Julie Dillon :: CARMINE MAGAZINE

Julie Dillon

June 29th, 2008 | Published in Interviews | 1 Comment

Carmine Magazine: What drives you to create? Also, what inspires you and your work?
Julie Dillon: This really isn’t the sort of thing that’s easily summed up. I’ve always enjoyed creating things; I can’t think of a time when I didn’t. I don’t think there is anything special or unique about it, though, nor is it fueled by anything specific, it’s just what I do and who I am.

CM: Were you formally trained in art or self taught? Do you think it has helped you or hindered you?
JD: Both, to an extent. I tried self-teaching myself for a while, but I didn’t start making any real improvement until I began attending art school. I’ve found that I personally have a hard time getting my head around some artistic concepts and I’ve needed teachers to help me understand. I have a BA in Fine Arts from a really lousy school, and to make up for it I’m attending classes at a good art school on a very part-time basis while I work as a full-time freelancer. This has been working out well for me; I’m building up experience doing art orders for various clients, and when I find areas that I’m really struggling in, I attend a class here and there to help me polish it up. I know I’d be improving faster if I attended art school full-time, but I just can’t afford it, so I do what I can with what I have.

CM: What mediums do you work in the most? Do you have a particular brand that you love working with? Why do you use them?
JD: I use Photoshop and Painter. I’d like to work more with traditional paints, but when there are multiple deadlines looming and I need to get things done quickly, I turn to my computer because I’m more comfortable with it at this stage in my career. I love working with real paint, but Photoshop and Painter are clean, efficient, and I can make adjustments rapidly. And thankfully, both programs have been expanding their brush engines to give artists more flexibility and options, so we can produce digital paintings that look more and more like they were made with traditional media.

CM: At what point did you realize that creating was going to be a large part of your life?
JD: It wasn’t really a realization; it’s just something that’s always been there to some extent, although only recently I started trying to make a career out of it, rather than keeping it as a hobby. I’ve always enjoyed making things, whether it’s part of my career (my illustrations and paintings) or smaller projects (knitting, baking, gardening, etc).

CM: If there was one style of art that you could take up, what would it be?
JD: I’m not sure? I’m enamored with many art styles, and I already try to include pieces of what I enjoy in my work. I wouldn’t want to work in just one, I think there’s much to be learned and absorbed from all styles.

CM: How do you deal with creator’s (or writer’s) block?
JD: I work on something else. Usually I have several projects going on at once, so if I’m completely blocked on one painting, I switch to another. If all else fails, I take a break, go outside, watch a movie. But when you have deadlines, you learn that you don’t have the luxury of sitting around waiting for a block to pass. Sometimes you just have to muscle your way through it. It’s incredibly hard sometimes when the ideas just aren’t coming to you, but a deadline is a deadline and I won’t get paid if I put everything off until I’m in the “right mood.”

CM: How do you prepare for art shows where your work will be shown?
JD: I’ve never had an art show or had my work shown, so I don’t know.

CM: How do you define you style? Does it represent an inner you or something completely different?
JD: It isn’t really something I think about or dwell on. I have a tendency towards bright colors and certain subject matters, but other than that I’m not specifically trying for any one style, I just do what I’m able to do. A lot of the times it comes out looking a certain way only because I was unable to do it any better at the time.

CM: What kind of environment do you need to create in?
JD: I’m not that picky; I can easily work in classrooms, on the train, in my computer office, in hotels, and pretty much anywhere I can set up my laptop or sketchpad. I work best when it’s relatively quiet and I can listen to my music. The only time I have a hard time working is if there are lots of people around (such as out in public, or in a crowded room) because it makes me really anxious and nervous if there’s even a chance of people looking over my shoulder. And the only thing I absolutely have to have (aside from my supplies, obviously) is tea. Can’t work without my tea.

CM: What does your workspace look like? (Pictures or a description work for this one)
JD: It’s just a computer on a computer desk with a comfy chair in an upstairs loft, nothing too exciting.

CM: What was your worst experience with art? And the best?
JD: The worst thing to happen to my art is the first four years of college. I didn’t know about the good, real art schools at the time, and I thought local schools would be enough. The art programs at my local colleges were so abysmally bad that I gave up art entirely for two years. In the community colleges, many of the teachers I was stuck with were often poor artists who gave poor advice and who completely ignored me. At my state college, teachers were openly antagonistic towards anything approaching realism or illustration, preferring instead to lean heavily on the crutch of abstraction (abstraction is great if that’s what you want to do, but you shouldn’t force it on every student as the only possible way to express oneself). I got into several arguments with teachers just because I wanted to learn how to paint a realistic figure or landscape. I wasted so much time trying in earnest to please these people, all the while sacrificing my education because of their refusal to teach me something useful. Often I can’t help but wonder how much further along I’d be if I had had the sense to start attending the art school I’m at now at an earlier age. They appreciate the importance of classical training and embraced technique and illustration (rather than dismissing it as worthless). I wasted years of my life on a degree at school totally opposed to what it was I really wanted to do, and that’s definitely hindered my development as an artist.
As for the best experience, I don’t know. There are a lot of ups and downs in anything. Just being able to create at all gives me great joy. I still have a lot of work to do, and a lot of time to make up for.

CM: Do you think the internet, technology, media, etcetera are helping or destroying the art world?
JD: Why on earth would technology be destroying art? I don’t understand that at all. Technology doesn’t negate traditional media or methods, it’s just another tool. We have a countless array of new tools that we can use to create art, we can connect with artists at all levels all around the world, and our work can get far more exposure faster with technology than without. There are hundreds, thousands of artists I never would have met or been made aware of without the internet. And, most importantly for me, I can do pretty much all of my freelance work online, so I can work with clients all over the world from home. I would have had no chance at a career in art without the internet, simply because I probably would have only listened to the teachers at my local colleges and not realized that there was a bigger art world out there beyond their short-sighted aspirations and limitations.

CM: Aside from art what do you do with your time? Is there anything else that drives you or that you’re passionate about?
JD: I work full time, so art is pretty much all I do with my time. I read a lot, work in my garden a bit, attend art classes when I can and knit occasionally, but I don’t really have time for too much else. I watch a lot of tv, but I’m working on my laptop while doing it. Freelancing is a very time-consuming business.