Kuwait Times

Published Date: June 20, 2008
By Hussain Al-Qatari, Staff writer

She sits in the belly of a galley sunk into the ocean floor. An antique TV in the background broadcasts the news while a perplexed seal puppet wearing a striped sleeveless turtleneck reads a copy of the Mermaid Times. The mermaid stares back at the viewer while Oscar, in all his golden glory, stands proudly atop an aquarium next to a reclining fish.

This image, drawn with a variety of computer software, is the product of the imagination of 21-year-old Kuwaiti artist Ahmed Al-Refaie. An English literature student at Kuwait University, Al-Refaie creates a graphic world of surrealist pop culture with an anime sensibility.

Ahmad's work was featured in the news section of Deviant Art (www.deviantart.com), a worldwide Internet community focused on art. Two of his pieces were selected for the online front page of the website, and several of his works have been showcased in the site's Daily Deviations, a feature that chooses 10 of the most-notable works every day.

The young artist's work is based on graphics, a medium that is always associated with Photoshop software and its ability to tamper with the reality of objects. His artwork is not about mirroring reality. Its aim is to create something new.
Finding a fan base for his imaginings has not been easy. "It's the Kuwaiti audience. A person would approach me and ask: 'How did you do this?' As soon as I tell him that I use Photoshop, he'd just nod his head and say, 'Oh, Photoshop. That's easy!'

It is not easy at all, says Ahmed. "I think what the computer does is that it provides you with the tools. It doesn't create art for you. It just aides," he says. The process is far from simple. He says that it sometimes takes him up to two months to work on a single piece.

Style is key to Ahmed's work. He employs a technique called Vector that organizes and layers elements in the design. "It basically depends on using shapes in order to create an artwork. There are no blurred effects like there are in paintings. There are no soft edges; everything is just sharp and defined. So you arrange shapes on top of each other and end up with something different," he explains.

The artist says he doesn't like to craft faces from scratch for the people he makes in his Vectors. "I don't want to create my own faces and end up with something funny; I've tried it," he says jokingly. "I don't want to have a misplaced eye or a misplaced nose, I want them to look normal." In order to do that, Ahmed says he traces the outline of celebrity faces, whom he uses as references for his work. After tracing their faces and drawing the skeleton, he colors them and makes the Vector.

IDEAS AND INFLUENCES

Ahmed usually has a message in the Vectors he creates. "They might not be the initial reason behind creating them, but the ideas do come to me eventually as I work on them.

One of the Vectors Al-Refaie created is of a faceless woman lying down on the floor, her body covered with trees, buildings, deserts and seas. She is holding a flower in her hand that looks like a sun. I guessed the symbol immediately. "Mother Nature," I said. Despite the high probability of my interpretation being correct, he refused to confirm whether that was the intention behind the work or not.

The aspiring graphic artist's influences are not pop-culture artists; neither are they classical or modern artists. What influences him, he says, is his judgment, or what he sees to be beautiful. "I might totally hate a painting but love one small detail about it, like the lighting, for instance." He also finds inspiration sometimes in other fields of creative art, like movies and music. "I once tried to copy one of the ships that were in the movie 'Troy'. It wasn't anything serious. I just liked how it lo
oked and wanted to create it in 3-D." But 3-D is very time-consuming, so he decided to work on Vectors instead. Music, he says, sometimes puts him in the mood to work on certain things with the graphics.

Al-Refaie's art has been criticized by some people for not having a Kuwaiti touch. They always have certain expectations, Ahmed says, and when an artwork does not meet these expectations, it is of no value or importance to them. "They feature artists on TV who show things like Sadu, a camel and a tent in the desert or Kuwait Towers. That's all that they want to see," he says. "In this coffee shop that we're sitting in right now, do you see the Kuwaiti flag or anything in the decoration that has to do with
Kuwait?" He says that reflecting his love for Kuwait does not have to be through his artwork. "I love my country, but it has nothing to do with my art.

EXHIBITIONS AND FUTURE CAREER

Ahmed says he only had two exhibitions for his work, and they were both at Kuwait University. "I don't think I'm ready to have large-scale exhibitions yet. I need to develop more." Ahmad is quite hard on himself and his creations. He tries to make the most out of his mistakes, he says. "I always hate my old work, and always try to make something better to improve my skills.

Career-wise, he says he tried freelancing but it did not work out very well. "Most of the time the ones who ask me to design things for them are not satisfied with my work. Even if they say it's good, they ask me to do something different." More than once, Ahmad ended up giving clients five or six possible drafts, but they were still not satisfied. "When I offer to design the graphics for a website, I offer a whole package, which includes icons, banners, etc," he says. "Some clients object to the price I a
sk, saying that it is too expensive." So he is done with client work, he says. He will continue to polish his skills and work on graphic designing, but won't tailor his work to the demands of clients. He'll be the judge of his own art. Art is, after all, very personal.

Ahmad's personal gallery can be found on www.owaikeo.deviantart.com

Email: hussain@kuwaittimes.net