INTERVIEW: EMMANUEL LAFLAMME – MASHUP ARTIST
September 18, 2015 by Casey Webb
Tell us about yourself, who are you, where are you from, and what do you do?
Hi, my name is Emmanuel Laflamme. I guess you could say I became an artist by accident. I studied art because my dream was to create a cartoon series.
I grew up in the suburbs of Montreal with my two parents and three younger sisters. I spent most of my childhood playing hockey, building stuff with LEGOs and watching cartoons.
A fortunate encounter with my cousin’s husband, Christian Tremblay (a professional cartoonist, creator of the SWAT KATS) literally changed my life. He became a mentor and encouraged me to teach myself how to draw and paint in the academic style. After a few years of practicing, I started working as an assistant in a studio in Montreal. It didn’t take long for me to realise how challenging it was to create, sell, produce and distribute an original cartoon series… so I started to think of different ways I could express myself using other means.
This is when I really started to make art on my own. I worked with a model for a while, then I experimented with acrylics, pastels, collage, sculpture and digital art. I tried making portraits, still life’s, landscapes and abstract compositions.
My first group show was somewhat of a turning point. I was showing my first paintings, on which I had worked for 20-30 hours each. When I saw that most people spent less than 5 seconds looking at them, I realised I needed to find a more efficient and powerful way to make art. This led me back to my main work tool: Photoshop.
At the time, I was posting a lot on deviantArt. My first trials at digital collage and photo-montage were somewhat successful. The positive reactions encouraged me to go further as I began to realise the power of appropriation in art. Using pictures for their symbolic values, I started creating visual mash-ups that combined references from gaming, pop-culture and art history. As these images became more and more popular, I started to paint, draw, sculpt and print them. I took part in several group shows, which lead me to even more opportunities. (Click here to read the rest of the interview)
September 18, 2015 by Casey Webb
Tell us about yourself, who are you, where are you from, and what do you do?
Hi, my name is Emmanuel Laflamme. I guess you could say I became an artist by accident. I studied art because my dream was to create a cartoon series.
I grew up in the suburbs of Montreal with my two parents and three younger sisters. I spent most of my childhood playing hockey, building stuff with LEGOs and watching cartoons.
A fortunate encounter with my cousin’s husband, Christian Tremblay (a professional cartoonist, creator of the SWAT KATS) literally changed my life. He became a mentor and encouraged me to teach myself how to draw and paint in the academic style. After a few years of practicing, I started working as an assistant in a studio in Montreal. It didn’t take long for me to realise how challenging it was to create, sell, produce and distribute an original cartoon series… so I started to think of different ways I could express myself using other means.
This is when I really started to make art on my own. I worked with a model for a while, then I experimented with acrylics, pastels, collage, sculpture and digital art. I tried making portraits, still life’s, landscapes and abstract compositions.
My first group show was somewhat of a turning point. I was showing my first paintings, on which I had worked for 20-30 hours each. When I saw that most people spent less than 5 seconds looking at them, I realised I needed to find a more efficient and powerful way to make art. This led me back to my main work tool: Photoshop.
At the time, I was posting a lot on deviantArt. My first trials at digital collage and photo-montage were somewhat successful. The positive reactions encouraged me to go further as I began to realise the power of appropriation in art. Using pictures for their symbolic values, I started creating visual mash-ups that combined references from gaming, pop-culture and art history. As these images became more and more popular, I started to paint, draw, sculpt and print them. I took part in several group shows, which lead me to even more opportunities. (Click here to read the rest of the interview)
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