies that traditional mediums have taught us. That is probably my ultimate dream for the next 5 to 10 years and hopefully in that time I'll have much more knowledge to share and pass on to others.

..I also have plans for a new online art venture which has only been held back so far by lack of funding. I've accepted that I'll need to completely self fund the project, so that plan is sitting and waiting for the right moment when I have a bit more financial freedom. I'm also 3 years into the production of my new art book and in the early stages of a new photography book which will discuss my methods and techniques of how I work with photography.

The opinions, beliefs and practices presented within this article are- NOT- necessarily those of the Visionsmagazineonline.com editorial staff. However, we do believe in giving our readers diversity in the many subjects we put forth in front of you. The words in this article are those of the author. They are edited for content and clairification. The Author's methodology, procedures, and evidence presented here in this article are theirs and theirs alone. We are not endorsing nor condemning them for these practices. We are presenting you with information of what other people involved in paranormal investigations today are doing on a worldwide basis. The choice is yours.