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It's DA's 15th birthday today, and in honour of that the site's staff and CVs were invited to participate in a journal meme (moonbeam13 said "Always blame Heidi " when I asked who to credit with the idea) - and so are you! I'm not one to tag anyone, also usually not the type to participate, but I'm feeling the festive spirit today and if you're also feeling the feel please steal this questionnaire thingy and answer it with your own DA memories! Do it. And be sure to tag it #DA15 , #deviantartistquestionnaire and #DA15birthday because hashtags are actually an effective discovery tool even though I'm old and don't want to admit that.

How long have you been on DeviantArt?

As an active user, about nine and a half years - but I was lurking well before then. When I joined the site on my last account `tiganesc, danlev was about ten years old (or at least looked ten years old) and spyed was only 25; now Angelo's 34 and Dan looks to be at least 14.

Okay, maybe 13.

What does your username mean?

It's a Romanian double entendre - it can mean either glossy ibises, like the bird, or a diminutive term meaning something like "little gypsies" in English. It's the last word in the tag of a Romanian folk song called "Trec tiganii" and I used to harass thewaterbook with that song all the time because she was Romanian, and then Ardeidae came along and was all like "herons herons rah rah" when I was creating an alt account so I thought ibises, herons, same thing and this account's name was born.

Describe yourself in three words.
No. Dammit, Heidi, this needs five words and a gif:

Are you left or right handed?
Right handed!

What was your first deviation?
Euuuuuugh don't make me dig it out. It was actually not the worst thing I ever submitted somehow though. It was a photograph of my senior year chemistry teacher blowing up some potassium in water.

What is your favourite type of art to create?
Photography on instant film, and silver prints in the darkroom - though I do enjoy digital photography, poetry both original and found, and watercolour and oil painting too. The painting doesn't make it to DA, and it's something people generally don't know I do for about five years after we start talking art. Photography-wise I love shooting floral still life and commercial work for florists. Plus that's what makes me the money, yo.

If you could instantly master a different art style, what would it be?
Fashion photography! It's a weird little niche with a lot of stylistic standards but the overall "fashion feel" has always really appealed to me. Some of my favourite photographers (and good friends) here over the years were fashion photographers who've just blown me away with the quality of their work.

What was your first favourite?

How about the first favourite I gave that I'd still have given now - it's like the fifth I ever gave.

What type of art do you tend to favourite the most?
My favs are dominated by photography - I mean, I'm a photography CV, so I'm digging in that gallery daily. At a glance it seems to be mostly portraits, street and darkroom work. There's also a lot of watercolour painting, fixed-form poetry, floral and still life photography, and a healthy dose of fan art. Also this:

Who is your all-time favourite deviant artist?
Just one!? Hm. Can't do it, need to list two. equivoque is the photographer who has impacted my actual style the most and it was a huge blow to the darkroom community this last year to find out she had passed away from cancer. Staged is who I want to be when I grow up. Let their work explain why, since I'm jetlagged and bad at words:

If you could meet anyone on DeviantArt in person, who would it be?
Good question. I've met a lot of the people I've interacted with on here, but there are some noteworthy exceptions - and two in particular who I'd like to meet. Mrs-Durden is my partner in crime in more ways than I thought she'd be ("Nina how long do I have to wait before--" "MARK NO.") and I totally missed the boat on meeting her in North America because now she's diagonally across the world from me, but maybe some day I'll get out to South Africa to steal her menthols and flirt with her roommate. The second, oddly enough, is Heidi - even though we haven't interacted very much in recent years I feel like she would have a lot to teach me. Plus haldron calls me "Gay Heidi" when I get into frantic work mode around him so I think I need to see what Original Heidi is like in person.

