Bruce Rolff

BRUCE ROLFF
NEW JERSEY, USA
I currently live in southern New Jersey USA. I lived most of my life in Northern New Jersey about a 30 minute drive from New York City.
I have been creating art since I was young. I grew up surrounded by artists. My brother and sister were both artists. My brother was the neighborhood guru and there were always many artistic types around. It was an interesting time and an interesting group of people to be around as a child.
How and when did you start creating art?
As a child. I created small figurines and dioramas. As a teen I had a teacher who encouraged my artistic pursuits. I created metal sculptures and worked with clay. After high school I worked in clay and did mostly abstract paintings on paper with spray paint and pastels. But also worked some with acrylics. I later moved to photography. I then began using the computer to edit and manipulate my photos. Eventually I moved to creating my images from photos, 3D renderings, painting software. I’ve even done some computer coding to create elements for images.
What media and genres do you work in?
I work primarily in digital with multiple software including 3D software, painting software and more. My most used software is Photoshop. I also work with photos I_qt_ve taken. My work is spiritual, symbolic, surreal, conceptual, Sci fi, abstract. I like to explore in multiple genres and I am not limited to those I mentioned although that does cover most of my work.
Who or what are your influences?
I have many, but especially the surrealists. But I love many genres and styles of art. Cubism, abstract, abstract expressionism, and much more. Everything I see in art is an influence and much outside of art as well.
Some other strong influences are science fiction, science, spirituality. I also am influenced greatly by things from my childhood. I grew up watching shows like the Twilight Zone with Rod Serling. I consider that show an important influence for me. It was surreal, often science fiction and made you think.
I also grew up with artists. My mom appreciated art, while my father did not have any appreciation for art. But when he was younger he often made films and had a love for it. So he was an artist, he just did not recognize it. Dad was really more of a scientist. He was an aerospace engineer by trade.
My brother and sister were both artists. My brother had a kind of a following with people locally, He was kind of the neighborhood guru and we always had lots of artists around.
I also felt like I did not really fit in in the world and being an artist seemed like something I could do as many artists are known to be quirky. I thought at a young age this might be the path for me.
In high school I had a teacher who encouraged me to pursue art. I had created a sculpture in metal shop that she wanted to enter into a contest, but for some reason I refused.
What was your inspiration for Winged Idea?
Winged Idea, or Idea in Flight, is freedom of thought, moving beyond the ordinary. Symbolism and surrealism. An idea flies free to roam and explore, in an inspiring cloudscape high above the earth. It could be sunset or sunrise.
Describe your creative process?
My process can vary but generally it is an exploration of ideas, concepts and elements that build upon one another. As I create I have new ideas and new thoughts on how to add to whatever image I am working on. I will many times have several projects going literally at the same time. I will often have multiple of these files open at once exchanging elements from my many layered documents if it strikes me.
I often have ideas that I want to flesh out that get me started with this process. I sometimes use ideas I had written down previously. When working with 3D software It does follow the previously mentioned process of mutation. But it may just be an idea I like. This was the case with Winged Idea.
What are you working on currently?
I am currently working more on abstracts, some very short animations, some jewelry creations, and a little music. But at the moment I am also quite occupied with some of the business aspects of things.
What are your near/long term goals as an artist?
Near term I am focused on getting the work out to a larger audience .Artistically I will continue to explore new ideas, new ways of doing things, exploring new software.
Long term I want to grow my audience and businesses regarding my creations. I love to create but I must be able to support myself and the people who work with me as well. I hope to grow as a creator as well of course. New methods and techniques etc. Maybe create some master works?
Where can people view/purchase your work (gallery, website, etc)??
https://www.rolffimages.com - I also sell my work on various sites as stock images, etc. People can also just google rolffimages and you will get a bunch of hits on my business name and the multiple sites where I sell my works.
https://www.theartlist.com/featured-artists/2021-bruce-rolff

I currently live in southern New Jersey USA. I lived most of my life in Northern New Jersey about a 30 minute drive from New York City.
I have been creating art since I was young. I grew up surrounded by artists. My brother and sister were both artists. My brother was the neighborhood guru and there were always many artistic types around. It was an interesting time and an interesting group of people to be around as a child.
As a teen I had a teacher who encouraged my artistic pursuits. I created metal sculptures and worked with clay. After high school I worked in clay and did mostly abstract paintings on paper with spray paint and pastels. But also worked some with acrylics. I later moved to photography. I then began using the computer to edit and manipulate my photos. Eventually I moved to creating my images from photos, 3D renderings, painting software. I’ve even done some computer coding to create elements for images.
I produce art because I am obsessed with creating art and have been since I was young. I work from waking to sleep, creating, most often every day. Sometimes I will work till I can no longer keep my eyes open. Sometimes even falling asleep while working. I love what I do and hope to be able to do it till my last days on earth.
As far as my process, I have an idea, I work to flesh it out and along the way new ideas come to me and I work to render those new ideas. Many times, after working for hours it is a snowball effect and the ideas come so fast and so many that I cannot complete them all. This is when I am most creative and innovative. I may be exhausted but also, I’m fully primed with creative juices flowing freely and excited about rendering the next idea.
I plan on continuing my work. I have several people who work with me helping me with my business selling my images. We are all working toward the goal of getting the work out there and spreading the word about the art. My plan is for us all to obtain this growth and for everyone that works with me to benefit. The sky is the limit. This could get huge for us.
As a child I was mostly a loner. The same for much of my adult life. I always felt different, like I just did not belong. Also, at a youthful age due to feeling out of place in the world I thought being an artist might be the life for me.
As I have matured I realized that I had a spiritual longing. I sometimes do feel as if someone is guiding me when I am creating. I have learned to listen and to follow it.
I often feel in my work that I am describing places I have been before. Places I’ve been before this world. One place I am trying to communicate in some of my works is a place of longing, a purgatory of almost comfortable aloneness. A cool, empty world of eternal sunset not without beauty or calmness but a lonely place.
I am inspired by dreams. I have a lot of dreams that are repetitive but only in the sense that they have similar themes. Many of them take place in a post-apocalyptic world. I am usually traveling to the western USA looking for some sanctuary.
In another dream alien visitors are arriving and revealing themselves with great powerful ships. In the dreams I am witnessing these ships in the sky. Imagine a huge monstrous vessel measuring hundreds of feet long maneuvering with tremendous power and speed but also with delicate control swinging one end of itself before you just feet from you and the ground. It’s a feeling of fear and presence of great power. Always it is imbued with a tremendous feeling of impending great importance, wonder and awe. I will take things from my dreams to use in my art. Of course, there are other themes but these are two of the most prominent.
For me creativity is a spiritual thing especially. It is a gift, both received and to give. It is a connection to a higher power. It is an expression of oneself but again also of a great creator. It is a communication. It’s an intellectual pursuit. It is an expression of feeling. It is resolution of a puzzle. It is the creation of a puzzle. It can be an answer or a question. Art is everything ...

