Sparky

by Dian Liang

​Dear Dian, tell us about yourself as an artist. What do you see as the essential characteristics of your creative output?

This might sound quite typical, but I grew up liking Manga and Anime like many other Asian kids. I easily got lost in them to escape the abyss of endless tests and homework. To me, animation was my intro to art, as a kind of escapism from our real world into a fantasy land. This is probably why I never really enjoyed photo-realistic art because I just want to go somewhere else. Creating is much more fun than duplicating. So, I work very well with intuition. I love shaping up things after laying down some random strokes, finding different forms with just a few lines. Even when I animate, I use a method called “straight-ahead animation” which is a very intuitive way of animating.
 
What type of emotions, feelings, vibes do you wish to awaken or instigate through your art?  

In the field of animation, I admire independent filmmakers like Georges Schwizgebel and Yuri Norstein who are able to make animated films into a philosophical experience of beauty. I also enjoyed early 80s Japanese studio works like Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Angel’s Egg… - films that mix dark complex storylines into animation which means they are no longer a child’s play. I would love to have my work to be able to provoke one’s thinking, give one’s brain a twist and, ideally, liberate someone from mass produced, mainstream art’s bad taste.
How do location and time affect your work if at all?

Just like fruit tastes sweeter in the tropics, location absolutely plays a big role in how my art shapes up. When I lived in Los Angeles during the bad drought, everywhere I looked seemed so very brown. My color choices during that time looked quite “dry” compared to my normal use of color. I also naturally paid more attention to the relationship between human activity and environmental problems. I did extensive research about factory farming during that time and that information definitely creeped into my thesis animation Sparky. Nowadays, I am living in my hometown Wuxi, China. I quite enjoy the humidity here and to no one’s surprise, my color palette shifted to a foggy moldy one all of a sudden.
 
What’s your definition of #home, #happiness, and #success?

Home is the place where my loved ones are.
Happiness comes and goes, with the speed of light.
Success tastes like sand, and you can’t hold it in your hands.


As someone focused on the visual aspects of the world around you and the mini universes you create, what do you think we are all seeing too much of and not enough of?

We are absolutely seeing too much of “somebody else’s life” from all the social network like Facebook to Instagram.

We need to stop the endless scrolling and make time to cultivate our own imagination. We have to spend more time to look at our heart, and into each other’s eyes.
 
Do you like to listen to music while working? If so, what’s included in your playlist now?  

When I have to concentrate like animating, I don’t listen to anything. When I do things that do not require too much thinking, I listen to my playlist! My current playlist includes ambient music like Plantasia, Rainforest and original sound tracks from movie Picnic. Recently, songs I listen to repeatedly include Thom Yorke’s solo albums Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes, and all the B-sides soundtracks of Radiohead. If I need a lift, I turn to Gorillaz and some Russian rap songs that I don’t know what they are singing about.
 
What matters to you most at this point in time and how do you show that in your work?

Recently I am transitioning from my old “cute” style to something more “adult”. I was always a big fan of the dark side of humanity but I was just too good at drawing cute characters. I am now adding more realistic rendering to my works and including darker sci-fi things into it. Hopefully, I can fuse them well in the very near future.
 
Do you have a favorite word or phrase you have not used enough recently? Why is it your favorite?

"Little by little." "Step by step."

Most of times, doing things little by little, step by step I will eventually get closer to a place where I want to be. This mantra worked well for me when I was finishing up my thesis. Staring at thousands of frames over and over, I almost doubted if I would be able to finish it or not. I told myself everyday “just take baby steps” and I was able to crawl through the workload and finish an animated film that I am proud of.
 
 
Can you share with us a good story that has made you smile these recent days?

I don’t have stories but I really enjoy watching animal videos, like Atchoum the cat ^.^
 
What are your superpowers to make the impossible possible? 

Just DO it.

Thank you and Good luck!

​
To enjoy more Dian'a art, visit xinbaonuzi.com