How has a fellow deviant impacted your life?
Well, fourteenthstar is the reason my husband and I crossed paths, moonbeam13 and mombeam and gimp hosted my wedding, and haldron is my business partner so I'd reckon those are pretty impactful. And I did sort of marry Oughter . And cloude and neurotype-on-discord and PinkyMcCoversong and zebrazebrazebra and ikazon and BeccaJS and GeneratingHype convinced me to not stop writing at various points. And robinism convinced me to buy my first DSLR because she had some faith in my eye, and Evil-e33 and JillAuville and jierumi convinced me to get heavily into traditional and instant film and alt processes, and equivoque told me something snarky eight years ago that made me kick my own ass into becoming not a cliché with a camera. Katerina423 and arachnid15 are the reasons I joined the CR team the first go around, tinybreeann and Mrs-Durden and JenFruzz were the instigators this time. And snowunmasked and opioid and limnides and Mollinda and oilsoaked and Limetastic and madnessism and anjules and brennennn and leaf-lover and mandiriffic have all just been badass friends who've helped me through a lot of shit over the years and/or been my wingmen at a gay bar that one time. The list goes on forever so I'm going to truncate it with apologies if you should be on there and I didn't mention you.

What are your preferred tools to create art?
Sony a850 full-frame DSLR, 50mm f/1.4 standard prime and 500mm f/8 reflex lenses. Zenit-EM film SLR and 135mm f/2 and 28mm f/2.4 lenses. Mamiya RB67 medium format SLR with a polaroid back. Polaroid SLR680. Expired 600, Impossible Project, Ilford and Fujichrome film. Winsor and Newton Artists' Watercolours and Oils, Golden QoR WCs, Maimeri oils, Holbein water-miscible oils, lots of oil and turpentine and ox gall and gum arabic. A legal pad and a Pentel RSVP black pen.

What is the most inspirational place for you to create art?

The couch in my living room, or my desk, or my other desk/painting room. Really depends where I am when the mood strikes me, where I can get solitude, and where the tools I need are. I need to be alone and there cannot, cannot, cannot be noise. Not even music.

What is your favourite DeviantArt memory?
Getting married to someone from DA with five other people from DA at the wedding (and a cake topper from aunjuli and invitations/cake frosting, sort of, designed by Ikue ) is pretty hard to top.

Skin by Dan Leveille

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It's DA's 15th birthday today, and in honour of that the site's staff and CVs were invited to participate in a journal meme (moonbeam13 said "Always blame Heidi " when I asked who to credit with the idea) - and so are you! I'm not one to tag anyone, also usually not the type to participate, but I'm feeling the festive spirit today and if you're also feeling the feel please steal this questionnaire thingy and answer it with your own DA memories! Do it. And be sure to tag it #DA15 , #deviantartistquestionnaire and #DA15birthday because hashtags are actually an effective discovery tool even though I'm old and don't want to admit that.

How long have you been on DeviantArt?

As an active user, about nine and a half years - but I was lurking well before then. When I joined the site on my last account `tiganesc, danlev was about ten years old (or at least looked ten years old) and spyed was only 25; now Angelo's 34 and Dan looks to be at least 14.

Okay, maybe 13.

What does your username mean?

It's a Romanian double entendre - it can mean either glossy ibises, like the bird, or a diminutive term meaning something like "little gypsies" in English. It's the last word in the tag of a Romanian folk song called "Trec tiganii" and I used to harass thewaterbook with that song all the time because she was Romanian, and then Ardeidae came along and was all like "herons herons rah rah" when I was creating an alt account so I thought ibises, herons, same thing and this account's name was born.

Describe yourself in three words.
No. Dammit, Heidi, this needs five words and a gif:

Are you left or right handed?
Right handed!

What was your first deviation?
Euuuuuugh don't make me dig it out. It was actually not the worst thing I ever submitted somehow though. It was a photograph of my senior year chemistry teacher blowing up some potassium in water.

What is your favourite type of art to create?
Photography on instant film, and silver prints in the darkroom - though I do enjoy digital photography, poetry both original and found, and watercolour and oil painting too. The painting doesn't make it to DA, and it's something people generally don't know I do for about five years after we start talking art. Photography-wise I love shooting floral still life and commercial work for florists. Plus that's what makes me the money, yo.

