Eduard Erlikh Interview by Gabrielle Ambrozia

Eduard Erlikh, Cyber City, 2010

GA: What was your first experience with art?

EE: For me art has been a part of my life for as a long as I remember.  I remember drawing pictures since I was four, but I probably started even before that.

GA: Do you tend to gravitate towards drawing or do you predominantly use the computer? 

EE: I tend to draw a lot more than use the computer but I use the computer to finalized my works. Computers have a very nice way of polishing things up, but drawing gives me a lot of freedom that I wouldn’t have on a computer.  It is very hard to start working on the computer because I can only see apart of the canvas at a time and the creative process changes completely because by the time I want to create shadows and patterns I loose my inspiration. Although I do have a digital pen tablet which almost feels like drawing on paper, but I still need to get used to it, so I prefer the paper. 

GA: Your drawings seem to combine the loose line with the tight line, the abstract with the realistic.  I see this in the blue drawing on paper.  Can you describe what was going through your head while you were working?

EE: I was just trying to create imagery that a person would not normally see.  I find that purely abstract and minimalistic images that have become so common place in modern art that it has become bland and purposeless.  It seems like the artist who created those works forgot what art is really about.  Which is beauty and not creating something just because it hasn’t been done before. So when I was working on this blue architectural image I was trying to combine abstraction and realism. I was thinking about how I could make the image work compositionally on the macro level and how to make it really detailed and beautiful on the micro level.

GA: Can you give an example of art that has become bland and purposeless?

EE: Jackson Pollock for example, has some amazing pieces but at a certain point his art stops being good because he just does the same thing over and over again.  Andy Warhol touch upon some very interesting aspects of the way art is produced in the age of mass production. But I feel he stops being a good artist after making that point. Overall I love Andy Warhol and Pollock because their art isn’t bland or purposeless, but a lot of artists try to imitate them and there success and I hate that. They don’t get what Andy and Pollock were trying to do. In my opinion art is the basis for all human creation be it architecture, science, or religion.  The reason I say this is because most things had to be conceptualized by artists before they were created by inventors. In other words, artists laid the seeds that grew into everything we see today. Airplanes, space ships, cars, pyramids, churches, mosques, literature, it all started with a brilliant artist.

GA: Do you see yourself as an artist or an inventor?

EE: I see myself as conceptual artist. But in a way sometimes I do feel like an inventor. I feel as though someday my pictures my influence inventors and architects to make my works real.

GA: Can you actually explain how your process works from start to finish?

EE: Usually I  start out very abstract there are several reasons for this, one is to get a very useful composition, another is to get a good range of colors that I will use.  When I start out my image I usually have a certain image in mind and that image is my inspiration.  My final work usually never looks like the original image in my mind, and most of the time looks better.  The transformation that my image goes through from the abstract to the specific adds a lot of elements that I did not imagine until I was working on artwork. That is why I start drawing on paper and finalize my art is photoshop or illustrator. While working I often try to create shapes most people are unaccustomed to seeing.

Eduard Erlikh, Cyber Eye, 2010

GA: Photography seems to also inspire you.  How did you see it in relation to your artwork?

EE: I love photography for its realism.  Because it is so realistic, it means that I don’t have to draw realistically and instead focus on the abstract.  Although I define the abstract to look like certain objects you won’t see those objects in real life.  Photography teaches me about the world and lets me get a deeper understanding of the way we perceive reality.  It also makes me notice things that I would never notice if I wasn’t a photographer.  For example a little rust of iron can have an extraordinaire amount of detail or moldy piece of food can have colors or patterns that are captivating.  Although it looks disgusting from far away you can photograph it closely and make it into a very unique piece of art work. 

GA: Is there a photograph that you have taken that exemplifies this?

EE: This (below picture) for instance looks like a squid…..bird shit on my window. 

Eduard Erlikh, 2010

GA: What made you photograph bird shit?

EE: I didn’t see it as bird shit.  I just saw this white spot on my window and when I examined it, it looked like a squid.  The fact that is was bird shit was a coincidence.