Artist's Bio My name is Joshua Lee Simmons, I was born in Roanoke, Virginia on June 25th of the year 1987. I graduated from Franklin County High School in 2005 with an Advanced Diploma, I was accepted by both Concord University and James Madison University, and ultimately chose to enroll in JMU. I graduated from James Madison University in December of 2009 with a Bachelor's Degree of Fine Arts, emphasizing in Graphic Design. I currently reside in Corona, CA and am actively seeking employment in all surrounding areas as a Graphic Designer. My many hobbies include video gaming, drawing, working with Photoshop, writing fiction, photography, raving/dancing, watching movies, and painting. Artist's Statement Animation, any either sense of the word whether it be 2-D animated films or 3-D animated sequences in films or video games, and the two-dimensional artwork that set the stage on which the worlds would look and feel has always had a big influence on the way I approach art. Growing up we are surrounded by cartoons and animated films by the likes of Disney or Warner, and then some of us grow up to move on to other things and lose interest rapidly. For me, my interest retained, I was inspired by what I saw and always wanted to see my own characters and stories spring to life in front of me; however animation was simply not in my blood. After cartoons of the Saturday morning variety, I found myself developing a growing interest in video games naturally, but not your run-of-the-mill sports or shooting games. Games with real stories, and character development in which the player participated in the unraveling of caught my attention the most. Although, most games nowadays begin with it, these story-based games usually start with the most intricate and beautiful 2-D concept art I have laid eyes on. Artwork such as Tetsuya Nomura’s character designs for the games in the Final Fantasy series, as well as Yoshitaka Amano’s designs were major inspirations to me that led me to decide that I too want to try my hand at character design. My entry into the art world began with this passion to see my own characters that had been living in my head drawn out by me and given life in a 3-D interact able world. So, from about the time of middle school and on, I began to draw and draw as much as possible; mostly figures and designs of all the character ideas I had floating around. Just simply doodling all the time was not going to be enough however, and by High School I began to take serious art classes that I felt would help broaden my horizons as it were in the world of art. Here I was introduced to a world beyond simply drawing and inking, here I discovered the likes of acrylics and oil paintings. Becoming fairly adequate with both, I still felt that drawing was my real forte and the basic knowledge of the arts in respect to aspects such as color, value, form and composition did become a useful arsenal when approaching my design work from then on. Photoshop also became a key factor in my art around this time when I began taking advertising design classes while still in High School. Around this time, maturity struck me and I came to realize that a dream such as developing a game and leading the design to see my own world come to life may be a bit out of reach in my situation. This was not necessarily a bad thing, as I was also realizing the amount of fun to be had with Photoshop in creating graphics and designs for advertisements, as well as the fun in photo manipulation. By the end of High School, and the beginning of my search for colleges was when I decided to look for a career in Graphic Design. Obviously, my background is a bit simpler and not exactly that of a typical art student; I tend to follow a more unique and modern crowd of artists as opposed to being familiar with legends of old and art history. My knowledge of terminology is weak, and I find myself having very little interest in examining your average piece of work and questioning the meaning behind it or having an opinion on it based on its inner workings. When viewing artwork, I am more intrigued by the aesthetic properties of the piece and whether or not it stands out to me as simply interesting or not in that aspect. I am one drawn to fine or bold line work, subject matter that speaks to me or tells a story, sharp and sleek imagery for my eyes to dart around, and overall, pardon the use of such a simple word, a general coolness factor with me. This simple, and what some may consider naïve, approach to art reflects itself in my own work often when I simple want to create something depicting a scenario in my head between characters. Usually, I do not really approach my canvas with much thought as to why this will be but what this will be; I approach my art with the intent of creating something I will enjoy and the viewer will find entertaining to view. Abstract art I absolutely despise, based on the influences I have had growing up as an artist I have come to need to have some kind of obvious subject matter or point in a work of art for it to click with me. Creating abstract art is also difficult for me, as I think way too much about what I want to make and the viewer will see and not about simply throwing something on there that relies on various aspects of composition to support it as something. As for three-dimensional art, I have never really had a talent at working with my hands to create objects in that sense; I am just primarily a 2-D artist is all. So I come to the conclusion that Graphic Design would be ideal for a simple artist such as myself. I am all about creating imagery that is appealing to the audience as well as myself, depicts subject matter portrayed in various ways, and no concern with inner meanings of the work aside from the purpose in which it was intended; for example, creating an advertisement for a client to sell a product. These are all similar qualities that fall under the role of a Graphic Designer, and explain my perspective on art; a very focused, and centralized perspective on art that I have chosen due to a simple lack of interest in the larger picture. So, for now, I will create my art to survive and to produce the desired effect by clients until the day comes I can achieve my true goals of being an artist and see my designs come to life in a world that millions will be able to experience.