| // Mar 18 - Selected works, 2008 |
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| Artist Feature by Todd Pendu |
1. - Q: When did you first start making artwork? Is there a particular artist or group of artists that really sparked your interest in making art?
A: I always drew. Mostly cartoonish faces since I was a child. Then moved towards the automatic drawing style…I had discovered dada and surrealism. Then after meeting friends Mark McKenzie (aka Mac blackout) and Mark Miller (both played in the band the functional blackouts with me and Mac is in daily void with me currently) I got a close up environment of the visual arts in action at their shared apartment. They are both painters and made collage and it really made an impression on me. And before this I was and still am interested in the works of Max Ernst. Right around the time I started in this medium I had a dream I was on a train elevated above a vast body of water. From a distance I watched myself on this train from an area amongst the trees. Upon arrival I exited the train and got on my knees and touched the wooden platform admiring it. Then walking about with some characters and in jest we ran into a wooded area along the beach where looking out at the shallow bank of water where I saw “Max Ernst” written in smoke underwater.
2. - Q: Are you self-taught? Do you feel you had to ‘reinvent the wheel’ on your own to get where you are or are there certain people who have helped guide you along the way? Any important books that you found especially insightful for technique?
A:Self taught yes. Reinvent the wheel…. the striving to be authentic and not a parody,,,if that would be the same: then yes. The books I would say would be the ones I cut from. But I will withhold my sources.
3. - Q: What keeps you inspired to continue making new work?
A: An obsessive need to prove to myself I am of any worth. I suppose this is what led me to the making of art. I found myself absorbed in the unexplainable and I get a lot of that out of the artwork (amongst other things) I love and the work I make. Also music is a group effort for the most part (I have played in bands for 15+ years)…and I find myself alone when it comes to art…and I like that, need that. Music I am happy with, but it can be limiting.
4. - Q: What themes do you find yourself most attracted to and returning to in your work?
A: I’d rather not say. There are a few. But new ones come about and that’s something I really enjoy when it is not premeditated (found threw chance or what have you).
5. - Q: How much of each piece of your artwork would you consider comes from an intuitive or spontaneous sense of creating and how much is analytical and planned out?
A: 50/50. But even the planning stage is consumed by chance and accident and improvising.
6. - Q: How important is music to your art? Do you listen to certain music when working? Any particular musicians?
A: Throbbing gristle “1st annual report” is always a favorite.
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7. - Q: Do you have a favorite cultural critic, philosopher, or psychoanalyst that you enjoy reading/learning from? Has their work directly or indirectly influenced you and if so, in what ways?
A: Similar to my collage, my reference to thinkers, ect. Is random and only in pieces…small doses. I don’t subscribe to any one in particular. Again the dada and surrealist movement have had an impact.
8. - Q: Who is your favorite young author right now?
A: N/a
9. - Q: Is there a young visual artist right now whose work particularly has your attention?
A: I don’t know how young he is but he is alive. I like Joe Coleman.
10. - Q: Do you make a living as an artist? If not, and you don't mind sharing, what is your day/night job?
A: I’m an odd job man. Been asked to leave or have been fired or quit jobs my whole life. I get frustrated with this but looking back at it I find it quit funny. Right now I am doing data entry (yawn) for a magazine collector. And my first art show is April 25th at the reversible eye in Chicago. I am apprehensive about selling my work. But we will see.
11. - Q: What are your future plans?
A: Continue to make art and music and so on. Self-publishing my own collected works of art. Making stop-animation film has always been a plan.
12. - Q: Any cryptic messages that you would like to send out to the readers?
A: “In mans shadow he learns to see in the dark”-ILTH
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