I create my artwork because my being needs to be constantly expressed to stay conscious. I dream when I am awake and write those dreams down through illustration. I frantically draw and paint them so that I do not lose them forever. I desire to be truthful to my visions that may be playful, dark or surreal all at once.
...I begin by quickly drawing my ideas down in my sketchbook, focusing on the message and composition.. Then I lightly draw with pencil a more refined illustration on Bristol board. My subjects are often women with elongated necks. I see them as my “actress” or “fashion model” in the short theatrics of a two-dimensional performance. Their emotions are very calculated--ranging from pensive and musing, to meditative and reflective. I then develop the mood by using black watercolor or ink in light layers to develop the illusion of depth and outlining them in thicker black lines to stay flat. Color is then applied very strategically and minimally.
My current work has fallen into four general categories—Steampunk Illustration, Fashion Illustration, Fantasy Illustration and Storybook Illustration. Steampunk as a genre has always appealed to me because of my love of the Victorian and Neo-Victorian clothing and my desire to create “the future that never was.” Fashion illustration as an art form appeals to me because I love that the body can be used as a canvas to transform the soul. Fantasy illustration is theatrics for the inner melodramatic and surreal side of me. Storybook illustration is just a means for me to retell the stories I have heard since I was a child, but through a darker lens. I attempt to allow the viewer to come to their own emotional connection to my works of art. I challenge myself in finding beauty in imperfection, distortion and mood.
Denise Farinsky
June 2011
