Artist’s Statement

My mischevious but artistic self at 10-months, going to draw on a wall with a marker.

I am an artist because I was born to be an artist. I love art. I need and want art, and I sincerely believe the world needs art too. Art is controversial, it is psychological, sociological, cultural and diverse, and I love such things. Art is one of God’s gifts to the human condition, and I am so grateful for it. Art is a creative representation of consciousness and conscience, and although largely taken for granted, it appeals to all ages. Art represents past, present, future, possible and impossible realities and the expression of these ideas inspires thought, exploration, adventure and invention. Art is full of romance, love, lust, kinkiness, kindness, passivity, anger and violence, and art is never about nothing. Art can be beautiful, ugly, defiant, threatening, terrifying, courageous, compassionate, sexy, erotic, political, spiritual, childish, mature, disturbing and sarcastic. I am inspired by the art of others. I want to share creativity. I want to express and share ideas through art. I want to create art for anyone to see and have–regardless of social demographic. I want to produce art for fun and profit. For all of these things, I want to be, need to be and love being an artist.

The reason for my art is so that I can allow others to get as far into my head as I am willing to let them. So that I may try to get people thinking of new and old ideas. So that I may inspire creativity in others. So that others may inspire more creativity in me. So that I can make my contribution to the effort of those artists who feel a need to replenish the world’s supply of fantasy. So that I can express realities that I, or others, need to express. So that I can help those artists who want to show that art can be practical and affordable, and not just another luxury for the rich.

My chosen subjects of illustration are Science Fiction, Fantasy, Wildlife and Aviation because they have always inspired me the most. However, I have never allowed myself to be limited to them.

In my illustrations, colour has its greatest impact through painting, while black and white has its greatest impact through drawing. Both colour and black and white are equally valued in my photography–depending on the subject and my mood.

The mediums I use the most are oil paint, graphite, tech-pen and India ink, masonite, hot-press boards, and white 2-ply cold-press stock with medium tooth. Working with this medium simply feels right, and looks right. My work is most expressive in these mediums, and they allow me to establish qualities of realism and photorealism.

Personal qualities that manifest in my art are my nonconformist standpoint, and emotions of love, lust, wonder, compassion, resentment and anger. These characteristics usually exist deliberately, but sometimes inadvertently.

When creating art, I am at my best. I struggle to make things come out as I want them but it’s a welcome struggle, and I always feel privileged to be one of many who dare to call themselves artists.

I want people to see my work and feel free of all of life’s restrictions for a while. I want them to feel adventurous, creative, thrilled, shocked, empowered, titillated, angered, heroic, enlightened and intelligent–without ever being intimidating. I want them to feel spiritual and blessed, but realistic. At times, I will illustrate things that are controversial, but I only want to be honest through my art. I never want people to ever be embarrassed about how they feel when viewing my art. Nevertheless, I hope they are careful about how they act on their feelings. I’d like people to see my work and feel as though they can’t get enough, and like they can literally jump into one of my illustrations and get lost.

The most common themes of my artwork are of exploration, ancient and feudal pasts, distant dystopian futures, other worlds, other civilizations, technology and architecture, social politics, personal struggles to all out war, religion, romance, love, lust and eroticism set–more often than not, to adventure.

Each piece of illustration tells a specific story that is part of a greater story. I want people to try to either create their own stories of what they see, or use the narratives of each illustration to try to figure out the grand stories. I’ll always love typography (fontography), logo and graphic design, and will always be available to satisfy people’s need for them. However, no visual art can compare to the creative and expressive freedom of illustration.

Allan Daniel Hamilton