#019 — Yan Paul Dubbelman

Hello Yan Paul! It’s great to have you here on our Artist Spotlight. Could you please introduce yourself?‍

I’m a digital artist from the Netherlands, currently traveling all over Asia with a special focus on South Korea. My work is focussed on calm digital worlds for exhibitions, advertising and even drone shows using Houdini.

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Your work is not only inspired by nature but it’s a digital transmutation of it. First, I’d love to know. How connected are you yourself with nature? ‍

It might have started a long time ago when I was deciding between studying Biology and Film, I ended up going for the latter but I’ve always been interested in the idea of how nature makes us feel and when I started traveling more I came to the realization that nature is a truly connecting force.

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It truly is a connecting force. Having plants and flowers in your home are said to improve your mood, reduce stress, increase productivity, and purify the air. Except for the last one, do you feel like your art has a similar effect?‍

I definitely hope so, I describe my work as Ambient, I am adding to a space (digital or otherwise) to enhance a mood. Since my work is calming and doesn’t overly ask for your attention I hope to achieve calming and inspiring moods. I’ve also been told that people are feeling that they feel a sense of “pause” between all the hectic media they consume throughout the day, that’s the type of experience I’m very interested in producing.

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If we take a look at your immersive art exhibitions such as Gold Inside and Look up, Calm Down, the observer is surrounded by beautiful flowers. What is special about experiencing your art on the largest screen or installation? ‍

These types of massive screens completely transform the elements in comparison to watching the media on your phone for instance. When flowers are small they create a feeling of fragility and a sort of warm strength, when the flowers are shown on a much larger screen they tend to feel “grand”, a semi-sacred feeling of overwhelming visual input. When you sit in a room with a giant flower opening in front of you you can’t help but stare at its core. This produces a meditative feeling, for however long or short it might last.

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I'd love to experience that on such a scale. How do you picture the future of our world as the digital is growing ever closer to the physical?

‍I see the future as being a lot more “naturepunk” than cyberpunk, technological advances seem to bring us closer to minimized yet powerful devices and solutions.

Natural elements have a deep-rooted (pun intended) connection with our humanity and whether you grow your own flowers, go out and touch grass or dedicate yourself to her shapes, I think our shared respect for plants will survive all the changes.

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Roger Scruton in his book Beauty argues that beauty and its transcendental nature can be found in anything that’s real. For example, nature can be appreciated as beauty pure by itself. 

You control the output of nature through digital artmaking. Does your art also carry a form of natural beauty?

Definitely, I try to pursue the idea of Romanticism, especially the aspect of using natural beauty to convey deep and powerful emotional stories. My process involves researching natural shapes and then showing an ideal version of those shapes, not necessarily looking for the “best” mix but seeing how the disparate parts might fit into a brand new composition that retains the strengths of its parts. While I’ve been intimidated by the idea of human-shapes I’d like to use those in the future to explore how this can further build on Romantic themes.

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Is there a specific type of plant or flower you’d love to use as a subject but haven’t yet? ‍

While I do have many plants and flowers I like I tend to focus on one or more specific elements of the plants rather than focussing on the whole plant. The only thing missing in my toolset now are human and animal shapes to juxtapose with the flowers.

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Oh that would open up a whole new world of expression. Exciting! How much has technology and its advancements influenced the work you create?

The only thing I know for sure is that I wouldn’t have been this focused on plants if Houdini would not exist. Houdini’s workflow and community have unlocked a more artistic workflow that had not existed when I was using C4D and After Effects. I’m looking forward to all the new tools coming out in the future and I’m curious how it will unlock workflows for artists.

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When it comes to your technical abilities of software such as Houdini, do you feel like you’ve successfully bridged the gap between your ideas and their execution? ‍

Houdini enables me to develop tools that I can improve and adjust going forward and since I’m not using much code beyond a line or two in my tools it’s easy to share with other people. For my personal work I feel quite confident that I can make what I want, the next challenge is expanding the workflow to other, probably junior, artists to see if my workflows can help them as well. When I teach I tend to give away a few of those tools, so far it seems to be easy for artists to work with.

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What do you think your art says about the world around you?‍

I’m constantly struck by how many artists don’t realize that “the world is waiting for them”, what I mean by that is that people are really excited to work together but they don’t tend to reach out to each other casually. I hope my work and lifestyle provides an example of how easy it is to bridge international borders and cultures and how inspiring it can be to be part of a larger international community. Flowers are appreciated by everyone, everywhere. I think this concept is connected to the “internationality” of my career.

