Aimee Fleck is a 21 year old art student in Baltimore. She caught our eye with some queer super-hero drawings and definitely geeky subject matter.
When did you first start drawing? When did you begin to think of yourself as an artist?
I've been drawing for as long as I can remember! I've always considered myself artistic, but I made a commitment to being an artist in junior year of high-school, when I realized that art was pretty much it for me.
Are you aiming for any particular career/goal with your artwork?
I hope to have a career in illustration-- basically, commercial art. Within the field, I'm interested in a little bit of everything-- my focus has been on editorial work, such as for newspapers or magazine articles, but always with a more narrative bent. The type of work isn't as big a deal to me as the content! I'm definitely interested in doing work that's imaginative and progressive in nature.
Do you think growing up in the digital age has given you an advantage over older artists or is it sometimes a distractions (has internet aided/harmed you artwork?)
I don't think it's an advantage or disadvantage thing, really. I'm not better off than other artists because of the digital age-- you can look at pretty much any golden-age illustrator to see that! However, I do think it helped shape and define my personal experience with the arts. One of my earliest "artistic" memories is of messing around with the (extremely 90s!) kid's art program Flying Colors. I grew up immersed in online art culture on sites like DeviantArt and ConceptArt.org, and because of that, started doing serious digital artwork in middle-school. The one advantage growing up in the digitalage has given me is comfort with all of the tools which have now become pretty much required for publishing and promoting illustration.
Do you think of your artwork as queer?
Obviously some pieces are queer in subject matter, but I don't consider all of my work queer.
Do you think of yourself as a queer artist?
I don't! It's not something which defines my work, I think, at least not exclusively. I do try and be a socially responsible artist, however, and I think that does have a profound effect on my work. It's important to me to not just represent mainstream or privileged experiences and aesthetics-- that's something which I think about a lot in regards to my illustration.
Who inspires you?
What DOESN'T inspire me! One of my favorite things is that even though I'm a illustrator and super inspired by my fellows-- both classmates and professionals like Polly Guo, Emily Carroll, Sam Bosma, etc., there are some amazing people working in the field right now-- I also am massively influenced and inspired by television, literature, photography, fashion... you name it. Illustration is great because it's really a what you put in, you get out thing-- you kind of assimilate a lot of different types of media and knowledge and they all swirl around inside you and in the end always show up in unexpected ways in your work, whether you intend to or not.
What's your favorite piece you have created? Why?
That's a hard one! I like different pieces of mine for different reasons. Usually, whatever I've created most recently is the most technically proficient, and being someone who is in a competitive field and always striving for "perfection", I usually like my more technically proficient stuff better-- so a glance at my Flickr account can pretty much tell you what I like most at the moment! Sorry, it's kind of a boring answer.
You have geek tendencies for sci-fi tvshows (Stargate Atlantis, Supernatural, etc), what gets you into a show/story and inspires (sorry for using this word twice, I am a hack)?
Yep, I was raised on Star Wars and Anne McCaffrey novels and it shows! I'll always try out something with an interesting or cool premise, especially if it's science fiction. For me, though, the staying power comes from anything with real emotional resonance. As I'm sure anyone can infer from my work, I'm a feelings person. I really want to be moved by whatever I'm watching! I'm a very emotional person-- super romantic, cries easily, likes happy endings. In that way I'm very "typically" feminine, something I've struggled with as a self-proclaimed nerd-- I'm really grateful to fandom for being a community where science fiction and romance aren't antithetical! I know it's not everyone's thing, but it's definitely mine.
Regarding your short story comic drawings, any interest in making something longer form?
Here's the thing about comics: comics are HARD. They make no money and take a heck of a lot of time-- and on top of that, they're illustration times a million! I love comics, and love the possibilities the narrative format opens up-- but at least at this moment in time, it's definitely not a priority. I'm much more interested in creating single pieces which imply narrative. Also, as I mentioned, I am most connected to more emotion-driven narratives, which I think are harder to convey in comic form!
What's your model for the NSFW drawings you do? Your sex drawings are totally awesome and beautiful without being "porn-y" even while they display graphic acts, how do you find that line?
First of all: the thing about being an illustrator is that my job is also my hobby. I take a break from drawing... to draw. You have to understand that while I'm super stoked people like my sexier drawings, and if there was an opportunity to get paid to do them I'd jump on it in a second, as it stands-- they're mostly stress relief! I get to practice my craft while blowing off steam in the form of getting out my own personal fantasies and desires. In general, I think that a lot of the difference between "porn-y" work and more erotic work is really just authenticity. Even when I'm just messing around (hah! messing around), my work comes from a personal place! We all have different ideas of what's erotic, but more and more I think people will tell you that genuine is sexy. Also, as far as I can tell, drawing sex acts is a lot like sex-- if you're comfortable and happy with what you're doing, it's probably going to come off as healthy, fun self-expression as opposed to something which will make others uncomfortable!
More of that kind of thing here.
Anything else you want people to know about you?
I owe a lot of my identity as an illustrator to being a geek. Growing up, some of my first real exposure to illustration was science fiction and fantasy novel covers. What drew me to them was really this amazing application of craft-- to rival, as far as I could tell, any of the modern art my mother would take me to go see-- to these pocket-sized "unimportant" objects. To this day, I'm moved by illustration because it's about art for the small things, not the big ones. I still remember my favorite book covers, even if I never knew the artist's names. Being a geek, to me, is all about making a big deal out of the small things that make you happy-- and I can see no better way to be a geek than to dedicate my life to illustrating the "unimportant" things (books, television, comics, movies) that make me feel pleased to be alive!
You can learn more about Aimee on her site: http://aimeefleck.com/ or her art blog: http://aimeefleck.blogspot.com/ or her tumblr: http://brofisting.tumblr.com/
She also has several prints for sale at Society6:
All images in this post come from Aimee Fleck.
