Cynthia Decker I strive to create scenes full of potential stories, ideas that are open to interpretation, places that invite people in and let them complete the narrative for themselves. I create impossible or improbable environments that have familiar textures and evocative moods. Most of my work has humor, or a bit of a story to tell. I am inspired by the everyday, by small moments and big ideas. My goal is to take these inspirations and present them to you the same way I see them in my head—as places you could walk into and explore.
I live and work in the beautiful mountains of Western North Carolina. My office studio faces right into the woods adjacent to the Blue Ridge Parkway. I live with my husband, who is an industrial designer, and my stepson, who is in college studying architecture. Every day I am surrounded by the perfect balance of technology and nature. I couldn't wish for more.
As a child, I would draw and paint at any opportunity. My Mother was the head of the computer science department at a local college, and my father was an aerospace engineer. We had a computer in the house when not very many people had home computers. When I was a kid, I doodled on used punch cards and green and white striped pin fed printer paper. I began doing digital art - pixel by monochrome pixel - on an Apple II computer in 1983, and I never stopped. Throughout high school and college I studied design, and during this time I started digital painting, and also continued working in traditional media; mostly pastels and acrylic paint.
I left college to begin a graphic design career and continued to teach myself and explore new digital media. I began using 3D software in 1998 and was immediately hooked. Initially, my portfolio was exclusively online, and I was invited to participate in many web-based galleries. My images seemed to generate a lot of interest. People began requesting prints through my website and after doing research into fine art printing, I began creating and selling high resolution archival prints of my work in 2003.
