Celestial Artistry Brings Geeky Portraits to GeekCraft Expo Seattle's Holiday Market
GeekCraft Expo Seattle is November 25 and 26 at Hangar 30—have you RSVPed yet? Mark your calendar for this free, family-friendly event and come shop more than 70 small businesses on Small Business Saturday!
We interviewed one of our fantastic exhibitors, Celeste Hansen of Celestial Artistry, and talked with her about how she developed her artistic skills and what she's bringing to the Holiday Market!
GeekCraft Expo: How did you get started painting? Celeste Hansen: I used to draw on my father's nautical charts as a little kid, which he frowned at back then but today he looks at those early scribbles with fond memories. I started painting more seriously during Running Start [a program that allows high schoolers to attend college courses] when I was working on my Associate of Fine Arts; it was roughly around the same time that I was gifted a Wacom Intuos 3, which began my journey into the wild world of digital art. GCE: How did you develop your technique? CH: I attended the University of Washington to finish out my BA in Interdisciplinary Visual Arts. The painting instructors I had there were all quite disenchanted with the fact that I was doing digital painting on my free time and refused to look over my paintings—even for the purpose of critiquing a portfolio I was trying to put together for an internship. One professor looked at me point blank and said that "digital art is the bastardization of all that is good in art," and then walked away after I'd asked him to look over my work.
Without formal instruction for my digital painting, I adapted as many traditional painting techniques that I could, especially from my oil painting, and used the wealth of tutorials online to hone my craft. I was fortunate that at the time online tutorials were becoming widely available for free or for nominal fees, so I had a wealth of information to learn from.
GCE: How do you choose your subjects? CH: I love painting portraiture, and I often choose individuals/characters from popular culture that I feel compelled by. For my more personal pieces I tend to choose themes based on mythology and reinterpret ancient myths. Mythology and folklore have always held a strong appeal for me. GCE: What do you most like to paint? CH: Portraiture and monsters/fantastical beasts. There's something so compelling about the microexpressions of the face, the subtle emotions that live so fleetingly in the corners of our eyes and the set of our lips.
GCE: What are your favorite geeky characters or shows/video games? CH: All the cancelled ones . . . no seriously, so many of my favorite shows and games have been cancelled or discontinued: Legacy of Kain, Pushing Daisies, Firefly, Almost Human, Hannibal, etc. I keep playing around with making an art book of fan art from all my favorite cancelled franchises and titling it Wasted Potential. GCE: How was your experience at GeekCraft Expo Portland? CH: It was quite a fun event. I'm interested to see how the holiday nature of this event will impact the crowd/atmosphere. GCE: What kinds of things will you be bringing to our Holiday Market this year? CH: Prints and posters of my paintings, and potentially a few canvas prints!
Come see Celestial Artistry at GeekCraft Expo Seattle's Holiday Market November 25 and 26—see you there!
