>>Simon:
Well, I was born in China,
and lived in Beijing, China for 10 years, and then my family moved to Hong Kong for
10 years, and then I moved to LA at age 21.
But ever since I was a kid,
y'know even back in China and I've always been fascinated by designs of
ancient creatures or monsters and stuff like that. I've always been drawn to it.
Those type of sculptures or paintings,
anything that has creatures in them.
I guess I've always had that affinity to those type of things, but y'know,
I don't understand why, but it's always been with me.
I think it is,
just when I look at a completely
alien or never before seen creature or a character,
there's just something innately
exciting about that.
I don't know, I cannot put my fingers on what it is.
It's very intriguing to me like
how they come up with stuff like that, what ...
because when I was a kid,
I was just drawn to the aspect of, "Oh, that looks very, very different.
That looks very, very exciting.
I don't know why but I want to find out what it is about
this character, how they did it." Y'know, but as I grew older,
it became sort of -- I became more analytical.
I look at something I want to figure out what's different about this one,
how is it different from the others.
And later on, I became even more scientific -- 'How does it work? What's making this thing
possible?'
I guess ... but all along, the different aspects of monsters and creatures I've always been
fascinated with.
I remember the first time I saw the Alien.
I mean there's no denying that, the first time I saw the alien creature, from the film
Alien.
I was blown away by it.
That thing was always in the shadows, "What is that?"
But it's very, very intriguing.
And I also remember first time I saw the Predator, when the mask came off.
That was completely unexpected.
And then the things like the face hugger, all those type of things. They're just so
many.
But the memorable ones? Just in recent film history, I could probably say the Alien and the Predator.
I've always enjoyed sculpting since I was a little kid.
I started playing with Play-Doh I believe at age three or four as far as I can remember,
But mainly it's just always been a hobby. I've been just sculpting on and off
as a hobby throughout most of my adult years.
I actually started professional sculpting only a couple of years ago...
about -- right now, I'm 42. I started doing sculpture full-time at age 40.
Art was never really a goal for me because ...
I don't know. I've always had that affinity for art.
I love art, but for some reason it never occurred to me to become an artist.
I used to draw a lot.
But then I stopped drawing.
I kept sculpting but mainly as a hobby, just doodle.
Artist was never a possible career choice for me.
For some reason it just never popped in to my consciousness.
I actually... My background is actually --
I went to business school.
I studied marketing.
And then I graduated, I became a self taught programmer.
I learned how to build websites,
how to do graphic design,
so I started my own little web design company and I built websites for 10 years.
My turning point actually,
what led me to switch from being a web programmer to a full-time sculptor
was actually at one point, I was approached by two sculptors,
Brandon and Jerry Shiflett.
They asked me to build a website for them, and I did.
And at the end of the process, I built a forum for them, I figured might as well just test
out the features.
I posted some of my sculptures on their forum.
Next thing you know people started emailing me, telling me they want to buy my sculptures.
"Really?" Then it dawned on me.
You know, there is something there. I could possibly make the switch.
So I started doing model kits as part-time.
Then within two years, that side job has kind of picked up
and I reached the point where I felt confident enough, "I can make the switch,"
because of my background in online programming and online marketing.
I've thought...
'It might be possible for me to market myself at this age, at age 39.
If I can possibly
market myself without going through the shops or working
in the film industry and be an independent artist.'
So that was the turning point,
and then I had a hard time actually trying to convince my wife, "Okay. This is what I'm
going to do.
I'm going to close down my web business
and I'm going to become a sculptor."
Actually, at that time
we just had our first son.
So it took quite a bit of convincing for me to make that switch, but
I'm glad that she was very supportive of me
and I made the switch.
And so that was
two and a half, three years ago
that I made the switch from web programming to sculpting
and designing my own characters and release them as a model kits.
That's when I started doing concept design work for movies.
It has just been a very, very different experience.
And I've been just been working non-stop ever since.
I think that --
I mean, for me --
one, because of the limited experience or exposure I've had
in the film industry if you will.
I've been lucky in the sense that
I've always been just
trying to doing something for myself. And first and foremost,
it has to please me. Because I think at the end of the day,
I'm not getting any younger.
I have to do something that I think that would contribute to my growth as an artist.
I want to do something that I enjoy doing or enjoy making.
So when I work for someone else,
I try to bring that type of mentality to it, not that I won't take directions from other
people.
But I try to honestly
give my interpretation or give my analysis
of how a character should be
or how
art
can be created or presented from that angle.
In terms of a commercial product, I try to do something
that I like,
but at the same time is commercially viable, if you want to think what the consumers will
like,
how they will react to a certain theme or product.
