Abra Ramirez, who creates under the alias Dr3amNeptune, is an illustrator and animator who dreams of a sci-fantasy world. Blending concepts of futurism and religion in her art, Dr3amNeptune explores “perfection” through her digital self.

Her avatar Neptune is the artist’s imagined cyberbot alter ego, which allows her to live her dreams digitally when being human in a capitalistic society feels overwhelming. Neptune is illustrated and animated into AI generated environments as well as real life.

We asked Abra about her art, creative process, and inspirations.

Can you tell us about your background as a digital artist? How did you get started in this field?

I first dived into digital art during the pandemic, prior to that I was a painter and an illustrator. I was playing around with all kinds of mediums and canvases such as fabric painting my wardrobe, creating commissions & painting furniture.

When the pandemic hit, I saw a potential future with digital art so I used quarantine to the best of my advantage and expanded my artistry into digital. I taught myself graphic design and video editing. It was until I invested in an iPad and an Apple pencil that continued my skill set thus creating my whole vision for “Neptune.”

What inspires your art? Are there any particular themes or subjects that you enjoy exploring through your artwork?

Playing around with the idea of curating a digital self is where I started exploring into this sci-fantasy realm I created in my head. I like to blend Futurism and Religion as a recurring theme in my art. I believe both are not so far along from each other and in many ways can be interpreted as the same story. We, as humans, desire to be or achieve this level of perfection, but desiring only continues a traumatic paradox of inadequacy. Because we are flawed, I feel encouraged to create and tap into an altered self. I #dr3am an extension of myself that is “perfect,” a self that is not inhibited by the human mind from self-limiting beliefs. With the current state of technological advancements and AI Art, I believe technology will allow access as a tool to achieve “perfection.”

Video art by Dr3amneptune

What does your creative process look like? How do you approach brainstorming and conceptualizing ideas?

Being inspired by music and my emotional state is usually how I approach conceptualizing ideas. With music, my imagination goes wild! As someone who is always directing music videos in my head, once I listen to a song, I can see and create a fantasy. Then based on my emotional state, I translate my feelings and thoughts to create a story. I ask myself; what do I want to say with this, or how can I translate what the collective energy is feeling right now?

How do you balance technical skills with artistic creativity in your digital artwork? How do these two aspects complement each other in your work?

I believe balancing technical skills with artistic creativity is the main sauce in executing a #dr3am! Again, tapping into a spiritual and religious point of view, there is a “dao.” Life swings back and forth in the black and white, the ying and yang, the light and the dark. I use this motive to make sure I am complementing both energies into my work. So in applying technical skills I do my best to maintain organization, learning and adapting to new skills, having a data approach of what needs to be done in order to advance. When applying creativity in the mix, I make sure I'm taking the necessary steps to venture out in the world when it comes to socializing, being around positive like-minded people, catching up with new music or finding new genres of music, being surrounded by fresh new environments and experiences. Most of all, tapping into self. The most creative juice comes within!

What is a profound childhood memory?

This is not necessarily a childhood memory but I was a freshman in high school and I’ll never forget my dad forcing me to take computers as an elective class. I remember begging him to let me take art classes but he insisted computers had a better future. Although during the semester I very much enjoyed it, I think it's hilarious that now my life circled back to using computers when working with art, ha!

Follow Abra’s work on social media! @dr3amneptune @dr3amabra