MOAR featured chat news! Hang out with $spyed!

9 min read

Deviation Actions

SXSW's avatar
SXSW
Published:
3.8K Views
South by Southwest is mere days away and everyone at hq is taking part in some shape or form.  We’ve got a crew of 17 admins making their way to hang at the Austin, TX devMEET and The deviantART Sandbox.  Remember, even if you’re not able to join us in person, you can tune in to our uStream and participate in a live chat during the festivities.

The man at the helm, deviantART’s CEO Angelo Sotira, aka spyed, has been focused on the plans for the year but we grabbed some time to hear what he’s been up to and his thoughts about our upcoming adventures.  In fact, spyed will be sitting down on Monday, March 14th, at 5:00 PM CST for a live featured chat in the #Auditorium to update you on the happenings in Austin, share some of his ideas and hear yours! :la:

In the meantime, enjoy this exclusive interview with dA’s most famous ninja, spyed!

:bulletgreen: Angelo, how's your year going so far?
Intense.  It's been a lot of fun personally and very challenging at deviantART, in a good way. The year ahead has a lot of development, refining and responsibility to it. There’s a lot of really big projects coming to light. We’re orchestrating the release of those projects and the creation of new exciting features the community has been asking for.  We’re growing a lot as a company and there’s a really exciting vision ahead that’s focused on our roots: art and community.

All this planning is also keeping me pretty pinned-down professionally, but to balance and counteract that I'm playing really hard, and it’s great.

:bulletgreen: Speaking of playing hard, have you been to SXSW before?
I went in 2001 so it's been quite some time. I'm sure it's very, very different and I'm really excited to see how it has evolved.

:bulletgreen: So you haven't been to SXSW in awhile and you've been hearing the buzz around the office as we've been planning.  Is there anything in particular you're looking forward to?
I would say that one of my favorite things in the world as the CEO of the company is to watch the company work and see all this exciting stuff happening and know that I didn’t have to directly oversee it. There's a really intelligent set of people overseeing it and I know a lot of crazy and fun stuff is going to happen. I’m also obviously very excited to see the artists that show up, and the way we're going to inspire people with The deviantART Sandbox lounge.

:bulletgreen: The Sandbox is about art and encouraging people to find their inner creative.  Currently, what are some of your favorite art forms to play with?
For years and years, my favorite has always been photography but I think my newer inspiration are Pentel brush pens. Those have brought out a whole new dimension of creativity. I've filled 10 notebooks with drawings and I create about 15 drawings a week, which isn't that much by most artists' standards, but for me in the context of everything else I do, it’s a lot. The Pentel markers have helped me get into acrylics so I'm playing with that and trying similar techniques. I would say that no matter what kind of drawing you're doing, it's a language, and I'm speaking it better and better every year.

:bulletgreen: When you started out this year did you have art resolutions or specific things you wanted to try? You mentioned you’re getting into acrylics.  Was that something you decided you wanted to do or found your way into it?
I didn’t make any resolutions around what to do because my connection to the creation of art is like a flow. It's kind of like its own entity that I tap into and it takes me where it takes me, and it took me to acrylics and then that will take me somewhere else next. That’s what I love most about art; it's more of a spiritual thing.

:bulletgreen: That's an interesting point with SXSW coming up. There will be people sitting at our art tables and we're encouraging them to make friends with their inner-creative and find their flow. Hopefully these people are going to be able to experience what you're talking about.
If I can do it, you can do it.

When we started deviantART, I had roots in the arts and engaged in them all the way through high school but I clipped it and stopped. When deviantART started, I was only making these paper clip sculptures and that was about it. At that time, I didn't consider myself an artist even though I clearly was.

But, by more overtly tapping into deviantART and being involved in the community, and compounded by the World Tour and the artists I met, it changed. My exposure to deviants, literally, brought the artist in me out, so I think that I'm the biggest believer in deviantART and what it can do for people because it helped me.

:bulletgreen: Regarding your Entrepreneur article, the closing paragraph talks about how "deviantART can be a bridge back to the art world." How does this relate to The deviantART Sandbox at SXSW?
That quote is a driving motivator for how we designed the lounge. It's to remind people of the importance of creativity and to introduce them to deviantART. A lot of people attending SXSW don't know deviantART, or have heard about us but don't understand who we are. I would want anyone who experiences the deviantART Sandbox this year to leave with the message that no matter who they are, they are an artist. This idea people have that, "I don't have a creative bone in my body" is baloney. If you're human, there is an artist inside you. And if you don't exercise expressing it, I believe you are suppressing your true self from the present.

Art isn't necessarily about the result, for most it is about the process that you go through to produce the art. Start with a scribble, it feels good. Turn that scribble in to something else. That feels even better. Spark, spark.

I want you to leave our Sandbox with a spark. And if that feels good, we, the deviantART community, challenge you to turn that spark in to fire. And then when you're ready, we can't wait to see it.


Wise words from our Chief Deviant, and we thank spyed so much for his time!

:star: Want to hear more? Join us on Monday, March 14th at 5:00 PM CST for a live chat with spyed in the #Auditorium! (click here for your local time) :eager:


SXSW, Meeting Room 7

March 11-15, 2011

Follow us on Twitter @deviantART | Like us on Facebook

© 2011 - 2024 SXSW
Comments11
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
SaTaNiA's avatar
Great and really interresting interview !
That would be cool if angelo submit is drawings on dA :B

And anyway ... for the chat that will be really hard ... as it will be midnight :paranoid: