Artists: Ana Alvarez
Exhibition: The Dwarven Elder
Media: Graphic art printed on paper
Gallery: LBSU School of Art, Gatov Gallery
Website: N/A
Social Media: N/A
The artist, Ana Alvarez, is a student at the Long beach state university college of the arts studying in graphic design. Alvarez is highly interested in video games and more specifically concept art for such games. As I interviewed the artist she recounted that her artwork is heavily inspired by video game, ranging from high fantasy games like Skyrim and Dark Souls, to indie games such as hollow knight. The artist fascination with video games lead her to graphic design because it allowed her the freedom to imagine an entire universe in which the characters she creates can exist.
The piece, The Dwarven Elder, at first glance comes off with very warm colors, almost the entirety of the artwork is some shade of red eventually fading into a light blue sky. The background conveys a cold high desert, almost mountainous feel due to the small amounts of white covering the plateaus giving the appearance of snow. The focus is the dwarf which draws the eye with stronger, darker line work, aided by in part by being at the center of the piece. The background in is hazy, far more greyed and less detailed giving it the feeling of distance and space. In contrast the foreground is much cleaner sharper linework with brighter colors and far more detail to convey a sense of closeness to the viewer.
Alvarez, when creating her art pieces, likes to not imagine just the single character in question but the entire backstory and setting that that character would live in. In particular for this piece, which draws from prominent western games like red dead redemption, is set in a western mining town in a high fantasy environment. The driving force in the plot being the discovery and excavation of a rare crystal found in a remote prospecting town. The character depicted is the mentor to the primary protagonist, Jen Redwater. The main antagonist in this world is a wealthy monopolist come to exploit the town for the rich deposit of crystals which the town holds. The artist thought process in this elaborate story line is to start from the outside in and imagine the world first then populate it with characters who might live in that world.
The artwork that I saw certainly feels like a good indie game, one that I’m not particularly sure I’d play, but one that has great artwork nonetheless. I enjoyed interviewing and interacting with Ana as she really did have the entirety of this worlds story planned out in her head. It added a depth to the art to know that there was a story, and the character in the piece had a personality. When I see a piece of art which I know nothing about it isn’t as much of an experience than if a piece of art has something to say beyond what you can see. Not everyone can be so lucky to have a one on one conversation with the artist who made any particular piece. However, a video game provides an entire experience you have alongside a character, someone’s artwork. A story attaches meaning and personality to a piece, and video game provides the opportunity for a very personal story because of the ability to interact with the an artwork.
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