Artospective: Dark Art Paintings by Steve Otis from Canada.

Feeder.

An Interview with Steve Otis.

Who and where are you from?

My name is Steve Otis, I am an imaginative Realist Dark artist from the Great White North (Canada that is) more specifically form Quebec City.

How you got into this?

I have been drawings since a very early age. Fueled by images of DC and Marvel comics. I soon discovered the great Warren magazines (Creepy and Eerie in the early 70's). From there I began to delve more deeply into horror, gothic and sci fi type art. Heavily influenced by Frazetta, Boris and Richard Corben, I began experimenting in oil paints in 1988. My first desire was to become a fantasy illustrator and did quite a bit of work in that style in the late 90’s for CCG (collectible card games). By the early 2000's, I gave up on oil painting as it was way to time consuming and started using exclusively acrylics. I began to look for techniques to challenge my artistic style in a more fine art vein while keeping a firm thematic of dark art. I had grown tired of the generic sword and sorcery genre. I began working with more textures, abstract approaches and have been working in this vein ever since.

What is your driving force?

Intensity, emotional tension, human form, light versus dark. These are always the main themes in all of my works. I love to contrast colors and compositions to go from abstract to realist often in the same piece. Since I work for my own vision I can have all the freedom I need to experiment and challenge myself constantly! I hate using the same technique too long. I have a need to re invent myself constantly and to discover new images and realms in my more dark and fine art production.

What kind of work you do and why?

My work tends to fall in the imaginative realism and dark art world. I like to push my boundaries and produce work that is high in symbolism and that permits people to dive into the painting and to create their own interpretation. If it offends you, makes you wonder, makes you happy, sad or anything else then I feel I have achieved my artistic goal. The world of dark art permits such excursions, there are no limits. Why not try to make the ugly attractive? Why not break out of the conventional composition of standard art? In the end, I produce work that I feel will reach out and grab the viewers and lead them into a new world full of awe, wonder and sometimes fear.