When we launched the Mozilla Creative Collective last August, our goal was to give artistically-inclined members of the Mozilla community a place to share their work. Since then, our artists have uploaded nearly 800 pieces, including some very unique and unexpected stuff…as always, seeing the community in action is a very awesome and inspiring thing.
One of my favorite Creative Collective artists is Hamu, who lives in Beijing and has posted 29 Firefox-inspired illustrations so far. His work is an interesting blend of and modern cartoons and traditional Chinese styles, so I decided to get in touch and find out more about his inspirations and process. He gave some great answers, so be sure to read the interview below and then check out his full gallery at the MCC.
Thanks Hamu!
When you start working on a new piece, what’s your artistic process like? Specifically, what about Firefox inspires you?
Well, as same as other artists, before painting I need some inspiration. Inspiration in my perspective means some human feeling from one’s daily life. When the inspiration is clear and definite in my mind, I will do some imagination to decide the overall composition and construction, then I will start painting.
Firefox comes from a worldwide community. I started my Internet browsing in 1997 and witnessed “The 1st Internet Browser War” between Internet Explore and Netscape. After that, this virtual world lost the balance – IE grew bigger and bigger, but it became worse and worse.
The rise of Firefox was like new blood giving this virtual world a rebirth. It has stimulated people’s creativity. The success of Firefox is a story happening in front of eyes. In the story, Firefox experienced failure, reflection, rebirth and eventually won. It encouraged me to keep creating something new.
One of my favorite pieces you’ve done is “Traditional Chinese Style” (annotated version shown above). What was the process like as you were creating that one? What do the various symbols and characters mean?
At the very beginning of my Mozilla Creative Collective life, I tried to do something different than others. I didn’t focus on the group of keywords like “5″, “birthday” and “anniversary” – instead, I tried to express the feeling from my daily life with Firefox during this five years. With “Traditional Chinese Style” I wanted to express that with Firefox we could freely do anything on the Internet, that there were no longer any restrictions on browsing.
I have heard that, 201 years ago, an American man named Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky – afterwards he proposed “The Emancipation Proclamation”, which gave hope to those black slaves and eventually he won the American Civil War. I have also heard that, 92 years ago, a Japanese man named Matsushita Konosuke used only 100 Japanese yuan and built the world famous corporation Panasonic. 16 years ago, a black African whose name is Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela ended the apartheid in South Africa and won in a fully representative democratic election. With a dream, a mortal will become a hero.
When I saw the notice of Firefox’s 5th anniversary, a Chinese proverb flashed in my mind: “海阔凭鱼跃，天空任鸟飞”. The direct translation is “the sea is wide enough that fish could swim to everywhere, the sky is wide enough that bird could fly to everywhere.” It comes from a Buddhist named 元览 (Yuan Lan) who lived in the 唐 (Tang) dynasty in China. He wrote “大海从鱼跃，长空任鸟飞” on a piece of bamboo to express his feeling. I translate this poetry as “With a dream, you could sail to everywhere you want; with a dream, you could fly to everywhere you like.” It’s a metaphor that one can be fully free to act, or freely demonstrate one’s abilities without constraints.
(editor’s note: here’s a larger version of the annotated image shown above)
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