Blah Blah Gallery

April 2009 - Interview with Robert Connett

2009-04-04T11:27:00.000-07:00

BB ~ We will start with the usual: where were you born, where did you grow up and where in the world are you slappin' paint today?

RS ~ I was born and grew up in San Francisco, Calif. I'm of the forth generation living in the city starting from 1890. I Lived and worked in SF until 1998, then moved to Los Angeles where I live and work today.

BB ~ Your paintings posted on Flickr often include well-written even lengthy (by today's standards) back story. Does it bother you that 95% of the comments are "cool" and "great job" after you have given such a deep nugget of narrative for the piece?

RS ~ Not at all. I'm very glad that people take the time to make any sort of comment. It's nice to get the occasional "in depth" comment, but I understand that if people didn't have strong feelings, no matter what they say, they would not have bothered to write anything at all.

BB ~ Nightmare visions abound in your body of work. Night Trawler alone could cause a person to more horror than the average slasher flick. Is it your aim to inspire fear or more a cathartic release for your tortured soul?

RS ~ It's a little surprising to hear that people think my work is full of "Nightmare Visions". I don't see it that way. However, I suppose it's true. My wife tells me that I live in a vacuum, my own world. She tells me that I do not realize what effect my images have on others. The evidence bares her out. I do not deliberate intend to inspire fear. Absolutely not.

My art has always been an expression for what I feel, a catharsis. I was trained at an early age to draw as an outlet for emotions that were manifesting destructively. When I was 6 years old I saw my first Psychologist. I had violence problems as a child. I was sent to psychologists and eventually to psychiatrists. I was under psychiatric treatment for many years. I saw the same shrink from age 12 until I was 18. Then I began again with him, seeing him on and off until my late thirties, when (to my great dismay) he retired. The point is, I was shown how to express pent up rage via a ball-point pen and paper. This grew into my current relationship with art. Everything I do in art is an expression of how I feel, self-allegorical. If my images are "nightmare visions" it is because I am living in what I perceive to be a nightmare. I am flushing out my demons. I do not wish to create fear. I want people to find my work interesting and even compelling. If my work makes a statement beyond me, about our society or the human condition, it is because I am a person of this world, and my experiences are part of the human condition.

BB ~ In paintings such as Microbia III, Crustaceapods you render these amazing undersea creatures. Are these things straight out of your head or do you study nature books for reference?

RS ~ Both. I am fascinated by tiny life forms. I have this idea that the universe is not only the stars and galaxies we see in the sky, but also existing within the materials that makes us. Every atom that we are made of contains an infinitely tiny universes, and in tern, there are universes even more infinitesimal contained within the material that comprises them. This largeness and smallness goes on infinitely. We are also part of some other gigantic universe that we have not discovered. Several of my paintings are based upon imaginary life forms found in different levels of this hierarchical infinity.

I am also mesmerized by medical illustrations, especially antique. I am awed by the drawings of Ernst Haeckel (ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Hackel). I love old marine biological drawings. There are many old illustrations from oceanology and marine science expeditions from the 17th to the 19th century. I locate these on the internet using a google image search. The articulate renderings of minuscule creatures inspire me tremendously.

I sometimes base my creatures upon these illustrations, and in a few cases, (very few) I have actually taken them verbatim from the illustration. Most of the life forms in my series of "microbia" are simply creations from my imagination. When I'm not busy placating my devils, I'm enjoying myself creating theoretical life forms. It depends upon my mood. Some of my work is dedicated strictly to whimsy, like the paintings you refer to, (Red Microbia, Blue Microbia and Crustaceapods: http://www.vomitus.com/museum/NewVmmPages/crustaceapods.html ), while others are concerned with the need to get rid of pent up emotions. My latest painting, "The Bone-Yard walk" (http://www.vomitus.com/museum/NewVmmPages/BoneYardRoad.html) is a perfect example of the latter. I've been wanting very much to create new paintings such as the C-Pods and Microbia's. However, I've been so fucking depressed that all I can come up with is paintings like the "Bone-Yard Walk".

BB ~ In Faces in a Mirror you really succeed in combining the serious weight of late Medieval painting with the cartoon fun of Mad Magazine. This is exactly the sort of thing that needs to be on the cover of Art Forum or on the wall at the Whitney Biennial. Do you think you can carve a niche in the hallowed stone of art history?

RS ~ Well, thank you for your gracious good words!

The painting you refer to is again an example of my cathartic art. It's 'me' looking in 'my' mirror and seeing a fucking freak were once there was a young and handsome lad.

As to the question of my art having an impact beyond my own time, possibly. Obviously I have garnered enough attention for you to take an interest in my work. That's a good start! For now I am much more interested in being able to free myself to think and paint.

I admit there is something inside me that wants my work to outlive me. What artist does not wish this? I don't have kids, so my art is like my children. Instinct to create progeny tugs at my heart strings just like anybody else.

The biggest reason that I want popularity for my art is because I need to make money. How's that for crass? That is a curse. I must sell every painting and drawing I do in order to keep going. I currently live painting to painting.

What I really want is to dig as deep within myself as I can when I make art. I want to make art that will force people to use their minds. I want to make art that is compelling. Because I need money I am tempted to compromise. That's an inner war I wage. My art does not loan itself to compromise. Nor is it considered commercial for the most part.

I would love to believe that my art will live on and have influence on new minds and new artists and the world in general. I think about it, and I dream about it. I would be a happy man to think that I have added something of substance to our world.

Then again, why concern myself with posterity when the human race is doomed? There's not much of a future for us. No one wants to see it, but the piper is coming for his payment. The abuse of our planet and its resources is about to reach a critical climax. Overpopulation and the unstoppable effects of global warming (a result of overpopulation) is going to change the world in ways unprecedented. Perhaps we shall perish altogether.

I believe that we are at the mercy of an unavoidable catastrophe that is much, much closer than any of us wants to admit. We did this. I'm as guilty as anyone. I'm like one of those subsistence farmers in the Brazilian Rain forest who must burn down a few acres of jungle so that his family might live another season. The farmer can't think about the generations to come when he sees his children starving, and by feeding them, he dooms their children. For more of my thoughts about the current state of our world check out my words at this link: http://www.vomitus.com/museum/rants/statment_0xxx02.html

BB ~ In your back story on Little Bang Theory you describe your small, but intense self-created universe with great detail. You sound a lot like my favorite writer, Charles Bukowski, when you describe the world as populated by politicians, gangsters, psychopaths, crooks, cops, idiots, drunks, misfits, yuppies, beggars and thieves. Despite this cynical even nihilistic view your work is bright and teeming with life. Is it this contradiction that fuels your vision?

RS ~ My visions are fueled not only by a need to expel my demons and explore my imagination, but also by a need to be more than a parasite in my own estimation. It's not enough that I live and breath, eat and sleep. Any insect can do these things. For many years lived for the sake of being alive.

At age 27, I came to a a turning point in my life. At the time I was working as an insurance broker in San Francisco. It's was a typical 9 to 5, go to work, come home, watch TV, go to bed, get up, go to work, get drunk on the weekend, non-life style. I became obsessed with self-examination and in my own estimation, I came up sorely lacking. I was not making art at the time.

When I was 27, I had money. I drove a jaguar. I was a yuppie. It also became unavoidably clear to me that my life was a sham. Meaningless and superficial. I had a sort of "breakdown" or "panic attack". I thought I was chocking to death. I was driven to the ER by my neighbor. When I came home and rested, I realized I must take a new direction. That was the day I began to draw again. I had stopped making art at around age 20. I began again, and never stopped. For the next 20 years it was a hobby that kept me sane. (and I also began seeing my old shrink again)

I am indeed "fueled by contradictions". What is not a contradiction? In what situation of life can we not find contradiction if we look? For instance, it is a contradiction to care about a world that I believe is about to die by its own hand. The only thing I've ever done in my life that's worth a damn is my artwork. It is contradictory to think that this is any more important than anything else, when you look at it closely, and yet … I do.

Imagination is the most important thing that I possess. Imagination is what created civilization. There, you see? There is another contradiction. I feel deeply that the only justification for my existence is a tool which helped bring us to our own destruction. (ha!) Of course I say that cynically because I think our creativity could also be our only way to survive.

Life is a mystery because nothing makes sense. The more I know, the more I know I do not know. If you take science to an absolute we are nothing more than walking talking heads fueled by chemical reactions predetermined by magnetic fields, actions and reactions. We think we have free thought and the power to decide who we are and what we do, but actually we do not. Every thought we have is an involuntary response to natural stimulations. We are automatons at the mercy of our own chemical slushy. There is no God, there is no spirit, no soul. It is all impossible. Yet, do we believe anyway. I believe.

BB ~ You skirt this issue often in your work...how do you see life after death?

RS ~ I did not realize that I was skirting the issue of life after death, but I suppose you are correct again. My first memory of this issue occurred when I was a small boy, maybe 5 or 6, my father caught my grandmother trying to teach me about Jesus. She was devout Catholic. He roared at her to leave the room as this "religious talk" was not permitted in our house, and she knew that. My dad took me on his knee and explained his version of the truth to me. He clicked the TV on, and said, "Son, this is now alive, like you and me, understand?" Next he turned it off and said, "now it is off and this is what it's like to be dead. You are simply 'no more'." On and off, he turned it ON and OFF. "This is life, "ON", and this is death, "OFF". "Click, click, click, click." That was the extent of my at home religious training. And perhaps my first lesson about metaphor. I understand him now. It's difficult not to believe in his non-faith. My mother is the same. She scoffs at life after death. She just turned 85. I asked her about it on here birthday. No way, when you die, the TV is "OFF".

Being a curious child, I would sneak into the Catholic church on the corner of our street. I was brought up in an Irish Catholic neighborhood where everyone had the name "BRIAN","PATRICK" or "COLEEN". At Saint Brendan's church I was told a very different story about God and Jesus and death. I was taught by the parochial school kids that there was a place called HELL, and I was absolutely going to see it some day! I had not been baptized, and so I WAS going to HELL. I became fascinated with all the heaven and hell stuff, especially the HELLFIRE suffering and torture part. This is when much of my fighting started, and the subsequent referrals to counselors and psychologists, which let to my first acts of art.

So, fast forward to now. My personal feelings are this; I have prayed to "GOD" for decades, and still do. I feel I have a special and very personal relationship with GOD. However, I also know that it is impossible that a GOD exists. Yet another contradiction. I also think these things in equal measure; We may have a soul that lives beyond this life, perhaps it is eternal. We may all be part of one cycle of living souls. Or perhaps a sort of co-mingling existence, and we are all one, truly connected. Or, we may be GOD ourselves, and must live every life that ever has, or ever will be lived on this planet, and every other planet in every solar system and every galaxy throughout the cosmos, in this dimension, and all others, infinitely large and infinitely small, until we finally reach the end of time, at which time we find some ultimate something which we are WAY too feeble minded to grasp at this stage. OR, we might be destined to reach immortality through technology as in the ideas of Raymond Kurzweil in his theories of artificial intelligence, transhumanism and futurism. We may be destined to evolve into cyborgs, and then truly "Spiritual Machines" ( ref: see "THE AGE OF SPIRITUAL MACHINES: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Age_of_Spiritual_Machines and "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity ) OR, we may be nothing but accidents who cease to exist like the TV does when you shut it "OFF". I feel and believe all these things. Contradictions abound in this area.

