Interview with Simon Darling – SDarling
Simon Darling is a Danish artist who grew up being exposed to the creative nature of his mother, who were an emerging abstract artist. In a young age he quickly engaged himself in drawing and painting.
With a passion for creating, building and designing, turning his thoughts and ideas into visual and physical forms, at the age of 14 he quickly spun the garage into a studio, where he found solitude and a way of self-expression through painting. Besides holding a degree in Architectural technology and design, he is mainly self-taught.
Simon has held 5 solo exhibitions, and have had his work included in 9 group shows. An artist with international appeal, he is represented in private collections in Europe, Australia, Japan and USA. Latest he has been recognized in media such as TIAF Magazine, Japan 2019 and Art/Edit Issue 23, Australia 2019.
“Through my paintings, I unite and express the unexplainable, indefinite and confusing emotions, from the obscure realm of imagination”
Could you please introduce yourself and tell us how you started in the arts? And your first experience in art making?
Simon Darling is a Danish contemporary artist, best known for his deep, obscure and expressive portraits. He grew up being exposed to the creative nature of his mother, who were an emerging abstract artist. As always being fascinated by creating and designing he quickly in a young age engaged himself in drawing and painting. Besides being an art school dropout he´s holding a degree in Architectural technology and design, and have been studying psychology and philosophy, he is mainly self-taught.
With a never ending passion for creating, building and designing, turning his thoughts and ideas into visual and physical forms, at the age of 14 he quickly spun the garage into a studio, where he found solitude, a way of self-expression and started navigating throughout the creative world of art. Within the boundaries of a canvas, he´s exposing a deeper and broader meaning of life, uncovering the realness of emotional confusion with a mix of conflicting feelings and thoughts.
How would you describe yourself and your artwork?
A curious and deep thinking individual always trying to grow, striving to become a better version of myself every day. Since I can remember my mind have always been ‘speeding’, every second a million new thoughts occur. I can hear something or look at something and then my mind kicks into overdrive, trying to process all of these new thoughts and ideas. I tend to dig really deep and always end up way too deep inside myself. My thoughts and experiences definitely impacts my artwork, as the main factor in my paintings, with a tendency to drag most inspiration from the deep, dark and obscure realm of imagination.
My artwork focuses on the emotional aspect of the unknown, the new thoughts, feelings and experiences us as humans have never encountered before, and have a tendency to not explore enough. There is fine red thread between the philosophical and psychological aspect in my paintings, that clarifies how to grow if we engage ourselves in the unknown and dig deeper into ourselves, analyzing and embracing what we find scary, weird or emotional unstable there is always a deeper meaning but we have to confront it.
Where do you get your inspiration from?
My inspiration originates from all around me, it tends to arise from the void of mixed emotions and disconnected feelings, the ones we can´t explain when we are disconnected from our own true self. Experiencing new exciting, scary, happy or sad feelings, exploring the unknown, while leaning towards the dark side of imagination. I find inspiration in everything, mostly experiences, words, observing people and human behavior, using these inspirational sources as I approach my paintings. My curiosity is what make inspiration rise from the dark side of imagination, I don’t find interest in looking at a colorful rainbow, there is nothing interesting in a rainbow with all its bright colors as we know it, but paint or draw a rainbow in different shades of black, grey, white and darker colors, then you have my attention and that inspires me, as it awakens my curiosity because the approach of the two different dimensions intrigues me to dig into it, to find a deeper meaning.
My curiosity allows me to go past the surface and generate my inspiration from the unknown, because more “answers” can be found in the unexplored unknown, and when we start digging deeper into ourselves or out there we grow far beyond what we would if we didn’t do it, and that aspect inspires me the most. Same with when we look at the sky, bright blue sky with a few white clouds, but the “answers” don’t lie in the sky, we have to go deeper, we have to dig into the black vastness of space away from what we know to find the “answer” same thing goes for ourselves, we have to dig into ourselves, find ourselves where we are damaged the most and start loving ourselves there, and then we can start grow beyond what we are meant to.
What emotions do you hope the viewers experience when looking at your art?
