As I begin my journey into the art world, I'm discovering so many amazing artists, and with each one learning a bit more about the kind of art that resonates with me personally.
On top of the art itself, I've also found that the story behind the artist means a lot to me, in many ways it adds to the emotions I feel when I look at the art, and changes the experience in many ways.
Over the last month there's one artist that has really caught my attention, his name is Ilan Derech and before I share more about him, let's look at his art. One thing I love about digital art is that it doesn't have to be static, it's the dynamic nature of this art that really amplifies the meaning and emotion of Derech's art in pieces like the one below from a collection he calls "satori"
Along with beautiful and often mesmerizing generative art, Derech also takes incredible photos and videos of Japan and combines these together to really capture both a moment and a mood in an incredibly unique way. Moonlight Dreams is one of my favorites:
While generative art and photos/videos are different in many ways, they are also similar in that both gives artists like Derech the freedom to express themselves in a dynamic and captivating way.
So now let's talk about the artists behind these beautiful pieces, because as I mentioned above, for me, part of my appreciate for art comes from understanding the artist, and Derech has such a powerful story.
This is Ilan Derech, his journey into the art world took off in one of the most interesting and unusual ways. During COVID, Ilan got stuck in Japan. Not only was he stuck, but he was stuck with no money, a trashed laptop, and a camera. From here Ilan Derech took a situation that would be terrifying for most people (and likely was for him for a bit) and turned it into an opportunity to pursue his life's passion.
Since I want to keep my articles short and sweet, I'll leave it here, but if you want to do a deeper dive into Ilan Derech's life and journey as an artist, I highly recommend you listen to this Podcast from PunkCast.xyz.
Writing about art is a very new thing for me so I'm trying to just get in the habit of writing about art and artists I like without feeling too much pressure to write epically long posts. My goal is for these posts all to be around 500 words so you, the reader, can get a nice burst of inspiration and hopefully discover a new artist that you love.
Also an important note, since I am very much in a nascent stage of my journey into the art world, pretty much every artist I share will be someone I don't yet own a piece from. This is true with Ilan Derech but I do hope to change that in 2024 because his art really speaks to me.
Okay, over 500 words, that's it for now, thanks for reading and thank you Ilan for sharing your journey, and your art, with the world, I'm excited to have you as the first artist spotlight on my blog.
If you want to learn more about Ilan Derech and view his artwork, here's some good links to check out.
Twitter/X - https://twitter.com/IDerech
Linktree - https://linktr.ee/iderech
