After a 15+ year background in online communities and 8+ years in LGBTQ spaces, names have simultaneously become charged and meaningless. On the one hand I'm my legal name, Storm Sprague, but most of my clients know me as neospare or Neo for short. I run Gate Zero, work with Vexsystems, and will inevitably go through a series of miscellaneous project names and online handles over the years; each change is an addition, not a revision.
"The voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks. See the line from a sufficient distance, and it straightens itself to the average tendency." - Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Self Reliance"
No project exists in a vaccuum; ideas don't come from nothing. Every one thing is connected to a hundred other things by a thousand threads. These connections all vary in type, distance, complexity, color, meaning-- whatever you need, it's out there. My designs are driven by the idea that every pixel carries information, and pixels organize in swarms to create patterns of higher order information, so on and so forth. Every technique is on a similar a level of information; learning to use acrylic paint is akin to learning perspective, for example. The complexity of each technique may vary but it translates primarily into a time and money investment-- they are not philosophically disparate.
My interests lie in adding these tools to my metaphorical and literal toolbox over time. As new projects arise, I am not limited to squeezing every idea through incompatible filters. Even within the same project I may interweave different techniques to create something in a manner similar to collage. This website is titled "art & design" because I translate aesthetics across restraints.
All of this comes together as adaptability. If the cost of electricity skyrocketed, I could still use traditional materials. If shipping became unafforable, I can work completely virtually. If I have to pick up and move across the country, as I have several times in the last 5 years, I can take my work with me with almost any limit on square footage. My bedroom and garage are my studio.
I've got 3/4ths of a Bachelors in Studio Art from Reed College in Portland, Oregon; I left in good standing for personal reasons. I worked in technical theater for 5 years, including as a set and lighting designer. Since then I've done freelance commission work for individuals and small businesses.
Below I've categorized my proficiency in each skill or medium according to the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) scale. Bolded are the areas I actively use the most.
The bulk of my art education has been self-taught from digital spaces. I've been involved in online fandom communities, adoptables, underground comics, fanfiction and zines since 2010.
I have spent the last 7 years studying western esoteric practices and imagery, in particular the work of the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit (CCRU) and their collaborator O[rphan] D[frift>]. In studying their work I have also studied the work of Guilles Deleuze, Felix Guattari, William S. Burroughs, Sadie Plant, Austin Osman Spare, Grant Morrison, and other related philosophers and occultists.
Aesthetically, I love industrial subculture fashion and design. I also have a fondness for mid century modern architecture's geometric styles and love to bring geometry and pattern repetition into my work where possible. I suspect that the next wave in western design will be a computer aided Art Deco revival, with Shanghai as the (unattributed) model.
I am currently learning how to make generative art and keeping apace with advances in AI art.
I grew up in San Bernadino County, California, and I'm currently based out of Portland, Oregon where I live with my fiancée. When I'm not working on or studying art directly, I enjoy the latest Nintendo games, MMORPGs, and indie puzzle platformers. I'm dyslexic but that doesn't stop me from worldbuilding out loud for my partner's novels.