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<strong>My Turn At Carmichael Gallery</strong>: A Group Show With A Street Art Lean (Curated By Bumblebee)

Bumblebee

The appearance of materials such as stencils, spraypaint, and unconventional installation materials makes sense when one considers the curator of the show is none other than Los Angeles street artist Bumblebee — an individual that really runs with his moniker to create miniature beehives and models that he attaches to abandoned phone booths. In this group show, he pulls his work off the street and into a gallery setting. What is perhaps most impressive about the curation of this show is that beneath its sophisticated facade, each and every artist knows how to get down to the nitty-gritty and how to take his or her works to the street.

Perhaps this quote can serve as a fitting summary for this show:

“There are many artists in the urban / street art movement. For this show, each artist was selected based on his or her unique voice and ability to push the boundaries of the genre, while remaining true to its origins.” - Bumblebee

Hyuro

Valencia by way of Buenos Aires artist Hyuro makes drawings which blur the lines of where individuals begin and end. A heavy aspect of this all-in-oneness lays focus on hair, which she textures delicately and with great dimensional purpose. Expect a post soon about her street art brilliance.

Penny

In the piece below, Departure of the Witches, London’s Penny uses overlays an impressive number of hand-cut stencils atop one another and spraypaints them onto a sheet of 32 $1 bills. This combination of mediums and the artistic style Penny employs seem to bring museum-quality renderings in touch with the daily grind.

Klone

Though they are fully-formed ideas, Klone’s watercolor pieces leave one with the sense that they have a lingering, and often difficult-to-read, spirit behind them. The Ukranian artist now lives and works in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Stinkfish

In a style reminiscent of Day Of The Dead folk art, but with a more refined and updated quality, Bogotá artist Stinkfish will put ink on any human face that magazines and vinyl covers deem fitting of such a treatment. When paired with covers of Playboy and old images of Gwen Stefani, the ornamental opulence is certainly welcome.

Moneyless

Using graphic acrylic chalk and ink on paper, Milan’s Moneyless has created a series of symmetrical geometries which have qualities so delicate some lines are barely perceptible upon first glance. This combination of textbook-illustration clarity and acrylic chalk graininess are what truly gives these pieces worth — a combination of stylistic and textural decisions that would be otherwise lost in a more digital or less dynamic realm.

<strong>glossodelia</strong>: Gary Hill & George Quasha Perform At Henry Art Museum

Gary Hill. The Psychedelic Gedankenexperiment. 2011. Two projection screens, two HD video projectors, eight specially fabricated foam chairs, four text panels (each 40 x 71 inches), four amplified speakers on tripods, 3D glasses, acoustic foam/plywood divider, one computer with two channels of Quicktime pla Courtesy the artist and Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels.

Saturday, March 31st, 2012 from 2:00pm to 3:30pm at Henry Auditorium.

$5 for Henry members and UW students; $10 General Admission.

Tomorrow, at Henry Art Museum in Seattle, Gary Hill and George Quasha get scientifically psychedelic with performance art involving digital media and live video manipulations, human bodies, languages and rhythms, and everyday materials. In their collaboration, the two use what is probably overly wordy terminology (‘electronic linguistics”, “psychotropic languages vehicles”, “dynamical lingualia”, and “lingualities”) to achieve the final goal: “a pulsational conversation with stepped-up intensity in which Real Time is invited to show its other side.” Indeed, Real Time is purposely capitalized with an R and a T, and if Hill and Quasha are as brainy and far-out as their lexicon would lead one to believe, glossodelia will be a brainy mindfuck of a performance.

glossodelic attractors suggests a range of meanings from the etymologies “glosso-” (fr. Greek “language, tongue”) and “-delic” (fr. Greek “make manifest, visible”) and resonates with “glossolalia” and “psychedelic.” “Attractors,” in addition to the mathematical meaning of “a set towards which a dynamical system evolves over time (e.g., strange attractor),” connects with the “-tropic” part of ‘psychotropic’—attractors that orient the mind, turn the mind in a new direction. The title indicates that the selected works perform singular initiations into dynamical/lingual events. As psychotropic languaging vehicles these works reorient the mind by altering our conception of what language is. They attract possible language realities—or, rather, lingualities.”
- George Quasha, in dialogue with Gary Hill and Charles Stein

Those unable to make the performance still have the opportunity to view the installation glossodelic attractors, on display at the Stroum Gallery from March 31st through September 16th.

Preview images below, with descriptions lifted from the Henry Art Museum’s website.