BB ~ You lost your first body of work to a studio fire back in 1995. Now you suggest getting everything you paint sold and out into the world. (I think a lot about this, ever since I read about Norman Rockwell's studio burning down in 1943.) Do you ever trade your stuff or give it to people who really dig it but can't afford it?

RS ~ I didn't know that happened to Norman Rockwell too! Damn!

Yes, I have given away prints and originals and I have traded work for other artists work, and other things. However, I'm not in a financial position at the moment to trade originals, (of course, it depends upon what is offered) I can afford to give prints when people convince me that they really want them and can't afford to buy them. I'm always honored by that, and I'm glad to give to people who can not afford my work.Aside form my art being a vehicle for placating my demons, and exploring my imagination, my next most important task is to disseminate it. I want my art to be seen, and thought of.

2009-03-09T13:09:00.000-07:00

Halloween in March! You bet but it’s even better than that...if you grew up on Famous Monsters (the movies and the magazine) get ready for frightening thrill ride down nightmare lane! Seriously talented both with the paint brush and with the mighty mouse, Jim McDermott has created a super-fueled creep show of classic grace। Turn off the lights, burn a candle or two and feast your peepers on this haunting portfolio of macabre mastery...
INTERVIEW by Richard Mullins
Let's start with the usual;-when and where were you born and where is your studio located these days?
I've gone from Massachusetts to the West Coast to Texas and back to the East Coast, where now work through the night in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, watching the shape-shifting monsters on my computer screen. Then I drive off into the night and watch the dawn at oceanside with a newspaper and a cup of Starbucks.
Give us some insight into your working method. Are your paintings (recent ones you posted on Flickr) digital from scratch or do you start with a pencil drawing?
I've tried both. Recently, I turned off the computer and have been
going back to legit pen-and-ink drawings.
It seems you have a deep connection to Hollywood films of the
1930sand 40s. I see you painting with Frankenstein Meets the
Wolf Man(1943) playing in the background. What is it about that
time periodthat inspires such artistic devotion?
Also Lon Chaney from the 1920s silent era. From 1920 to 1950, these
are haunting images that I often see in dreams and sometimes flash on
when I see coyotes and bats from my window.
Besides painting you have also inked traditional comic books. Tell us about थे Pumkinhead Comic you worked on for Dark Horse.
These were done in conjunction with the comic book artist Shawn McManus. I also collaborated with him on a story for HEAVY METAL. Take a look at his website: www.shawnmcmanus.net/
Your excellent portrait of Marilyn Manson is a vision of a more current monster (not that suburban moms still fear his lame Alice Cooper-based performance art)-what about him made you want to render his mug?
Manson is a Universal horror in the flesh!
You illustrated some video game magazine covers at one time. Did you play the game to get inspired to create the illustration? What are some of your favorite video games?
Those Tron light cycles were the coolest!
Your love for Famous Monsters of yesteryear is clear, how do you think today's creeps stack up in comparison to the classics? I'm talking about Jason, Freddie, Predator etc...
If Basil Gogos paints them, I could get real interested: www.linesandcolors.com/2008/01/19/basil-gogos/
Any new projects in the works your fans will want to know about?
Keep watching the skies! And my blog: jimdraw.blogspot.com/
-END

2009-02-27T08:36:00.001-08:00

BLAH BLAH GALLERY - FEBRUARY 2009

Politics ain’t really our bag here at BBG, but we couldn’t resist the biting, in-your-face, ink-stained barbs of Atlanta-based caricature-capture master, Aaron McKinney. Drawing may be the most basic form of art but in these works ‘basic’ is the last word you will think of...hard hitting, beautifully detailed, darkly humorous...sounds closer to the bone...a feast for the peepers....ENJOY!
INTERVIEWED by Richard Mullins
There is a lot of political content in your work.– from local to international. Are these narratives determined by the publications you work for or more your ideas?
I've always had very strong political opinions. It stems from my childhood as an oil brat, my father worked for Halliburton and I spent my youth in oil rich areas of the world. I was able to witness firsthand how American politics was being played out in places like Egypt and Indonesia. My portfolio from the very start reflected this, and the political jobs started rolling in. Most of them are their ideas, but I usually twist them a bit to reflect my opinions.
It says in your bio you moved to Georgia to focus solely on your art.
What other pursuit divided your time in the Peach State?
We moved to Atlanta about three years ago and shortly thereafter my son Jude was born. My wife and I have had our hands full with him the
past two years. We like to visit the mountains, but the people outside of Atlanta itself get a little scary. That's probably why Deliverance was filmed here, we are actually thinking of moving to Seattle or Portland to try something new.
My guess is your medium is pencil, ink and a digital mix? It's really hard to tell now days but with the speed of computer finishing it seems just about everyone (illustrators for sure) are using some form of this approach.
Pretty much everything I do is an ink, watercolor and acrylic combination of some sort. Most everything is hand done, so what you see is how the original looks. I try not to use computers unless the piece absolutely calls for it. Not because I don't appreciate them, I have mad respect for some of the work coming out with the use of computers. It's just I like having something to hold in my hand after a hard day's work, it fills some kind of primitive void in my life.
Your portrait of Joss Stone (right) is pretty amazing. The ink brush technique you have perfected serves you very well. This one has a really solidly modeled face. Do you get a lot of requests for portraits? It seems to be an obvious strength of your vision.
Thanks! I do get a few requests for portraits. They are not my favorite thing to do. The challenge with portraits is that they tend to be boring. That is where techniques like the ink wash background can make them a bit more interesting visually than just a straight up photo-real face.
In your online biography you are described as having a funny, childlike quality to your work. I can see humor but a very adult and often mean-spirited flavor which is what always seems to happen with political art. Is satire a major key in your work?
I spent the first seven years of my life in England and I think that had a definite lasting effect on my personality. The kids there are pretty damn mean, it's a British thing. I do enjoy satire, it can be a powerful tool when you are trying to expose faults or sway opinions. With my personal work I still use it but it's not as literal as with my illustrations.
"Miss America" (right) is a sick and disturbing image but it seems to be personal (not commissioned work.) What it is the story here?
It was a personal piece I did a while back. I was trying to represent the all-knowing all powerful nation we presume to be with the grotesque woman/tank figure. The poor little chicken represents third world nations.
Here at Blah Blah Gallery we most often try to avoid heavy political content or really any art that tends to divide peoples of the earth. Since this (a well-defined political point of view) is so central to your work do you ever worry potential fans of your art may be turned off by the strong views it often portrays?
Some of my biggest influences such as Sue Coe, Ralph Steadman, and Ben Shahn all have very well defined political points of view. With influences like that it was probably inevitable that I was going to be somewhat political with my work. There are always going to be people that dislike your work. I don't worry about offending too much. A lot of what I do is a form of personal therapy, when I get something on paper that has been eating away at me it's therapeutic. I'm basically saying this is how I see it and hopefully it will resonate with certain like-minded people.
"Hitchhiking" stands out for its use of a sort of seductive woman. The face in the mirror is hilarious. What was the article you were illustrating here; because it could be really sinister.
That piece was for Canoe and Kayak magazine, I do a monthly column for them called ask Eddy. It's where people write in and ask some pretty crazy canoe
or kayak related questions. That particular question was what to do if youhead too far downstream from your pick up point. They kind of let me dowhat I want so I went with the girlfriend hitchhiking while the husband hides behind a rock. The guy in the truck was one of those scary backwoods people I was talking about earlier.
An art book of your stuff would be great. (I would buy it for sure) Any future plans for your work we should know about?
I would love to do an art book. I don't have anything in the works right now but definitely in the near future! I'll keep you posted. -END

2008-12-31T10:51:00.000-08:00

We start the New Year off with a cool, clean breeze...please enjoy the beautifully modeled, sweetly handled surfaces in the art of Jonathan Edelhuber. Even if your bag is not animals, rainbows and flowers (with the heads of historical leaders popping up from time to time) it may be after you see this amazing set of pictures.

INTERVIEW by Richard Mullins
Unable to find much biography on you I have to ask the standard stuff such as; where and when were you born, where did you grow up and who are your most important influences as artist?
I was born in Arkansas, 1984. I grew up in a small town there called Searcy. I would say some of my most important influences would be people like Robert Rauschenberg, Willem de Kooning, Frida Kahlo, Henry Darger and a ton of others. There are really too many to name, but those are a few. I'm also really into Neo Rauch's work. He's amazing.
In your already significant body of work you employ relatively few themes. These subjects include: birds, insects, plant forms, historical portraits and rainbows. I detect a an interest in ecology and history as a point of investigation in your work. Am I on the right track and if so how does it all add up?
You're right on! I love that stuff. As a child I would go to flea marketswith my friend and his dad and buy old furniture and things and refinish them This piqued my interest of pretty much anything old....books, coins, portraits...It was all so interesting to me. I bring a lot of this stuff into my work. I paint them how I want to see them. When I look at an old book or a crackly old piece of furniture, it gives me a feeling that's hard to describe. I try to show a glimpse of that feeling through my work.
You model very well and often use monochrome red for the central figure. Other than yellow I can't think of a more challenging hue for this. Any significance to red or is it just the crayon that stands out in the box for you?
People usually ask about the red first. While it holds some personal significance to me, I do find it just an enjoyable color to work with. I guess explaining my reasons behind the red color is a little difficult so...I just like red. :)
About how many hours do you think it takes you to paint a typical piece. I'm looking at ..."what came of the two" (detail below) and the attention to detail is amazing. You must maintain super patience and concentration skills.
It's really hard to say. I usually begin with a few layers of gesso and after that dries I work on the backgrounds. I'll usually do this in a night. I would say the rest depends on how intricate the piece is. "what came of the two" probably took me 3 nights at a few hours a night to finish (give or take a few). It's an 8x10 inch piece so you can kind of judge other pieces from that. I'm finding that I really enjoy working on the tiny details...It's not so much super patience and concentration, but more of an obsession with the enjoyment of it.
You live and work in Nashville but you seem to exhibit often in L.A. Are you able to get out to the coast see your shows?
I've done several shows out there, but have only been able to make it out there once. It was such an awesome experience! The West Coast is a different and amazing place...very much its own.
Along the same lines of folks seeing your work, how does posting on Flickr
affect how you see your work? I've been at this since the early 90s so I really like not having to work in a vacuum because as soon as you finish and post a piece a huge number of people can see it instantly.
I love Flickr. It's so good to be able to finish a piece like you said and just stick it up for all to see. Having feedback is great as well and I think it pushes artists to be better at what they're doing. I also love looking around at all the other art on there. There are sooo many extremely talented artists and having a tool like Flickr makes it incredibly easy to view other artist's work who might be living on the complete opposite side of the world. We're living in an amazing time!
I came across photos of a solo show you did on some cat's blog. How did the crowd react to the small size of the paintings in such a large space?
That show seemed to go very well. Having such a large space with such small paintings forced people to come in close with each piece. I think this made it more intimate to the viewer.
Any future series or plans you want to reveal?
I don't have any shows planned at the moment. I'm really just wanting to paint for myself and push my work without the pressure of having to do a show. As for any series coming up...keep checking Flickr!!!

