Meet the Artist: Fredward Fall Pt. 1
Q1: Your Mental Hells & Scary Tales Deck kicks off our 2024 Halloween celebrations. How supernatural does it get in your hometown Hamburg this time of year? We hear that Germany might be the OGs in spooky celebrations with the long-celebrated similar holiday in April, called Hexennacht (Witches’ Night!).
Honestly, it's not getting too supernatural at all here in Germany. Some kiddies are running around gathering sweets and some pumpkins decorate the doors but that's it. But celebrating witches' night is a long tradition here in Germany since kinda 1700.. I'm just not sure if they still burn the witches for real or if we're really over it. ;)
Q2: From pumpkins, bats, and ghosties - your deck has everything we need for frightful fun but there is also an incredibly important message behind your art which is close to our hearts - positive mental well-being. Please share how your creations became a powerful tool for dealing with stressful and seriously shit times.
The mental health aspect was more or less my idea from the beginning because it's a huge and important thing to me and should be to others too. We're still very bad at talking about things like fear, struggles and serious shit while living in a world where everyone only shares beautiful lies and filtered realities, especially in social media. I wanted to break that perfectionism prison and share art that mentions the dark sides and aspects of life. So people can see they're not alone and can think or talk about their feelings.
Q3: Please tell us about your suit characters, especially the Jack, Queen and Kings.
Well, I always try to combine serious, dark and scary shit with a kind of creepy cuteness. Therefore I created the BABY DEMONS you see in the clubs range. I hope that makes my characters more accessible to people and not scare them too much. I even try to create characters that aren't too human or real, cause that's what mental issues often are. Not real.
Q4: What suit is your favourite and why?
Oh, I can't decide – I love them all. I really like the little bat that suits the spades. And I like the little heart pumpkin heads too and of course the baby demons.
Q5: What was your deck creative process? What tools did you use? And how did you find the process of creating your deck for Flick?
I first started thinking about the colours and symbols I wanted to use for them. That defined the ‘world’ of the suits and helped me create compatible characters. I mostly use Photoshop and a graphic tablet to draw and design the deck. As a professional designer, these creative and conceptual processes are very familiar to me and I love creating little worlds and consistent looks.
Q6: Your hashtag “Mentalhellawareness” is a prominent message around your art - can you share more about what it means to you and how your art deals with pain & loss?
Well, that hashtag perfectly describes the core message of my art. However, I can't use it on social media cause it is blocked there, like many others dealing with this kind of thing. But I did experience some mental hells before and know the strains of depression and it's a kind of therapy, drawing these demons I feel inside and making them visible and therefore maybe attackable for me and hopefully for others.
Q7: Do you name your characters? What inspires their looks?
I named the main characters I used in my overall work. They're four with a sidekick/animal each. Like FREDWARDFALL and WEBSTER, EMILY, LUCIE and SCARLETT. You can find details about them on my accounts and website.
Q8: We know both art and solitaire have a soothing effect and positive impact on mental health - aside from art - what does comfort or headspace look like in times of chaos?
Well, good question! In times like these, it's getting harder to find soothing spaces. We're infinitely scrolling through endless feeds to distract ourselves, are always reachable and binge-watching anything to not have to reflect or think about ourselves and our lives.
To me personally, it still is music that gives me comfort and I'm sometimes playing my guitar too which calms me down. And nature. I'm a very nature-connected guy and having a walk in the woods is maybe the most effective and beautiful way to calm down and switch off for a while.
Q9: Do you enjoy card games? If so, which one?
Definitely. Played several as a kid and later enjoyed poker and I'm a huge fan of Munchkin, which is a little different maybe but one of the greatest and funniest games I know.
Q10: How did you find your awesomely wicked style?
Well, thanks for calling it awesome. ;) I think it's mostly what's inside of me. Creepy wickedness and strange weirdness. :D And inspired by stuff I like or watched like Tim Burton, Neil Gaiman and others. Mainly it's a lot of time and a lot of repetition to develop something like a personal style and I've been working on that for years.