Gary Hill. Withershins [installation view at Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1996]. 1995. Floor maze constructed from 2-inch x 4-inch (5 x 10 cm.) aluminum rectangular tubing, pressure-sensitive switch mats, two video projectors, four speakers, carpet, two computers with multi-channel interface and sound cards and controlling software written Courtesy the artist and Donald Young Gallery, Chicago. Photo: Gary McKinnis.

Gary Hill. Beauty Is in the Eye. 2011. HD LCD monitor, two amplified speakers, two giclee prints (combined dimensions of 95 x 84 1/2 x 8 inches), stereo viewer (aluminum and wedge prisms), and media player (color; stereo sound). Courtesy the artist Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels.

Gary Hill. Searchlight [installation view at Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Germany, 1996-1997]. 1986-1994. Stainless steel tube containing 3-inch black-and-white video monitor (cathode ray tube removed from chassis) and projection lens mounted to steel tripod base with DC motor, one small pin spotlight, three speakers, two-channel synchronizer, two laserdisc p Courtesy the artist. Photo: Helge Mundt.

Gary Hill. Mesh [installation view at Donald Young Gallery, Chicago, 2006]. 1978-1979. Three closed-circuit cameras, four 21-inch LCD monitors, sixteen 3-inch speakers with amplification, computer with Max/MSP/Jitter software, sensors (switch mats), firewire audio interface, wire mesh of varying gauges, and speaker cable. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Tom Van Eynde.

<strong>NOISE at The Black Lodge</strong> : March 29 and 30, 2012 (Seattle)

This week, visual artist Margot Bird and Nils Petersen of Seattle’s psychedelic rock band Rose Windows are working together to co-curate NOISE: The State Of Being Combined Into One Body, an interdisciplinary show featuring fourteen artists and five bands.

The two-day experience will include visuals, sound installations, and performances, with two sessions each day at 5:00pm and 9:00pm. Included among the artists and performers are REDEFINE favorites like Midday Veil (interview + exclusive MP3 download) and creator of Le Petit Prince Troy Gua (interview).

In the spirit of NOISE, this post, too, will combine music and visual art in the same space, with a focus on artists who are creating site-specific experiences. Listen to samples from participating musicians or see previous works from visual artists to get an idea of what you’re in store for. Keep in mind, though, that there are some custom pieces being crafted exclusively for this event; visiting the space will provide an immersive experience that we can’t even begin to captured in still photography. How all this will fit into Black Lodge will also be a sight to see!

Full list of participants and schedule of events are listed at the very bottom of this post.

Margot Bird

Mixed media artist Margot Bird has created this site-specific installation for NOISE, and it sees appropriate to suspect that these panels will be interactive sound boards.

Hair And Space Museum

Hair And Space Museum is the multimedia project of Midday Veil’s Emily Pothast and David Golightly, and their last project included a 12-hour overnight experiment in spontaneous music creation with non-repeating visuals. It will be fascinating to see what they come up with this time.

Timothy Firth

We don’t know what Seattle sculptor and filmmaker Timothy Firth has up his sleeve for NOISE, but from his previous works, it seems possible he might offer up a geometrically enticing installation comprised of found items.

Caravan Age/Portable Shrines

In this collaboration between Portable Shrines’ Aubrey Nehring and installation artist Rena Bussinger, the two explore the spaces where their interests in music and art intersect. “I think we both believe that the art scene or music scene is what you make of it,” Bussinger explains. “If you don’t like what’s already out there, make it yourself…connect with others and actualize the scene you want to be part of.”

Troy Gua

Hard-to-pinpoint artist Troy Gua is eternally heading in new directions one can never predict. No doubt his association with NOISE will be no different. We like him a lot for his conceptual WTF madness.

Helga Hizer

San Francisco performance artist Helga Hizer uses photography, film, and movement to play off the relationship of ones body to settings, spaces, and surroundings.

Adair Tudor

Adair Tudor’s works are rich with embedded meaning, as evidenced by A Hathor Frequency Star-gate, shown below. The 24” square painting is an abstracted portrait of an organ located inside St. Mark’s Cathedral in Seattle, and Tudor describes the piece, saying, “Every Sunday night an array of humans from a multitude of woodworks gather inside the St. Marks Cathedral under conscious and subconscious omni-personal motivations. This subtle sound sculpture, unknowingly devoted to the Sun-Goddess Hathor, opens star-gates (including the one in your pineal gland and heart) through vibration.”