2008-12-01T15:07:00.000-08:00

We round this old year out with some fresh, new, bits from an underground comic and animation artist you may already know; J.R. Williams. From the paper pages of WEIRDO to the digital pages of Flickr J.R. has done his share of swell artwork. We caught up with the artist and threw a few questions his way. Enjoy.

INTERVIEW by Richard Mullins
You work out of Portland, Oregon. I have heard the young music scene is smokin' in the northwest...how is the art scene up there?
There are more people doing creative work here than the local economy can support! Not so very long ago the Portland art scene revolved primarily around the more established downtown galleries. As the city has continued to grow, gallery spaces and even entirely new "art districts" have begun popping up all over the place. In addition to painters, Portland is also home to people who are doing a wide variety of visually creative work: filmmakers, animators, cartoonists, comic book artists, photographers, sculptors, and so on. Small press and self-publishing are very active here. Living in such a creative environment can be quite inspiring.
Your career seems to really take off in the mid-80s. What was the first big gig you got to do?
Getting into Robert Crumb's WEIRDO magazine in the mid-'80s is what I consider to be my first "big break." I sent a submission to Crumb, who had been editing the early issues...he forwarded my work to Peter Bagge, who was about to take over as editor. Pete accepted my submission, and even invited me to stay with him and his wife in the Seattle area while I looked for work, which I eventually did. WEIRDO was probably one of the most widely circulated anthologies of alternative/underground comics being published at the time, and attracted a fantastic roster of contributors--both seasoned underground artists and relatively new up-and-comers. It was a terrifically fertile period in the development of the omics medium, so it was naturally very exciting to suddenly find myself, essentially, in the middle of so much activity and innovation. Nearly every day Pete would go down to his p.o. box and return with something amazing or wildly amusing. I think I contributed to WEIRDO 3 or 4 times. After that, I seldom found myself sending out "cold" submissions. Editors and publishers started requesting work from me, so it wasn't difficult to stay busy.
1960s animation and graphics seem to be giving you major fuel for your work these days. What makes that time special for you?
I was born in the late '50s, so the 1960s were my childhood years. Many of us never seem to lose the enthusiasm we felt for certain aspects of the culture in which we grew up. A big part of that, I think, is because our emotions are so much more intense when we're young, and things we're exposed to during those years can make such powerful and lasting impressions. Anyway, the above is certainly true for me--imagery originating from that period of my life can evoke a lot of different emotions and associations, some long forgotten. If I can communicate a bit of that sort of intensity to others through my work, then maybe I'm doing my job as a visual artist.
Like myself (and most other artists over 30 years old) you had an art career before the internet and neat-o sites like Flickr. How has sharing your artwork on Flickr changed how you see your own work?
I can't say for certain that Flickr has changed the way I view my own work.
But I do see some correlation between publishing in a printed medium and
posting work online for public view. It's always satisfying to finish a new piece of work...but after working in comics for a number of years, I developed the feeling that something wasn't completely "finished" until it was printed and in circulation. The same tendency applies to posting new work online...it's not done until it's "live" and out where people can see and respond to it. I've attempted to run my Flickr page like a blog or online journal, making regular entries, even daily updates whenever it's possible. Of course, this kind of commitment is a strong motivator to produce new work regularly. Sites like Flickr provide the opportunity to respond directly and immediately to posted imagery, and it's very gratifying to know that people are interested enough in my work to comment on it! I could go on and on about the ways in which the current technology benefits those of us working in creative areas...but to be brief, I'd just say that I'm in basic agreement with Terence McKenna, who saw the internet as a potential "cultural accelerator." The ability to share ideas and information--whether visual, verbal, or audible--has become faster, more direct, and more efficient.
Robert WIlliams and his Juxtapoz Magazine (along with the rise of the internet and local art scenes) brought the Low Brow vision into the mainstream. As an artist working in this vein has this spotlight helped you get your work in shows, magazines etc...?
It's perhaps a bit too soon to say...I've been working in an intentionally "lowbrow" vein only since about April of this year (2008). Prior to that I'd been doing work that was much more abstract. My recent work definitely seems to generate more immediate response. It's no great surprise to discover that people tend to respond most enthusiastically to "appropriated" imagery that's already more or less familiar to them. We don't have the same sorts of standing associations with intentionally abstract imagery, which can seem obscure or puzzling. Just the same, I'll probably continue working in both veins. Although I haven't been too active in comics for the last several years, I did do a two-page piece for an anthology of abstract comics to be published by Fantagraphics in 2009. In some ways I think the boundaries between "lowbrow" and "highbrow" art are becoming less and less defined. I see elements of my more "legitimate" creative tendencies creeping into my "pop" work, and vice versa.
Besides the more typical cartoon stuff you also paint near abstraction works such "Towers." These are a cool departure. What informs this direction?
I was a Fine Arts major in college, and am still very interested in modern/contemporary art. I've developed a curiosity about primitive art, especially native American petroglyphs and rock paintings, and "folk arts" of the Huichols and Oaxacans of Mexico. I like Art Brut and so-called "naive" art. On one hand, I've always had an attraction to the kind of clearly outlined, strong graphic approach that's become so commonly associated with the comics form. On the other, I'm fascinated by the textures and random elements present in much modern painting (and in the natural world). I'm conscious of trying to merge both of these approaches in my work, in some way or another.
Who are some of the artists you have worked with over the years that really impressed you?
As you probably know, the work of an independent visual artist is typically a lonely business. Most of my work is done in solitude. I did do some collaborative work back in my comics days, mostly illustrating stories written by other authors. I've also worked in TV animation for a number of years...I'm a former animator/designer/storyboard artist for (primarily) Will Vinton Studios (Claymation™), and continue to do occasional jobs in the animation industry. Working with the many, various, remarkably talented individuals present in the business of dimensional animation has been one of the most formative and satisfying experiences of my creative life. Puppet animation is tremendously complex. So many different types of skills are involved: sculpting, woodworking, metalworking, camera operations, the innumerable nuances of "performance" that bring an illusion of life to inanimate matter...it's an intensely collaborative medium, and to be accepted as a contributing member of such a creative community by one's peers is extremely gratifying. I feel that I've learned a great deal from others throughout this aspect of my career, but I couldn't even begin to name them all...–END

Modern Monster 2008 - the Book

2008-11-03T12:13:00.000-08:00

It's here! Blah Blah Gallery's Modern Monster 2008 art catalog. More than 40 pages of full color artwork by over 20 super-powered paint slingers from around the globe. This is a group exhibition featuring works by, Mike Bell, Gregg Griffin, Jason Limon, Jasun "Bat Daddy" Huerta and many more. Curated by Richard Mullins. Hit the link below to order now.
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/393637

Modern Monster 2008 @ Blah Blah Gallery

2008-10-01T21:11:00.000-07:00

A massive heap of eye grabbin' artwork ranging from the monstrous to the sublime... Over 35 works from 20 global artists.....HIT IT at the one and only...Blah Blah Gallery
Modern Monster - a Group Exhibition @ Blah Blah Gallery
Artists Shown
Federico Arevalo
Sean Barton
Mike Bell
Jon Binford
Cikita Z
Steven D. Craig
Cristóbal Ladrón de Guevara
Mike Egan
Jamie Fales
Gregg Griffin
Gregory Hergert
Jasun "Bat Daddy" Huerta
Jason Kauzlarich
Jason Limón
Dave MacDowell
Tommaso Meli
Mike Monk
Richard Mullins
Tobiah P. Mundt
Renato de Almeida Fernandes Ribeiro
Milan Rubio
Jaime Sanabria " Plukart " Galvis

www.blahblahgallery.com

Heros of Paint: a NEW Blah Blah Gallery Group

2008-10-01T20:47:00.001-07:00

Blah Blah Gallery is proud to announce our 3rd Flickr group, Heros of Paint. We started with Blah Blah Gallery's New Art Movements then added the punchy power of Cartoonland. Heros of Paint is a group of heavyweight paint-slingers with guts and grab for artfame glory that comes from fearlessly slapping down a canvas (or surface of choice) with a deft touch. Stop by and check it out for yourself...

Richard Mullins, Director
Blah Blah Gallery

http://www.flickr.com/groups/866053@N23/

Interview with Gregory Hergert

2008-08-29T10:24:00.000-07:00

Pop the corn, pour the drinks and take a seat...BBG is back from summer re-runs! Ladies and Germs we bring you the intriguing and fairly often twisted visual vibrations of Gregory Hergert. We found this smooth paint-slinger while clicking away in the vast pages of Flickr Land. Be warned...these works ain’t for the timid!

