We were lucky to catch up with Gary Christian recently and have shared our conversation below.

Gary, 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?

Thanks A Lot – Short Film

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’m just a kid who sat in the back of the class doodling who was lucky enough to translate my passion for art in to a career in computer graphics. With a combination of making good friends who recommended me to places like Focus 360 and Blur Studio, and a couple unpaid internships, I was able to finally make my way to making a living as an artist. Currently I’m with some massively talented friends at NVidia helping to pioneer and explore the future of computer graphics technology and it’s utilization across multiple industries. I still keep myself absurdly busy with side projects in oil painting, photography and am even experimenting with the medium of short film. A project called “Thanks A Lot” that I’ve been developing since 2018 has been a slow burn in the background will be releasing early next year.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

When thinking of creatives’ role in society, I often think of a quote of Einstein’s that’s stuck with me for a while now: “Imagination is more important than knowledge”. I believe he’s referring to memorized facts about the world coming second to creative thought, not to intelligence in general. That quote resurfaces a lot when there are discussions of artist’s roles in society. Often artists are categorized, or even categorize themselves, as non-technical people led by feelings or “talent”, but I believe that sort of innate talent that people seem to credit their “gifts” is only sometimes a shortcut to years of hard work and study, the same you would apply to any profession. Being on the edge of both computer technology and art, I can speak from experience when saying that traditional arts, like oil painting, can be just as technical; as the artist often has to balance anatomy, composition, color theory and the chemical components of their medium. These things all take decades to master skillfully. The larger point I want to make is that it’s important to exercise the creative muscles (of your brain of course) because it not only leads to pretty, appealing pictures, but an entirely unique approach to problem solving that even Einstein recognized as vital. In any industry from architecture to science, memorizing the technical parts will speed up the journey to your goal, but the creative aspect is what puts the dots on the map that form the destination. In a lot of ways, I think this has been the job that artists hold in society, and even with people who don’t think of themselves as artists, every industry needs creative problem solvers to chart the unexpected paths.

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

It took me a long time to realize what drives my passion for art, I knew it was there but I had no good way to describe it. Just like writers get writer’s block, artists can “lose steam”, and finding that one thing that drives you, that ignited your spark to begin with, is integral to producing your best work. When you start to burn out, at work or on personal projects, sometimes you need to take a big breath, stop looking at your phone, and think about what drives you. Maybe even for a few days. You might reawaken something surprising that you forgot was buried under all the smaller endeavors. Personally, I find inspiration in challenging society’s perspectives. Yes, I realize this is a sort of typical thing for artists to do, (ie. cubism, surrealism, impressionism etc.), but adding our own unique perspective is what us humans are supposed to do. I love the way the visual medium can so directly connect with our memories and emotions and I’m constantly striving to sharpen my talents to do that in a more visually concise way.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://gvchristian.blogspot.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/luxchroma/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gary-christian-b09aa53/