Lum: Hey Ed, Give us a little bit about yourself!

Ed Lopez: Born in Mexico city, started in photography 17 years ago studied development techniques directly on Kodak and managed a mini lab for several years until I started working on Carnival Cruise lines as a photographer. - After that I started a photo business out of a Golf course in Cancun Mexico, from there I moved to my current location Puerto Vallarta where I continue my Golf course business and also a graphic design business.

Lum: You seem like a busy man but you still manage to be a part of these art groups and submit a lot of work to them. Where do you get the inspiration for all this work?

Ed Lopez: Life, Dreams, Fears are my main inspiration

Lum: Fear? explain!

Ed Lopez: Anything that makes you fear, like death, messing up our planet, etc.

Lum: Fear is a great thing to be inspired by. How long have you been working with art? And where do you see your self 5 years from now?

Ed Lopez: I have been working on my digital art aside for any graphic design for mainly two years now, started actually with Terragen and then reading and investigating many different mediums to create scenes that have always mesmerized me....3d modeling, matte painting, photo manipulation....as for where do I see myself, I will only hope to feed myself with it, doing what I love, doesn't matter how.

Lum: Two years? That is not very long! Is there any particular art style you would like to commit yourself to in the future?

Ed Lopez: No its not very long, it has been quite an amazing time. I wouldn't say I want to commit to a single one, can’t say I would, I enjoy matte painting quite a bit; although now a days, a vision is achieved using many different media, so I would think any art style that would fit my vision.

Lum: So you use Terragen, thats a nice program, how has it helped you with your work, and would you recommend it to others?

Ed Lopez: I started with Terragen and It helped me through the learning process quite a bit, I enjoyed creating the base for my images with it, although now I rarely use it anymore. When I render a landscape I use Artmatic Voyager, and since Terragen 2 has became very unstable and slow to use, I can’t recommend it, but yeah you can say I would recommend TG as a learning tool.



Lum: Alright so TG is the tool to start with. What do you think about being in an art group like the Luminarium and how has it helped you?

Ed Lopez: Luminarium has provided a great place for me to expose my work before release, a place to talk art, a place to get hard crit, It actually has opened doors for me and provided exposure, as I recently mentioned in another interview in Ray Gun Revival, good hard crit its gold.

Lum: Yea good critique is always great, it gives you solid feedback. Something all artists need. What do you think of the new site and forums that have been created for this new release?

Ed Lopez: Well my hats off to V4, he has done an amazing job, the new neat website now matches the quality of the group, which in my view will only get better.

Lum: The team has made a great improvement during the last months we are very exited about that! Do you have any tips to people who are trying to apply for Lum?

Ed Lopez: Well I can say that reaching the quality that LUM requires takes time, sometimes more time, sometimes less. But you need to really look at your art, get feedback and improve. If you look at a Lum art-pack and really think you can come close to those results go ahead try out, in any case use the critique you will get for a positive turn out. The Luminarium its not another art group, I am sure it will soon become THE Art group.

Lum: Well we are happy that our artists think so much of the Luminariums future. Your artwork is some of our greatest, in fact its inspired many people already, how does it feel to be able to inspire so many people?

Ed Lopez: Well thanks so much for that and certainly to anyone that has been inspired by my work, I am just learning and I don’t think I am finished with that, still so much knowledge to absorb, so many techniques to refine. Although it feels very nice that It has come to a level that people think is inspiring, I enjoyed every piece I have made and each have marked a step in my path to become the artist I want to be.

Lum: Great! We are very happy to have you in our team and are looking forward to work with you for time to come! Do you have anything you would like to ad before we wrap it up?

Ed Lopez: Well I have to say that you guys are doing a great job at LUM, and I am just as happy to be there, I will look forward to the growth of the group and the new challenges and opportunities that will arise from the development. Also thanks for the interview and I can’t feel anything else but honored to receive the feature for this exhibition. Cheers.

Lum: Thanks a lot Ed for this great interview!