INTERVIEWED by Richard Mullins
Okay, let's get the easy stuff out of the way. Where and when were you born into this world and where is your studio located?
While my father was earning his doctorate at Oregon State I was born in 1952. In a rough and tumble logging town at the base of the Olympic mountains I grew up trout fishing, wandering in the woods, and occasionally making artwork. After my father was transferred to NYC I met kids who took art seriously. Currently I have a giant basement studio in Pottstown Pennsylvania. Unfortunately because I'm a packrat,collector,gatherer of the obscure,and chaotic piler sometimes the only place to draw is with a sketch pad on my lap.
Some of the artists we have shown here on Blah Blah Gallery lean more to the commercial illustrator side but I have to say you are firmly on the 'studio' side. (my term for paint-slingers who paint what ever the &$%* they want.) What drives you to snag the brushes and get it down?
Because I wasn't willing to trade freedom for success I've always been on the fringe. I nursed my mom who had Alzheimers until her death last year. Due to the stress, I suffered from a reccuring nightmare,which was watching helplessly as my art was hauled off in a dumpster. Yet,even though I'm on a mission to stay out of the landfill,I cling to the freedom to make whatever I want possibly at the expense of success.
The work of yours that sold me on your stuff was Twister (right.) Great use of greyscale values, smooth rendering and being from Oklahoma originally, tornado imagery gets my attention. The face on the female figure looks specific and generic at the same time. Are your figures based on photos or live models or are they straight out of your 'ole noggin'?
A famous illustrator lived near me in New Jersey and took me under his wing and taught me the tricks of the illustration trade. He photographed with a 4x5 polariod camera,shooting reference pictures for every element in his illustrations. My assignment one week was to find a girl and convince her to let me photograph her nude for an illustration. Sweating bullets I asked a girl at my part-time job and much to my surprise she agreed. Trying to be professional I snapped pictures as she stripped and then shot various Playboy style poses. Proudly I brought my photos to my mentor and he looked at them with no real expression,then he said "let me borrow these"...I never saw them again!
You probably get tired of the surrealism comments but it's hard to overlook. Who is your favorite Surrealist artist?
One summer I scrounged through my neighbors trash looking for collage materials. Soon I was learning their darkest secerts and scotch taping them to my drawings like voodoo portraits. Later that Fall the first book about Joseph Cornell was published and I discovered the supreme master, the scrounger,the assembler, and weaver of
mystery from the ordinary. I stacked my drawings,wrapped them with
brown paper, tied them with string, and didn't look at them again for
twenty years.
In 'Navy' you turn a human woman into an octopus or the other way around.
Can you give any inside on what you were thinking when you painted this gem?
The band Madams video production company Mdoll has a stylized octopus logo.They wanted my artwork in their latest video. On the upper east side of Manhattan I would see these rich ladies walking their little dogs and I always enjoyed watching them bend over and scoop up a fresh steaming turd. So in my painting Navy a rich octopus dressed in nautical is out shopping and walking her little cuddlefish which squirts some ink on the hydrant. Since there's women in the band I deleted the steaming turd!
Erotic desire seems to be the gas in the tank on many of the works you posted on Flickr. What aspect of human sexuality most informs your work? (sorry to get all Art Forum on you but enquiring minds want to know.)
Miss Harvey my fifth grade teacher wore tight skirts, pointy pumps, and nylons with seams. One night sitting in my bed,with knowledge gleaned from the Sears catalogue, I drew her removing an article of clothing with each drawing.
What's up with the Witches series? (mostly too X-rated for BBG, hit Gregory’s site to view ) Did you have a run in with one of them Burning Man/Wicker Man witchy chicks or what?
I live in this old mansion in Pennslyvania. The man who built it died in the house two years after it was finished. The previous owner was convinced the house was haunted but I don't believe in the supernatural. Late one night, while alone in the house working in my basement studio I heard someone walk across the hardwood floor of the dining room above me. With my heart racing I grabbed a weapon and crepted upstairs fearing an encounter with a burglar. I checked every room,closet, and hiding space as well as every door and window...nothing! I believe in the power of the imagination to make things real which is the greatest gift of the artist. Witches are my favorite theme in autumn. Feminism hijacked witchcraft and reduced it to a legitimate religion. By hyper-sexualizing witches I'm attempting to restore them to the pantheon of imagination and horror.
You throw religion into the mix at times. Any belief system for you there or is it mainly more petrol for the paint engine?
I was hitchhiking around America when I joined this Christian group called Youth with a Mission. That Spring a bunch of us went to Russia to protest in Red Square their lack of religious freedom.On May Day morning just outside of Moscow a flatbed truck flanked by machine gun toting soldiers blocked the road.They pulled us from our vehicles and linedus up. I stood there imagining being gunned down and stacked on the truck. Eventually a black sedan arrives and out come some KGB types who photographed and interrogated each one of us while demanding to know who was behind this plot to shame the Soviet Union!
'Fish Fry' (right) comes across as old school Low Brow. Are there any artists that you look to for inspiration in the Low Brow cannon?
I'm a huge fan of Glenn Barr. He painted a wayward Betty Rubble as a hooker sitting in a bar...ideas like that are inspirational. Even though his technique is loose he creates convincing original environments for his erotic characters. Recently some books have come out about the truely old school low brow art of Bill Ward. If you love erotic drawing he is fabulous.I own one of his drawings and have borrowed several techniques from it.
I encountered a huge battle fighting the old school feminists in my time at the San Francisco Art Institute (for my use of female figures in the Song of the Snowman series.) They would probably put you in hairy armpit HELL for your stuff! Since your work is often over the top do you ever get angry feminist throwing poop at you?
I illustrated an article for High Times magazine about this new drug which delivered erotic ectasy. So I painted a writhing nude in high heels mounted on spikey steel prods. When the female office staff saw the proofs they mounted a protest and tried to shame the art director to drop my illustration. He told me how ironic it was for people who smoke dope at work and celebrate worldwide anarchy that they would march for censorship!
Great to get to chunk some questions at you, Gregory. BBG and it's global fan-base are looking forward to seeing the super cool stuff you will be putting out in the future!
Even though I cracked the door open just a smidge it's been such an honor to share with the BBG fans! Richard thanks for the great questions.It's been a true pleasure! -END

Interview with Heiko Müller

2008-08-29T10:22:00.000-07:00

BBG is back for another round...this time we bring you super talent all the way from Germany, mega-talented Heiko Müller. With an intriguing narrative and a deft display of hand skills these works pack a mighty punch. Nature’s losing war against man is a common theme but with Heiko Müller it is presented in a fresh, for-our-times light. Hop in here and enjoy these sweet paintings....

INTERVIEWED by Jason Kauzlarich
First off, where are you located and what is your studio/workspace like?
I live in a small town close to Hamburg in the north of Germany. My studio is a small and rather basic room in the basement underneath my house. Nothing I’m really proud to show to visitors, but the good thing about it is that I’m always close to my family. Days however I’m working in my small agency in Hamburg, which I’m running together with my best friends.
So do you have any formal training in art, like schooling or some classes or did you just pick it up? And is it your profession or just something you do in your free time?
I have indeed studied illustration and graduated in communication design. Nonetheless I would describe myself as a screen designer when it comes to my profession. I only find the time for drawing on weekends or sometimes nights. However art has continuously grown more important to me in the last years.
I am noticing a huge comparison to Hieronymus Bosch, like the style in characters and some of the colors used. Am I correct in assuming he is an influence? And who are some of your influences and why?
Bosch is definitely an influence. It’s his almost limitless creativity that impresses me hugely. On top of that he seems to have been highly courageous for his times. I wouldn’t dare try some of his motifs even today. There are however some artists of his era that I even more interesting. One of them is Petrus Christus. His excellently skilful portraits contain a very subtle horror. It is generated by a very dense atmosphere that creates a kind of claustrophobic feel. Also the faces seem strangely distant, almost as if the people were on drugs. All in all this adds up to a world which seems even stranger to me than the one invented by Bosch. Needless to say, it’s a big inspiration to me.
Your painting "Giant Bear" is pretty savvy, I dig it a lot. At first glance it's just a bear head and some creatures under it but then I start really looking at it and there are all sorts of awesome things going on; like the forest fire on the bear's head, the sketches of different monsters/creatures throughout the piece, weird lil wobbly things coming out of the cloud, etc. So what is the story behind that painting?
As long as I can remember I feel close to nature and to animals. I hardly can picture anything more beautiful than strolling through a forest, looking for animals or strange plants. You can picture that I’m depressed at how nature is being destroyed. These worries apparently made their way into the picture. To be honest, I can only speculate about this myself, as most of my motifs come develop rather intuitively. I don’t follow an intricate concept but rather trust my feelings.
I have noticed that many of your pieces have a recurring character, the wooden reaper. What is the deal with the wooden reaper? Is he just something you think looks really eat or is there some actual meaning behind him?
Both things really. Actually the character was inspired by a joke. A friend asked me what I would give my son as a birthday present und suspected I had a log of wood in mind. I was immediately reminded of the Log Lady from Twin Peaks and started to draw a number of pictures with characters who treated a log like a baby or a pet. I got back to that motif once in a while and the log gradually turned into the Wooden Reaper. In a way, to me the Wooden Reaper is the Grim Reaper of the forest. I noticed your paintings are small in size. Is there a particular reason you paint small scale?
There are a number of reasons. My studio is very small and my technique is a rather tiring since I need to apply quite a bit of pressure on my pens to achieve the proper covering power. This means my right index finger starts to hurt after about 90 minutes. Finally I like to focus on one spot.
What things in life influence your artwork?
Recently I drew most of my inspiration from the surrounding landscape: the woods on my front door, the wild willows, dunes and the sea. I want to capture the emotions that are triggered by these landscapes. I mix all of that with memories, and now and then also my son’s creative ideas seep into my work. -END

Interview with Shane Verhaben

2008-01-31T12:56:00.000-08:00

February 2008
BRRRRR! To break the cold chill of freezing February we present to you the inner, earth-warm tone of Shane Vorhaben. Shane’s has been on an art roll of late, popping up appetizing ink and watercolor imagery of tasty goodness. A master of pattern and soft-tinted hue Shane’s work will bring a little glow to that frosty heart of yours; just in time for the Hallmark Holiday otherwise known as Valentine’s Day. Sweet!

