An Introduction to my Digital Artwork

My fascination for turning my imagination into reality began earlier in my life than I remember. I recall building enormous spaceships out of junk in the backyard, or turning my blankets and pillows into underwater worlds I'd explore when I was supposed to be sleeping.

Later, this imagination would constantly get me in trouble at school as every report card would read "James has such potential if only he didn't waste so much time daydreaming."

Later in life, it was my work in the visual effects field that introduced me to Photoshop. This was way back in the early versions before there was a ‘CS’ or 'Creative Cloud' anything. The hundreds, if not thousands of hours I spent using Photoshop, opened my mind to so many possibilities beyond film and video graphics and effects. With my passion for photography, it wasn't long before my imagination was seeping into my photos.

At first, it was small touch-ups. Removing unwanted elements, changing the skies to be more dramatic and the like. Eventually, this lead to creating dramatic imagery that was pieced together from sometimes hundreds of photographic elements to create the fantasy of my mind's eye.

In striking contrast to the beauty of the natural world I like to photograph, my digital artwork allows me to explore much darker subjects. In particular, I am fascinated by the apocalypse and the end of civilisation as we know it. There is something about post-apocalyptic art and movies that pulls me in and tugs at my soul. There is the beauty within a wasteland that few see. Maybe it's the return to simpler ways of life without all the meaningless stresses and nonsense our modern civilisation seems to get caught up in.

Throughout my life, I have been a big advocate for personal mental and spiritual growth and have gone through many stages of my own existence as I'm sure most people have. My art is a reflection of this. My older works are very dark and depressive, while later ones are much lighter, spiritual and mind opening. Time will only tell where it goes from here.

James Cole