Synchronicity: An Interview with Artist Bruce Rolff
May 1, 2019 Nicole Valentine
First and foremost, do you believe in universal synchronicity?
Absolutely, I have seen often in my life that things seem to line up. Personally, it happens everywhere, from thinking about someone and suddenly they call, to elements of an image I_qt_m working on seeming to fall into place. I have found that if I pay attention it will happen to a degree that it can even be disconcerting. It_qt_s not like it happens every hour of every day, but it does happen often enough. Strange stuff.
As you now know, your work really spoke to both me and the team when we were looking at images that evoked science fiction and awe. What inspires you?
Science, Sci fi, Space, Art, Spirituality, Dreams. I love to experiment and play with image elements, concepts and different software too.
Has this always been an inspiration? How has your work changed over the years?
Hmm, not sure if all of these things inspired me always, at least not artistically. Some did. I think when I was younger I was inspired more by other artists. Although I still do look at a lot of other artists_qt_ works. My work has changed dramatically over time. For one, its gotten better and more consistent in quality. There are always some that rise to the top though. I moved from mostly abstracts to more surreal images over time. Digital lends itself very nicely to surrealism. I think that may be why there is somewhat of a resurgence of surrealism these days.
Has digital art always been your medium?
I_qt_ve done a lot of different things artistically over the years. I started with sculpting, mostly clay, then abstracts on paper with pastels and spray paint mostly, also some paintings on canvas, mostly abstract. I was involved in photography for a long time. At some point I started doing digital art, eventually it became almost exclusively the way I create images. I have gotten back into painting on canvas a tiny bit recently, but I very very rarely work that way.
Your work lends itself to story so well. In what ways has your work been used in the literary world?
My works have been used for covers, as interior art too. There have been sci-fi and spiritual or self help, but other genres too, including color theory, science, many different subjects.
There’s a sense of optimism and beauty to a lot of your sci-fi work. At least, it’s not all doom and gloom. How do you see the future?
For me I think my sci-fi, space and spiritual images are often more hopeful. Although I am venturing into some more weighty, tinged with darkness spiritual images now.
Some of my images may be hopes for humanity, and some for me personally. Things I would like to see and know and feel.
But also in a sizable portion of my work I feel as if I am just showing an interpretation of what I have already seen and experienced. I have a desire to touch an eternal force, to experience God. Perhaps some of these images are an attempt to get back there, to experience God and eternity.
Some of my work also speaks of another such place, a profoundly lonely place, but not a place entirely absent of peace either. A place of longing, a purgatory where loneliness, contemplation and great stretches of time, emptiness and a near acceptance of ones fate combine. A resignation to this not quite comfortable place. A muted acceptance.
Well, those are two of the subjects I cover. Sorry I seem to be partly leaning toward the darker side a little bit here at the moment. Not all of my work is that serious. I have several images that are quite humorous.
In regards to the future I think that the human race has a lot of potential for things to go well. However, we often choose things like war and greed over more enlightened values.
One of the future events that I think could be amazingly wonderful or could be incredibly bad is when we reach the artificial intelligence singularity. If we apply AI to developing more advanced AI and each iteration advances the next in a short period of time we could be going to the stars or learn how humans can live for thousands of years or maybe eternally. So many possibilities! If we apply these advanced AI to dominating the world militarily, which I hate to say will be likely by some, if not many countries, it could end very badly for many people. If one country is applying this to gain dominance, could the others afford to not try to do the same? Or perhaps there would never be a shot fired, but we would have to live under the govt of whatever country then dominates the world. Let_qt_s hope if this happens it is a good one! I don_qt_t think the terminator thing is likely, but maybe. Most likely at least some of us will be there to find out. The AI singularity could turn our world upside down when and if it does come.
Before the singularity happens though, perhaps long before, AI will probably be doing many of our jobs, including mine. One of the ways my art is used is as stock images. I could fore see AI being used to create an image in any style, from photorealistic to any artistic style or a completely unique style being built pixel by pixel by AI. The images could contain any objects or elements of any kind in any configurations. The AI would create the image to the customers specifications. This would be the end of artists creating stock images, be they illustrations, or art, or photos. No need for artists in the current sense in this field any longer. Perhaps artists will still be needed but in a different capacity. Perhaps the stock image company would hire image creationists that act as an expert to interface between the client and the AI to create an image that is suitable for the clients. Of course, perhaps by then we may not be using 2 dimensional images so AI might be creating 3D images instead. It’s fun to think about.