I try to engage the audience into experiencing the deeper meaning of psychological and philosophical aspects, most people only scratch the surface and never dig into it all. Trying to create an experience that the audience can relate to, as we all at some point have experienced new and unknown feelings, and it’s important when that happens that we try to understand and analyze the feelings to gain a better understanding of ourselves and grow as human beings. Creating mixed emotions and thoughts in the audience, allows them to gain and express themselves in their own way, my paintings are not dictating what to feel, what to think or what to experience, they are providing the unknown which the audience can dig into and take away exactly what they want or need from it. I hope that my paintings will result in inspirational emotions and thoughts which each individual can generate to their own benefit.
When do you know that an artwork is finished?
I guess, you never really know to be honest, most times I have this idea inside my mind, and all these thoughts and visualizations of how you want the painting to look like and express, but as soon as I start painting the ideas changes in the process of completion. Most times I end up with a different painting than what I first thought of, luckily most of the time for the better. But as I approach broad scale of expressions I always believe I can add something to the painting but I think it’s important to stop and review during the process, try and understand the process and acknowledge the touch of the painting, to know if the artwork is articulating the most desirable elements, and when I can identify myself with the painting its usually time to stop painting.
What has been the most exciting moment in your art career so far?
I believe the easy answer would be to my first exhibition, which was a really stimulating experience no doubt about that, and I think most artists feel that way, because that’s the “beginning”, and a new chapter starts, but then the first international exhibition is even more exciting, so instead of mentioning the first exhibitions, large painting or the biggest sale, I think for me it’s all about the process, the next step because that’s the unknown and new exciting experience. It’s all about growth towards what you want to accomplish on a personal scale but also in my art career, the next step and the process is the most exciting part of my art career.
How long does it take to produce one work?
It really depends on so many factors such as motivation, creativity block, size, “mistakes” and time itself. In my practice I tend to work with minimum canvas dimensions such as 32’’ x 40’’ (800x1000mm), this is the most average dimension canvas for my paintings, but I do like working with bigger dimensions, the bigger canvas the more powerful the paintings become in my opinion. An average sized painting can take everything from a months to three, as I usually tend to work on more than one painting at a time, so it can take some time when you jumping between different paintings, and like with most things you need some sort of motivation factor to work so one day you might be feeling one painting more than the others so you favorite that painting more than the others and neglecting them for a few days until the motivation kicks back in, but on the average 1-2 months which is allowing time to socialize and engage in the world without being a complete introvert and also gather your thoughts and ideas.
What exciting projects are you working on right now? Can you share some of the future plans for your artworks?
I’m currently working on a few commission works and 6 new paintings for my next solo exhibition which were supposed to be in June 2020 but as the COVID-19 has delayed things a bit I had to postpone it to November 2020 instead. Some future overseas exhibition is in the making which can hopefully be scheduled for beginning or mid-2021, locations will be Europe, US and Japan, as things are looking right now. As my past work have had a more minimalistic and simple approach, I’ve started to mix a little abstract touch into my paintings to promote a more pseudo-minimalistic experience, which is definitely an approach, you´ll see in my future paintings the next couple of years.
Can you describe what an average working day for you is like? Do you work on many creatures at once or one at a time?
An early start, and running is probably the only routines I practice as much as possible, I’m not too comfortable with monotonous flow or processes. Running helps me process my thoughts and ideas I easily get bored when things become too much of a routine or habit I start to feel locked and its almost suffocating me, so I tend to mix things up and make sure no days are the same in the matter of getting into routines and so on.
Getting on with work and whatever plans I’ve planned for the day, and then hitting the studio, attempting to turn my thoughts and ideas into visual and physical forms. I tend to work on different projects at a time, I can´t keep focusing on only one thing at the time, my mind is constantly busy and along the process of creating something new thoughts and ideas occur and makes me excited to start these new projects so I can just “throw away” one project and go start on another, I’m usually working on the project that motivates and challenge me the most.
Where do you see your art going in five years?
In 5 years’ time, I would like to have my art impacting and become more acknowledged internationally, which is definitely something I’m working towards alongside building a healthy network within the art industry. Planning to start tutoring and teaching again, trying to inspire the younger generation through my own experiences and practice. Growing and extending my studio with an exhibition room is also what I’m looking to achieve in the long run. Development and growth for my art is what I want to keep doing, many artists never gets better than their first piece of work, they get stuck in the same loop, I want to keep evolving taking on new approaches and experimenting.
Instagram: @simon_darling
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/simon.darling.5
Website: www.sdarling-art.com
