TYBS#17 and 18 (MARCH 2007)
The artist known as Dark Bulb is a visionary. He’s also one sick SOB. Trust me. When you see his work you’ll see shades of Dave McKean (The Sandman, Cages), Chad Michael Ward (The Pain Box, various CD covers) and Ashley Wood (Metal Gear Solid) plus an unrivaled infusion of what he calls the techno-erotic.
On art that is half-drawn and half-manipulated by the PC, beautiful women cavort with massive robots, skull-headed fairies sit in thinker poses and meditate on eternity, vampires, mecha and cyborgs frolic in the same playground of pop culture and imagined world that Dark Bulb has created. It’s like Philip K. Dick meets Heavy Metal at an AVN porn shoot.
Sometimes whimsical, often morbid and always sexual, techno-erotic is no doubt an apt term. You can tell I like this kind of art. Maybe that’s why I’ve bought four of his pieces, two of them commissioned. That’s my initiation into buying art.
Dark Bulb is the artistic moniker of Nelz Yumul. An art director at a major TV network who’s been making a name for himself with the kind of images that strikes you like a match in a dark room, or the kind of revelation Neo had upon finding out he was inside the Matrix. Laid-back, phlegmatic and cacklingly jovial, Nelz recently opened a solo exhibit at the newly opened F*Art Gallery.
Titled Twilight Concoctions and Other Delights Nelz says that “Half of the work here is new. The new stuff is playful and exultant. This is thematically dreamy, not just dark.”
Influenced heavily by music, movies and comics (“I like the indie presses more than the mainstream comics like Superman and Batman,” says Nelz. “I like Kitchen Sink, Vertigo, Onie Press. Also world manga and the works of Paul Pope.”) the works on this exhibit run the span from mildly fantastic to unsettlingly disturbing.
“I’m not very detail oriented,” exclaims Nelz, adding that he uses a combination of Photoshop, traditional drawing and Painter to give his stuff texture and life. “I’m more on the overall effect getting across. If the work conveys my message accurately enough then I stop.”
He points to a painting where swans and stars frame little children wearing headphones; his paean to the pleasures of listening to music. “Like if I want this to convey music as being dreamy and listening to it like a heavenly activity then I think about it for a day and then work on it the next day when the image comes in. I work very fast. I can do an average of five paintings per day.”
With such a severe work ethic it’s a wonder he can even shoot the nubile girls he has on his art. Then I find out that most of them are taken from the Net. “Most of the girls I use are from the Net and they’re usually 70s and 50s models. I like the idea of the old girls being natural and glamorous. No alterations, nothing fake. I find them very pretty.”
The problem of poses and getting figures accurately though is solved by using the most readily available model around: himself. “I’m the cheapest model, too. I just take pictures of myself and then manipulate them. Though I would very much like to get something going with nude models if there are women out there who’d be interested to pose?”
To be immortalized in a world of metal and flesh is a great cause. Any women out there willing to shed their clothes and be lit by the Dark Bulb? Just look at the pictures here and send me a letter if you’re interested (karl.demesa@gmail.com). I’ll get in touch with Nelz for you. Also check out Nelz’s art on-line: http://www.nelz.deviantart.com/
Twilight Concoctions runs `til the middle of April 2007. The F*Art Gallery is located at K-1 cor K-D streets Kamuning Road, QC. And is open from Mondays to Saturdays.
On art that is half-drawn and half-manipulated by the PC, beautiful women cavort with massive robots, skull-headed fairies sit in thinker poses and meditate on eternity, vampires, mecha and cyborgs frolic in the same playground of pop culture and imagined world that Dark Bulb has created. It’s like Philip K. Dick meets Heavy Metal at an AVN porn shoot.
Sometimes whimsical, often morbid and always sexual, techno-erotic is no doubt an apt term. You can tell I like this kind of art. Maybe that’s why I’ve bought four of his pieces, two of them commissioned. That’s my initiation into buying art.
Dark Bulb is the artistic moniker of Nelz Yumul. An art director at a major TV network who’s been making a name for himself with the kind of images that strikes you like a match in a dark room, or the kind of revelation Neo had upon finding out he was inside the Matrix. Laid-back, phlegmatic and cacklingly jovial, Nelz recently opened a solo exhibit at the newly opened F*Art Gallery.
Titled Twilight Concoctions and Other Delights Nelz says that “Half of the work here is new. The new stuff is playful and exultant. This is thematically dreamy, not just dark.”
Influenced heavily by music, movies and comics (“I like the indie presses more than the mainstream comics like Superman and Batman,” says Nelz. “I like Kitchen Sink, Vertigo, Onie Press. Also world manga and the works of Paul Pope.”) the works on this exhibit run the span from mildly fantastic to unsettlingly disturbing.
“I’m not very detail oriented,” exclaims Nelz, adding that he uses a combination of Photoshop, traditional drawing and Painter to give his stuff texture and life. “I’m more on the overall effect getting across. If the work conveys my message accurately enough then I stop.”
He points to a painting where swans and stars frame little children wearing headphones; his paean to the pleasures of listening to music. “Like if I want this to convey music as being dreamy and listening to it like a heavenly activity then I think about it for a day and then work on it the next day when the image comes in. I work very fast. I can do an average of five paintings per day.”
With such a severe work ethic it’s a wonder he can even shoot the nubile girls he has on his art. Then I find out that most of them are taken from the Net. “Most of the girls I use are from the Net and they’re usually 70s and 50s models. I like the idea of the old girls being natural and glamorous. No alterations, nothing fake. I find them very pretty.”
The problem of poses and getting figures accurately though is solved by using the most readily available model around: himself. “I’m the cheapest model, too. I just take pictures of myself and then manipulate them. Though I would very much like to get something going with nude models if there are women out there who’d be interested to pose?”
To be immortalized in a world of metal and flesh is a great cause. Any women out there willing to shed their clothes and be lit by the Dark Bulb? Just look at the pictures here and send me a letter if you’re interested (karl.demesa@gmail.com). I’ll get in touch with Nelz for you. Also check out Nelz’s art on-line: http://www.nelz.deviantart.com/
Twilight Concoctions runs `til the middle of April 2007. The F*Art Gallery is located at K-1 cor K-D streets Kamuning Road, QC. And is open from Mondays to Saturdays.
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