FeedMeCoolShit.com » Nate Williams

Nate Williams

Nate is a very productive guy by nature, we don’t know where he finds the energy but he has certainly got some juice in abundance.

A fantastic illustrator that goes under the cunningly disguised moniker of ‘Nate Williams’ and more sinister alter ego ‘Alexander Blue’ Head guy at Illustrationmundo and Moody Buddha, erstwhile traveler and dedicated family man.

Nate certainly knows how to carve his own path in life.

FMCS: Hey Nate how’s things with you?

Nate: Things are great! I have my ups and downs, But life is very good right now.

FMCS: How’s the family and the new arrival Milo?

Nate: Really great! Milo is only two months old… So he’s just getting his bearings. But he is starting to be curious about his environment and now has a range of sounds he makes. We get super excited when he does anything new.

FMCS: Are you still in Buenos Aires? Or have your itchy feet moved you on yet?

Nate: Yes… We are still in Buenos Aires.

The city is huge and very interesting, so I am constantly discovering new things. This is one of my most favorite places in the world, here are really great people, lots of stuff to do, and very cheap to live.

I am currently taking Spanish lesson from a friend. I told her I don’t want to learn in a traditional class room setting, but in a way that will engage all my senses and curiosity so every lesson is a field trip, it’s like being a kid again!

We’ve been to art museums, movies, the zoo, Japanese gardens, planetarium, etc… I have become so interested in what I am learning, learning Spanish actually becomes secondary.

But I end up learning a lot of Spanish this way as I am not just learning Spanish because I want to… But because I really want to know why bats sleep upside down, or what Mars is made out of, or why a character in an old movie did something.

FMCS: What do you love about South America? And how much does your environment influence your work?

Nate: I like how relaxed South America is. I feel like people have a better quality of life, there are less material things to be concerned by.

But in general people have more time to spend with their families and friends, and focus on the good stuff in life, not on working all the time to attain fancy titles to impress people with in the first five minutes of meeting them.

My environment is not only a huge influence on my work but my life. We pick up so many things on a subconscious level it is very important to surround yourself with positive things and people that inspire you, make you curious and happy.

FMCS: Let us know what you love about illustration? That special feeling that you get from working in this media?

Nate: Illustration introduces me to a lot of topics that I wouldn’t pursue on my own, so it’s a liberal type of education.
When I make art for myself it’s an insightful process it shows me what is swimming around my subconscious.

It might take other people, who don’t make art a lot of time to figure out why things might be bothering them or what they have been thinking about, but for me it’s quite apparent because it’s right in front of me in the form of an image.

For example, a couple of weeks ago I was feeling really negative and I couldn’t figure out why, but then I started to look at a lot of my art and it was very political. It was then that I realized I was listening to a political talk show Democracynow.org, and it was having a huge impact on me.

When I heard of injustices everyday it made me depressed, so I realized I needed to diversify my life with other things and not get to caught up in one thing too much.

FMCS: We love Illustrationmundo to bits and wanted an insight to how you started it up? The principles behind it, and is it manageable with all the other stuff you have going on at the moment?

Nate: Thanks! I created Illustrationmundo.com because I saw a need for it. At the time I didn’t see any website that just focused on illustration.

I have a design/programming background, and I started to create a system that would facilitate other people’s efforts of posting news, rating and classifying illustrators etc…

I have lots of plans for it, but I don’t have much time so we’ll see.

However Erik who does the audio Podcasts (Iconic Audio) is doing a fantastic job, and the community is very active, so I am just one more piece in the puzzle.

FMCS: Illustrationmundo has also become one of the cornerstones for illustrators in-terms of communicating and networking. Do you have any plans to build on this success and rather solid base for its future growth?

Nate: Yes! I have some features I am going to add to it but not sure when. I have a bunch of stuff going on right now and I am illustrating using two different names:

Nate Williams
Alexander Blue
Finally getting our art product business going at Moody Buddha
And just had a boy… So life is crazy in a good way.

FMCS: Do you doodle a lot!

Nate: Yes! I draw stickmen doing funny things and like to make up really bad inventions.

FMCS: Do you still skate?

Nate: No! Buenos Aires is not a skate friendly city there are hardly any skate parks, and half the streets are made of cobble stones or really bad pavement with holes and rocks.