Creativity Demands More Than Just Canvas: An Interview With Emmy-Winning Artist Mike Perry

Creativity lies at the heart of everything we do. It transcends borders and redefines limitations, while cultivating new ideas and bringing them into life. Creatives demand tools that can fuel their artistic pursuits. Tools that translate their dreams and vision into reality. Enter the ViewFinity S9.

As part of the ViewFinity S9 Story series (see part 1 with DEVSISTERS and part 2 with OIMU here), Samsung Newsroom sat down with Emmy-winning artist Mike Perry, whose artistic explorations cover a broad spectrum, from the vivid and colorful paintings to whimsical animations and beyond, to talk about how his ViewFinity S9 fits into his creative process.

▲ Mike Perry

Q: Could you tell us a bit about yourself?

Oh, hi. I’m Mike Perry. I’m an artist based in New York. I make all kinds of crazy, fun, colorful things — paintings, drawings, animations — and work with incredible clients. I’m living the dream. It’s bright here, but not as bright as this beautiful monitor. Welcome to my studio!

Q: What role does your monitor play in your creative process?

The monitor is everything. I use it constantly. It’s like a part of my eyeballs. It allows you to see the things you’re making. You can see how they come to life. And you just want them to be as beautiful and true to what’s actually there in the real world.

When I’m making a painting, I use it for the final step in the process. Basically, you know, color correcting and taking different elements to make sure my images feel as rich and true as possible. When I work digitally, the monitor is basically just the same thing as the canvas. The monitor is essential. It’s everything.

Q: What’s the first thing that stood out when you saw the ViewFinity S9?

The first thing that popped out with the ViewFinity S9 was immediately just the color itself. It’s just bananas. I’m kind of obsessed with fluorescent colors. I can’t stop using them. Color is such an important part of my existence. Just look at how rich and bright, lush and gooey the beautiful monitor is. It was just incredible to turn the thing on and just watch it, poof, glow.

I was also impressed with how easy it was to just turn on and use. The benefit of making paintings and being a painter is that I’m not always in front of a computer, so when I just popped it open out of the box, it was easy to put together and turn it on. And it just works.

Q: What does a Pantone Validated™¹ monitor mean to creatives?

I love Pantone colors. It’s been really great to see how true to life the Pantone Swatches are to the monitor. I mean, the Pantone book is definitely like a color bible. It’s essential. But then, you’re always dealing with the reality of what’s on screen versus what you’re going to print with. You always have to take a leap of faith that it’s going to match up because the digital to print world is so mysterious. So, it’s just been really lovely to know that what I’m looking at is the same as the color on the swatches. It’s incredible.

Q: Speaking of color accuracy, have you tried the Smart Calibration feature? What did you think of it?

I love the Smart Calibration feature.² It was so easy to use, and the app is so straightforward. You want things to represent themselves in the truest form so that you know what you’re creating is going to translate across multiple platforms and different mediums. I love that I’m able to make sure that the colors are represented the way that I want them to be. That’s such a nice guarantee.

Q: What other features help bring your artistic visions to life?

One of the headaches that is given to digital artists is working widescreen versus 9:16. In normal screens, you can only see a little bit of 9:16 so it’s such a bummer. So, being able to turn the screen and see the image the way it’s supposed to is just amazing!

The Matte Display has been so lovely. The sun comes in the morning and pops through the windows, and it’s my favorite part of the day but it just smashes right into my screen. It’s just been lovely to not have sunlight disrupt my process and not have to step away from my computer while the sun is doing its beautiful thing. I also have The Frame TV at home, so I’m quite used to the Matte Display at this point.

Q. Would you recommend ViewFinity S9 to other designers?

I find it incredibly important to have a beautiful monitor. Something with a lot of resolution, something that’s going to give me the best that I can get and need for what I’m working on. I’ll just say about ViewFinity S9 that color is good.

¹ The ViewFinity S9 authentically reproduces more than 2,000 colors which can be found in the PANTONE Guide. Pantone Validated uses the universally recognized Pantone Matching System digital library and objectively tests more than 2000+ Pantone colors.
² Smart Calibration enables users to conveniently customize the ViewFinity S9’s screen for precise settings — including color temperature, luminance, color space and gamma settings — using their smartphones, without expensive, complex calibration equipment. Available on Galaxy S10 or later, Galaxy Note10 or later, Galaxy Fold devices, Galaxy Flip devices, iPhone 11 or later and the second generation iPhone SE 2 or later. Latest version of the SmartThings app required.