Growth of Chicken Self

Eric Pow

Interview by C. VanWinkle
March 20, 2024

Can you please describe the prompt that you responded to?

It was three writings: a couple of different stories and I think a poem in there as well. It all talked about transformation or metamorphosis, having one person going through something. They're all associated with transforming oneself to the next phase. At least one part involved rebirth, you know, dying and coming back as a different state.

What was your reaction to it? What did it bring to mind?

I had to decide which element I should focus on, whether it’s rebirth or transformation or growth. I didn't want to do something that was too human. That's not really my thing. I don't really draw human imagery, so I focus on animals, which I’m fairly good at. I was trying to figure out how I could show that personal transformation in animal form. I chose a chick that's growing into an adult chicken, and maybe it wants to believe it’s an eagle, something stronger, something bigger. It’s transforming, at least internally or emotionally, into an eagle, something bigger than itself.

Why a chicken? Are chickens significant to you?

Not really. I was just trying to find something that was recognizable. I could have used any kind of baby bird, but everyone knows what a chick is. It's a baby chicken. They've seen it before.

True. I know you work in a few different mediums. What is this piece made of? Is it all digital?

Yeah, I drew it on the computer. Some of it was illustrated on a sketch pad, just so I could get the ideas that were floating around in my head onto a piece of paper and actually see it. Then that was referenced when I was creating the digital illustration. And I used Corel, which is similar to Adobe Illustrator.

You work with paper too. How does this piece relate?

It’s the same techniques that I use for paper and screen printing. It all starts in my head. I’ll come up with the entire image of the finalized creation in my head, and then I put it onto paper as a sketch, just so I can see if it actually looks as good. Then I'll go and do the illustration in the computer. That way I can easily edit and change things around. Then I'll just cut everything. For a paper piece, I'll do the illustration so I can figure out where each piece is going to go in the entire composition. And then I'll transfer that back to paper. For the screen printing, I'll print out the files onto a transparency for the screen. For this illustration, it was basically everything I did before, except at the end I saved the JPEG and sent that to you.

This is just my long-ass process of doing my art. I went to school as a graphic designer, so my education and training is mainly focused on the computer. Everything that I do ends up digital in some way or form. Even when I go back to analog, like for my paper art or screen printing, that's the final step but there's always some kind of digital part of the process.

Your work does tend to be pretty graphic designy. Bold shapes, clean lines… Do you ever want to just get messy with watercolors or something?

Oh I definitely do, on the side. I try and keep it on the side and not think about the business part of it. When I start doing something artsy, I always have to think about how I can sell it. Because the business part is such a big part of my work, I have to think that way. So with all the messy watercolor, acrylic paint, and sculpture that I do, I try to keep that clear line so it's just for fun. Even though my brain is saying, “I need to apply this to business somehow.”

I’m glad you have that.

It's great to stay creative. That’s how you keep the passion alive, but the business part pays all the bills so I can eat and live in my house and everything. I kind of have to give a big focus to that.

A lot of your work incorporates logos and advertisements and things. It looks like you have fun with typeface. Do you feel inspired by that area of art?

Some pieces are things that I've been commissioned to do for different companies. They want the paper art, but as their logo or something promotional. As a graphic designer, that's what I was doing before. I was freelancing for a number of years, doing projects with different small businesses, like their logos and other marketing materials. It’s just part of my education and training as a graphic designer.

But I'm starting to get a little bit more into the typography stuff as more of an art form. Going to school for graphic design, there are specific typography courses that you take, and you're supposed to make an art piece based off the type. That way you can learn different typefaces and how to use them, and how to find the right typeface for a particular project. But right now, I'm trying to combine some imagery related to the text in some of the science prints that I've been doing recently. I’m just trying to make something new; maybe original, maybe not.

Sure! How did you like working from a prompt? Have you done that very much?

Not a prompt like this, someone else's art. But I get a lot of prompts from my commissioned work. The client will tell me what they want. The client could be anyone, someone looking for piece for their home or for their business or someone else’s business. I’m working with a client right now who is an art director who connects artists with hospitals. She tries to curate, for example, a specific part of the hospital that studies sleep or something, and I would create art pieces related to that. She'll tell me what she wants, and we’ll go back and forth, and maybe I'll do some sketches for her, and she'll give me more specifics of what she wants. It’s similar to this process, but that writing is its own artwork which I'm interpreting for my own artwork. And some of the commissions I do are looking for something from me but they don't have anything to start off with.

Is it easier when you don’t have any instructions or guidelines? Or does that make it more difficult?

This was definitely easier than getting a commission from a client. Even though they don't have a picture they’re starting from, they do have something in mind, and it's hard to create something that I know is really good, but it doesn’t work for them. They're sort of fixed. Here, creating my own interpretation of someone else's art piece, you didn't really have too many limits on it. It was a lot easier to just run with what I had. I really only worked from that idea of metamorphosis or transformation.

That’s a big idea, and it’s cool that you made it so down-to-earth. You didn’t go with something very ethereal or mystical. It's chickens. We understand chickens.

Most my artwork is literal or somewhat recognizable, so it's easy to understand.

Last question. What's your advice to another new person getting their prompt today?

I would probably say not to think about it too much. Try to focus on the main, underlying idea. Then, in whatever medium your focus is in, let your creative juices go and create as freely as you can.

Call Number: G114PP | G116VA.poGro

Eric Pow creates art based on his cultural influences of his upbringing and Chinese ethnicity. His techniques range from paper cutting to screen printing that all stem from his education as a Graphic Designer.