Video Transcript: About My Contemporary Art

[Written Intro: Me, Soniei, trying to explain the evolution of my art and the inspiration behind my paintings.]

Hi, I'm Soniei and I'm an artist, full-time. And, I just want to talk about where I get my inspiration for my art.

First of all, I've always been interested in how to calm my mind, body and soul, since I was early in my teens. I was really interested in psychology and spirituality... every subject that had to do with releasing anxiety or other negative emotions.

In university, my major was psychology but I dabbled in philosophy and world religions. My interest in these subjects, or the subject of anxiety and how to calm the mind, is definitely my number one influence on the art that I create today.

[A few images of Sonieis' contemporary art (wall art) are shown.]

The path that actually led me to becoming an artist was... several years ago I had a job working in computer and it was such a stressful job. The work environment was so toxic. I had a boss that was very negative. She was actually the most frustrated person that I have ever met in my entire life. But, anyway... I had to find a way to release my stress and anxiety after my day at work and try to find some kind of balance because I could feel the stress affecting, or almost infecting, my body and my mood. So, I started practicing Zen Sho.

Simply put, Zen Sho is ... the practice of Japanese calligraphy, focusing on emptying the mind. And, that's a very simple, simple, simple definition. It's very relaxing. It was very therapeutic for me. I loved it so much that I decided to quit my stressful job, before I completely lost my mind... I mean, I was going to lose.. my mind. It just wasn't the place for me anymore. So, to make a long story short, I became an artist which was a dream of mine since, I was... I think I was four?.. That I can remember.

And I focused, and I'm still focusing, on art that makes me feel calm, almost spiritual.

[More images of Sonieis' contemporary art (wall art) are shown.]

I also lived in Japan, it was several years ago, and I bring a lot of my experience[s] from there into my paintings. I do a lot of bamboo paintings, cherry blossoms, orchids, sometimes I paint Mount Fuji... I love my Mount Fuji... geishas, abstract art with Japanese characters. You can definitely see most of these subjects in traditional Japanese paintings, but I definitely put a contemporary twist to the art.

And, just recently I started painting, em, paintings with tulips and butterflies, and dragonflies, ladybugs.. like, em, flowing grass, the sky. Those paintings come from me daydreaming about what my heaven on earth would be. And, if I could do anything in the world for most of my days, I think I would just lay in the grass, and look at flowers, and be still.

I think there's a lot of Eckhart Tolle smothered in my paintings. (laughs)

And, sometimes my heaven on earth would be something more exciting. And, that will come through in my paintings. Just depends on the day, I guess.

And, when it comes to choosing colors for my paintings, some days I want bold colors, some days I just want to use neutral colors. But, the colors I choose for a painting [have] to match myself at that specific moment. I can't really explain it. I guess the best way to explain it would be... every day, every moment, there's a color that just matches my mood. Does that make sense? A color that I just wanna surround myself with. (laughs) Oh geez. It is really hard for me to explain.

This is why it's really hard for me to explain to people why I don't do custom paintings anymore. I just don't feel happy or rewarded when I'm creating a painting that doesn't exactly match "me" at that moment. I don't know if this makes sense, but at least I tried to explain it.

(laughs) Oh geez, I love being an artist. I really, really do.

(laughs) Oh, I hate being in front of the camera. (laughs) Oh, phew.

[While you're here, why not check out all of my art for sale! Or, if you're a contemporary artist like me, learn how to sell art online too!]