constantine nicholas

After much work on creating digital works since 2011 with Art Words on instagram, the Covid lockdown finally gave me the chance and time to re-evaluate what digital works could be. The NFT momentum gave me hope that there could be wider audiences for art (and my art) beyond the ‘Art Gallery’ and beyond Australia. I started drawing again (more so) digitally and physically in my backyard shed, and photographing more naturally. Lines have abounded in the silhouettes of photos of trees, the scribbles I did over photos and in the text I wrote across images. I just did not realise the significance. But something cracked 6 months into it and the noise and clammer of the media, social media, people and online conversations just quietened. I found the essence by accident one day on my phone – just sitting there in front of me – the camera on face down, showing me a close up image blurred in FULL RED COLOUR (shown as background colour below). That was it – I needed to trust my gut and pare everything down and quiet my mind of everything. From here it was simple matter of using lines organically by hand and not mouse. The natural lines and images came – just like that. I didn’t have to SAY anything anymore. I just had to create – fluidity. Thus at the end of 2021 I began with one ‘Lines of Rogue #1’ then two ‘Lines of Rogue #2. I’m up to 20 now with no end in sight. See more Art-Lines.

Art words and my drawing on paper continue as styles and collections to inform my total creative process. Some to use as they are and some to use as faint or blurred background images and colour, like ‘Lines over Namatjira’ . From an Albert Namatjira – ‘McDonnell Ranges’ original 50’s print I bought from an retro antique store. It all feels so infinte now. I’d like to produce some large phyical versions. It’s going to be interesting how these will translate. But for now I’ll press on with the digital versions.

See all Art-Lines on OpenSea and other collections or on the Voice HQ.

Thanks for visiting. It has been a while since I’ve had a chance to focus on creating anything artistic (formally) and that includes updating my website. I’ve been sitting on the sidelines and observing the world from a lens of working in the corporate world in marketing and digital media roles for tech companies. Lot’s of things have happened in the art market over the last five years and this disruption has brought about challenges and opportunities. But in that time I have managed to use technology at hand to fulfil my personal creative needs using digital images and text.  So my medium (iPhone and apps) and my channels (Instagram, Twitter) have enabled me to express my view on the environments and sites that I encounter in immediate and efficient manner.

This is all been a very private endeavour and not being out there in the greater realm of the ‘art circuit’. But it is liberating in the fact that I don’t really think or worry about why I am doing it and who will see it. I just feel the urge to capture an image and make comment with text at that moment. These Art Words don’t necessarily make any sense but they are more about adding layers of context depending on how you view them. Using illustrations and text in my work was always a preoccupation to bring additional meaning to something that was ultimately only meaningful to whoever saw something in these works.  Art Words are quick sketches that will gradually build into a larger meaning at some point but I’m not even considering any of this formally from an artistic perspective.  It’s more an organic methodology that I’m pursuing and at this point interested in expressing on a platform that is accessible to anyone wherever they may be.

I’ve got lots more bubbling up so feel free to touch base here again.