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Do you feel your art reflects your own emotions?‍

Not exactly, I get a lot of intellectual satisfaction from my effort to improve but my emotional needs are met a lot more from actually meeting people and spending time together. The most important thing in my life currently is the knowledge that I have friends in many places that are as happy to see me as I am to see them.

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Have you ever felt like an outsider in your field?‍

Sometimes, it's mostly connected to the fact that people find it hard to imagine me in their community. I'm not quite a motion designer, VFX artist or traditional artist, I am a mix between those. This leads to me needing to make the first move often, that’s definitely something I learned over the years and now I’m relatively comfortable doing that.

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It's important to stay true to yourself. Your unique skillset truly brings value to the scene. Between creating art, selling art and public relations, how have you been enjoying all the aspects of being an artist?

‍I’ve been a freelancer since I finished college. This has given me a huge amount of freedom and opportunities to explore a large variety of lifestyles that would not have been possible if I didn’t choose to be an independent artist. At the same time I’m very much looking for someone to help me with PR and certain types of marketing, I’m definitely feeling stretched thin from time to time but it’s all worth it.

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How do you balance your career as a fine artist and client work? And how has the ratio between the two been changing over the recent years? ‍

I tend to focus on very high quality jobs, these don’t come along often so there are large gaps between clients. I use that time to do more personal branding in the form of instagram activity or giving free courses on Houdini. I’d definitely like a bit more consistency and I am hoping to open a physical studio in the near future to focus more on that imbalance.

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It was lovely to meet up with you in person in Amsterdam. However, you’re more often spending time in South Korea and Thailand. What is it about life in Asia that inspires you? ‍

It’s a combination of a challenge imposed on myself and being impressed with South Korean artists. There is a certain eagerness with artists there that was hard to find in the Netherlands, this leads to a high stress community which isn’t great but it also produces a very high level of productivity that I’m trying to tap into.

The challenge I’ve imposed on myself is to see if I can explain myself as an artist in a country on the other side of the world. This isn’t always easy but I’m happy to say I have a set of friends and colleagues in South Korea who besides being good friends also introduce me to their country as a guest. The food is also amazing.

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Talking about connectivity, your work can also be experienced on a personal device through wallpapers for example. Do you see art-sharing as an extension of your intent with these works?‍

I’m a big fan of finding places that are neglected by the vast majority of artists, phone wallpapers and devices like the Apple Vision are some of those. These spaces are ripe for experimentation. In regards to smartphones they are a screen we look at dozens of times per day, being able to show my work there even for just a second or two brings a fresh and new feeling to experiencing my work.

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That's 100% true. They're all underutilised real-estate that provide great touch-points for art-lovers. What kind of feeling do you hope someone walks away with after experiencing your art?‍

In an exhibition I hope they took a lot of pictures to remember the unique moment that they were together surrounded by my art and generally I hope it was a calm break in between the chaos of daily life.

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Which of your works was in a way the most surprising to you?‍

My “Single Daisy” artwork stands as a perfect encapsulation of my work, it’s so simple and straightforward yet has that “grand” feeling to it. After I saw people taking a picture with it I knew it would hold a special place in my portfolio. It also impressed on me the idea of a “sacred” connection between people and nature, using the flower as a sort of halo to show someone’s dedication or maybe even submission to natural beauty is a theme I’ll be exploring going forward.

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That is beautiful indeed. Single Daisy immediately caught my eye from the first time you shared it. I'm very excited for the work you'll be creating in the future.

What kind of advice would you give to someone thinking of a career in Art and Design? There is always a new generation taking their first steps into this adventure.‍

What helped me a lot is the constant focus on self-improvement, as long as you keep going and trying new elements your character will reveal your affinity towards a software or a theme. All software and technique is valid and powerful if you are using it to improve your skillset.

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Wonderful advice. That was already it, Yan Paul. Thanks so much for being a part of this! 

As always, we like to end the Artist Spotlight with a personal recommendation from the artist. Any good films, books, habits, or anything else you’d like to recommend to the reader?

For books I can recommend The Art of Loving and 1Q84, they have been important books in my artistic and philosophical development. As for habits, I tend to block most distractions while I’m working. I have completely accepted that I am constantly trying to distract myself and so I found several ways to block out those websites and apps. It's done wonders for my productivity.

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