This Digital Artist is Tackling Feminist Issues in 3D, From Women’s History to Sex Education
Samantha Vassor
@svassor
What does being a feminist mean to you?
I am an advocate of women's and femme’s rights on the basis of equality. Equality to me looks like freedom and support for women and femme to exist as we want, how we want, and with whom we want. Freedom to me looks like power and agency over our own bodies, our own love, our own happiness, and our own education.
In your opinion, what do you think makes 3D visuals a particularly effective method to inspire change?
CGI art has an intersectionality between art and tech that I have always found inspiring. I have a background in fine art and sculpture and I found 3D digital art to be an art medium like any other. I still sculpt when I use 3D programs and think about space, lighting, and texture. It is important for me as a digital creative to maintain my hand throughout the development of my work and to remember that technological tools are still useful for conveying feelings, sharing personal narratives, and engaging conversations on the human condition.
Digital art had a resurgence with NFT culture, but like any new medium, there is a preliminary stage before it grows into something else more unique. Digital art is still in the very early stages and is shifting as society does. We will continue to expand our perspective of this medium and our capabilities with it as we embrace it like other art forms.
You created the Women’s History Month campaign visuals for Mailchimp and Courier Media. You touched on this a bit at the FEMINIST salon during Art Basel too but how do you maintain a balance between meeting commercial objectives and expressing your own creative identity?
Clients reach out to me for my specific style and perspective, but finding a balance between commercial objectives and creative freedom definitely has a fine balance. With this particular project, the Women’s History Month campaign had an objective of showcasing and uplifting women-owned businesses, while also creating social-friendly, and inviting imagery.
I find a balance between commercial objectives and creative freedoms by finding commonalities between my clients and myself. What are both of our goals with this project and what is most inspiring? Working with an editorial client like Courier Media, that commonality was story-telling. My illustrative work took on this quality of narrative-building and thinking about the people behind the brands. I thought about the foods and cultures that inspired these businesses, the unique experiences behind the owners’ lives, and I thought about who were the main clients these women-owned businesses wished to support.
When tackling sensitive topics like consent education in projects such as “Sex Re-Education” with Refinery29, what approach do you take to ensure it remains both impactful and respectful?
Consent is a sensitive topic, as well as addressing and critiquing sex education in the United States. After the overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022, as well as the ban on books in numerous state schools, sensitive topics such as these seem only more and more important to address. We are left to question, “How much power can the U.S. government have on our bodies and our access to knowledge? Who is being the most affected by these decisions?’”
There will always be varying opinions, but with campaigns such as “Sex Re-Education”, the intention was to inform the public about real information. The articles speak and address these more difficult topics, data, and statistics with the hopes that a more informed public could have more agency and power over their bodies and sexual orientation.
As a creative, I created illustrations inspiring the hope that comes with this campaign and the power young people could have in being properly informed. My work visually addresses topics such as practicing safe sex, intimacy, consent, sexual exploration, and pleasure over guilt.
Your personal project, “Wish Them Greener Grasses,” explores themes of grief. How has the process of creating art contributed to your own journey of healing and self-discovery?
This work, “Wish Them Greener Grasses”, is part of a larger personal body of work I am currently exploring. I am reflecting and thinking about my healing journey, the vulnerability that comes with sharing that publicly, as well as the human relatability that comes with processing difficult emotions. With this body of work, I’ve started asking questions like: Where does the mind go as it starts to heal and protect itself? How does the mental start to affect the physical body? How do inherited traumas and cultural differences affect interpersonal relationships? How do we self-regulate and find love and peace?
Any artist will say their work is a reflection of themselves, but art has also become part of my process towards my healing. I often think about what this transformation looks like for me and what visuals I use to interpret and reflect on difficult emotions. My art has become my means of documenting some of those feelings.
It was especially important for me to address these topics of mental health and healing, because of how taboo these conversations can still be in black, brown, and immigrant communities. Grief is such an understood, familiar feeling but mental healing and vulnerability are not. Support and understanding from loved ones is so crucial, and without having these conversations and open-mindedness about mental health in our communities, awareness and education on these topics become subsequently unimportant.
In what ways are you finding joy and community in your work right now?
I am finding a lot of joy and community in exploring right now. I am trying different artistic mediums outside of digital art and working with different creatives in my communities who are knowledgeable of different crafts.
Learning new things and being humbled by the process of acquiring new skills is something I find inspiring. It shows me there is always something new to learn and every day is another opportunity to grow and find joy with others.
