We recently connected with Ian Ingram and have shared our conversation below.
Ian, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?
Happy schmappy. “Happy” is just a blip on the creative radar. It’s such a small piece of pie on the pic chart of creative life. Comes into focus and then flits away. I do wonder what a regular job would be like, mostly the paycheck part. And the healthcare. And the monotony. And the participation in commerce and “culture” and 401ks, oh and pensions! But mostly the paychecks, predictable monthly income. Lack of mild panic as a theatrical backdrop to life. This is such a strange pair of questions: Yes, I’m so totally happy when I’m following my own whim or compass and making something new out of the detritus life puts in front of me. I love it to a fault. It makes me happy angry. It makes me conflict happy like a blood diamond. Guilty and happy. Stupid genius that I am.
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?
The sanctioned spaces we’ve made for the art experience (galleries and museums) rarely offer the fertile poetry required for transcendent awe. Currently I am making ART where I find a natural and unguarded sincerity. I make ART for places where life is lived. After 20 plus years of making art alone in a closed room staring at a mirror, it is as though I crawled through that mirror and found humanity starting back. Now I want to focus on ART as an offering, as a service to bring breathtaking beauty into another’s life, into your life. So where is your life lived? In physical layers the skin is the first threshold of a self, then clothes, then house, then businesses, then community. These layers are what I am focusing on to deliver my service. I am focusing on tattoos as the most potent form of ART transformation. I am focusing on turning homes and businesses INTO art. I am applying to community requests for ART. I want life to glow with the verdant riches of creativity.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)
I have been waiting for the internet to develop an art form worthy of the revolutionary implications of this technology and I think NFTs are that art form. I have never seen the rise and growth of an ART movement with such viral and exponential tendrils. There are no antecedents that can offer a prediction of how this new universe of ART will unfold so the water is clear and the directions infinite. It is the perfect petri dish for creativity to grow. We all have a new facet of “self” in the digital world and if it is not the largest piece of pie in the “self” pie chart, how long until it is? The NFT’s first prerequisite is money- one must take “real” money and turn it into crypto currency. What a leap of faith! The next step is even wilder- the NFT is not defined by rarity- it can be be reproduced with perfect accuracy anywhere at any time. Anyone is welcome to have it displayed so the only thing the the purchaser gets is the sense of “mine” and the address of the item on the blockchain. The concept of “ownership” is finally as surreal as it ought to be and I see a parallel in the concept of land ownership- “that waterfall is MINE, I have the deed for it right here!”
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
Ha! “Non-creatives”, that’s rude.
Contact Info:
- Website: ianingram.com aspectratiodesign.com
- Instagram: flyingfacingbackward