ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: LUKE FELDMAN OF SKAFFS

I want to first give a big welcome to Luke Feldman of Skaffs for being a part of the Met. WELCOME!!!

I saw Luke's work at an art gallery during Culver City's Art Walk, his interesting, beautiful paintings were some of the only things that caught my eye.
Went home, emailed him, and presto magic-o, he replied! This jack of all trades, illustrator, designer, musician, animator and pop artist hails from Australia. He travels all around the world, sharing his artwork with others - creating an experience - he combines visual works with atmospheric music.

He's in Hawaii right now - tonight he's giving a live painting session at Spilt Obsession in Koko Marina. So if you're lucky to live in Hawaii or visiting that beautiful state, check it out.

Check out his site, there are really neat animation clips in there - my favorite is 'who saved the moon' (which was featured at Comic-Con).

Here are a few excerpts from an interview with him on Illustrophile.

You’re more famously known as SKAFFS. What does ‘SKAFFS’ mean?
The word “SKAFFS” came to me one day and sounded like a really cool idea to describe this collection of weird and wonderful characters. More recently I found out that there is a long line of SKAFFS and many of the SKAFFS family have approached me to say that I am making them “proud”.

You’ve done illustrations, animations, toys and gallery art. Do you enjoy one more than the rest? Why?
I love the challenge of adapting my work to different mediums. I enjoy each of them equally as I find it extremely satisfying to see the end result. I also play the guitar and write music which is a nice break. Actually, all the animations on my website are accompanied by music that I composed.

So which do you come up with first, the music, the images, or the story for the animations?
I am very character orientated which means that I usually have the characters and their individual personalities all worked out first. I then take the character and determine a story line that will represent the personality. You will probably notice that my animations do not have voices and therefore to be able to use the characters, music and motion effectively is important for me to portray a story. I storyboard the animation and then I develop the character into a library of poses and facial expressions. I then use Flash to develop the final piece. I also have a library of music that I have developed over the years so I go through them all until I find the ideal piece. I was fortunate to be a finalist in the 2007 Comic-Con International Independent Film Festival which gave me the opportunity to show my short animation “Who Saved the Moon” and to present the making of it to the audience.

He has two upcoming shows in SF and LA: Check his website for details.

So, drop in, say hello to our friend, an amazing artist, Luke Feldman of Skaffs.