Daniel Keogh is a visual artist from Bendigo, Australia. He recently quit his day job to peruse his adventures with art. Keogh had a keen interest in the historical world of art and artists. Some of the artists that left a lasting impression on Keogh are Francis Bacon, Caravaggio, Jean Michel Basquiat, and David Choe. He says, “I really draw inspiration from these people not so much through their artwork but their personal stories and what they stood for as people. Visually, I think most of my imagery comes more from pop culture, video games, Mad Magazine, cartoons, 90s sports icons, memes and just being an internet kid.” His work is the visual form of a fiesta that refuses to come to an end.
Keogh’s work is quite interesting because of his manual approach to the digital world. He draws everything on paper with a fine liner pen and scans every image by hand. He says, “I know a lot of people create digital art now using drawing tablets and styluses but I really love the physical act of drawing so I’m yet to make the jump to digital.” Later, he colors the images in Photoshop and separates them into layers. This allows him to move images around easily and draw a pattern into his collages. The process of creating a final artwork is a repetitive process that can take up to three days to complete. He does not shy away from making mistakes and cleaning up his act which shows his temperament as an artist to follow his own pace and patterns as he makes his way into the world of art. He says, “If you look closely at my work and zoom in on the details, you’ll see a lot of little flaws, my line isn’t smooth it has a rough edge, sometimes you can see the remnants of pencil drawings underneath and every now and then ill accidentally scan an eraser shaving or an eyelash but I like all of the little mistakes because to me it has character and is a little more alive than a typical digital drawing.”
As an artist, Keogh creates complex images that have a lot of visual information to offer. His idea is to make a viewer stop scrolling and dive into a world of little visuals and invocations that are endlessly merging together and creating a complex world of narratives. He believes that a complex image with inexhaustible visuals is in a way “undeniable” as it has something in it for everyone. He says, “When I was younger people would often say things like ‘you know, sometimes less is more’ because I never really knew when to stop and I never wanted the drawing to be finished but I think I’ve adopted a ‘more is more’ kind of attitude.” Keogh’s idea of representing more and more is like weaving a patchwork of small details to form a larger narrative that can consume a mind with its authenticity and diversity.
