Pkok Art on Warpcast

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https://warpcast.com/~/channel/pkokcurated

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We thought hard about being a @moxie.eth Hero this week and how we'll celebrate that. Introducing Pkok Finterviews - Cast-form farcaster interviews, 20 questions to some of our favorite people. We aim to tell stories of phenomenal individuals shaping the art ecosystem on web3. It's also a great way for us and other heroes to get to know and engage with them. Oh! each interview starts with /degen love. But wait, there's more! These Finterviews are not restricted to only those we tag. If you'd like to participate, just respond to the questions and join the party, everybody is invited to be a part of these Finterviews. Tell us more about yourself, read other people's stories and hopefully we all get to know each other better by the end. Pkok Finterviews, a 🧵

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Hi @reneecampbell, welcome to our Finterview :)

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Renée Campbell 🎩

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Gm Renee. It's good to have you here. Shall we begin? There's a long list of questions prepared for you 😁

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Renée Campbell 🎩

Ok let’s do it. It might run over two days though given our time zones 😁

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We have almost a week for it 😆 What does beauty mean to you as an artist?

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Renée Campbell 🎩

Ok I’m still sleepy so let’s hope this makes sense 😁😁 Beauty is definitely what I’m drawn to. I like to create art that doesn’t challenge or confront you but pulls you into a feeling of calm. Without beauty in my subjects, that wouldn’t be possible. To me, beauty is a perfectly weighted image where your eye moves freely without being disturbed in the flow. It’s relaxing and full of positive emotions.

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It makes a lot of sense! What initially drew you to art, and how did your journey as an artist begin?

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I’ve always been drawn to it so can’t remember the origin. I have 5 older sisters that were pretty much all artistic so it was always around me. I remember Mondrian specifically as one of my first art memories. I used to spend hours looking through photo albums, reliving the emotions I felt through the images. That was really one of my strongest inspirations, the ability photography has to make you feel. It was after I finished school that I got my first camera and was able to start finding my art language. Before that, I drew with pencil and charcoal, mostly mimicking photographic portraits by photographers like Herb Ritts and Annie Leibovitz. I loved how you could feel the personalities of their subjects through the images.

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Mondrian, Herb Ritts and Annie Leibovitz... This is a really great starting point. Speaking of which... is there anyone special that helped you when you were starting out (besides your sisters), and what difference did they make?

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Renée Campbell 🎩

No. I just followed my interests. Not all my sisters helped out either. One of them did the opposite to that 😁 The need to create has always been so strong that I couldn’t ignore it. It was happening whether I liked it or not. Like breathing, it was a natural part of me.

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Classic sibling love 😅. Love what you said about the “need to create”. When do you feel like you’ve fulfilled that need the most; when you create something that gets applauded/recognized/acclaimed, or is it more about when you feel like you’ve created something special/unique/good in your own eyes?

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It’s definitely how the work makes me feel. That’s my drug of choice. Feeling the flutter in my stomach when I create something good is the best feeling ever. I’m addicted to that rush. Whether others like it or not is just a bonus. I was creating long before I shared with others and would keep creating whether others were looking or not.

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Speaking of sharing your art with others, how has your experience been so far on fc? In what ways do you think fc is good and not so good for artists?

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My experience from the start was very welcoming but I know I came in at a good time and got a little lucky. I felt comfortable here and because of that, I cast a lot! 😁 I think discoverability can be tough but if you put the time and effort in, it does pay off. It takes a certain type of person to want to dig in and do that though. I’ve had more real conversations here than any other social media and I love that it’s more about the work than the hype. My advice to artists is to try and build a community, branch out of your circles to meet new people. There are so many interesting people I’ve met or gotten to know more thanks to FC and who doesn’t love waking up to a new app created or weird glitch every day? 😁😁

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Fc is indeed a special place which you can turn into whatever you want it to be. Who are some people who make your fc experience exponentially better?

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I have a solid group of friends that always make me laugh and fill me in on anything I’ve missed. I think you know who they are. This place wouldn’t be the same without them.

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Let's go back to your art. Can you share a moment when you felt truly proud or fulfilled as an artist?

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There are two ways I could answer that. Creating a great image makes me feel fulfilled every single time. I breathe easier and am more relaxed but if we’re talking about the feeling of acknowledgment, my first sale was that moment. I had a series charcoal portraits for my final work in high school and a local painter loved one so much he bought it. That felt pretty special. At that point I’d never dreamed of selling my art, I just loved creating so did it. Then selling work at Sothebys a very long time ago felt pretty amazing. Both moments were completely unexpected which is what made them so much sweeter.

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Surprises are always sweet! How has your art evolved over the years, and what has stayed consistent?

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My work has always been led by the emotions in the art, whether it was charcoal, photography or sculpture, it’s always been about the feelings. I’m in aunique position to have had two very separate art lives with a decades break in between from illness. With that comes a clarity to see how I used to create and how I do now. In my first life, I was much more experimental which was fitting for my age. I cross processed and cross printed, exploring many different ways to shoot and manipulate the images. Although there was still feelings of calm in my work, back then it was much more chaotic and exciting. Once I came back to art, my life was pain and responsibilities. A busy life with kids and being pulled in many directions, because of that, I wanted to find calm and it was with that need for calm that I paired everything back. Simple lighting and set up and just me, my camera and the flowers. I needed meditation and found that in the flowers.

