Today we’d like to introduce you to Gunnar Tarsa.
Gunnar, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I was a very imaginative and creative kid. Always making up games to play, running around playing make-believe, or drawing and jotting down doodles and thoughts. Usually, I assumed the role of my favorite movie or cartoon characters and would fight evil or save the world. This identity fantasy of being heroic and helping other people stuck with me through the years. When I wasn’t busy running around with plastic light sabers, wearing invisible armor, or defeating evil kings, I was alone in my room drawing. These early drawings were a form of copying my favorite characters like, Goku, Godzilla, Mario, and many more legends who I battled alongside in my free time. Copying quickly turned into combining, editing, and transforming these heroes into more powerful versions. What if Mario fused with Master Chief, or if Hellboy was made of Steel? Being able to draw something that I made up in my head started to become more of the focus, but like any artist, I have always been full of doubts even at such a young age. I had the conception rooted in my mind that the only art people wanted to see was very clean-cut, technical illustrations. So, I sought after just that and tried to become a skilled graphic artist. After many failed attempts over the years and a dwindling passion, I decided to refocus and steer my creativity into something more livable.
I thought I could still create and help people if I studied Engineering or Architecture. This wasn’t the storyteller path I had in mind but it seemed like the proper direction. In my years leading up to college, I drew but in different ways. I completed class projects in AutoCAD and primarily worked in the ways of drafting. Although I enjoyed my time and energy spent working towards the dream of helping others through a more practical means. I felt like something was missing. Mentally I was in a dark period where all was well on the outside but I wouldn’t learn until later that my creative energies needed to be fed. After any given school day, you would have found me escaping to the worlds of video games, cartoons, and movies to find peace and comfort in a digital home away from home. Then one day I started drawing again. Doodling imaginary equipment for adventurers, scribbling landscapes of alien worlds, and feeling driven to chase after that original dream. That’s when I scrapped my plans on becoming an engineer and applied to UGA in hopes of studying Graphic Design.
Little did I know I was going to face many more failures and crash incredibly hard when I didn’t make it into the design program. I stayed up late making countless drawings, getting lost in the digital realm and feeling the cold pressure of the unknown. I spent all that time trying to be a designer in hopes of one day I would find security in this creative skill. At this point, I had built enough resilience to not give up and switched my major to Drawing. I can still hear that doubtful voices in my head today… “You are going to study drawing? What the heck are you going to do with a degree like that?” To which I hesitantly replied, “I don’t know.”
None of those doubts and fears mattered in the end. I knew my passion was in the art of drawing. Everything finally fell into place. My brain went into consumption mode and I was looking at all the art that tickled my interest, flipping through books of art history, rereading and rewatching my favorite comics and cartoons. I reached a certain point of technicality and just ran right past it. I could no longer care about the perfect image but now I was driven to explore all the different ways one could make art and tell a story. In figure drawing class while everyone was quietly using graphite pencils, I was excitedly working through a box of colored pastels. In painting when everyone was crafting fine acrylic or oil works, I was slinging house paint and experimenting with spray paint. I saw endless possibilities in the materials and technics and fell head over heels in love with art. Then all within a short period of time I met my mentor, Joseph Norman, picked up a copy of Keith Haring’s Journals, and fell in love with my partner and muse, Andrea Murillo. Nothing has been the same since.
Amidst all of the chaos, the pressures of art history, the late nights full of passion and uncertainty, the pages of scribbles in my many books, the million voices of contemporary culture screaming, and the pile of failures that I stood upon, it all finally made sense. I surrendered to the title of “Artist” and I haven’t looked back since. Since then I have spent my days juggling projects, wearing different masks, learning new skills, and most importantly drawing daily. I would go on to creating two behemoth sculptures for my B.F.A. exit show. I’d have a duo art show and residency with my dear friend and musical companion, Kyle Lewis. I would help paint multiple murals in rural GA with my dear mentor and other wonderful artists. My art would be shown at house parties, restaurants, juried shows, and gallery walls alike. But most importantly I would work to draw as much as I could. Just like when I was little, I still spend my days dreaming of being a hero, helping others, putting smiles on people’s faces, and gaining that dormant superpower. The kicker here is I had my superpower all along. It was that creativity that was lighting up my soul since the beginning.
Can you give our readers some background on your art?
