Help an artist! Answer some questions!

[Liam]

(1) When you're not here on OA, where do you go on the web?

Youtube, for music and free lectures and whatever else else happens to capture my fancy. The Guardian and Independent for news. Sometimes I do writing competitions. I don't generally browse dA, but I find myself on there quite often.

(2) What are your favorite books, movies, games, and TV shows?

I always struggle with this question because so many answers leap to the forefront of my mind.

My top SFF books would be something along the lines of: Kefahuchi Tract trilogy -- M. John Harrison; the Bridge, Use of Weapons & Inversions -- Banks; Bas Lag novels -- Mieville; Blindsight -- Peter Watts; Gormenghast -- Mervyn Peake; Cyberiad -- Stanislaw Lem; Xenogenesis -- Octavia Butler; Cuckoo Song -- Francis Hardinge; Vurt -- Jeff Noon ... James Tiptree Jr., Caitlin Kiernan, and Angela Carter are all up there too.

And that's just scraping the tip of the iceberg. Favourite television is mostly split between American space opera (Farscape is top at the moment, but I'm also very fond of Firefly, Stargate, BSG, DS9, etc.) and British comedy (Red Dwarf, Father Ted, Blackadder, the Thick of It, Green Wing, etc.). Good cartoons have made their way onto my radar lately (Avatar, Samurai Jack, Steven Universe). Pride of first place probably goes to either BUffy or Red Dwarf, depending on my mood.

No answer to Q3 -- I don't tend to follow blogs.

(4) What causes do you care about the most?

I can get fairly grumpy about a whole bundle of socialist causes, but nothing in particular stands out.

(5) Who are your favorite artists?

I don't tend to follow art that much, but I'm quite fond of the grotesque: Goya, Picasso, Hieronymus Bosch, Francis Bacon.

Closer to home, I mentioned Samurai Jack earlier. The art behind the new series was great. And I really like Peake's Gormenghast sketches.

(6) What gets you excited about an art piece?

Aside for the grotesque, I like a strong sense of style. Photorealism is less important to me than style. As part of that, a strong colour palette. Right now, I like a degree of minimalism. It helps things stand out more.