Interview with Kelsie Vang
For this blog assignment I held an interview with my classmate Kelsie Vang, a fellow photography student who enjoys dolls, drawing, and anime. In this one on one I was able to gain insight in the way she approaches art and how she perceives her future working with it.
Vang, Kelsie. Lexi Krueger. 2017.
Would you say that photography is one of your favorite mediums?
Yes! It’s quite funny, because before I began taking photography classes in college, I didn’t like photography class. Only because I was quite worried that I wouldn’t be able to grasp the technicality of it. But now taking photography in college, I’m having quite the blast. I find the medium much more fun than drawing, arts & crafts, and watercolors. I think it’s mainly because photography can be used in ways to be created and expressed digitally through our electronics.
Being a student of the fine arts, what would you say is the biggest creative challenge you have to get past for every assignment/project?
One of the scariest and challenging matters that I had to do for my projects and assignments was trying new things that I wasn’t used to, and try to think up of ideas that was really out of the box for me. I like to express my creativity and work with what I know, what I love, and what I’m used to. Trying new things is scary for me, even now it is, because I’m not familiar and not used to something that I don’t have a vast knowledge about it yet.
I noticed that you like to draw a lot before class, would you say you use your drawings as inspiration in your photography?
Of course! Using photography is one of the best mediums that help bring my drawings to life. In drawing, there is only a white page as the background, and the shades of grey and black streaks of mechanical pencil to convey shape and form of the subject being sketched. Photography is an advanced form of drawing. Cameras can quickly snap shots of subjects and backgrounds in one second, and there you’re sketch is finished. In drawing, it takes 15-30 minutes for me to sketch a whole figure of a human. Cameras are quick, while pencils take longer.
Looking at your previous and perhaps upcoming project, what seems to be the reason for your attraction to dolls?
This also has to do with my drawings too. Most of my drawings are 2D characters, they’re flat, and the only thing can do with a drawing is to look and stare at it. Dolls are 3D-figured toys, you can physically interact with them. You can bend their articulated arms, legs, brush their hair, and change their clothes, or even sew clothes for them. Every doll I ever bought was solely because of my fondness to collect each doll’s characteristics that conveys the dolls personality, ranging from their hair color, eye color, skin tone, and fashion clothing. Dolls are 3D reality of a figure drawing.
In relation to your projects, what is your process for creating them from start to finish?
It varies with the level of difficulty the project is. If it’s a project that I like, then I already have a mapped out plan and artistic vision in mind, and execute it. But if it’s a challenging project, then I have to think deeply. At this point, it’s hard for me to envision a picture, so I look up online to Google images to see other artist’s artwork, and get inspired from them. I would then get scratch paper, and quickly sketch out each scene that I have in mind. Afterwards, I would set up at the scene of the location I want to take pictures of, and then edit them onto Photoshop.
Looking outside of school, what do you see yourself doing after college?
After I graduate college, I’ll have to find myself another state to move into where art entertainment thrives, like either California, New York, or Chicago. I want to go into cartooning and animations someday, and work for Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon. Afterwards, I want to open my own cartoon studio and air my own cartoon-anime show on public television.
What are your plans/goals for your art? What do you hope to achieve or say with it?
I want my drawings to have a unique style that pulls in a viewer’s eye and make them amaze. I want my drawing style to be a combination of realism and naturalism mixed in with anime. I want to set a new original drawing style, where everybody can recognize that it belongs to me. For my photography artwork, I like to set atmospheric moods. My favorite element to convey that is through color. I don’t like black-and-white photography, because I think the photo is missing out the colors that life offers. My favorite color palette for photography is bright and warm hues to convey comfort, warmth, home, and positivity.
You can find out more about Kelsie and all the work she does at https://kelsie-vang.tumblr.com/