Inspiration: Alex Noriega

I love this video about Alex Noriega's work. I started following him back when he was still making the most amazing comics and illustrations, and now he makes beautiful paintings, or 'emotional sculptures' on canvas.

I find this video especially inspiring, not just because his style appeals to me tremendously, but also because it shows that illustration and fine art (painting) are just various ways of visual expression. I've always struggled with the so-called divide between illustration or other applied arts / crafts and fine art, even back when I studied art history. From my own practice, it really didn't feel like abstract painting, making a zine, or designing a poster for someone were very different things - yet we would study only the 'fine' arts bit (I'm aware that this may be different at other universities). It's been great to see how that divide is being broken down bit by bit, even if it leads to people using pretentious terms like 'sequential art' to describe comics and whatnot. We're all artists in my mind, and we've all got a degree to which and a way in which we engage with this side of ourselves. A little bit off topic, but I feel the same way about the division between 'amateur' and 'professional' arts, which I know can be qualified but feels like it's often just used as a qualitative judgement. 

Anyhow - yay! Alex Noriega!