If you could instantly master a different art style, what would it be?
Fashion photography! It's a weird little niche with a lot of stylistic standards but the overall "fashion feel" has always really appealed to me. Some of my favourite photographers (and good friends) here over the years were fashion photographers who've just blown me away with the quality of their work.

What was your first favourite?

How about the first favourite I gave that I'd still have given now - it's like the fifth I ever gave.

What type of art do you tend to favourite the most?
My favs are dominated by photography - I mean, I'm a photography CV, so I'm digging in that gallery daily. At a glance it seems to be mostly portraits, street and darkroom work. There's also a lot of watercolour painting, fixed-form poetry, floral and still life photography, and a healthy dose of fan art. Also this:

Who is your all-time favourite deviant artist?
Just one!? Hm. Can't do it, need to list two. equivoque is the photographer who has impacted my actual style the most and it was a huge blow to the darkroom community this last year to find out she had passed away from cancer. Staged is who I want to be when I grow up. Let their work explain why, since I'm jetlagged and bad at words:

If you could meet anyone on DeviantArt in person, who would it be?
Good question. I've met a lot of the people I've interacted with on here, but there are some noteworthy exceptions - and two in particular who I'd like to meet. Mrs-Durden is my partner in crime in more ways than I thought she'd be ("Nina how long do I have to wait before--" "MARK NO.") and I totally missed the boat on meeting her in North America because now she's diagonally across the world from me, but maybe some day I'll get out to South Africa to steal her menthols and flirt with her roommate. The second, oddly enough, is Heidi - even though we haven't interacted very much in recent years I feel like she would have a lot to teach me. Plus haldron calls me "Gay Heidi" when I get into frantic work mode around him so I think I need to see what Original Heidi is like in person.

How has a fellow deviant impacted your life?
Well, fourteenthstar is the reason my husband and I crossed paths, moonbeam13 and mombeam and gimp hosted my wedding, and haldron is my business partner so I'd reckon those are pretty impactful. And I did sort of marry Oughter . And cloude and neurotype-on-discord and PinkyMcCoversong and zebrazebrazebra and ikazon and BeccaJS and GeneratingHype convinced me to not stop writing at various points. And robinism convinced me to buy my first DSLR because she had some faith in my eye, and Evil-e33 and JillAuville and jierumi convinced me to get heavily into traditional and instant film and alt processes, and equivoque told me something snarky eight years ago that made me kick my own ass into becoming not a cliché with a camera. Katerina423 and arachnid15 are the reasons I joined the CR team the first go around, tinybreeann and Mrs-Durden and JenFruzz were the instigators this time. And snowunmasked and opioid and limnides and Mollinda and oilsoaked and Limetastic and madnessism and anjules and brennennn and leaf-lover and mandiriffic have all just been badass friends who've helped me through a lot of shit over the years and/or been my wingmen at a gay bar that one time. The list goes on forever so I'm going to truncate it with apologies if you should be on there and I didn't mention you.

What are your preferred tools to create art?
Sony a850 full-frame DSLR, 50mm f/1.4 standard prime and 500mm f/8 reflex lenses. Zenit-EM film SLR and 135mm f/2 and 28mm f/2.4 lenses. Mamiya RB67 medium format SLR with a polaroid back. Polaroid SLR680. Expired 600, Impossible Project, Ilford and Fujichrome film. Winsor and Newton Artists' Watercolours and Oils, Golden QoR WCs, Maimeri oils, Holbein water-miscible oils, lots of oil and turpentine and ox gall and gum arabic. A legal pad and a Pentel RSVP black pen.

What is the most inspirational place for you to create art?

The couch in my living room, or my desk, or my other desk/painting room. Really depends where I am when the mood strikes me, where I can get solitude, and where the tools I need are. I need to be alone and there cannot, cannot, cannot be noise. Not even music.

What is your favourite DeviantArt memory?
Getting married to someone from DA with five other people from DA at the wedding (and a cake topper from aunjuli and invitations/cake frosting, sort of, designed by Ikue ) is pretty hard to top.

Skin by Dan Leveille