Modernity Meets Nostalgia in South Carolina

South Carolina-based multimedia artist Hollis Brown Thornton blends tactile artistic methods with digital ones to create his multi-layered and dynamic work.

His advice for young artists:
Work. Work. Work. But in general, be uncompromising, do what you want to do because it is a self motivated career. And be prepared to make a lot of sacrifices.

On his multimedia approach:
The main reason I draw or paint pixels or transfer work I do on the computer to physical surfaces is the reality of the physical world and the digital work becoming more and more intertwined.  I don’t think one is better than the other, so there isn’t any social morality in combining the two.  But each has its own nature.  Computers allow you to be incredibly precise and organized, so I do much of the preparation work on the computer.  And it is so forgiving, you have a history palette, Photoshop layers, you can save different versions of the file, etc.  Then I might do a transfer or reproduce the image in marker or in paint.  Or a combination of the three.  Handmade things have a tactile quality.  They’re always slightly flawed.  I think we relate better to something of this sort.  We empathize with handmade work, more so than with computer work.

Quotes via Forth Thread

Artwork available on on 20×200