What is your name?
Tyson Mangelsdorf

Where do you come from?
Portland, Oregon, USA

Do you have any favourite or recurrent number?
Not really, but I do tend to shy away from sixes and eights. Sixes tend to have an evil association and may be used to represent such when so desired. Eights just lack a visual aesthetic for me. On the other hand, the numbers seven and twelve tend to connote holiness or truth, so I'll integrate as a visual element if and when I want to enhance that sort of meaning in an illustration as well.

Tell us about you.
I love the freedom found in creativity. When I look at art or listen to music, I can appreciate the resonance and the intended feel, but I really get inspired at the exploration and the unexpected that adds value and meaning to a piece. I think of the artist or composer whose mind is inspired and uninhibited with an idea or set of ideas, and how that creator dares to craft an articulated expression for others to witness. Setting aside fears and doing. That's where I like to be and that's why I pursue art.

How and why was Pixelgarden created?
Currently, Pixelgarden Studios currently houses and showcases me as an illustrator. It was originally established for the long term to provide a venue for me to discover and explore additional illustration styles to market under pen names in the marketplace. Additionally, I plan to showcase other illustrators I admire and respect at the Pixelgarden. My goal is for art directors, designers, gallery managers, and art enthusiasts to have access to a contained yet varied set of amazingly inspired considerations for fine art and commercial illustration under one umbrella. Up to this point, it's been quite a handful featuring just one artist (me), and that is great for the moment.

How much and in what way has Pixelgarden influenced your art and helped you grow as an artist?
Marketing commercially really disciplines you to work and be creative even at those times you don't necessarily feel up to it. There are times for all of us when it's easy to feel like you're out of ideas and out of inspiration. You stare at the blank canvas. As soon as a deadline looms, it forces you to come up with something. You just have to. So then your mind reluctantly does dream up an idea and ten times out of ten, that first idea leads to another, then cascades to another, and soon your thinking in terms you hadn't considered twenty minutes prior. Some of my best ideas have arrived from this pressure and has taught me you don't need to wait to be in the right mood or for the best idea to find it's way to you. You can go chase down an idea whenever you want, despite where you're head is at.

What are your main sources of inspiration?
I do have a number of favorite artists I follow and I love checking out galleries and museums whenever I'm downtown or visiting a new city. I get plenty of books and magazines to flip through regularly—I'm an illustration source book junkie (I probably have at least thirty volumes I keep). More than all these, just being out in the world and keeping my eyes open keeps the wheels turning. A bit of architecture, an industrial design of a functional object, a scenic route through the Pacific Northwest—anything can inspire and kindle an idea and I try to keep tabs on those ideas as best as I can .

Which techniques do you use and which is your favourite?
As much as love exploring and trying out different techniques and approaches, the one I rely on for most of my work is traditional airbrush methodology in the computer environment. I learned to work with various traditional media before I ever learned the computer—I recommend that highly to anyone considering illustration as a career. All the digital tools use traditional processes as metaphors while simultaneously adding the vast array of extra options and functions hardware and software can provide. I work mostly in Photoshop creating a multitude of layers with masks to fill in with color, texture, light, and shadow. For really complex masks, I'll use Illustrator to create those and import into my Photoshop document. In the end, a typical finished illustration file can have over a hundred layers.

How much time do you devote to art?
I can safely say I give much of the waking hours of my life to creating artwork. My work weeks are at least forty hours long, but often I clock sixty-plus hours a week mostly working on art projects, but also spending time talking with clients and administering the business side of things. When I was young and considering career options, the idea foremost in my head was that we all spend most of time awake in this life working, so I might as well pick a profession I'll enjoy and have an aptitude for. In the end, it was down to art or music, so I went with art as it came a bit more easily to me.

When did you start this job?
Even since I was in school and held various full time jobs I freelanced to varying degrees, so there is no definitive starting point really. It feels like something I've always done. Officially though, I started Pixelgarden Studios in 2000, and have been able to do it full time for about four years now and it's been working out great.

Many believe that once art becomes a full-time occupation it loses its freshness. Do you agree?
I can definitely see how that can happen. I've had my ups and downs with where I think my work is going and how motivated I am. Once you do something creative for a living, it does take on this "have-to" mentality. Once you "have to" do anything it becomes "work" and the professional process and resulting product can lose its luster. Given that, I know it's all mental, so I make a deliberate effort to keep it fresh by doing whatever it takes to stay inspired in the ways I mentioned earlier. I also take stock and critically review my work regularly so I can see where it's going and where I might like to take it in the future. Sometimes I remind myself how wonderful it is that I get do this for a living and that clients come to me for a product only I can deliver in my own special way. All this helps me to keep from taking this profession for granted and ensure it's heading in a positive direction.

Please, say goodbye as you would do to an old friend.
Well old friend, it's been a true pleasure sharing this time we've had together. My life is better for knowing you, I hope yours is better for knowing me. As our paths diverge upon the nearing fork in the road ahead, I wish you the best in the inevitable future that awaits each of us.