There's an artist in everyone of us, we just have to find a way to tap into our creativity. To celebrate artists everywhere, Mashable and Dell partnered with Talenthouse to source work from all over the world. After receiving over 1,300 submissions, 12 were selected to be displayed on the new XPS laptops at Westfield Stratford in London as part of Dell's Find Your Brilliance campaign. Attendees were asked to vote on their favourite artist -- and that person would win a full profile on Mashable. Read below for the profile of Ernő Endre Gergely, a Romanian photographer and graphic designer who was chosen as the favourite, and will inspire you with his stunning photography.
Q: What was your inspiration for the piece you submitted?Gergely: Last summer, I participated in a programme called Eurodyssée for six months, which is an exchange programme from the Assembly of European Regions. I was on Terceira island of the Azores archipelago, working as photographer for the Azorean University, doing super macro shoots for documentation and many field trips where I also shot the used material (textures) for my work. This work is about the time spent on the island and the screaming desire, to go back someday to get more memories to live with. The true inspiration was the place itself, every corner of the island and the feelings that I got over there.
Q&A with Ernő Endre GergelyQ: How would you describe your aesthetic?Gergely: I grew up and live in Transylvania, more specifically in a small-mid size town in the Carpathian mountains. I spent a lot of summers at my grandmother's house in the countryside, so I always had a close relationship with nature. We always went out in the woods and the rivers to play or just for a hike with my big brother or friends. I think this is the first thing that shaped my sense of beauty and aesthetics.Q: Where do you find inspiration for your art?Gergely: Being close to nature is much more important to me than visiting big cities. As an enthusiastic photographer, my main subject is always nature, people and cultures -- I’m very excited before a trip to a foreign country, of all the possibilities I have dreamt about before leaving home and all the white nights when my mind will just go mad and I can’t stop planning everything in my head.As a graphic designer I use what I learned from my art teachers in the fine art high school and university. For me studying, drawing, sculpting and painting since high school has been essential -- to be able to translate complex information into a logo, symbol and basic shapes. I love the minimalistic way of displaying or presenting a brand. However, when it comes to photo collages, I’m jumping back in to the nature side of life, I just can’t neglect the fact that that’s the most versatile and complex inspirational medium for me. I also like to play -- in my works -- with light and shades, sometimes it's just too much and I have to stop myself for a second to realise that the work is done already before it falls out of balance, no need to push it any further.
Q: Why did you become interested in art in the first place? Gergely: My interest in art began way back, when I went to fine arts high school. Here I have to mention one of my teachers who saw something in my drawing skills, and she guided me to apply for the arts. Ever since then I never stepped away from arts -- I studied fine art graphics, painting, sculpting and photography which were my following steps at the university of PKE (Partium Christian University, Oradea, Romania) art department, so I can say that creativity or art has always been close to me in some way.
There will always be people who will not like your style or your vision, but we are not here to serve all of them, that's impossible... just go straight with your thing and don't look back.
Q: What advice would you give people who are trying to tap into their creativity? Gergely: The creative field is sometimes "complicated" whatever you want to do is starting with lots of questions and doubts especially in the beginning, things like "Am I good enough for the creation?", or "If this is OK how will I work, or get the job done?" and so on. One thing is for sure, anybody who follows this path will go mad and will struggle a lot, but I think this feeling is well known for every creative, so my advice, from my own experience is to try to let this kind of question go and just do your thing! There will always be people who will not like your style or your vision, but we are not here to serve all of them, that's impossible... just go straight with your thing and don't look back.