kyo talking with tomppa1, vga artist with Acid Productions.

Log Opened: Sat Feb 21 10:01:01 1998
(join!#tomi) (tomppa1 ð ~maumet@rolla-port61.wavecomputers.net) @(10:01am)
[tomppa1 ) yeah!

Acheron
Hello, tomppa1, or shall I say tomi? First please introduce yourself, (name, sex, affilations, local residence)

tomppa1
uhm.. i'm i hirez doodler for acid, been there since 95 or 96.. dunno actually :).. i'm soon 23 years old, and if tomi sounds a male name for you - that's it. living this time in forest - central finland. affilitations goes for mainly acid + some old lame trading stuffs. i started to do logos with amiga500 almost 10 years ago but dropped it soon

Acheron
Your artistic talent has touched the art scene with that amazing style of yours. Do you have any artists that inspire you? and how did you come about your "style"

tomppa1
i guess i haven't had any except those graffitijerks from famous books like Subway art or Graffiti art. i started to do graffitioutlines (and painted a couple) and the wilder and wilder they got with different lines and stuff i noticed how to draw easily flowers and shit with those. that's a happy accident from 3 years ago, i guess

tomppa1
this time, i'm very much into abstract expression like works by De Koonig, Kline, Pollock. i get familiar with those 2 weeks ago and there's no return to back. there's just a lot of artists i've liked like vallejo, hajime and stuff but i get very into finearts last year

Acheron
That's incredible, so were you into graffiti? what other mediums did you use to express yourself?

tomppa1
yes, i was very into graffiti, mostly for weekends it was fun to doodle around and paint pain in the ass to get caught! i've used almost only pencils, but started to paint last year with oil and acrylics. i have worked with photoshop since i joined acid

Acheron
Did any scene artists influence you at all? or perhaps such great graffiti artists like Daim, Pashe, or Twist?

tomppa1
no. i had only amiga that time and it was only composing mods and drawing with dlpaint3. i saw graffitiscene art only 2-3 years ago in web.

Acheron
So (classic interview question) how did you stumble upon "the scene" ???

tomppa1
hmm.. that's a good guestion. my brother started with trading some stuff via pd and nonpd systems so i guess i get my first artpacks from there. i think there was some msg/groups in local bbs's and i met there Tarot, Reanimator and other finnish jerks and i shown some scans to those and that was it. we made a little group called Flavor. those packs are on artpacksarchive, there's like 3-4 vga's from me.

Acheron
Interesting nick you have there, how did you come up with "tomppa1" ?

tomppa1
it was something that after highschool i went to a school of computing with different kinds of things. so i get my first internetaccount from there. there was already a user named after Tomppa (it's a common calling name for people named Tomi, tom or tommi here..) so i used Tomppa1. i quess that "1" is a commong graffitithing meaning a king of 1st..

(ed note: 1 is also written out "one" sometimes meaning the one, original.)

Acheron
Any views on social or economic laws placed by the government in finland?

tomppa1
nothing much.. there's a big difference on unemployment payments in finland and america for example. for my unemployment money is 350$/month and they pay my rent - i quit my school for concentrating to paint. i moved away since i get out from army to Kivesjarvi which is a village of 160 people living on. it's nothing but trees, hills & lakes but a unique place to relax and stuff.

Acheron
That's interesting, So (now for the juicy stuff) do you have a girlfriend?

tomppa1
yes, i've dated with her something like 4 months now. she's pretty opposite of my earlier one's - high educated and stuff, for keeping me rational. i've dated a lot with different kinds of jerks but since i get to 22 i've relaxed a lot of bars and stuff.

tomppa1
and yeah, i meant that i don't do bars and staff every weekend anymore

Acheron
Does she have a name? What was probably the most romantic thing you two have ever done together?

tomppa1
hehe... her name is Agnes Vieraankivi and she is 19 years old.. if you ask romantic things i enjoy everyday different kinds of little things about her, emails and stuff like kisses in mornings and shit :) there's nothing special, i'm just grow old for that pussyseeking stuff in bars everytime..

Acheron
That's good that you outgrew that, well any other opinions that you have towards issues? maybe the sudden death of tons of groups, or perhaps your feelings towards the so called 'death of ansi' ?

tomppa1
the sudden death of those groups are from unloyality members - those who jumps from groups to other groups and finally there's only a few active one's.. i don't care about death of ansi because seems like all of ansis are made already and no-one anymore cares about big ansiworks. i just love works by lordjazz and other old scenefreaks.

tomppa1
for vga, the groups that can be different might only survive. there's too much general web-design stuff in groups and this isn't a designscene, just cause the professionals are millions of times ahead of those

tomppa1
and i think in future when internet is growing for asian countries and stuff the number of persons in scene will raise heavenly.. that means better works and higher competition.

Acheron
Yeah it would be intersting to see something other than usa, canada, and germany in the mix

tomppa1
maybe the new hit on scene will be the usage (or knowlegde) of basic color rules and that kinds of things. i don't like 3d because it's in other media's a lot better done. it doesnt matter how the work is done, just the result.

Acheron
Just incase anyone would like to see some of your works, could you give us the URL of your webpage? or any other places that your artwork is on display?

tomppa1
hmm.. my homepage has only works from 96' so all my new stuffs will be found on www.acid.org , also some works are on http://man.marshall.com/~lilah/tomppa1

Acheron
Well we are nearing the end of the elusive tomppa interview, any shoutouts, advertisements, or random quotes that you would like to say?

tomppa1
generally i like that many vgavakers from scene are trying otherkinds of medias too, like finearts. for my future i hope to be able to do my works in oil/acrylic colors and make thus bigger. knowledge of other mediums were they graffitis or for example sculpture is a rich for imagination and basic seeing :)

tomppa1
that's all that's on my mind, in future i hope and know someone's gonna make a book of artscene due to the unique mediums like ascii and ansi and hopefully it raises some quality and lots of newbie for scene!

98/02/21 11:26:31 úúú (part!#tomi) (tomppa1 ð ~maumet@rolla-port61.wavecomputers.net) @(11:26am)

- Interview by Kyo, Acheron Hirez Coordinator