To put it simply, I draw, doodle, scribble and illustrate. I primarily work on paper or digital mediums to practice my generative nature but have expanded into the realms of art object and sculpture. My preferred size to work on is a collectible trading card or 5″ x 7″ sheets of paper. I’m infatuated with collectibles due to their tactile nature and their ability to transport that viewer into other worlds (such that of your favorite cartoon or comic). I have named the method of my madness “Mind Matter”. These are drawings that explore elements of automatic art, random mark making, and spontaneous doodling in order to create a complete composition. Really, it’s just a cool name. I like to imagine them existing in all dimensions but we will get to that in a moment.
To paint the full picture of what I do would require a little storytelling…
The Boy Who Sees Yellow is a being who lives in a dimension unlike our own. The rules of physics differ and batteries are required. He is not a boy in the biological sense but he resembles that of which would be a young human boy. He embodies unrelenting optimism, ceaseless exploration, undying creativity, and the love of sharing. He is depicted as a blank white form with a hard-black outline whose eyes glow bright yellow. He has the power to turn his thoughts into a form of matter… “Mind Matter”. His visions manifest into the reality around him and he creates vast expanses of line and form. He finds himself possibly alone in an infinite universe so he has constructed a device which he uses to transmit his creations across space and time. I was struck by one of these transmissions and now seek to create 2-dimensional images of his ever-expanding universe so we get a glimpse of his world. This transmission isn’t limited to just me which is great. Anyone can tune in and begin catching glimpses of these unknown realms through the power of drawing and creativity.
I hope to give power to the stories that my lines unfold and hopefully inspire others to partake in the journey either as spectators or to take a call to action and start drawing worlds of their own. These lines are meant to be universal and timeless. They come from the hands of the ancients passed down through art history to mighty names like Dubuffet and Haring and hopefully, now I channel them well enough to stand and keep the tradition moving forward.
What responsibility, if any, do you think artists have to use their art to help alleviate problems faced by others? Has your art been affected by issues you’ve concerned about?
I believe the role of the artist has always been to exist on the fringes of thought and culture. The artist is a mystical figure who walks between the worlds known and unknown often diving into the thick of things in hopes of creating an image with meaning. Artists have always had a platform of power to spread ideas across mediums and I don’t think it has changed in the broad sense. The hyperconnected nature of contemporary culture combined with the unstoppable flow of information in the digital age has changed the landscape of which artists can communicate. As a creative, I feel I have a responsibility of curating what I make and put into the world no matter how big or small or how far of a social reach I may have. This isn’t a game. I am grateful to be able to spend countless hours creating images and exploring unknown worlds but I have to be sure that time is spent aware, by that I mean I cannot sleep or hide from the world around me so I can be aware of the direction of my art and what it may do for others.
While I have dabbled in politically charged art in the past I tend to focus more on more foundational themes like Love, Learning, Positivity, Sharing, etc. As I continue to grow as an artist, I see myself using my refined lines to make more bold statements and stand with those who are ignored, beaten, forgotten, forsaken, or worse. These are challenging all artists must face. What does your work add to the global conversation? The local one? Are you asking important questions, highlighting issues, using your voice for good or evil? I’d like to think I try and stay focused on that holy bass note that keeps the world moving forward. I found the best place to start is local. It’s amazing what a simple act of art can do for the community. So, all this noise going on in the world helps me look inward towards my neighbors, the youth, and the growing community around me to see what little splashes of color I can add to help keep us moving forward.
What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
The two primary locations are my Instagram and my artist website. I often can be found drawing with chalk when the weather is nice or Free Art Friday drops in Athens, GA. Soon to be in Atlanta pending my big move to the city. My work can also be seen under a few different projects and collaborative experiments: An ongoing free printable “Mind Matter” coloring book, music and art experimentations under the name “Guy Did Ail”, and new printable tabletop RPG/board-game resource duo called “Board Beings”.
There are a few ways you could support my dream:
– Through purchasing original art or prints which can be found on my Instagram or website where pretty
much everything I publish is for sale.
– Donating or Subscribing on my Patreon for either my “Mind Matter” or “Board Beings” projects
– Sharing something you like on your social media or mentioning my work to your friends
– Or tuning into my Instagram Live/Twitch Livestream drawing events
Stay updated on where I’ll be, where my art is hanging, or what projects I have going on over on my Instagram.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.artbygunnar.com/
- Phone: 6784674503
- Email: artbygunnart@gmail.com
- Instagram: @TheBoyWhoSeesYellow
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/artbygunnartarsa/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/boardbeings
- Other: https://www.patreon.com/TheBoyWhoSeesYellow
Image Credit:
Kristina Naso
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