We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Chase Nickoles a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Chase, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

I have recently been working on a small animation featuring a character I first doodled almost a decade ago called “Jerry Octo P.I.” and it has been a real treat to bring Jerry and his world to life while pushing myself through learning multiple new programs, designing sounds, closing my college career, and bringing friends of all backgrounds together into a project of my own. I first drew Jerry Octo P.I. when I was 14 as Jerry the Detective Octopus and I remember being proud of it being hung on the middle school wall after showing my drawing to the art teacher. It wasn’t anything special at the time, but over the years I kept being pulled back to the idea of the octopus detective, drew him a few more times, and kept building upon him as my tastes grew.

Once my capstone project came around for my Bachelor’s Degree in animation I knew exactly what to do. He wasn’t much more than a fun character design until this point, so I gave a real effort to flesh out his character and streamline the designs. I tied Jerry together with the myth of the Kraken, and inspirations like film noir’s “Double Indemnity” and “Casablanca,” as well as neo-noir John Woo’s “Hard-Boiled,” Remedy and Rockstar’s “Max Payne” series, and Bill Bixby’s “The Incredible Hulk,” to become Jerry Octo P.I., a play on the commonly improper plural form of Octopus. Instead of a Sherlock Holmesian type of detective, he became a hardboiled octopus private investigator with a past running a detective agency out of his boat on the legally grey area of the ocean surface. I was surprised to find Octopuses and hard-boiled detectives shared so many similarities, as octopuses are the world’s smartest invertebrates, live in solitary, and only come out at night when hungry. Like the noir detective on the fringes of society, they have no social bonds and even have their own femme fatales, as female Octopuses overpower males and often cannibalize them. They are colorblind, making black and white noir fitting, and can escape threats and small places.

Due to the time constraints of a semester, I boiled the project down to a 3-minute proof of concept trailer for the character. In true noir fashion, the project has an overarching monologue between the scenes as he looks at the fish off the end of a city dock. I was very lucky to be able to have 15 friends to help bring a voice to the characters of this world and I have so many ideas as to where I can take him beyond this small proof of concept. My favorite line from the short is “I traded my life underwater for a life underground” and I can’t wait to share it with everyone!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m an artist, animator, and videographer who has been drawing for as long as I can remember. When I was a young child my family would regularly help out at a local horse rescue and feed the many wild cats who found refuge there. To keep occupied while my family helped the large animals I would bring my sketchbook along to draw during the downtime with the company of the cats. The many hours spent there started a love of the arts that continues to this day. Not long after that I would get a Nintendo Dsi, which came with the digital flipbook application Flipnote Studio. Flipnote Studio introduced me to the world of creating animations, the crossroads of video and drawing, and from there I would spend my time making small cartoons and fun drawings to share with my family, friends, and pets.

Nowadays I recently graduated with a BFA in animation at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County with Magna Cum Laude honors. While working towards my BFA in 2022, I interned and freelanced at Baltimore and DC video production company Early Light Media as part of their animation team. Additionally, I have an Associate of Arts & Sciences, Visual Arts Concentration from Carroll Community College, where I was the Fine Arts Club 2020 member of the year, Curators Choice Award 2020 winner, and a dual work-study animator and media aid.

In the past I have had my art hung up at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center from being the Maryland STEM 2019 Art Festival contest college winner, freelanced as a graphic designer for the weekly call-in show Office Hours Live of renowned comedian Tim Heidecker, designed a book cover for Vietnam War Veteran Infantry Platoon Leader John S. Tomko Jr. on his Autobiography “19 Mile: Cambodia 1970 and Other Stories,” designed artwork and the logo for award-winning video production company and Youtube Channel Echidna Cone Productions, and freelanced as a package designer for New York-based condiment business K!ck Condiments. I also regularly create performance and narrative music videos for live music singer-songwriter-performing artist devoN Nickoles.

Recently, I have had 2 works screened at the Thank You Film Festival at Towson University’s Union Theater, a work screened in MICA’s Student Animators for Inclusion “Stick in the Dirt” animation festival., and the Jerry Octo P.I. animation will be screened at UMBC’s Center for Art, Design, and Visual Culture in May 2023.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

My design philosophy is to celebrate the whole of whatever I am working on. No matter how small a detail, it should be given as much time in the spotlight as the main focus. When it comes to video it means I capture lots of B-roll so that the viewer feels as if they know the venue that was being performed at as if they were there themselves. As for art and animation that means doing as much research as possible to make everything have a presence and purpose.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

I really enjoy making art and the process of being creative. In college, I was someone who enjoyed critique, my own and for others, as I love seeing what everyone does in their own unique way and helping others achieve their vision. Recent developments in AI art have brought uncertainty about art in the future. I just hope young artists of age and experience don’t feel discouraged to get into the arts now or rely on AI, doubting their own creativity. There is a reason most get into the arts and it usually isn’t for the money, but rather for expression. in fact, most artists will encourage others to create art because they know how much they love doing so and want to share that feeling with others. Some will gravitate towards AI as a tool to achieve their vision, and while everyone can only speculate, I hope going forward society will view their artists as talents to be appreciated rather than tools to be replaced. x      

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pandapowerrulez/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chase-nickoles/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/PaNDaPowerRULEZ
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@PaNDaPowerRULEZ_ChaseNickoles
• Email: c_nickoles@aol.com