Giel Blankestijn 2021

Giel Blankestijn is a quickly rising abstract digital artist. At only 20 years old, this Netherlands native is redefining many peoples perspective on non-traditional art mediums, showing that a mouse and monitor can be just as expressive as a paintbrush and canvas.

Featured Work

All work shown originally intended for Konvulse.com, a digital art community.

Interview

Hello Giel, congratulations on being the featured artist!

Thanks! I’m rather surprised and of course, honoured!!

Do you plan on having a career in the design field? If so, what are you hoping to do?

Actually, yes. My education at this moment is about digital design, such as website’s but also flash games, 3d, you name it. And in the future I’d love to be a designer for flyers and posters so people so my artworks al around, and besides that, I’d like to be a freelance web designer. For the rest I don’t really know what I want to be in the future I’m just hoping it will be something with digital art/design.

Approximately how long does it take you to complete a piece, and how do you know when you are done with a piece?

Depends on the type of piece, whether it’s made with cinema4d or only with photoshop and if it’s like a random abstract or if it has a concept behind it. But approximately for a random abstract I spend almost a day making it in cinema4d and photoshop. But sometimes it can take up to 3 days or even more. I’ve made one piece that took me a whole week to make. And when do I know when I’m done, well.. when making the piece, it always feels undone. It looks ugly, etc. Just totally different than for example you would see it. So I step away from it and do something for school or I go out in town. Just to take my mind off it. And after an hour or so, I’ll look back at it, whether I like it or not. This is a great way to see what needs to change or not.

You have some great ideas, like in your piece Trompe L’oeil, can you try to describe your creative process?

Well it all started off when (damn this sounds like a fairy-tale!! lol) I got dumped (yeah we all know how much that hurts right.) and I wanted to express my feelings, I was full of emotion and I loved that girl. I thought she loved me as well, but in the end she didn’t her love was fake, a fake love. A painting is fake as well, but it looks so real sometimes. And a Trompe L’oeil is a painting that looks real, so that where I got the idea from. My love looked so real but was fake, A painting is fake as well but looks so real sometimes. And for other pieces I just try to express myself, sometimes things just pop up when I’m in bed. I get so many idea’s while thinking in bed. But it’s stressful to sometimes, ’cause i can’t finish every idea, I can’t carry out every idea. Sometimes it’s just to hard and sometimes I don’t want to. And time can be a big problem as well lol!

When you are creating a new piece, what do you usually rely on to set the mood or tone of the work? The colors, the subject. etc.

Well, when I try to get a sort of mood.. well lets say this; Colors are really important to set a move, but the form as well. When you have like a chaotic looking image and the colors are bright and happy, it will turn out totally different when you have a chaotic looking image with dark, eerie colors. and for the rest.. it’s hard to explain, cause when I have an idea, it looks like I know what to do. The subject is something important but it shouldn’t set the tone of the work. Cause you can express a subject in many ways.

What are some big inspirations for your work? Anything that really stands out that gives you a lot of inspiration, maybe a certain artist, or music?

A big inspiration for my work is life itself, I love to express my feelings in artwork. Many of my pieces are abstract but contain a lot of emotion from me. Art is very important for me, its a way to express myself. Music is a big inspiration as well, not a certain artist, but when listening to lyrics I sometimes here a beautiful sentence that comes along, and sometimes I just want to express that in a art piece. But inspiration comes and goes I guess. Everything is a big inspiration, even my sister!! haha

Thanks for taking this interview, and keep up the great work. Is there anything you would like to say to leave the readers with?

Yeah, if my English is bad and disturbing you, I’m sorry!! lol. And for the rest; Kids listen to your parents and eat your vegetables every day! And stay original of course! And remember that art is a expression, not a way to become famous. And I enjoyed this interview and thanks for choosing me! And never eat frikkin popcorn leftovers cause it gets stuck in your mouth everywhere!

Category: Contemporary Art