Exposition Art Blog: Jem Raid Self portrait figurative video artist

Jem Raid Self portrait figurative video artist

Fifty years of photography and tired of the single image led me to making digital art montages. This in turn to finding the CSS code to make cross fading before and after images. From there another step to using video creation software to put together many images cross fading into each other. Finally to making the sound tracks myself on a drone synthesizer that I made myself.
 Making these videos is the most rewarding thing I have ever done, it brings together the two sides of my life on one side artistic interpretation and on the other the technical know how, I am also my own model and therefore always available. This gives me total control of the processes from inception to presentation.








 "Interview with Jem Raid self portrait figurative video artist

Milena; Please tell me something about your self
Jem: I was born in Birmingham UK and when I retired I moved to Derbyshire. I'd been a photographer for fifty years and had become tired of the single image. In 2011 I decided to teach myself how to make digital art montages. Having mastered those techniques I realised that I was still producing single images and sought CSS code to make 'before and after' cross fading images. Late in 2015 I realised that better results could be achieved by using video software
Milena; How is your personality reflected in your work?
Jem: My video work is figurative and I am the figure, I have posed for self images for twenty years. I believe that there is nothing like a self portrait to personalise an image or video.
Milena; Can you tell us about where you are right now?
Jem: I'm continually making new videos and entering them into art and video festivals worldwide.
Milena; Are there particular artists who have influenced you?
Jem: Two spring to mind straightaway and are the most important in my life; Catherine McIntyre whose digital montage art I have loved for 20 years, she is lovely person and has been a great help to me. Anne Brigman who in 1908 posed for her self image, 'The soul of the blasted pine' I carry that image around with me, I feel that she is my sister in time.
Milena; What do you think are some of the most inspiring things happening in video currently?
Jem: The resurgence of the figurative image has helped me enormously it's lovely to see so much good work appearing all over the world.
Milena; How do you overcome creative blocks?
Jem: I do get scared of starting another work and often just take a couple of images that are totally unrelated and find someway of merging them. And the muse comes back into the room and I'm off to create something.
Milena; What is the most important thing that has happened to you this year?
Jem: There are two things that have given me a real boost; the first is having eleven exhibitions of my work and having been approved by and having my videos for sale on Sedition Art"

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