Interview with Darius Twin
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Darren Pearson aka Darius Twin takes it to the next level achieving stunning results creating LED Lightpainting photography during his travels. The Artist is a resident of Los Angeles, CA and he has been light painting since 2007 when he first tried this technique after seeing an image from Gjon Mili that captured Pablo Picasso creating a light drawing called “Picasso Draws A Centar”. Since then the artist has been refining his technique with his work consisting of dinosaurs, skateboarders, skeletons and animals he draws with his lights! By night, he explores various landscapes near and far in search of the perfect scene for one of his life-sized light-sculptures.
Hey Darius, today MoW selected four of your artworks inspired by music; can you tell MoW why you chose to create artworks representing music? And what did inspire you to create the artworks presented today? What is the story behind each artwork?
I like the mood and different sense of self-expression in each of them.
'Darius Bones' is more raw and energetic, you can tell the drummer is giving it all he's got, basically punk rock. Taken in Los Angeles, CA off a busy street in an empty lot.
For 'Live from Graffiti Beach', I picture my friend's band 'Song Preservation Society', a trio of acoustic guitar players that harmonize well. Taken in Columbia, MO. It was cold that night.
'Playing with Fire' was taken at some ruins in the desert in Joshua Tree, CA. It's a lonesome hike out to ruins at night, so I played music on my phone and whistled a tune to keep myself cool out there, I thought the skeleton playing guitar in his room fit the scene well.
'Rock this City' - I picture that Stray Cats song 'Rock this Town' that's the energy I was going for. Taken in Griffith Park - Los Angeles, CA
Do you have a favorite piece between the ones presented today?
My personal favorite of these images is 'Playing by the Fire'. I feel it represents solitude and satisfaction. The light skeleton is playing a song by the fire to express himself creatively. It's a song for no one and he is happy to play it because it brings him comfort.
Is there any other specific words you’d like to say about the artworks presented today?
Each photograph is a performance of sorts, they're all taken on location at night, the technique is called 'light-painting'. The way it works is you set a camera on a tripod so that it stays still during the long exposure, then trigger the shutter with a remote. As the shutter is open, the camera tracks the movement of my LED light, as well as ambient light on the environment, so that anything you draw in mid-air towards the lens comes out in the photo as glowing lines after you close the shutter and end the long exposure. It's a difficult way of drawing a picture but I love it because you never really know what you're gonna get, I've been doing it for nine years now.
Why is music important to you, in your life and in your art?
Music is important to me creatively, it fills the void of space and noise in a wonderful way. It can help establish a mood and get your mind into a good flow, whether it's driving for long road-trips and thinking about what to create, or editing digital media at home. Music brings comfort and inspiration for me.
Do you have plans on creating new artworks inspired by music/musicians ?
I have a series of light-skeleton animations I've been working on, they have different styles, some are funky, some breakdance, tap-dance, they play different instruments. These are all music related but I'm not sure what to make of them all quite yet. It's still in the early stage of development and these projects take a while to accomplish. I have some of them posted as .GIFs here.
Can you tell MoW more about your techniques and how long does it takes you to make an artwork?
The photo technique is called light-painting and it can take as much time as you need for each exposure, mine typically take between 2-6 minutes. I have a few tutorials on how to set your camera (even an iphone camera can do long-exposures) if you'd like to try it for yourself here - it's fun. My style is all about illustrating with an LED light. I use this light-marker called a 'Night-Writer' that I build and sell on my website.
Do you listen to music when you’re working ? If so, what is the kind of music you would listen to ?
Yeah, I like listening to stuff that is melodic has a good beat and a distinctive voice.
What is the song you liked the most lately? What album ? What was the last gig you went to ?
'Juicy Fruit' by Kraak & Smaak is another killer album. One of the last shows I went to was Tycho.
Are you a musician yourself? If so, could you tell us more about your music. If not, how would you see yourself as a musician?
I'm not a musician, but I like to play guitar, or whatever instrument is around at the moment and make up melodies for fun.
THANK YOU SO MUCH DARIUS TWIN!
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