INTERVIEWED by Richard Mullins
So at what site on the planet were you born, got grown and where is your studio located here in the present day?
Let's see, I was born in Van Nuys, California, but moved to Tyler, TX when I was in the first grade. So, I'm basically from Texas. I lived in Texas throughout my college years (University of Texas as Tyler) and then moved to Missouri, where I currently, and begrudgingly reside. I'm really ready to make a move. I'm tired of living "in the middle". I would love to live on the west coast. I really feel Portland calling. I've never been there, but it seems to have a pretty cool art scene.
In your work I noticed a repeating character of sorts...a guy with a goatee and hair that sticks slick to his skull and is parted down the middle. What is the significance of
this.. a kind of every-man or self-portrait?
Well, it's definitely not a self portrait. I'm not exactly sure where it came from. I normally doodle quite a bit, and every now and then I'll draw a face that I really like. Recently I've been kind of stuck on round heads. Before that they were kind of rectangular with rounded edges....and the occasional square. Think I'm going to start
changing it up again and go with various odd shapes....which I'll
probably do for a while until I move on to the next shape/design. As far
as the goatee/mustache/beard thing goes, ...they're just fun to draw, and
they add a lot of character. And come on, who doesn't love a nice thick mustache. Like I always say, WWSEMD...What Would Sam Elliot's Mustache Do?
On occasion I sense a little Robert Hargrave and even maybe a touch of Aaron Nather in some of your stuff. Who are some of the artists you look to for inspiration?
I actually had to google Aaron Nather...I think I've seen some of his work before..great stuff....and I discovered Robert Hardgrave a month or so ago ..his work is really appealing to me...he has a brilliant sense of color and design...definitely an inspiration...and from what I've seen online and heard from others, he's a really great guy. That's always good to hear. As far as other sources of inspiration, there are so many. I love to go to the bookstore and look through their art books, magazines etc. If I see something I like I'll write the artist's name down and then check out their website when I get home. I love finding a great artist I wasn't aware of. Also, I'm always amazed at how many great artist's there are on Flickr...Dan May, Jason Limon, Alison O'Donoghue, Philip Kirk (bigheadedrobot), Colin Johnson, Jeremy Pruitt (thinkmule)...that's just a few..I know I've left so many of my favorites out..my apologies.....Flickr is definitely a source for inspiration. And everyone I've met on Flickr seems so friendly and ready to answer any questions I might have. It's a great little artistic community.
Sam and Rose have a "Lennon" moment is one of my favorites from your online collection of work. The swirling movement of the bodies creates a cozy composition. What inspired
this one and are there any plans for a Lennon-like erotic series?
I'm so glad you like "Sam and Rose have a 'Lennon' moment"..it's one of my personal favorites. I was actually listening to, and watching "jealous guy" on youtube. It was one of those photo montage videos. Anyway, one of the pictures was the one of John Lennon lying there naked with Yoko..I think it was used as a Rolling Stone cover..I'm not sure though. I just really loved the picture, and wanted to do something similiar to it. I actually did have plans to do a little "erotic" series...I looked through a few Kama Sutra books..( just for inspiration of course :) ) I've done a few sketches, but nothing major.
Since your work is subject based, how important is the narrative to you?
You know, to be honest, a lot of the time I never really think of the narrative. I suppose I try and leave that up to the viewer. I know a lot of people like to speculate on what an artist is trying to convey in a picture, and this might or might not be a letdown, but I normally just draw/paint what I think looks cool. Occasionally I'll do something that has a specific narrative that I'm trying to get across, but for the most part I'm just doing some that I find visually appealing. I think it's more fun to hear the stories that other people come up with to be honest.
Pattern plays a large role in many of your works. Is there a particular influence there?
I've never really thought about it. But thinking back now I guess I would have to say that when I was younger I was a big M.C.Escher and Aubrey Beardsley fan. M.C.Escher was my art hero all throughout Jr and High school. His precision and ideas were really amazing to me...still are. And Aubrey Beardsley's beautiful ,flowing, intricate black and whites are just incredible to me.
You work at very small sizes. Is this just your comfort zone or does the medium you use have something to do with it?
Yes I definitely tend to work small. I've done a few larger pieces, but they just seem to take forever with ink and watercolor and I'm always in a hurry to get to the next idea. I have dreams of doing really big canvases, and I always promise myself I'll start doing them. I've just never done anything w/acrylics, and I'm a little intimidated to learn something new. Maybe I need to buy some Bob Ross instructional videos. How can you go wrong watching someone with a sweet white mans afro paint "happy little trees".....come on, that's just a little slice of Heaven here on Earth.
What is a Moleskine Cashier? I'm in a group on Flickr called Moleskine Alchemists that I thought was a kind of cartoon animal thing. (This is an art trend I haven't been schooled on.)
Ha ha...A Moleskine cashier is just a small paperbound Moleskine. It's not hardbound like the normal ones. Basically just a simple black overpriced sketchbook. They come in a variety of sizes and with various kinds of paper: sketch, gridded, lined, blank, music, fold out...and more. They've become sort of an addiction for me, and many others. I just really like the size and durability of them. And I love drawing on the really thin , cream colored paper...it's very slick, and takes watercolor remarkably well. I've tried all sorts of sketchbooks, but they are by far my favorite. You can check out www.moleskinerie.com for more info.
How do the subjects for your paintings come to you? I'm guessing you keep a regular sketchbook and choose from the doodling?
Absolutely, I'm always drawing in my sketchbook. I'll "doodle" while I'm watching tv, on the phone, even while I'm working on another picture...to relieve the monotony. And every now and then something comes along that I really like and want to expand on. It's also good to keep a sketchbook by the bed for when you have an idea that you need to jot down. I've lost so many ideas because I thought I would remember them when I woke up.
Are there any outside influences such as a style of musicor kind of film or television show you like to "soak up" while you paint?
For the most part I just put my Ipod on shuffle. I'm really big on singer-songwriter's...Ray Lamontagne, Amos Lee, Joe Purdy, Counting Crows, Tom Waits, Brandi Carlile, Rachael Yamagata...many, many more. As far as tv goes, I'll just put it on the Discovery or History channel. That way I can just listen to it. I probably listen to more tv than I actually watch. Recently I've discovered a channel called Ovation...they show a lot of documentaries about artists. Just watched a great one about Chuck Close...that guy is amazing.
Any future art plans your fans out there might want to know of?
As far as the future goes, I'm just going to keep plugging away , doing my thing. I do have plans to seek out an art rep. to try and get into book/magazine illustration. And I'd love to do some gallery shows.

Interview with Dave MacDowell

2007-12-31T10:07:00.000-08:00

Interview by Richard Mullins for the January 2008 edition of Blah Blah Gallery
Along with a heavy dose of Pop Culture, there is a great deal of personal expression and opinion conveyed in your paintings. What are some of the cultural observations that have informed your work's content?
I’ve always been intrigued how mass media reflects, molds and manipulates our cultural consciousness. I’ve always wondered why there’s more death and tragedy in Disney cartoon’s, than in standard horror flick’s? Why does Spielberg make stronger propaganda films than Leni Riefenstahl? Isn’t it bizarre how children’s marketing is based on “nagging”, to bilk billions of parental dollars a year? I believe that the brainwashing of society by cultural media is purely intentional. This is why I take my responsibility of being a visual artist with a grain of salt. I use my “voice”, to often parody how freedoms are challenged, not just for corporate profit, but also by our own hands. I get a real kick out of painting people who make misguided choices, because everyone can definitely relate!
When you submitted your work to Blah Blah Gallery at first glance we assumed you were another anti-American, anti-Christian artist (like much of the old-guard Juxtapoz gang, Ron English etc...) You surprised us when you said you were actually a serious, believing Christian (like myself and Gregg Griffin.) How do you feel about holding such beliefs sacred in an art scene that is brutally hostile to us?
I could care less about what an artist believes. What is of utmost importance is what they’re producing. I see art and life, as “garbage in – garbage out”. With what an artist feeds there heads and hearts becomes enchanted onto their canvas. I love art so passionately, that I would take a bullet for it. I’ve always martyred my existence to Jesus, wife, child and all living things. I’ve been courageously marching through a laughable life riddled with utter failure, but my “art life” has been blessed with embracing support and unbelievable positivity. I must be right where God wants me to be.
Robert Williams has called Juxtapoz Magazine a return to well-crafted works of art. Slick, polished technique seems to be of upmost importance in your work. How do you feel about the looser work of sloppy,"bad-painters" like myself?
I believe that there’s more technical skill in a loose painting, for its spirit is vibrantly confident and blatantly knowledgeable. I can only paint tight, because I’m uptight! My greatest nightmare is having the viewer walk away with a cold, unemotional attitude. So, my twisted logic dictates that, even if the subject matter isn’t selling, they’re bound to buy into the funky details. After bugging out on painterly detail, I always vow, “The next one will be a fast, simple light-hearted romp.” Then when the next piece starts, the monster morphs into another eye-straining epic.
After the seductive quality of your paintings the dense layers of symbolism are the next wave to strike the viewer. I tend to think "Okay, I get it, wait...maybe not...what exactly is going on here?" Does it bother you that your work's message may send scrambled signals?
At the risk of sounding bohemian, or buffoonish, I really only care if the painting “Looks Cool”. As long as there’s no cheap nudity or gratuitous violence, I figure anything goes. If the viewer is looking for insight into moral character and ethical wisdom, I’ll kindly direct them toward the wonderful works of Norman Rockwell and Bob Ross. My “Sweet Blindness” piece features a humorous orgy of flesh, drugs and alcohol. The interpretation is intentionally ambiguous because it’s smart to refrain from preaching and pragmatism. Does the viewer want to really know that I was born into a family of abusive alcoholism? Maybe, but I respect them enough to leave the visual clues when intrigued enough to dig deeper. A whisper is a thousand times more powerful than a scream. So why shout?
You created a great painting containing a Japanese rising sun, skulls, a white rabbit and a crying girl on a tricycle starting to submerge into a pool of blood...can you describe what is going on in The Giving
Tree?
The statement revolves around the loss of innocence. The grappling children face when they have to acknowledge death and growing up. The blood being a “river of life” symbol of transition and cleansing. The Japanese motif wasn’t symbolically specific, for these realities are cross-culturally universal. I just dig oriental design and beauty.
Another piece I enjoy but have no clue as to the meaning is, All of Them Witches. Other than some very nice celebrity portraits what is up with this one?
This piece was created exclusively as an open job application, into the lowbrow movement. I had my first group show in 2006, amongst “boat and lighthouse” painters. I knew of the pop surrealist movement, and with minimal research I discovered technically painted cartoons. I immediately knew that I had “found my calling”, and that I needed to gain respectability. So, in the process of creating this piece, I basically retaught myself how to paint professionally. I studied color theory, because I hadn’t a clue what “complimentary” color meant. The subject matter is a nudge to the National Enquirer, and to the lowbrow movement itself. I see maybe 20 visionary’s, swimming in a sea of copycats. I wanted this piece to be a marketing tool to gain viability as a unique “voice”, and thankfully it worked.
In an article written about your work it mentions that you are "bringing back the original sprit of Lowbrow." By this I guess they mean a spirit of a tight, realistic-style representation, anti-American culture that is heavy on sarcasm, low on the positive (or much of anything upbeat or wholesome?) Is this something you are trying to achieve?
I have no clue who actually penned that article, but I like it! Not only is it twisted enough to elevate my talent as a harbinger of change; it’s worded like it isn’t convinced of its own hype. The irony is that I am not a politician, preacher or alarmist. I’m just a fun-loving father, who possesses above-average artistic skills. My only agenda is hard work.
Any future projects in the pipeline for your fans to know about?
I’ll be doing some things with Thinkspace in 2008, and focusing on group shows. What I really want right now is to graciously give thanks to you and Greg for the wonderful opportunity to be a part of Blah Blah Gallery.