For NOISE, Tudor has created an installation piece inspired by the holographic principle — a property of quantum gravity and stringy theories. The piece, entitled Holographic Vibration Transcendence, “will feature an adjusted Occult Illuminator that invites it’s viewers to project what is in their minds eye.”

Complete list of artists participating in NOISE:
Hildebrando Bellizzio, Adair Tudor, Jody Joldersma, Troy Gua, David Teichner, Natalia Czajkiewicz, Dan Enders, Timothy Firth, Casey Doherty, Helga Hizer, Emory Liu, Caravan Age, Portable Shrines, Hair And Space Museum, Margot Bird

NOISE: The State Of Being Combined Into One Body Schedule

Black Lodge
431 Eastlake Ave E

March 29th, 2012 (Early Show)
5:30 Doors
6:00 Adi Maya (orchestral noise by members of Rose Windows)
6:30 Glass Tunnels
7:15 Hache Bellizzio (Noise performance art)
7:45 Lowmen Markos

March 29th, 2012 (Late Show)
9:00 Doors
9:30 Adi Maya (orchestral noise by members of Rose Windows)
10:00 Glass Tunnels
10:45 Hache Bellizzio (Noise performance art)
11:15 Lowmen Markos

March 30th, 2012 (Early Show)
5:30 Doors
6:00 Adi Maya (orchestral noise by members of Rose Windows)
6:30 Geist and the Sacred Ensemble
7:15 Hache Bellizzio (Noise performance art)
7:45 Midday Veil

March 30th, 2012 (Late Show)
9:00 Doors
9:30 Adi Maya (orchestral noise by members of Rose Windows)
10:00 Geist and the Sacred Ensemble
10:45 Hache Bellizzio (Noise performance art)
11:15 Midday Veil

Battling The Pacific Northwest SADS With ONN/OF!

UK companies may have invented a earplug for you to shine directly into your brain to combat Seasonal Affective Disorder, but in Seattle, an exciting group show (featuring some REDEFINE favorites like Mandy Greer and No Touching Ground) is here to create warm fuzzies and give Seattlites a place to bathe in the energizing light of one another. The impressive gathering will be curated by Susan Robb, Sierra Stinson and Jim Demetre, with a focus on light, installation, and banishing the wintry blues.

Here are some sample images of what you might expect on January 28th and 29th!
ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF THE ARTISTS; LOGO BY DANIEL CARRILLO AND SUSAN ROBB

Shaun Kardinal

Shaun Kardinal sews patterns and geometries into found materials, like a collage artist coming face to face with a weaver. The concept is certainly not mind-blowing, in retrospect, but no one else is doing it, and as such, Shaun’s works are little postcards of satisfaction. (Stay tuned for a more in-depth post about Shaun’s work, in isolation!)

Justin Lytle

Justin Lytle self-describes himself as being “interested in the deconstruction and re-evaluation of the found and familiar to reveal the beauty that lies within individuals that comprise a whole.” It’s no wonder, then, that this still image from one of his videos feels like a fractal web — though it is not — and shows the many iterations similar forms can take on within a singular composition. Like cotton candy, like clouds, like cell membranes… they all follow those same rules. (Editor’s Note: Correction, brought to our attention by Mr. Lytyle himself. This still is not from a video, but from a relief sculpture. Even better.)

Zack Bent

Mmm, lard hardening from oil into a white, creamy solid, condensed into a tasty morsel for your easy enjoyment. Says Zack Bent: “This past summer I was making lard for the first time and was inspired by aesthetic transformation that occurred. The process requires you to render pig’s fat by heating it until it becomes liquid. It is then strained off into jars where it slowly transforms from a clear golden liquid to a thickened cottony white substance. As a video this occurrence may go unnoticed or seem too slow for comprehension. However, I am interested in how this phenomenon contrasts our typical interaction with video, which has increasingly become more and more frenetic. In terms of the content, the slowness of the transformation also provides a mediation on change and growth. What might be perceived as stagnant may in fact be developing before our eyes.” (A similar approach was taken to this Eric Chenaux video I posted earlier this week.)

Graham Downing

I don’t know much about this piece, other than the fact that it certainly appeals to the event’s main postulate: a love for lights!

From the ONN/OF website:

“While January brings Seattle a 26% chance of sun and rain turning to showers with a chance of drizzle later in the day, Susan Robb, Sierra Stinson and Jim Demetre are creating and curating ONN/OF an art exhibition and “light festival” that forecasts a weekend of illumination, warmth, and gloom-banishing engagement.

