Sheffield Artist Darren Pass + Artvox talks to Volta Creative

01 May

Sheffield Artist Darren Pass + Artvox

Our latest fellow creative of 2021, is me… Darren Pass. Yes, I’m actually talking to myself (brilliant).

Volta: Who or what inspired you to do what you do?

Darren: My love of music, particularly 70’s and 80’s music, but I do enjoy most genres of music. Initially I wanted to create prints based on the music I love and in a style I would want to buy and have on my wall. Recently the artists and songs are being expanded to cover a wider range and as a response to requests I have for different artists.

artvox film prints

Volta: Were you self-taught or have you had formal training?

Darren: I did train for 4 years to be a graphic designer many, many years ago and have been in the design business for over 30 years so it was a fairly straight forward addition to what I already do.

Volta: If you could choose one famous person to own one of your pieces of work, who would it be?

Darren: It would have to be one of my musical hero’s, obviously David Bowie would have been the dream, but artists such as David Sylvian, Gary Numan or John Foxx owning one of my prints would give me huge satisfaction.

Volta: Do other areas of creativity, such as music, have any influence on your work?

Darren: Yes, for this particular project all the inspiration comes from music, I’ve always thought of music as a form of art, and one that is easily accessible to everyone.

Volta: How would you describe what you do?

Darren: I create original designs based around music, then they are produced as high quality Giclée prints through my Artvox website, which was designed and branded in house.

Volta: What piece of your own work gives you the most satisfaction and why?

Darren: At the moment it’s the David Bowie, Golden Years print in Lilac. The “newspaper” area is actually from an old Melody Maker Magazine I own and it was one of the first prints I created for Artvox. I like all the colour versions but the Lilac just looks unique.

Volta: Have you ever made a mistake while creating a piece that you learned a lesson from?

Darren: Not sure if they’re classed as mistakes but, I quite often create a theme for a range of prints, produce 2 or 3 designs, put them on the website and then make a slight improvement to a subsequent one and so have to go back and make adjustments to the earlier ones which can be quite time consuming depending on the design, but I’d rather they were as I feel they work best even if it involves re-doing existing designs.

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Volta: Can you remember the first piece of work you ever sold?

Darren: Yes it wasn’t a print though, I’m pretty sure it was a painting of Sid Vicious on a boxed canvas.

Volta: What advice would you give an aspiring fellow creative who was wanting to break through to the next level?

Darren: If you believe in what you do, and get enjoyment out of what you do, don’t give up on what you do. Your big break may be just around the corner.

Volta: What is your favourite thing about Sheffield?

Darren: It’s a bit of a cliche but the greenery in and around the city is a major bonus. That and the fact that when I was young in the early 80’s, it suddenly became the centre for electronic music and that’s still my favourite style of music, which was and is a major influence on why I created Artvox.

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