September 2001
PhotoImpact's English Rose
"A Conversation with Rosie Hardman"

 

What began as a whim in 1997 has blossomed into a full time passion for Rosie Hardman. This retired singer/songwriter who was quite revered in the English music scene for twenty some years got her first taste of digital art when her husband brought home a personal computer to aid in his work as a mineralogist and university lecturer.

Since that time, Rosie has pursued many avenues, from teaching swimming and going on several African safaris, to website design. Her first taste of PhotoImpact came in September 2000, and her work (in particular her stained glass) is quite spectacular. Visit Rosie's original site www.rosiehardman.com to learn more about her illustrious singing career and view her art. While you are there, be sure to partake in her music and read her African journals, complete with some fabulous pictures. Now, let's learn a bit about Rosie.

PIO: What sparked your interest in graphic arts?

Rosie: I've always been interested in art.  It was my main subject at school and I had every intention of going to an art school when I left. However I flunked out in my last year at school. I hated the discipline and the constraints of school-life. I was a bit of a rebel... it's a streak in my nature that hasn't quite died yet!  All my artistic ability got pushed into my music for most of my life.

I originally got into graphics through computer games.  I took to those as soon as they came out and started writing little game programs on the Spectrum - they were the first graphics I made. Then, when we got the computer, I discovered Microsoft Publisher and started using graphics to make greetings cards.  I developed ways of making pop-up ones (there's a tutorial on my personal site), made a number to order and eventually went to college for two years to do a course in desktop publishing. I ended up with the OCR (Oxford, Cambridge and Royal Society of Arts) Advanced Certificate in DTP.

PIO: How did you discover PhotoImpact, and how did it help you make the transition from musical artist to graphical artist?

Rosie: I had already given up music as a career in 1991 - so music wasn't really part of my life when we got the computer in 1997. I had left it way behind by that time.  So really the transition was from music - to swimming teacher - to computer worker/graphics.

I was given my domain name and website as a birthday present in February 2000. I knew NOTHING about HTML or making my own web graphics (I had only dealt in graphics for print). My sole foray into making my own graphics had been with Metacreations' Art Dabbler.  As a result I searched the web for artists who could supply me with illustrations for the Songbook I was putting up for my song lyrics. I soon became fascinated with Gif animations and one of the people I contacted - to ask if I could use their stuff - was Maggie from MaCo graphics (she runs the Animation Station Forum on the PIRC Bulletin Board). We made very good friends and Maggie ended up making a LOT of graphics for my site. She uses PhotoImpact and encouraged me to try it.  I found a free copy of Version 3 on a Magazine in September 2000 and tried it out, fell in love with it and upgraded to 5 within a month. Two months later I upgraded to 6 and the rest is history!

PIO : Your artwork, especially the stained glass, is excellent. What inspires you to create?

Rosie : Anything and everything around me.... with very few exceptions.  (There are one or two subjects that turn me off - BIG time - but I'd better not mention what they are - they are popular on the web and I don't want to offend anyone....). I'm also INTENSELY competitive - throw down the gauntlet of a challenge and it's like a red rag to a bull (unless it covers one of the aforementioned subjects). Offer me an award and I will go without meals and sleep in order to achieve it.  Also if I see that someone can do something better than me it pushes me to improve that skill...  I've always found excellence in any field the most inspiring thing.  If you mean what subjects inspire me most to create I would probably say landscapes, animals, Art Deco and Art Nouveau designs, abstract art, the Impressionist painters and great (preferably unusual) animation (especially the work of Steve Bennett who has allowed me to host his work now that his site, Karmastorm, has been closed down - to me his animations are perfection). 

PIO : Is the creative process of writing a song and designing a graphic similar, or vastly different, and which do you find easier?

Rosie: In a lot of ways they are very similar.  Very often it's trying to find a new way to present a subject that has already been done a dozen ways before. The old 'staring at the page until the tears come' syndrome! Songwriting was slightly different in that I had to then go out and perform the songs in front of a live audience every night.... There are supposed to be limits to what you can say and the subjects you can raise under those circumstances - my great delight was in taking that to the limit and maybe a little beyond at times - with my songs I could be controversial. I like to shock, to challenge established rules. In principle I seriously dislike censorship of any kind - it's not that I disagree that certain things should not be portrayed but I don't like other people's opinions and restrictions imposed on me - either in my general life or my artistic one. I sometimes find the limitations of web art frustrating because of attitudes to certain subjects - my one regret is that I often look at the art on my site and find it very 'bland'. There's nothing there that one could call shocking or outrageous - I miss that.  The great similarity in the creative process is that I have to really WANT to create.  It doesn't matter what pushes me - the subject, a competition, a request - but I can't create anything just for the sake of it - and that applied to my songs and now does for my art.

PIO: What kind of pleasure do you receive from graphic design that you couldn't get from singing / songwriting...if any differences?

Rosie: With  my singing and songwriting I was having to constantly think about performance of the songs afterwards. I chose to only write songs that came from personal experience (usually painful experience at that) - it was actually quite a self-indulgent exercise in soul-baring, a cathartic scream. With graphic art I can play with subjects that have nothing to do with my day to day life. I can make an animated wolf one day and a medieval wall hanging the next. I really have the whole world, plus my imagination, to play with - it's much easier. To put it another way -  I lived my songs - I live with my art - that's a whole lot more relaxing!

PIO: You have been on safari to Africa. Has that experience had any influence on your creativity and are there plans for some "Africa"-inspired artwork on the horizon?

Rosie: Between 1989 and 1997 Rob and I did 14 safaris in Africa - mainly Kenya. I don't know if it influenced my creativity - it certainly changed my perception of the world. Being in the middle of the bush - where there is nothing man-made apart from your camp and the vehicle - gives you a whole new perspective.  Firstly I saw the world as it was - unspoiled by man. Secondly I learned how defenseless and weak we are unless we have the trappings of civilization. I also learned to love total peace and quiet.   Our safaris gave me a greater understanding of and respect for the animal kingdom - and that was always a passion anyway. These things have to influence your creativity somehow - but my love of Africa is such that if I can't get every detail in the picture correct, I won't put it up - it would be a source of irritation to me if I did. I will do it though!

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