has been sharing his amazing digital works on DA for over four years. He is best known for intricate, digital compositions that interweave images drawn from the natural with detailed, meticulously crafted symbols of human engineering.

Senecal’s work often depicts images of technology and manipulations of the human form (the figure transformed into partially human, partially human-made creatures) composed into digital works which consider the relationship between cultural and biological evolution.

He brings much experience to his craft, and his works are quite an inspiration for many artists. Read on to learn more about him...

1. What is your creative process when you create abstract works like the ones in the Die Nachtmaschine series?

1. CTL+ N
2. B
3. [ [ [
4. draw/paint using stylus tablet for hours
5. CTL+SHIFT+ALT+E occasionally
6. Purge as necessary (an Action I’ve set up as 'F6' )
7. CTL+S.

Really, it is just me opening a new document and going to town with a stylus.
In figurative or commercial work, I reference photos and real life objects, but in the “abstract” work, it is all Photoshop with no external or scanned media. I find it helps to get away from the digital world and go out into the Natural World for a time… then when the creative urge builds and builds, you make the work. I’ve experimented with inducing physical stress as a catalyst ( hunger, sleep deprivation, alcohol etc.) to affect the outcome and I do find that working hungry helps sometimes. Working drunk is not useful at all, as many of the people who read my journals can tell you. I also like to listen to music sometimes.


2. You have figurative and surreal works in your gallery, but what inspires you to create your abstract works?

The motivation is pretty much the same regardless of the resulting work.
Aside from straight up illustration or other commercial work I might make, the impetus is the same. As for direct motivation, a lot of that is covered in the most recent “artist statement”. "

Is this your current "artist statement"?
"Senecal’s art explores the relationship between humans and what they invent, both formally—by using the digital medium—and thematically—through a combination of figuration and scientific representation. Colorful, intricate compositions interweave images drawn from the natural—the delicateness of skin or the gentle rippling of an ocean—with detailed, meticulously crafted images representing the products of human engineering, from machines to intelligence. Senecal considers art to be an anthropological medium: a device for the examination and documentation of our progress as a species."

No, that was from a gallery press release. Currently, I've stopped thinking so much about the work as it is being made and am working more intuitively to just let it happen. The significance and “meaning” can be uncovered after that. I can say that I am compelled by a set of motivations which are constant and reoccurring. I have no interest in defining the them at the moment but I know intuitively that there is meaning in the work that results. These are not “for the sake of art” but are closer to journal entries or possibly prayers. I hope that they can hold some aesthetic interest for the viewer but regardless of audience they will remain in their persistence and demand for embodiment.

3. Of the figurative, surreal, and abstract works, which satisfies you more to create as an artist and why?

At this point, I tend to think of them as all necessary, like spokes on a wheel or legs on a chair. Sometimes I might want to make a work that is “abstract” and as the work reveals itself I realize that it needs to become completely figurative and nearly illustration.

Learning that this, as well as the lapses and “blocks” is a natural part of the creative process is something that took years. Now, I just let the work come as it needs to. In that respect, it seems like an involuntary, biological function, like vomiting. You’d like to control or prevent it from happening, but it happens regardless when conditions are right and sometimes when you think you are finished, you keep heaving, trying to get more out. Eventually, when you really are done, you feel better. I think that qualifies as “worst analogy ever”.

4. You are primarily a digital artist, but what other mediums do you explore and/or find interesting?

I am combining questions 4 and 6 here, so we can call this one question 10.
Most recently, I picked up a traditional printing press and am getting into intaglio (drypoint on sheets of acrylic) and monotyping. I am interested in the hybridization of traditional printmaking with new print making techniques ( such as giclée and digigraphie) I also really like the possibilities of “abstract” photography.

To get an idea of what I find interesting, really you just need to check out my Favs.
There you’ll find examples from folks here on dA like:

*lien
~asphalt-resistance
*Basia-AlmostTheBrave
~Valleysequence
*Sarachmet
=ssup
*pawwwprint
~Stoverlead
`wroth

The latter few being individuals with whom I’ve had the pleasure of collaborating which for me, is a pretty rare thing to do. Let me say -- that list is an incredibly brief sample of the artists I think are doing incredible work. There are so many more I would love to tell you about but there is not space to list them here. I will be recommending ‘4bstr4ct4rt‘ check out more of them!

5. Why is digital your preferred medium?

Digital for me is so fluid and quick drying, the only thing I miss is the smell of the paint. I think it is a natural progression in the evolution of human tradition of mark making. At some point, when our ancestors were spitting paint onto cave walls using their hands as a stencil, someone picked up a partially burned stick and began using charcoal to draw. This would have been around the release of PhotoShop v.1.0.2 I think. Okay, so maybe that’s not exactly the way it went down but it illustrates the point none the less; Progress through invention, like mark making itself, is the birthright of humankind.

6. What is your favorite abstract works? Choose one of your own, and one from another artist.

See question 4...

7. What do you want people to know about you and your work that they may not already?

None of it is about unicorns. Thanks for the opportunity to chat!


Well, that is a good thing. And thank you for taking the time to chat.

Here are a few of `Senecal's works...