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When you are around flowers... are those your meditation moments? When your mind stops and you become one with the flowers? Is this happening all the time or only when you work with them?

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They definitely calm me just by being with them but everything melts away when I’m shooting. Once I start exploring that tiny world, I don’t think about anything else. My mind, body, soul is truly focused on that world.

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It's fascinating to have this insight in your professional life and we thank you for being so open. What would you like people to feel or experience when they see your work?

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Every now and then people tell me they were never a fan of flower photography until my work changed their mind. That is an accomplishment I truly treasure. I didn’t set out to to do anything more than share the calm I feel when exploring the details but what I later realised is that people don’t focus on details like I do. By sharing my work, little by little, I’m turning peoples eye to those beautiful details and hopefully building a deeper appreciation for flowers and nature as a whole. I hope that my work shows how much beauty and wonder there is in those little worlds and inspires others to explore as well.

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It certainly shows! What does the term “masterpiece” mean to you?

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It’s not a word to be used lightly. A masterpiece is work that is so perfect, you can’t improve on it. It makes you feel all the feels.

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Very well said! Can you talk about a moment of failure or doubt in your journey, and what it taught you about your craft?

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I fail all the time and from all the fails I learnt that we are more than just one moment. We are a collection of many fails and doubts, wins and accomplishments. The important thing is to keep building on the wins and learning from every fail so each day you’re a little better than the day before. That’s my mindset with art and life. I’m always striving to improve… and on the bad moments when I need a minute to feel sorry for myself, I eat chocolate 😁

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It seems chocolate was created especially for those moments of feeling sorry for ourselves 😄 How do you handle creative blocks (if any), and what helps you find new inspiration?

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Chocolate is the best! It’s brightened up many dark days 😁 Recent creative blocks have come from watching too much news. Once I worked that out, I learnt to balance how much I take in which given the world these days, it isn’t an easy task but I’m working it out. As for inspiration, that happens naturally. Once I’m relaxed my mind is free. Ideas and feelings come to me that I want to express or simply finding a flower with interesting curves excites me to explore and create.

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Can you describe the relationship between chaos and control in your creative process?

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That’s an interesting question! Once again, a few ways to answer this. My mind is the chaos and I need it to be. I need to have 20 different ideas at a time so I can come to the idea I want to work through. The control is curation. This applies to all my art that isn’t photography. Photographically, my life is chaos, flowers are chaos, the petals are noise moving in many directions. When I shoot, I’m controlling the chaos, finding just the right amount of information to let through to form a clear message that calms my mind, my life and all its chaos. If you saw my desktop, it’s the perfect example of my struggle to maintain the right amount of chaos and control. So many folders full of creative ideas but all in neat folders and neat lines 😁

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Yes, 'chaos brings the chance for creation' is an idea that has existed since ancient times. So let's bring in more chaos: if you could collaborate on a piece with any living artist, who would it be and why?

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I struggle with this question because I really love controlling my chaos 😁 The way I see it, I collaborate all the time with Ai and it’s the perfect collaboration. It’s quiet, calm and I can shape it as I please. If an artist comes to me with a collaboration idea, I would accept if the idea was something that excited me to be a part of.

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That's why we said we would bring in more chaos 😁 Let's make things easier: if you could have any superpower as an artist, what would it be?

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Renée Campbell 🎩

This is an easier question 😁 Teleportation has always been my answer to this question (along with healing powers for obvious reasons). So I’ll stick with that for art too. I could travel anywhere in an instant to get flowers. That would be super handy!

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Considering teleportation would not be too handy, though, in the next ten years, how do you see your work evolving in the next decade, and what new directions excite you most?

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No idea 😁 I never dreamed I’d be creating with Ai yet here I am. I don’t make plans, I prefer going with what feels right at the time. With that in mind I’m excited and curious to see what inspires me through the next decade! I’ll let the chaos decide where I go.

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Going with the flow might be the best idea, as art should be free and not planned. If your art could make a single change in the world, what would you want that to be?

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Damn. Asking the big questions 😁 It took me a minute to decide what the most important change could be. I’d like people to appreciate the little details more. My son looks at the world differently to his friends because of what I do. He’ll see the tiniest flower in the grass and point it out to me excited that he found something so special in the every day. That kind of skill helps a person get through the hard times. If you make a habit of seeing the treasures in the ordinary then you can find the treasures in the tough. Little details equal little moments. It’s a healthy way to see the world.

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What you've just said is not only inspirational but really... beautiful! We're getting closer to the end of the question list, and it's not even tomorrow! What’s one piece of advice you’ve received from another someone that’s stayed with you and you would like to pass on?

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Ok this quote is a little unexpected but the first thing that came to mind is a quote from a Rocky movie. Stay with me on this 😁 I think it’s Rocky 6 when Sylvester Stallone says, It’s not how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That quote has stayed with me ever since I first saw it. Movies pretty much raised me and this quote was the Dad talk I needed at the time and I always come back to it when I need a reminder. I get knocked down almost daily but Rocky helps me get back up 😁😁

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Who would have thought you were a Rocky fan?😄 But the quote is really powerful! Next we are going back to the mundane, and this is the last question: if there’s one thing you could change about FC, what would that be?

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Action is my favourite genre. Unexpected, I know 😁😁 In a perfect world, I’d love to be able to take time off without it affecting my engagement. That would be the dream. To be able to create without interruptions.

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