Mike Egan the BBG interview

2007-12-24T12:29:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas and the rest to all you hip tots out in the cold, dirty world...we have prepared for you a special holiday treat...the odd and ‘deadly’ works of Mike Egan. Mike has first hand knowledge of real dead people from his days as an embalmer but as an artist he handles the deceased with cartoon ease in series of skeletal paintings that will amuse and thrill you. So don’t be afraid...step right up and get a good look at this gallery of spiritual impressions from those who have passed on...
Your work in funeral homes is a great "career fact!"
Like how Eddie Money was once a cop or Sting, a High School
English teacher; only yours is a heck of a lot more
interesting. Do you feel any sense of being 'haunted'
after your time in 'corpse city.'
I don't feel like I'm necessarily haunted from
working in funeral homes, but I don't think that I'll
ever forget about it. I mean I did embalm people for
a living, you know that was a lot of crazy things that
I saw.
Looking at the 'news' on your website it looks like
you have plunged yourself into the gallery/shows scene. Is
showing in the 'real world' (as opposed to the
not-so-real online one) influencing or informing your vision?
I really like showing in galleries, it's great to
talk to people face to face about my work. I actually
like when people don't know who I am and start giving
their opinion, good or bad.
I think all artists struggle with motivation at times.
What is it that drives you to pick up a paint brush and
'get down to business?'
I think that the biggest influence would be my
horrible day job, I'd love to do my art full-time.
I'm just like everyone else though, I have my good
weeks where I get loads of work done, and weeks that
just suck.
You are influenced by religious icons. Is this from a
view 'inside of' or 'outside of' actual spiritual belief
(God, Jesus, Heaven, Hell, life-after-death etc...)?
I have belief in all of the above. I was raised
Catholic, so being in churches I got to look at lots
of great paintings and stained glass windows. Working
in funeral homes also introduced me to different
religions and their iconography.
When you introduce type into your works such as the
word, 'bleed' it makes the paintings (which are flat and
graphic to start with) feel something like a sign. Am I onto
something here?
I really love typography, so yes there is a feeling
of an advertisement or a sign. I feel that the words
are a way to break up my compositions, give a new
feeling to the painting.
You are a big fan of the current crop of hot Lowbrow
artists (formerly known as "underground") Are you
interested in more serious, classic works? I think of
Albrecht Dürer, Hieronymus Bosch and late medieval
woodcuts (demons and death subjects) when I look at
your work.
I really love the German Expressionists, Otto Dix,
Max Beckman and Kathe Kollwitz. They were the ones
that got me into my style of bold line work. Of
course I love Jose Guadalupe Posada, his wood cuts are
amazing.
On your MySpace page it says you are trying to quit
television. What's your beef with the boob tube?
As much as I say that I want to quit television I
don't think that it will happen any time soon. TV
actually works as background noise for me as I paint.
You are getting a ton of quality mileage from the
skeleton theme. Any sketches or future plans for other
subjects?
I'm working on some figures that have beards and
hats. I'd like to get more decorative with people's
outfits. I would like to work with different
languages as text. I'll never really get rid of the
skeletons or devils, they've kind of taken over.

Mike Monk Interview with Richard Mullins

2007-12-24T12:03:00.001-08:00

(Originally appeared in July of this year)
For our 5 year anniversary show we decided to slip the curtain back a bit and reveal some of the methods behind the magic. Texas artist and experimental musician Mike Monk agreed to fry-up a mess of evocative questions and Richard Mullins stepped out of the shadows to take a load off, sit down and answer ‘em. Here it is...the first ever BBG interview with co-founder Richard Mullins.
It’s been five years since the creation of Blah Blah Gallery which has been the primary source of exposure for your work and the work of comrade Gregg Griffin, as well as a major source of exposure for many obscure and known, working artists. Do you feel that BBG as a vehicle has given you personally the range of exposure you had hoped for?
No question it has been far more successful than we imagined. We started with the idea that our work was hard to place for traditional galleries because it fell between the commercial illustration-as-art low brow (Juxtapoz) scene (too raw) and the intellectual coldness of the high-brow Art Forum art world (not conceptual enough.) In the 5 years we have been at this things out there have morphed, mushroomed and changed a bit. The internet is erasing borders with a swift and deft stroke. But Art In America hasn't changed much and glossy, the slick, shallow Low Brow stuff is not getting much deeper. We are looking for painters who are not to let their ass hang out when they work.
Your last time to show was in the summer of 2004. What has kept you away from the gallery scene over the last few years?
It has been a while. I'm looking at some brick and mortar shows. I have one this month at the Pegasus Gallery in Dallas, Texas. It will be the first public showing of Lost Cartoons as a series. Galley shows are pain, especially when you have to ship your work, worry about insurance, fly out for the opening etc.. Maybe I've just gotten lazy or whatever.
Looking back, your older work (notably the ‘Song of the Snowman’ series) was executed with a cleaner, tighter style than what you’ve been doing for the last couple of years, with ‘The Fall of Man’ seeming to be the litmus test in terms of degradation of form. Was this a conscience effort to get away from the larger scale, more ‘intellectually challenging’ material or just natural progression?
The large ones on canvas where very tight. I even did color studies before I started painting them. But when I was doing the tight paintings for Song I was also painting a large amount of super-fast, very direct and slashing smaller works on heavy card stock. A kind of painted sketchbook. When I was in graduate school at the San Francisco Art Institute I started worked the loose stuff bigger an also began painting city scenes with no people (a reflection of North Beach late at night which I loved most-just me, the killer architecture and the ocean air) When I moved back to Texas I switched to acrylic on cardboard and started on Abandoned City. I had to re-submit my thesis series because the in part because hard-line feminist at S.F.A.I. refused to accept my heterosexual male visions as manifest in Song of the Snowman. Also I consider the series a true pictorial language which didn't sit well with them. They had the idea if you can't explain everything in words it must not be worthwhile. (I also hate 'artist's statements but that is for another day.) I graduated with Abandoned City which I literally nailed to walls of Fort Mason at the graduate show. I showed 15 large paintings with no gaps, edge-to-edge like a huge continuous piece. When I took it down I walked off with the paintings rolled up in a giant mailing tube and the wall riddled with nails. Back to your question, painting tight just wasn't fun anymore but I still occasionally do it but mainly in drawings.
The Snowman series had a developed cast of characters which seemed to be a big heaping slice of your psyche (and in some cases the effect of personal relationships and an understanding of basic human nature) slapped onto canvas. Was this series more a purge of emotion or a meticulously crafted cartoon?
People always wanted me to paint the story in linear panels so they could 'get it' as easily as a shampoo commercial. It never came to me like that....it was an escapist, cathartic 'otherworld' for me. Not exactly me but pretty much me. When I was living in San Francisco (97 to 99) it kind of turned inside out to the point where I was living the paintings in the best tradition of the Beat Generation that is self-confession. But it got to be too much. I made an 8 minute filmed called The Robber which was to be the end of a feature long film of Song of the Snowman. I realized then it had gone to far. I killed the whole thing in 1999.
There is a certain gloom lingering about the titles of your work: ‘The Fall of Man’, ‘Paradise Lost’, ‘Abandoned City’. Even ‘Lost Cartoons’, ‘Song…’, and ‘Whatever Cartoons’ have a dissonant ring to them. The ‘Heros’ series and your newest work for ‘House As Church’ seem to be only the only titles offering a glimpse of hope in an otherwise dismally painted reality. What’s the source of such lonesome landscapes and dejected would-be characters?
Well Heros is a tongue-in-cheek reference to our world today where kids and most of the rest of us hate and distrust any kind of authority or elevated being. If you are looking for hope it is in early Song of the Snowman stuff maybe but I've always been interested in the Beautiful Loser. Charles M. Schulz's Charlie Brown scarred me for life (ha ha) I don't know I don't want to say I'm a depressed person all the time because I'm not but my visions generally seem to come out that way.
Speaking of House As Church, let’s have some insight as to the inspiration and meaning behind the comforting, yet concurrently somehow almost melancholy series.
House-as-Church is a depiction of the 'quiet Christian' (like myself) that used be the norm, before the often obnoxious Evangelical image and the scandal-ridden Catholic church replaced us. It also refers to the Protestant concept of connecting to, praying to and reading the Word of God anywhere and not feeling like you have to be in a cathedral to connect. The American idea of home-as-castle is really at the center of it. I realize like in Abandoned City the feeling is melancholy and decaying but this is the vision I see.
It’s evident in much of your imagery that you draw from memories of your childhood and the good old days in general. I’m curious if lately with the addition of robots being introduced as characters, if this is represents a symbol of what you see for the future in a era of ever increasing reliance on technology?
The Robots spun off of Lost Cartoons which in it's early days had this The Future That Was sort of Jestonsish thing. I enjoy them but that are as pretty much just fun to paint. I don't see a lot of intellectual or spiritual qualities with them. Back in Song I did a short-lived, failed character called Boy-Robot that related to how the computer was starting to change people into machines in the way the live and think. But the new stuff...just get a kick out of painting it. Probably as close to a pop song as I've done so far.
Where do you feel your work stands in a world where a great deal of what is being produced is essentially paint-by-number, technical illustration…or in your words, “Design turned up to 11.”? Should artists today get back to a more grassroots approach where mistakes can be gifts or are we headed in a direction where exhibitions of large scale vector art will be hanging on the walls of MoMA?
I think everything will be hanging on walls of the MoMA! All kinds of stuff that maybe should not be there but we have to go through to get the other side. Art history is dead which is why Gregg and me created our 'movements' (Super Comicism, Post-Pop Expressionism and Pop Realism.) They really can't exist but somehow do. We think it's funny to say you are part of an art movement instead of denying it profusely like most artists have historically done. Also, it we are both throw backs to the days when you said art you meant painting. Rough, hand-made art is selling well but it most often it is too raw for the Juxtapoz crowd (think Robert Williams constant praise of 'craft' coming back to painting.) The dull, cold-perfection of the computer will keep the loose-by-hand approach alive and growing in the coming decades. At least that is my take.
BBG has enjoyed much success and notoriety over the last five years. What’s the plan for the future of BBG? Will we be seeing an expansion in the style of artists shown? An increase of promotion via gallery exposure?
We have talked about doing a brick and mortar show but nothing in the works right. We will leave that to the brick and mortar spaces. We plan to keep doing what we have been doing, bringing more artists on board and continuing to exhibit and support our Gallery of Greatness artists. We do have plans for a coffee table book but no hurry. Everything is pretty cool as it is.

BBG Interview with Robin Ator

2007-11-05T13:51:00.000-08:00

As the stuff-yer-face season kicks in, Blah Blah Gallery is servin’ up a sweet plate piled high with a variety of tasty artworks. Robin Ator is best known as an animator on shows like, The Pjs & The Tick but it’s his super cool drawings that make for nifty ‘still’ viewing. The female form has captured the artist’s imagination since the first caveman picked up a chunk of charcoal. Robin continues and adds to that great tradition.

