CHARLIE

My project for the iArts exhibition Input / Output is a series of Digital Drawings for my album in progress. The series is named after my album, which is titled Charlie. 

I have been writing songs for a long time. These songs are inspired by situations, things I’ve seen or people I’ve met. My upcoming album Charlie is about a very specific time in my life. The drawings I am presenting right now are inspired by the songs on this album. The pictures have all been taken by me at different moments in my life. I wanted to convey the feeling of the songs through the images I have now created. The images consist of photographs & digitally drawn characters. The characters are real people, from my life, sketched in photoshop. I’ve combined multiple images in all of the drawings by sketching elements and placing them in different photos. The drawings are in a way experiments with composition. 

The original idea for my project was to design a CD booklet, consisting of my drawings. I had printed one with lyrics covering the images I created. After talking it over with people, I found that it was a waste of the drawings if I pasted text all over them. I decided to make the series of images a separate project. I have printed a book (a test version) with the drawings clearly visible, short stories, some lyrics and poems. This way, the images get the right amount of attention while still being complimentary to my work as a (song)writer. On my website the drawings are displayed with a link to demos of my songs, so that people can ‘listen along’ while looking at the images.  

Before I get into the reason why I created my digital artwork, I should tell you about my album. The inspiration behind the album itself is not a complicated story. I write what I see, I compose what I feel and it helps me slow down a bit. These days it’s easy to get lost in the rush of daily life. By composing, writing and photographing what happens around me I can take it all in. I want this series of artwork to represent what it means to me: life. With my work I want to tell stories, to inspire people to tell their own. 

The pictures I used for the digital drawings were taken in the same time period that the songs were written. I’ve always wanted to use the pictures for something, but could never figure out what their purpose should be. I did know one thing for sure: If I ended up creating an album, the artwork had to truly mean something to me. Now that I’ve begun my studies at Interdisciplinary Arts, it has allowed me to experiment with different mediums than I am used to. I wanted to challenge myself by creating a digital artwork, something I’d never done before. These drawings are the result of that, while also staying true to my artistic vision. To me, this artwork series combined with my songs is a way of saying goodbye to that period in my life.