We recently connected with Kaleb River and have shared our conversation below.

Kaleb River, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

My whole life I’ve been attracted to the little details. I tend to drift off watching the shadows of trees blowing in the wind, or the way light refracts and shines when it comes out of a glass sitting in the sun. I like to watch the paint dry and and the grass grow. It sounds cheesy, but the moment I realized I could capture what I was seeing through a camera lens everything changed for me. I had a way to highlight and extract what I was feeling in the world and bring it into a video editing software like After Effects. The skills I gained during my under grad studies at SCAD, The Savannah College of Art and Design, allowed me to manipulate and see footage from the real world in a completely new perspective. My work in practical effects is a like a collaboration with the patterns of nature, I gain my inspiration from my reality and I’m only restricted by the limitations of the mind and the software we have available.

Kaleb River, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Kaleb River Sweeney and I’m a practical effects visual artist. The nature of practical effects is to capture real world assets and footage, and use it in digital production. Basically, I find things that catch my attention in day to day life and use it to produce digital art. Recently I’ve begun capturing chemical reactions at a microscopic scale and revealing these reactions and patterns of nature in an artistic abstract perspective. Besides liquid chemical reactions I’ve experimented with many real world materials like smoke, light, mold, rocks, soap and more.
When i’m working on a new project or technique I like to say i’m going into the lab because in a lot of way I feel like a scientist conducting experiments. With these techniques I’ve created a range of work, from title sequences and music videos, to large scale projection experiences. Notably, I find my work best translates in large immersive environments along with a carefully designed atmospheric soundscape. The intentionally crafted experience produces an overstimulation of senses resulting in a state of synesthesia. This altered state of awareness can be felt as sort of meditative or transcendental experience.

Most recently I’ve partnered with Infinite Objects, to release a limited collection of moving video frames featuring a curated selection of my work. The best way to describe their products is picture frames with moving images and video. This product allows collectors to purchase my art in a tactile way that they can display in their homes. Im very excited for this project because it reveals a new direction for artist working in video like myself. For so long we’ve seen photography, sculpture, and painting dominate the art world, but as our capabilities with technology increase, opportunities like printing video on mobile surface becomes a reality.

At its core, my work offers a new perspective on reality and the art hidden around us. For me, art is not only a product of creativity, but it’s a lens I use to view the world.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I was once told by my professor, art is measured by its ability to transform or reveal. To reveal truth and understanding in the viewer and leave them with something new. In turn, my mission in creating art is to invite others to experience the world in a new perspective. I’m inspired by the forces of nature and use art as an avenue to share that.

My art is a test of awareness and presence in the world. To experience this in its truest form one must be willing to surrender to their awareness and give in to the moment. Art is only seen by those looking for it.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

One of the most important lessons I’ve ever learned as an artist is that no matter how long you work on a piece you will never truly be finished. Artists get stuck in a mind set and see our art as an extension of ourselves. We put so much pressure on how it comes out we forget what the purpose was when we began. As Leonardo Da Vinci said “art is never finished, only abandoned.” As soon as I embraced this idea my work was freed of all restrictions I had subconsciously given myself. I stopped making art with a beginning middle and end and began capturing moments in time. As an artist you decide when the art is complete, not because it’s finished, but because it translates your ideas into a medium people can experience.

Contact Info:

• Website: Kalebriver.com
• Instagram: @KalebRiver
• Linkedin: Kaleb Sweeney