INTERVIEW - with Richard Mullins
You are a bit elusive on the internet. Give us the run down, Dragnet style...name, place/date of birth, studio location, the whole rundown.
I'm in commercial animation, working for Laika Studios in Oregon was a character designer, cel animator, and occasional Flash director. I grew up in rural Montana. My background is in stop-motion animation. Some people still remember "The PJs", where I animated for a couple of seasons, and "Gary & Mike", where I designed most of the characters, and directed the pilot episode. I used to storyboard for "The Tick", a job that Mike Ploog helped me get.
Lately I've been doing sculpted/composited illustration for Klutz Books, and art for my own line of tarot cards.
You draw very well with natural mediums (non-digital) but seem to prefer to draw in the real world, then add color (paint) on computer. What's the appeal of pixels for you?
Well, I like a mixture of the raw and the polished... My day job is in animation, and I've become familiar with the usual drawing programs because the medium has become heavily digital. Illustrator, Photoshop and Flash are my favorite toys. So along with pen and paper now, I also use a tablet PC.I've been interested in flattening and reducing the figure over the last several years, trying to see what I could 'get rid of' in a figure. Digital media are great for making mathematical shapes and straight lines that are hard to do with pencils, rulers and French curves.
Though you draw a variety of subjects, the female form seems to be "where the heart is" for you...what do you find so fascinating in visions of the fairer sex?
'The female form is my all-purpose symbol, since it can be used to comment on practically any subject, like other people use flowers or animals or letter forms. It's universal. It's so flexible, so balanced, so variable, so beautiful and expressive that I gravitate to it. And fortunately for me, examples are available everywhere. I love the variety of approaches to the female figure that the human race has come up with. My appreciation is wide: realistic, abstracted, serious, fun, cartoony -- I love it all, and want to express it all. My sources include cave art, Cycladic art, Greek, Indian, "primitive", "naive" art, as well as the academic, the realistic, the photographic, the comic-booky --and I 'steal' from all of it for my own work.
Every sort of figure has been an ideal of beauty at one time or another. In the US right now, we have a very narrow view of female beauty, and I have no patience with it. I'd like to help expand it. It's that cookie-cutter 'magazine cover' approach to beauty in modern culture that bothers me.
Some of your work recalls the days of classic cartoon illustration in Playboy Magazine (back when it was still a big deal). Are you familiar with these guys and if so were they an inspiration?
Playboy itself, and most men's magazines, for me, are a bit distasteful. The slick, glossy paper, the inch-deep politics, the pandering approach to commercialism, and the nearly-interchangeable women seem sad and unpleasant to me. At least Hustler decided to take a principled stand for personal sovereignty and freedom of expression. I think Playboy is only about the money. I realized that inside these stylized drawings was an immensely deep well of knowledge on a wide variety of subjects, and were a wonderful display of understanding of anatomy, architecture, spatial depth and perspective, something that wasn't evident.
Among the currently successful fine artists and graphic designers. Cartoonists Beside the Playboy greats, flashes of R. Crumb pop in from time to time. What do you think about Crumb's stuff?
Robert Crumb's work was introduced to me by my uncle, George Clayton Johnson (who wrote for Star Trek and Twilight Zone), who sent them to me in manila envelopes in the late 60's. I had barely read Fritz the Cat before my scandalized mother had taken them all away from me. Eek! Cartoon nipples! I admired the work for his facility with pen and ink, along with people like Greg Irons, Victor Moscoso and Rick Griffin. I was such a leftist, peace/love/dove hippie, and Crumb is anything but. What I got from them, I think, was an appreciation for the beauty of black-and-white artwork. I really have more in common with people like Wally Wood and Jack Davis, the MAD guys.
Sketching (drawing) seems to take priority over more lengthy, more deeply developed works for you. Why do you think this is?
Sketching allows for constant flow. It has less to do with editing and presentation, and more to do with self-examination and learning. I paint and animate, but no one seems particularly interested in the results. I draw a lot, though, and it far outweighs the amount of painting or animation I do. Drawing requires so much less preparation, and a sketchbook is easy to carry and store. I can try out an approach without a lot of fuss. If it leads nowhere, well... lessons learned, and on to the next page. It's only for me, really. People are welcome to look, if they like, but it's not for an audience. I see a lot of artists on Flickr but you are one of the most fearless in terms of subject matter (an unabashed love of the naked female form.)
I see a lot of artists on Flickr but you are one of the most fearless in terms of subject matter (an unabashed love of the naked female form.) Do you ever get negative feedback, say from the old school feminists or other censorship meanies?
Yes, of course. 'How dare I objectify women?', they'll say. Some of them havebeen seriously angry with me over it, and I have no way of defending myself,really. But it isn't objective at all; it's subjective. It's opinion, it's expression, it's impression, it's commentary, it's wishful thinking, it's a search for meaning. I enjoy the shapes and forms, of course, but I'm also reacting to women as specific people. To objectify, one has to condescend. I do the opposite - I attempt to understand. In women I see individuality and personality on the one hand, and universality on the other. In drawings, I try to reconcile them. I've grown tired of attempting to justify something that seems to me like obvious appreciation, so I try not to bring it up. Some women do seem to get it, though, and tell me that they can see love and understanding in my drawings..
You sell your sketchbooks on your website. Are there any new projects in the works for your fans to know about?
I've made annual collections of selected drawings for several years. I just finished a bit of animation for the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival -- an intro to blocks of short films. And there's "Tarot Stripped Bare" -- my International Icon Tarot is used in this DVD by D'Avekki Studios to explain the meanings and uses of tarot cards. I'm continuing to work on a new set of tarot cards, to be called either 'Tarot of the American West', or 'the Cowboy Tarot'. -END

Julie West Interiew with Blah Blah Gallery

2007-10-23T11:41:00.000-07:00

In ‘05 Blah Blah Gallery turned you on to a rising master of flat art, Julie West. Back then she was very good but lately she has turned up the heat: working her flat magic in 3 dimensional form. Intrigued by this move and wowed by her latest work we decided to toss Julie a few questions.

INTERVIEW (by Richard Mullins) Aired February 2007
I wasn't able to find much biographical information for you. Where and when were you born and where in the world is your studio located?
I was born November 3rd, 1975 in Peoria, Illinois where I lived until I was about 18. At that point I moved to Milwaukee, WI to go to the art school there... After graduation in 1998 I lived in various parts of the US until last November when I moved to England.
Your use of line weight, color and composition is very accomplished. Do you have any kind of graphic design background?
Not particularly, I took graphic design courses in school, but I primarily took illustration and drawing / figure drawing courses. I never used a computer while I was in school, I only picked it up after recieving one for graduation. I spent a few years after graduation working as a web designer, so I probably picked up a bit out of necessity, however, my style was pretty much developed while I was still in school.
Hard edges and a very clean crisp approach are present throughout your body of work. Are you a neat freak all around or just in your work?
No, thankfully it's just in my work. If I was that way with everything it would probably drive me a bit mad. In fact, I had to spend 15 minutes just clearing away paints at my desk to get to the keyboard to do this interview. :) I'm not a super messy person, I just have lots of projects going on at once and it seems pointless to put things away until they are finished... My work area is seriously cluttered.
On your Flickr page I see you are working with three-dimensional paper toys now (great stuff by the way.) How different is it from 2D and does it seem to be affecting your vision for the 2D work?
I'm loving it actually. I've made a few painted wooden toys as well, I've been working with someone on some vinyl toys, and I'm about to start making my own Munny for a show in March. I think it has already started changing my 2D work, in that I'm becoming a lot more decorative even with flat shapes. I never thought that my work would lend itself to 3D, it has forced me to think a bit differently. Progression is always a good thing.
I noticed your piece for the 8 Bit Show was painted on fabric. Did you silk screen the images of the figure and objects on the fabric or hand paint them?
The 8bit painting has watercolor paper glued over the top of the fabric - I then just painted directly onto that. Fabric itself would not hold up well to the technical pens that I use for my linework. I've done it a few times in the past and just realised that using paper over the top works better.
The “Happy Pants Girls” series is really well done and pretty amusing. What is he story with them?
Those images sort of stem from a variety of things that changed about my life after I moved to England. First, "Pants" in England are underpants rather than, well, pants as I used to know the term (they are trousers here.) Second, I'd been building up to the actual move here for so long that I'd been living in a weird state of transition. I had given up a great majority of my possessions and lived various places... I think those images generally represent the feelings I had of finally being here and being grounded again. You start to appreciate the little things around you, and your surroundings become "home" again.
Besides vintage greeting cards and children' books what are some influences on your artistic style?
When my style was originally developing, I was influenced a great deal by old books in general. Specifically old drafting books because all of the diagrams were hand rendered... there is something really beautiful about them. I think my line work is probably in some way connected to old architectural and engineering drawings (the thick vs. thin lines to represent various parts of an object.) I don't think that I directly drew influnece from old illustrations, but more from... the idealisitic view of the world that was portrayed in old books. Meaning - I don't look at an old illustration and think "I'd like to draw like that," more that I tend to be more fascinated with the way people viewed their world and their future. For instance old books on space exploration - related artworks tend to be a really clean and shiney view of the future with hovercrafts and robots.I think that my work has progressed on from this now however, and in a general way my influence is just human nature - The way that people react to various situations they are presented with, and the objects they surround themselves with to make themselves feel good. Can you describe your working process?
I always draw everything first, irregardless of its outcome. The drawings are usually scanned into the computer and then either traced in Adobe Illustrator, or printed out larger for paintings. I usually transfer the drawings using a lightbox to watercolor paper and then adhere the paper to various surfaces.
You seem to be exhibiting often and all over. Are there any exciting future projects you can tell us about?
I have a number of small group shows coming up over the next few months,then in August I will be showing a lot of my new work at DVA gallery in Chicago. I usually keep track of upcoming events on my myspace page and on my website: www.myspace.com/26_red www.juliewest.com-END

Interview with Mike Monk

2007-10-02T08:47:00.000-07:00

As all-hallows-eve draws near on the rusty horizon we welcome a fitting paint slinger from right here in our own stompin’ yard : the Republic of Texas. Lone Star native, Mike Monk is just gettin’ his socks wet as a painter but he’s long in the gum as an experimental musician and skin slappin’ drummer king. The work you are about to see is direct, raw and very much ALIVE. Step right in & get a look up close...