Housed in The Sweater Factory, an 11,000 Sq Ft warehouse in Ballard, ONN/OF was born from 2011’s isolation-inducing, La Niña-drenched winter weather. This year, instead of hiding away on what has been scientifically proven to be the worst, most depressing day of the year, Susan, Sierra, and Jim invite you to engage with a weekend of visual art, performance, installation, projection, music, food and drink, and workshops that in some way use “light”.

Their aim is to create an environment that not only lets people escape the cold and solitude that comes with Seattle’s winter season but to build a warm and energizing experience that might produce enough radiance to help see Seattle through the rest of the winter.”

Visit the website for a full schedule and more details!

<strong>Carsten Holler</strong> <em>Experience</em> At New Museum: Encouraging Psychedelic Journeys In Public Spaces

This is, according to the New Museum website, “the most comprehensive US exhibition to date of the artist’s engaging work.” They continue by saying:

“The current show gathers together a number of the artist’s signature works in an arrangement that transforms the viewer’s experience of time and space. Originally trained as a scientist, Höller is frequently inspired by research and experiments from scientific history and deploys these studies in works that alter the audience’s physical and psychological sensations, inspiring doubt and uncertainty about the world around them. His work often draws on social spaces outside of the museum such as the amusement park, zoo, or playground, but the experiences they provide are always far from our usual expectations of these activities. Höller’s art takes the form of proposals for radical, new ways of living by creating sculptures and diagrams for visionary architecture as well as transportation alternatives, such as his renowned slide installations. These concepts may seem impossible in the present day, but suggest new models for the future.”

This Experience — and its title certainly cannot be stressed enough — is huge. It is a journey, a pychedelic one. You can take a mini photo journey below, thanks to images from Benoit Pailley, but this is obviously a joke compared to the real thing.

FOURTH FLOOR: MOVEMENT
Höller surprises visitors with the unconventional riding experience of a Mirror Carousel.

THIRD FLOOR: UTOPIA
Giant Psycho Tank is a weightless sensory deprivation pool, giving those who don’t normally seek altered states of mind through such means a socially-acceptable forum to do so.

SECOND FLOOR: HALLUCINATION
Through an Experience Corridor, viewers are given a choice to undertake a number of self-experiments. Wait, and what was this we missed on the New Museum website? “Over the years, the artist has employed psychotropic drugs, flashing lights, and other stimuli to potentially alter the viewer’s mental state,” it says. Think giant mushrooms. Giant. Mushrooms.

Carsten Höller is onto something. Go and get tripped out before it’s too late. Thanks, sir, for bringing psychedelic art into the mainstream in such a bold and reality-whipping way.

Troy Gua! Fulcrum Gallery! Closing Reception! TONIGHT!

Head over to the Fulcrum Gallery in Tacoma tonight for the closing night of Monument, Troy Gua’s current amazing show exploring the effects of war on, well, the human body. There’s also an artist talk going on tonight, which should be interesting. Reception starts at 6:00pm, but though it’s the closing reception, closing night isn’t until March 13th! Be confused!

Gua says:

“This installation is my memorial to loss. I’m not a soldier I have never seen war. How do we reconcile this experience? How do we grieve loss?”

hydEON Artist Interview : The Delightful Character Of Eccentricity

But Ferguson even draws inspiration from the more recent past. For when he isn’t creating art — or making music, for that matter — he works at the Lifelong AIDS Alliance thrift store, which is a non-profit thrift store benefiting an AIDS prevention and support organization. It’s an occupation that might not sound glorious to some, but it serves to give Ferguson a steady stream of ideas.

“I almost feel like I can make use of just about everything from there,” explains Ferguson. “I’ve been really getting into old photos from the turn of the century — the ’20s and the ’30s — and if I can, even older than that. I’ve found some really old thrift store photos [and] artwork… and I like to go over them. I’ve been really big into transforming [and] remixing art, basically.”

Surprisingly, Ferguson used to work on the complete opposite end of the spectrum. As a former graphic designer who created everything from business cards to flyers, Ferguson gave up the design lifestyle to pursue art that seems to run in his family. With a mother who is an artist and art teacher, an uncle who is a photographer, and a grandfather who was a multi-disciplinary artist, Ferguson decided he’d follow suit and concentrate more on fine art than digital art.

