Patrick Fergus
@Fergus5Fergus
Beneath the steady glow of a computer screen, his stylus darts and swirls across a sleek design. Each line is a part of a vision, which this artist is perfecting with surgical precision; roughing out a shadowed mythic kraken with sprawling arms and a mighty silver trident, wreaking havoc on the sailors’ ships below.
For Ethan Moses, a first-year major in Art & Design at Springfield College, blending reality and fantasy is nothing out of the ordinary.
“Art is freeing, and it’s imaginative. It makes the world more colorful,” Moses said.
His original characters come to life with every stroke and click of the paintbrush. This kraken-like monster was all constructed through particular features, rendering muscle, motion, and the creature’s menace through deliberate strokes of pure black and saturated color.
Scattered purple lightning bolts shoot down from the gloomy skies, and the ocean waves’ swirling blue and white lines maneuver around the ongoing battle.
Moses effectively forces his audience to fear the creature, framing him striking through the screen.
“It’s like coming out at you, and I thought that was a unique perspective to give it in this form,” Moses said.
Art is not just creative expression but technical rigor—a process of doing, erasing, and doing again, until the canvas, or in this case, the screen of an iPad, pulsates with energy and meaning. It’s become something of a cliche to say that art is always a work in progress, but for Moses’ work it certainly applies.
The frightening monster emerging from the deep blue took several weeks and resulted from meticulous layers of colors and shading, smoothness through different smudge tools and Gaussian blur, and delivering on every aspect of the conception through each tool on the screen.
“In my mind, I’m always thinking of things I want to add when it’s polished,” Moses said. “Sometimes you hit certain roadblocks, but I see those as great learning opportunities.”
Always an artist at heart, Moses started like any does, with a simple pencil, paper and a boundless imagination. But he wasn’t trapped in the traditional mediums of illustration, and he soon found digitally designed art a style he gravitated towards.
“The colors pop more with digital art,” Moses said. “There’s a lot more saturated colors; overall, it’s just more bright.”
His pieces represent larger ideas, often tackling current philosophical issues. Previous work has focused on themes like oppression, justice, wealth and restrictions on education. There’s always typically a central figure or character, serving to embody the theme or struggle Moses wants to represent.
Another piece shows a man with elongated arms and tears in his eyes, surrounded by a library of burning books and scattered pages on the floor. Heavily inspired by Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, it’s Moses’ take on the state of education.
He echoes the sentiment of his inspiration through his art, portraying books as knowledge, and those who destroy them as afraid of the knowledge they hold.
“This character is trying to hold on to the last few pieces that they can,” Moses said about the illustration, which positions the man in the center of the piece, grasping onto stray pages floating around him. “Their freedom to learn and study history is being destroyed.”
Moses never allows himself to be entrenched in his work and can accept that his work can continually be improved.
“My initial idea was to have the man pull strings of smaller people below him to show themes of control and oppression, but this seemed too obvious to me,” Moses said. “I wanted the message of the artwork to be more indirect and mysterious.”
These ideas are now fostered and assembled within the walls of Blake Hall, home to the visual and performing arts departments, numerous art studios and the Blizzard Art Gallery.
It wasn’t a tough decision for Moses to commit to Springfield College; as an East Longmeadow native, his mother, Laura, also worked as an administrative associate in facilities at the school. Free tuition always makes the choice a little easier.
His experience has furthered his passion for the craft while challenging what he already knows.
”It’s been a great blend of the technical aspects of art and the way not to lose your identity as an artist,” Moses said. “It’s been really good for me, because it is getting me out of my comfort zone.”
Harold InDelicato, an associate professor of digital design and studio art, has seen how quickly Moses has distinguished himself, especially as a digital artist.
In classes, InDelicato encourages his students to take the “McLuhanesque” way of thinking regarding their relationship with technology and the art it produces. At its core, the McLuhanesque analysis wants the artist to look past the piece’s content and instead consider the psychological and social impact of the medium they’re using.
As someone inherently invested in the conceptual slant of art, Moses has shown this in his work for classes.
“Much of his work is infused with meaning,” InDelicato said. “His visual storytelling is communication, and there’s a depth to his work that reveals thoughtfulness and personal voice.”
It helps that digital art can move beyond the physical limitations of traditional forms and, therefore, holds unique capabilities in expressing ideas. Moses has been using a program called Procreate for many years, and one look at the expansive tools available at the click of an icon, you can see why the possibilities seem endless in the digital front.
It features a comprehensive set of tools, including over 300 custom brushes, a flexible layer system, and various color options; it is an ideal picture plane for complex creations.
Moses recognizes a need for this type of work in his space.
“When it comes to these concepts like philosophy and free will, it’s common for that kind of art to be based in more realism,” Moses said. “I feel like that kind of stuff hasn’t been done on digital art and in this kind of style.”
Wherever he goes, the art is there with him. The simple booting up of a program and a flash of inspiration will deliver a brand new layer to a piece. The shading of the knuckle of a giant sea monster or the minute wrinkles in the pants of a man on fire, each ready to step off the screen.
Moses steps back from his digital canvas as the colors flash, already envisioning the next challenge and character to bring to life.
Photo Courtesy of Ethan Moses