Jacob “Pucky” Sousa
b. 1992
I’m a multimedia artist living in Oakland, CA. My works utilize psychedelic characteristics and a lexicon informed by a variety of animation styles to reveal personal fascinations, concealed memories, utopian dreams, and psychological truths about myself. For me, creation is a meditative practice, whether painting in my home studio or photographing in nature, this practice is an endless flow of growth and realization.
Inspired by American Romantic paintings as well as new CG technologies such as Unreal Engine, my photographic works focus largely on the sublime in nature and landscape - much like the Romantic painters of the 19th century. Only the occasional time stamp in the form of telephone wires or cars in the distance give away the scenes’ modernity. This juxtaposition is also bridged by the cinematic and cg quality of the images which is created using only in camera techniques on a Nikon DSLR.
Through painting and drawing, I have been able to deeper explore curiosity and realize the joy of helping new beauty emerge. Beauty, not only in the sense of the pristine, but also in sentiment, as it is in utilizing these mediums that I’m able to find calming resolutions to unsettled memories, dreams, or anxieties.
By collaborating with these historic artistic practices, I’m able to explore endless curiosities while striving toward self realization. These two practices influence one another and create a dialogue between the natural and the surreal which coalesce into fantastic and grand scenes of life on Earth (or elsewhere).