Saturday, September 18, 2021

Artists of the Day, September 18, 2021: Drake Arnold and Rea Grand, American painters, digital artists, and muralists (#1368)

Drake Arnold is an artist working in both traditional and digital media. He uses acrylic and aerosol for his work when painting on canvas or mural wall. His digital projects include creating animations and interactive design work for such applications as projection mapping, 3d printing and virtual reality. His work can be described as often containing elements of psychedelia, fantasy, nature, surrealism, and classical inspiration.

Drake studied music composition at College of Central Florida in Ocala, Florida, where he was also born and raised. He later went on to get his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Digital Art from the University of Tampa. Upon graduation, he worked in Tampa as a motion graphics designer creating interactive corporate training modules for fortune 500 companies. He moved to Fort Collins, Colorado in 2012, where he eventually began working full-time as an artist. He worked as a glass blower for a few years and began traveling to ‘live paint’ at music festivals and events all across the country, always stopping to visit the national parks and see the natural beauty of the country along the way.

At the end of 2016, Drake re-branded his apparel and merchandise business from “Drake Arnold Art” to “Fractal Spirit”. In 2017 he then moved back to Florida to be closer to his family and to focus on building up his new company. In 2018 He created an augmented reality mobile app for his artwork and merchandise that allows people to view his art as a 3D animated, interactive experience. On an average day, he spends his time running the business side of Fractal Spirit and working on new art projects. He lives with his girlfriend Rae in the swamplands of North Central Florida.

Murals and Live Painting
Equally at home in the studio or out in the field, I enjoy getting my hands dirty with traditional media. I primarily use acrylic and aerosol paint for my finished work. I have been live painting at music festivals since 2013 and have been a featured artists at events internationally and all across the country. I love doing murals and large scale public art projects. Watch me paint a landscape here.

Visuals & Projection Mapping
I have created hours worth of 3D fractal animations and other video content that I use for projects such as live visuals and projection mapping for musicians and events. Watch my projection mapping here. I have even created custom projection mapped art installation that are site specifc for festivals and events. Watch one of my installations here.

Augmented Reality Mobile App
In 2018 I developed an Augmented Reality mobile app. The app uses image recognition software to recognize my paintings, then it overlays custom 3D animations that I have created specifically to match each piece of artwork. As you walk around and view the artwork from different angles, you can see the corresponding 3D animation play interactivly from the same veiwing angle. .

Founder of Fractal Spirit
Fractal Spirit is an apparel company and artist collective that I created as a platform to share artwork and create merchandise for fellow artists. I design and release all of my own merchandise and clothing through Fractal Spirit as well as helping other artists, musicians and organizations with their merchandise as well. Visit the Fractal Spirit website here.

Rae Grand is an artist, illustrator, & creator of Spaceland. She has traveled around the country, documenting her travels, following the music, and selling her live illustrations to keep the journey alive. Art fueled the adventure, and adventure fueled the art. Currently, Rae has settled down on a homestead with her partner and new baby girl. Now that she has a studio again, her work has grown in size and turned more inward. Her psychedelic paintings of Spaceland keep evolving with the adventure of what is to come.

© 2021. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by Drake Arnold and/or Rea Grand. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only