INTERVIEW CONTINUES BELOW

Nonetheless, like most young artists trying to establish a foothold in this day and age, Ferguson does have a website. Up until recently, though, it was far removed from the typical portfolio webpage. Instead, it was a puzzle of sorts, which featured four images on the main page that had to be clicked in the correct sequence in order for the user to access the actual website. Otherwise, the user would be faced with a dead end.

“You [had to] choose the right coat card in the right sequence to get into the gates. Otherwise… even if you don’t get into the site, I guess that could be kind of the site itself,” Ferguson laughs.

Unfortunately, the unusually playful website had to be changed for more practical purposes; the unaccessibility of it was hindering some viewers from seeing his work. The fact remains, however, that most artists would have never created a website like that in the first place, and this is the type of quirkiness that sometimes plays out in Ferguson’s works.

For instance, some artists have characters they draw over and over again, and so does Ferguson. But whereas those artists might have cute bunnies or beautiful women, Ferguson has the Hermtroglodites — the Herms, for short — pudgy little dwarf-like characters with a whole modern-day fictional fantasy biography.

“They’re Hermaphrodite cave-dwellers — male-female characters that have multiple chins and very distinct characteristics, like droopy eyes,” explains Ferguson. Above all else, the Herms love three things: wine, cigarettes, and major corporations. At least, if those major corporations are Nike, Reebok, or their ultimate love, McDonald’s.

“Ronald is like god to them. They love Ronald. And they love wearing Nike and Reebok at the same time. They have their own company that’s a cross-platform; it’s a triad of Nike, Reebok, and McDonald’s, and they all come together to form this conglomerate,” Ferguson details.

Strange as it might all sound, the Herms actually represent a great deal more than just a couple fiends who really love Nike, Reebook, and McDonald’s. They are iconic figures in Ferguson’s work.

“I want [them] to be more as an example as a folk art, Americana — because they represent a lot of what I see socially in everyday life,” says Ferguson about the Herms, “such as a lot of the negative and positive aspects of America, so there’s a political statement involved, too.”

INTERVIEW CONTINUES BELOW

More than three years ago, Ferguson moved to the Pacific Northwest from San Diego. Whereas San Diego made little impact on his art, the Pacific Northwest provided him with the complete opposite. “When I came up here, seeing the Cascades, the Olympics, and Mount Rainier for the first time was all just so inspiring… it’s just so beautiful it transcends all,” Ferguson explains. “It has this weird spiritual presence to me that I always feel, so it comes out in the artwork, for sure.”

It makes sense, then, that mountains are constantly emerging in the backdrops of Ferguson’s works, as are cityscapes. Some are cityscapes inspired by the skylines of Chicago, New York, or other areas on the East Coast, and others are more classical, with Eastern European or Old World influences.

“Row homes have always been really inspiring to me. They’re almost like the Douglas Fir Trees of [the Pacific Northwest]; I see them, and I feel this like sort of transcendental complexity with them. They almost have a personality,” says Ferguson. “Maybe it’s some sort of past life thing; I really don’t know, but I’m really drawn to them. They’re really inspiring.”

As a whole, Ferguson seems like a person who has his eyes open to the beauty of the world. When he isn’t making art, he’s often still creating, and one of his main outlets is music. Judging from his art - - which is full of angles, sharpness, and layers — one might guess that Ferguson likes very angular, technical music. And while Ferguson says his favorite music is that his friends create, the synthesis seems to hold true here as well.

INTERVIEW CONTINUES BELOW

“Music absolutely affects everything… It’s always there; it has to be there,” says Ferguson. “If I get a little burnt out on the visual art and hand-rendering thing, I can kind of chill out and go into music, and it’s a nice transition, [but] it’s still exercising the mind in the same way — just on a totally different platform.”

In 2010, Ferguson will be busy. He is now running an online record label called Breathing And Receiving Oxygen, where he will be digitally releasing albums from his friends. Artistically, he will be working hard to promote his own art, via numerous means — overt and hidden. He has plans to set up shows in Chicago, Seattle, and San Francisco in the upcoming year, as well as create more installations and doing more street art type works.

“They won’t be that visible,” explains Ferguson about his street art pieces. “It’ll be more an Easter egg hunt when you find them, but they’ll be up there some places. Lurking in the shadows.”

www.hydeonart.com

<strong>Bumblebee</strong> Hives Up On Telephone Booths.

Don’t be alarmed, folks! The bees aren’t really holing up in telephone booths because they’re dwindling in numbers anyway! This is just the product of California’s Bumblebee at work, turning abandoned phone booths into beautiful art installations. