Interview with Eran Fowler

q) Walk us through an intimate day in your life

a) I work from home as a freelance illustrator, along with my partner who does remote tech support for a living. We make meals together, and work beside each other at our computers. I’m pretty fortunate to be able to have such a comfortable work-day, and it should allow us a lot of freedom whenever we decide to start a family.

q) Where did you grow up/where do you live now and how does that contribute to your art?

a) I was born in southern California, and grew up in a military family. Most of my childhood was spent on military bases all over the world. I like to think it’s given me a broader perspective about the world, and the diversity of people in it. I’ve ended up in Vancouver, Canada, which has some of the best sushi I’ve ever eaten.

q) What is your earliest memory that propelled you to create?

a) I wanted to see the stories in my head become real. The next best thing was to make them visible.

q) Tell us a little bit about your creative process.

a) I tend to work very conceptually. Most of my illustrations start off as ideas or messages that I want to express somehow, and must find a way to represent those ideas visually.

q) How do you wish for your art to be perceived?

a) I think that’s up to the viewer. I try to put a lot of symbolism into my work for people to unpack, but ultimately they’ll bring more ideas to the table than I could ever put into it or anticipate on my own.

q) What do your internal dialogues sound like?

a) Absolutely inane, I assure you. For instance, I’m currently enduring a heat-wave by thinking about how much nicer it is than a zombie apocalypse.

q) Do you feel that there are limitations to what you want to create?

a) Only the ones I impose on myself. If it’s out there, it can be learned.

q) Do you feel art is vital to survival and if so, why?

a) It’s more an incidental consequence of survival. Our creative impulses are what have allowed us to invent and remake the world around us. Art is just one of the ways we exorcise those instincts. More importantly, it is vital to culture, in much the way that the madness of dreams allow us to be sane when awake.

q) Describe a world without art.

a) A world without art HAS no description. That would be the problem.

q) Tell us a secret, and obsession.

a) I once broke one of my mom’s clay sculptures and blamed it on the neighbor kid. She’d said she was done with it, which I interpreted to mean she was getting rid of it, which sounded like a great opportunity to have fun smashing it. Oops.
And I am obsessed with bottles and boxes. I collect them compulsively. I keep telling myself I’ll use them for something, but mostly they just take up space on my shelves.

q) Where can people see more of your work on the internet?

a) They can see my portfolio at eranfolio.com, or they can follow my new stuff at either of the following:
http://eranfolio.deviantart.com/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Eran-Fowler-Illustration/518704834838608