We recently connected with Richard Cullen and have shared our conversation below.

Richard, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I was torn from a very early age. I knew, almost instinctively, that I was supposed to make sensible, practical choices. But I was always a bit of a dreamer.

I grew up in a small mining town. I knew my future wasn’t there. My parents didn’t want my future to be there. And it so happened that I had a natural aptitude for math and science. And so the expectation was that I’d stay on the hard science path, go to university, get a degree, and then start a career.

But I knew that I wanted to pursue something else. I had a passion for writing, and storytelling. I loved creating imagery. I was fascinated by animation and visual effects. And I loved having an audience.

Paradoxically, I found the arts a lot more challenging than the sciences. But that was where my soul wanted to be, and it was where my imagination went. And so I lived a sort of double life, pursuing a practical path for everyone around me, but cultivating my creative passions almost in secret.

It was only when it came time to apply to university that I really understood that I was going to have to make a choice and commit to one path or the other. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do – I’m still not 100% sure I know now – but I decided against university.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I got into it my industry mostly by accident. Or providence, if you want to call it that.

I trained as a theatre director – which was also partly an accident. I had initially been looking for a writer’s program, and I was accepted onto one at a drama school in London. But after being accepted, and quitting my job, and announcing to the world that I was moving to the big city, the school decided to scrap the writing course. But they invited me to consider the director’s program instead – which seemed to have more scope and offered more possibilities. So I accepted. Which is probably one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, even though it was more or less made for me.

After graduating, and working at a couple of producing theaters as an assistant director, I started staging some of my own stuff. But I was very interested in using video projections as part of live performance, so I taught myself After Effects and Maya, and started experimenting. Someone saw a piece that I’d worked on, and recommended me to a company who happened to make video content for rock and pop concerts. And I got hired to do that. My first show was pop artist who was coming out of retirement for a world tour. It was a big deal. And the entire stage and backdrop was a huge, architectural video screen. It was one of the first of its kind. And somehow, for some reason, they asked me to create three or four pieces for the show.

It was a baptism by fire. But that’s the point where I really defined myself as a video artist. Which is still how I think of myself. I’ve been an animator, a graphic designer, a motion graphics artist, a director, a visual effects artist and an editor… but ‘video artist’ is sort of how explain what I do.

I don’t really know quite what sets me apart. I think having a background in live art means that I inevitably think about the relationship between the art and the audience. And I’m a bit of a jack of all trades. Or a Renaissance Man. That sounds better!

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I’ve always been a little averse to social media. I’d been on Instagram for a while, but hadn’t posted anything at all. The idea of posting has always made me a little self-conscious. I’m fundamentally an introvert, and I tend to second guess myself and my reasons for sharing things publicly.

But I decided to lean into that, and see what might happen. I started posting an image a day, and added comments to them that made little or no sense. They make sense to me – they’re a sort of very private public diary – but there’s no context to them, and there’s usually no relationship between the image and the comment. I sort of enjoyed the fact that I was using social media in exactly the wrong way.

I don’t know how or why, I think the algorithm noticed that I was posting daily at more or less the same time, and somehow a couple of art blogs picked me up and started re-posting. As a result I’ve built up a larger following than I ever imagined I would! Though I don’t think anyone actually reads the comments. I think it’s just an eye candy thing. So if anyone wanted to really build an engaged audience, I wouldn’t suggest doing it the same way!

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

The pandemic changed everything.

Most of the work I was doing before the pandemic was related, in some way, to live events. And covid made live events go away. At least for long enough for me to have to find work somewhere else.

So I abandoned my principles and moved into advertising!

I’ve been lucky enough to work with some huge brands. The size of the clients does mean that the work is, in a sense, less creative. But that has allowed me to explore more creative ideas in my own work. That energy has to go somewhere. So now I’m doing more small-scale commissions, I’m painting (which is something I had never really pursued – I was digital from the beginning), and I’m exploring other creative outlets.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @pixelfing
• Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/PixelfingStudio

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