I mean for myself,
I enjoy all sorts of different themes. I enjoy monsters just as much as I enjoy,
things that are beautiful.
But it's just so that I'm in a position where
most my fans are monster lovers. They love monsters.
Which is no problem for me because I love that too.
You know, but at the end of the day,
I'm really drawn to just things that are all
across different spectrums.
In terms of dealing with criticism,
obviously that is a relatively new thing for me, because before,
I've been just calling my own shots or doing my own things. Y'know.
If people didn't like it,
fine, I'll find someone else.
Working with directors, art directors -- that becomes a different scenario,
but I've always been used to that type of interaction with people because
before, when I was running my own business,
I was a designer, I was a programmer,
and I always go to my client with the best solution
from my perspective,
but that might not be their reaction to whatever proposal that I was presenting them with.
Dealing with customers,
I've always been accustomed to that for the last 10 years of my life,
before I even became a professional artist,
I was always used to just working with people, knowing
where and when my ego would stop, and the transaction to come in
and to make it work because at the end of the day,
when someone else hand me a paycheck and I'm performing a task,
it's not about what I want, it's about
getting what the client needs
and what they're paying for. So that part, I have no problem with.
My artistic influences have always been the renaissance masters,
Michaelangelo,
Bernini,
all the way to Rodin,
Alfred Gilbert --
all the special effects, master sculptors ...
I mentioned before Brandon and Jerry Shiflett are both good friends of mine, fantastic sculptors,
love their work
Carlos Huante, Jose Fernandez, Steve Wang, Jordu Schell, the list just goes on and on.
Back in the day,
I used to love the works of Japanese sculptors, the Garage Kit sculptors, Nirasawa Takeya
I mean I try to draw my influence or influences from all over the place,
because I liken it to be
the only way to better myself as an artist, is to learn
from all disciplines, because you never know where the next inspiration is going to be
coming from.
It could be coming from a dance routine,
it could be coming from a piece of music.
Because at the end of the day, I think all these different art forms
are kind of related, or kind of interrelated. It's all about expressing the human emotion.
All that I'm doing here is I'm sculpting something in clay,
I'm trying to tell a story,
I'm trying to formulate a character,
but the driving force behind that
is more than just
looking at some grand sculpture and admiring the artistic effort that went to it, it's
actually
a lot of different things.
If I can be just watching people playing the drums.
And that feeling, energy, whatever that's energizing me can just be translated into
my work.
In that sense, I look to all the different artists
and try to draw whatever it is that they're doing
and try to bring that into my work.
For someone getting into this for the first time, I would tell them,
keep an open mind
in terms of your artistic interpretation.
A lot of the young kids or young artists that I've met,
they're always trying to do something cool.
They think that -- I think they pay too much attention to the outer, exterior ...
What I would advise somebody coming from that background to do is
really keep an open mind, keep learning, keep bettering yourself,
and also want to balance the business side of things and the artistic side of things.
You cannot have one without the other.
You can be the greatest artist in the world,
but if nobody is aware of that you exist,
that is not going to make a difference.
Or you could be the best salesman, but if you cannot create,
that's not going to work either.
We're in the business, or we're in the profession where the two kind of
have to go hand in hand.
You have to keep constantly bettering yourself
and to keep -- constantly try to become a better --
for lack of a better description, a better business person.
Because at the end of the day it's all about interpersonal relationships.
For somebody starting out, yes, try to strive ... try to become a better artist, but at
the same time
try to be more
personable.
Learn from people, not just the art,
and also how to deal with different people.
Yeah, I always
want to do different
and bigger things.
Not in terms of size.
Yes, I would love to sculpt something maybe 10 feet tall.
Just stuff that I've never attempted before.
And that's what's keeping it interesting for me.
Because my professional career has been very, very short up to this point.
I don't have a huge portfolio.
But there are so many things that I want to attempt
that I want to accomplish.
I'm just trying to get that done one at a time, because if I look at Michael Angelo's
work, Bernini's work,
"I've never attempted that, why not?"
But we're living in a digital age
where you can copy and paste
and we can use rubber stamps and just make things done much, much quicker,
why not just combine the knowledge of the modern day era,
but with
the mentality of the master,
the older masters from back in the day
and try to create something new.
Use the mixture of all these different tools
and different sources and inspiration
and create something exciting.
Whether with doing it in clay or doing something in the computer.
So that has always been my driving force anyway.
Every day I get up,
when I come to work, when I come to my studio, I feel energized
because, Oh, I get to do art.
No, I want to do something different.
I want to do something new that I've never attempted before.