| // Apr 4, 2008 |
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| Artist Feature by Todd Brooks / Pendu Magazine and Gallery |
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: The greatest resource I had at art school was all the other guys and gals my age, dealing with similar visual problem-solving. What a great thing it is to have 23 other people in the same room approaching the same problem!
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:School taught me how to make assignments---not pieces of art. Books are secretly teachers on how to make books and I got a lot out of graphic novels, biographies, novels, poetry, and history books.
3. - Q: What keeps you inspired to continue making new work?
A: My hot sauce family is a never-ending source of love and struggle and that keeps me going. The work and lives of Ghostshrimp, Doug TenNapel and David Byrne keep me going. Knowing that we are all breathing life into each other (or sucking it out of each other) keeps me going. I love that humans are symbiotic.
4. - Q: What themes do you find yourself most attracted to and returning to in your work?
A: Process, the beauty of ugliness, the newness of things, the human spirit.
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: Its' chocolate milk---half chocolate and half milk. The main concept for a project is usually pretty intuitive. I come across something and make a connection of how it might work in a certain medium. I plan the thing out pretty well, how I'm going to do the project, and then I shift between intuition and planning to keep things fresh and real. A piece of mine that has no planning in it is usually full of life, but is easily forgotten and has no body. If I make something that is all planned out, I usually get too tense and everything looks stiff and posed and it begins to look like a business proposition.
6. - Q: How important is music to your art? Do you listen to certain music when working? Any particular musicians?
A: Music is a very important part of my visual art-making process. I hardly ever listen to music when I'm drawing or writing or making photos, because the music has too much sway. I get into it and it takes over. But! I love music from Dr. Dog, Geggy Tah, Shake Your Peace and Sam Davis. Their music is important and encouraging.
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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: Bill Cosby! What an incredible guy. I get the impression that Bill Cosby is one of the happiest people alive today, and he is such a force for good. His work is empowering---blood in the veins, food in the belly. I don't think I've directly portrayed anything he's said or done, but I like to think that we're on the same side.
8. - Q: Who is your favorite young author right now?
A: Oh, man. Jonathan Safran-Foer. I really connect with his writing and the messages he gives. Miranda July is really great, too.
9. - Q: Is there a young visual artist right now whose work particularly has your attention?
A: Do you know Eric Shaw? His work is really great! You can see a lot of imagery and treatment of pictures from way, way, way back in time. There's a girl on myspace named Cake. She's one of my friends and I really dig what she does. The Fetus (also on myspace) is a colorful tornado of life! Michael C. Hsiung makes these really great spectacles of line and color on paper, and David Shrigley does too.
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 make an artist as a living. I figured out for myself that I don't care that much if what I create or say or do is considered art. I just have something in my mind---a song, a dumb joke, a picture, a way to dress---and I do it. I make it what it needs to be. If it happens to be art, that's great! If not, it doesn't change what I've done. It's still what it is, regardless. There is a chain of Craft stores in Utah called Roberts Arts and Crafts. I am a picture-framer there, and I help people find frames and mats and glass that compliment their artwork. Its removed enough from creating and its enough interaction with others that it gives a nice balance to things. Work and art and life and family are not separate things for me, so no matter where I work I'm always working on projects, and no matter what projects I'm working on I'm always working. Yes?
11. - Q: What are your future plans?
A: This Summer: bike, read, camp, Frisbee. After this Summer: Finish some books I'm writing and illustrating, build an eco-friendly house with my family, travel.
12. - Q: Any cryptic messages that you would like to send out to the readers?
A:YOU'LL KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS.
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