The Story of XEI

My name is Nuno Teixeira. My “artist name” is XEI. The lowdown on that happenstance takes me back to 1999, at the University of Waterloo, Fine Arts Honours Program, Third Year Drawing Class. I was called out on how I signed my name on my art, “Your name is too big” the teacher said to me.

My reply, “But the art is me; and I am the art. Who cares about the name anyways.” So the next week I presented the same pieces with the corners ripped off. True story.

Well, if there are any fantasy enthusiests out there, you KNOW that everything is in a name. There is power in “the name”–so this quest wasn’t over–

Determined as I was to make a point about the name being the art and the art being my name, the next weeks crit was gifted with a new XEI piece. The entire surface of the paper was covered in parts of my name: “teix”, “ra”, “xeir”, “xe”… and so on. Sometimes I even places Roman Numerals to represent my age, opposed to the year it was made, aka “xxi”.

Then I did the art on top of that and started neutralizing parts of my name, adding more parts, back and forth, back and forth. Through the delivered assignment you could see my “name” everywhere, but not see it at all. No longer in full anyways. I stopped signing my work that day onward. From this day on ward it got simplified to “XEIXXI”, and then “XEIXXII”, then “XEIXXIII”…

Now it’s just XEI.

My Online History

So that’s my story. I finished at the University of Waterloo with an Honours in Fine Arts, mixed media specialization and a Minor in English. I then went off to Connestoga College and finished the Web Design Certificate Program.

My first real job on the web was with a digitization studio that archived museum and gallery works in online portfolios and interactive medias.

From there I started on as a graphic designer for TheServerSide.com and scaled the ladder, picking up tasks and jobs from those above me until I eventually had my title promoted to “Assistant Editor”.

I’ve done a number of projects on the side since 2002, some of them will feature on this site as a way to collect and archive my work in one organized place.

• I’ve been part of writing and art collectives;
• I’ve ran a support website for gaming communities, one of which is ECORE Central;
• I’ve started (and still do) a video podcast called The Lowdown, and a series of other “cancelled” shows on Webtertainment.tv like The One Minute Show, Stray Dog XEI and ComiXtrips, now found on YouTube or Blip.tv;
• I’ve tried my hand at webcomics with Republic Domain and Tough Guys;
• I’ve started a blog on cloning and other science related coolness with VivaLaEvolution!;
• and I’ve partnered with my partner to start a community centered on featuring green topics and people called TheGreenRocket.com;
• and then some that aren’t so much in the public eye… yet!

As you can see I love creating things more than anything else. I get a creative rush out of it. If you ever have an idea you think I could collaborate in, please contact me!

So You Wanna Dig Deeper?

If you’re still interested in reading more about me and my projects then feel free to check out the “Project Pages”; they go more in depth concerning the particular project I’m currently pseudo-focusing on! I say “pseudo” because I’ve come to accept that with a wandering mind like mine, the term “focusing” alone is very much a particle of sand in a playground.

Alright–Maybe a bit larger than a particle of sand–I’m not THAT A.D.D.–am I?