Interview by Richard Mullins
At what age did you first start to notice art in the world and what caught your eye?
Initially, probably going through my dad’s Floyd and Beatles records as a kid, but what really stuck was when I started reading MAD and The Far Side when I was about nine. We had a massive stack of newspapers in the garage and I went through and cut out every single Far Side panel in them. I had shoeboxes full of those things. I would redraw them and attempt to redraw some of the MAD artists like Berg, Drucker, and Jaffee. As a ‘tweener’ I got pretty heavy into the art rock stuff like Rush and Jethro Tull and I was reading a lot of Tolkien, so the natural progression is that you have to be into Escher and Dali. I guess that high school art classes are when I started to appreciate artists outside of the comic and fantasy realm.
You have been writing, playing and recording music for many years but painting is a relatively new outlet for you creatively, what made you want to start down this way?
For around fifteen years I would use a black uniball to draw everything. If I was feeling experimental I might switch over to blue. The problem is that the same size pen tip always yields the same results and none of the work ever seemed substantial because everyone can draw with a fucking pen. Plus I wanted to work a little chunkier and paint allows me to actually build an image that feels whole and get away from the spastic line art.
Your art is mostly dark and darker. Can you figure out why your vision as an artist is so bleak?
My best estimate of the situation is that I played drums steadily for thirteen or years or so and very rarely do now. So instead of beating the shit out drumskins now I beat the shit out of canvas. For me it’s the same creating music as it is with art; I don’t do it because it’s something I’m into, I do it because I feel like I’ll literally explode from the inside out if I don’t create something at that very instant. I never do sketches before starting a new piece so what comes out is what it is without any sort of pre-meditation. There’s a very aggressive nature to it so maybe that’s part of the reason the pieces turn to the dark side.
Inside the darkness a strong element of the grotesk figures in particular in the scary floating head portraits. Why do you think this is?
I’m not exactly Rodin, so it’s easier for me to convey emotion through a facial expression than it is to do so with posture. I keep the head and trash the body. It’s also sort of indirect influence of the whole ‘Empowerment Me’ era we’re living in. It seems like almost everyone has a blog now. Go to the profile page and boom, there’s generally a boxed off photo of the person running it. Myspace, flickr, livejournal…head shots. Facebook…it’s in the title for Christ’s sake. You can’t even be a number in a telephone anymore without your picture attached to it. So I take the faces and beat them up a bit. I peel away the layers of trivial information like how you’re really in a Cherry Coke phase right now and and get to the part of the story where you’re storing your own shit in Mason jars. “Just the facts ma’am.”
Who are some artists working today you get a kick out of (I know you are a huge Jeff Soto fan already) but other than him...
I just recently found out about Eric Swenson who I think is doing some pretty nice work and I like what the ArtDorks guys are doing. For the most part though I’ll just do some browsing on flickr and try to find people I haven’t seen in Juxtapoz or Giant Robot or whatever. A few standouts for me are Hannes Iversen, Falling_Apart, and Diversionmary. They do some seriously brutal work.
You listen to a huge range of music. What sort of stuff is you 'pod full of these days and how does music effect your work as a painter?
Man, I’ve acquired something like 200 new albums over the last couple of months and it’s getting out of control. Currently I’m back into an electronic/field recording/experimetal/free improv sort of mood, but I’m into a fairly wide variety of styles of music. I’m a fan of sound in general. As far as music affecting my paintings, I don’t know. I could listen to Sunn O))) or Astrud Gilberto and would still end up with the same result. One of my darker pieces was born from Bruce Hornsby’s ‘Old Valley Road’, so I guess the music doesn’t really transfer onto the canvas. Or come to think of it, that’s a pretty bleak tune so maybe it does. I’ll pick up a Hanson record and see what I come up with.
Having observed the Low Brow scene for number of year now, how do you see it progressing in the future?
Right now it seems like it’s on idle. It’s similar to the eighties Hair Metal shit when there were a ton of bands that sounded the same and there were some stars in the bunch, but you’re waiting for someone to shake up the formula and carve out a new road. I’m not claiming I’ll be the person to do this by any means, just saying it’s got to happen at some point. It always does. So it looks to me like we’ll be seeing Alex Gross sun rays, Jeff Soto clouds, and people dressed in animal costumes from everybody for a while to come.
Are there are future projects rattling around yer cranium you might want to mention?
Actually I’ve been brainstorming for an idea that would be a sound recording as well as a video installation piece. The problem is that would be ridiculously expensive to pull off and I feel crushed underneath the weight of the amount of preparation and experimentation it’s going to require. So until then I’m gonna keep on with painting and see if the Hanson record can push me in a new direction.
-END

Interview with Jasun Huerta

2007-09-29T09:24:00.000-07:00

Interviewed by Richard Mullins (September 2007)
Your studio is in Austin, Texas, U.S.A. How's the art scene down there?
The art scene down in Austin, Texas is goin’ great, and always growin, with the large influx of folks from around the world moving here yearly to influence all that we see — this I’m sure is attributed to the festivals like South by Southwest & others. I just can’t keep up with all the art shows & scenes, and really I don’t have a lot of time with a family in-tow. I do however, get out as much as I can to see what the new kids are doin’ with graffiti/urbane art, pop art, folk art forms and what not. In the old days in Austin (circa somewhere in the late 60’s to mid 70’s), the art scene was a place was made up of people from Texas. They consisted mostly of dope smokin’ cowboys, and spawned such poster artists mostly & some cartoonists. Some of these greats of the time were Guy Juke, Jim Franklin, and even Gilbert Shelton (creator of the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers) who lived here for a time. Later a new alternative conscious grew from the mid 70’s as the scene turned from hippy to punk. The art scene torch was handed to other artists like Chris Ware (cartoonist creator of Acme Novelty Library & Jimmy Corrigan comics) and Roy Tompkins who lived in Austin for a time, as well. A lot of these artists I’m mentioning are from other places for the most part, that have migrated to Austin to be near it’s artistic energy & probably to get laid too, but believe it or not I was actually born in Austin. I’m probably one of only handful of folks that can actually say that, unless you are an Austinite under the age of 7.
You seem to be into a wide range of stuff. Give us a bit of background on the man behind Batman63:
Well, it’s a lot like this. I was heavily influenced early on by old Universal monster movies, Alfred Hitchcock’s ghost story children’s books….Anything that was monster based or had the aroma of Halloween…especially Halloween! As I entered my teen years Punk Rock/Rock-a-billy, and chemical abuse (kids don’t try this at home!) led me to more surreal artistic influences like, Salvador Dali, Charles Burns (creator of the comic “El Borbah”) Bill Griffith (Creator of “Zippy the Pinhead”) and Texas guy Gary Panter (set designer for Pee Wee’s Playhouse & comic book writer/illustrator)…These guys were, and still are a big inspiration to me—Gotta love that mustache that Dali sported. Grease monkey folks & Texas livin’ also, gives great muse to me growing up—the politics, food & music of Texas score a big plus to draw inspiration from. I modeled a lot of my drawing style from the likes of Graham Ingles (Tales From the Crypt) and, Antonio Prohias (Spy Vs. Spy: Mad Magazine). I’m really taken by these two on what they did for comics & illustration. Many know about Prohias with what he did for Mad magazine, but few knew about Grahan Ingles (aka “Ghastly”). Mr. Ingles was one of a handful of artist that reined over the EC horror comic book line of the 50’s, and these comics were all the rage of the day. His work was dark & creepy — using extraordinarily long fingers and gaunt faces, which led to a real creepy trip. But, after the comic code was put into place many of the horror comics of the day were either shut down or changed their comic line to comedy. EC did away with their horror comic line, and lost a lot of great talent to the streets — Mr. Ingles was the last to leave when the doors finally closed for EC, and after that he never picked up pen. When I read this, it saddened me, and begs for the reason why? My art training is close to nothing…I’ve had design courses in a local junior college here in town, but nothing substantial. Most of what I learned technically & artistically has been learned on my own.Picking up a book or doodlin’ around with the medium. I’m very much like a folk artist—I create art by just diving in and hopin’ for the best. I still don’t know how to paint technically. Friends come over when I’m working and say things like, “no, no man, don’t hold the brush like that!”…However, this technique of “just dive right in” has had many grooved experimental successes that have turned out for the better. Mistakes can work—they did for me!
Your sticky note series (illustrations done on post-it® notes) is super cool, fun to look at and visually consistent. Lots of neat-o characters pop-up in there. Any plans on taking the series to another format; like maybe a graphic novel or somethin' like that?
I love doin’ those goofy post-it® notes — They’re like doin’ the dishes or raking leaves — kind of mind cleansing. No plans of making a graphic novel but, I would like to do a mini/biggie art comic book of sorts in color of some selected post-it® notes, and lay them on the masses. I just gotta think of a catchy name for that mini comic. It will come to me.
You seem to be drawn to the look of pop culture in the 1960s (Adam West's Batman, Tiki Culture etc...) What is it about that time that fascinates you?
It’s a romantic time period of sorts. That time period is about the time I was growing up as a little snot nosed kid, so a lot of what I took from that has been echoed into my recent work. The first point of artistic consciousness that I had was the mid 60’s (I think I thoroughly dated myself by now) Batman TV show with Adam West & Burt Ward—pow, zing, sploosh!..Man, to most kids back in the day that was the big gig! I was really sent by Batman, because in addition to the great way that slap happy show was put together, it also had the element of car culture. Batman was the only super hero (or one that mattered) with a “car”…In the 60’s cars were everything, with folks like Ed “Big Daddy” Roth & George Barris breaking engineerin’ rules left & right. I also grew up in a grease monkey family, so with all this it surely merged me with my Bat-muse early on. The comics of Batman in the 60’s also were a great. The comics of Batman in the 60’s also were a great inspiration. (Thanks, Bob Kane…for everything!) As a side note—because of all of this it got me into carin’ for the little bat boogers. I actually generate graphic design for educational materials for Bat Conservation International (BCI), and I get to see real bats weekly. Tiki culture comes into play as being something very mysterious to me as a kid. I remember that I was always fascinated by images from magazines of the giant carved Tiki god heads — grimacing and colorful, with colored ghoul lighting coming from some spotlight below them. This was very alien to a Spanish kid growin’ up in Texas. Never actually seeing the California coast, but seeing these tacky images of Tiki culture. The Tiki bars were in some towns out here in Texas, and viewing them from afar was a magical experience, too.
I know you went on a recent trip to San Francisco (my old stompin' grounds.) Did you pick up any visions whilst strolling the dirty streets?
My favorite vision was of the Chairman Mao in mass duplication in a store front window in Chinatown. It was just like takin’ a hit of Moo Shu acid laced in won-ton Soupy Sales.
Beside illustrations you also do a some killer graphic design work. Is the graphic design an extension of illustration or vice versa?
It’s actually an extension of the illustration. I always like to frame an art piece in something (for reasons unknown to me), and a real nice graphic layout would complete the picture. However, a real fancy gold leaf wooden frame might give the same effect.
How about some insight into your plans for future artistic adventures?
I’d like to now try my hand at print making on various stocks and materials, just for art sake, not to sell any advertised commercial product. Also in the works, I’m planning on a show of my weirdy stuff this year in Austin town, if all goes well. Get some more T-shirts happenin’ for the people, just for
good measure.
-END

Back to the Blog

2007-08-26T16:45:00.000-07:00

I started this thing back in January and lost interest in it by February but here I am in the burning heat that is late August in North Texas. Although this is the blog for Blah Blah Gallery it doesn't mean I will always be found sitting quietly behind the curtain. Since my interview last month (thanks to Mike Monk) I have decided to be more out in front. Anyone who knows me personally knows I'm overly opinionated but it makes life go-round for me and it's always been my way. Anyway, more to come from me noggin' in the near future.
We are showing an artist this month who may not be terribly well-known outside of the Flickr community and Austin, Texas in general but you will be hearing more about Jasun Huerta (see image to left.) Jasun sat down to be interviewed by me for BBG, the contents of which will be available soon on this blog and on the September airing of our show.
Also this month we have featured art from the only Flickr by-selection-only art group officially sponsored by Blah Blah Gallery, CARTOON LAND! And we have a link to our Fan site (which is also officially sponsored by anyone can join or post.) The fan site is called Blah Blah Gallery's New Art Movements.
New stuff will be popping up on E bay as well.

-Later,
Richard Mullins, Director
Blah Blah Gallery

Gallery of Greatness - New Design!

2007-01-19T19:14:00.000-08:00

Our Gallery of Greatness has a new clean, easy to use design. We have 44 rising art stars to check out. See more established artists such as Seonna Hong, Tara McPherson and Ray Ceasar as well as emerging talents such as Angie Mason, Mike Bell, Julie West and many more. So pop the Gallery of Greatness button in the nav bar and kick back for enjoyable words and pictures from the one and only, Blah Blah Gallery - Richard Mullins, Director