Vieforr
Vieforr is an artist and also a brand started in 2017 and has always been about producing the best Colourful Graphic Art. The name itself is a massive call to action. 'Vie Forr' means 'compete for' and Valence is derived from the psychological term 'positive valence' so in essence it means 'compete for good'.
In life you are either staying in the mediocre or pushing towards bigger and better, hence why I have produced a Clothing and Apparel Store so that you can wear some of these positive ideas or have framed wall art to inspire yourself and others in your life. I am constantly in movement hoping to inspire other people like myself who struggle to fit in, to find purpose and find themselves questioning everything.
Ever since the start the main idea of 'empowering' ones fortitude has remained the same, I am producing the best art that I possibly can in the hopes that it can capture the minds and hearts of other people out there with an eye for colour and beaut. If you feel the same way I do about great design, your support is appreciated.
Interview:
1. How did you end up in London? I have ended up ended up in London because I am an upcoming artist and London is simply where I need to be without any question. This is where the most artists, galleries, creative spaces, studios and offices are for creative, artistic companies. In certain parts of the country you are hard pressed to find anyone with a shred of creativity let alone the inclination to support you in your creative endeavours. Whereas in London there is an overwhelming collection of incredibly talented individuals with style, flare and the sort of ambition which sees dreams become a reality. In other words they are my tribe and I want to be around other creatives.
2. Did you always want to be an artist? Originally I wanted to be a comic book artist but found the process of drawing panels tedious. I didn’t want to constrain myself to that restrictive format, not to mention drawing the same character design a thousand times. I have always been fiercely original and love the act of creating a new design. Now those designs are being elevated into the realm of art, with complex colour schemes and powerful visual motifs.
3. How long have you been making your Art? I have been making art for the past 10 years and if you count my years in highschool when I first started teaching myself how to draw properly, then it is easily 15 years of study, reflection and taking inspiration from sources such as tv shows, anime and videogames.
4. How did you learn to work with Corel Painter? Corel Painter is the graphic design software I use although I do dabble with an old outdated version of photoshop for my lettering. I learned how to draw with pencil, pen and anything else in reach and I was quite set in my ways but the biggest turning point for me was the insatiable desire for colour. I knew I could access a lot of bright hues and make my art so much better. I had seldom done anything in colour unless it was in acrylic paint but digital gave me the chance to create even more detailed and perfectly symmetrical art. When it came time to choose I went with the cheaper option and chose Corel Painter, again I self taught, watched some youtube videos and did research on some of the available tools, the software was simply overwhelming to a novice and to this day I am still learning.
5. Which artists do you look up to? I look up to the greats both past and contemporary, from Jean Michel Basquait, Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, Gustav Klimt to living figures like Yoshitaka Amano, Damien Hirst, Yoji Shinkawa, Gabriel Moreno and many others. My artistic influences are far reaching and some of them are just plain obscure. My main mission in life is slowly becoming a better conduit for the myriad of influences that ignite ideas behind my eyes. It’s a shame because people have only seen a fraction of what I want to produce in terms of art and sheer creativity.
6. Is it important for your art or art in general to be authentic? It is incredibly important for art to be authentic to what the artist is feeling, authentic to the principles of genuine craft and hard work. I like art with layers of detail, intrigue and meaning but there also has to be a consideration of aesthetics if you ask me. I don't produce anything and let people see or buy it if I don’t feel it is authentic, rushed or designed purely for commercial reward. My art is designed to be purposefully beautiful because I am striving for that visual appeal, it is part of expressing and exploring inner potential. Symmetry is its own form of visual pleasure and I hope to invoke that in the audience that get to see my artwork.
7. What surprised you most about your first art shows? What surprised me the most about my first ever art show was how expensive it was versus the return on investment. I spent money which I shouldn’t have for a 5 day show of 5 pieces. I had to negotiate firmly in order to raise the bar from 2 to 5 artworks and when all was said and done they were displayed on the walls in a way which was sloppy and not visually appealing. The entire experience left a sour taste in my mouth but also a burning desire to simply do the same thing for myself but to find ways to do it better. This experience, I shared with another artist and it led to us creating our own art collective.
8. Do you remember the first piece that you bought for yourself? Amongst some of the first pieces of art I ever bought for myself was a comic book from an artist at a convention. I talked with the guy and he explained the story behind the work and I bought it to show support. There was also an element of inspiration in that I looked at his crudely drawn comic and thought to myself I can do much better yet he is the one actually putting his money on the line to get the work in front of an audience. I used it as a source of inspiration and years later it was the same sort of experience whilst buying another artist’s print which inspired me to give exhibiting a shot.
9. Would you say that your work is introspective? It really varies, some of my artwork is very introspective and is coming from a place of deep, complex and dark emotions whilst some of it is coming from lighter and much more surface level places where I am purely playing with visual ideas. It depends on how I am feeling and the source of inspiration behind the work.
10. Where do you travel in your imagination to produce such artwork? Do you have muses to draw creative energy from? I work mainly out of a need to finish things nowadays. I will still create something new when inspiration hits but I have grown into a more conservative stance because I have so many incomplete pieces of art which I still need to finish both digitally and physically. The bane of this current economy means some of the free time which I used to have is now gone because the cost of everything has gone up and you have to work way harder which means less time for the creative work unless I can find a higher paying job or someone to purchase more of this artwork.
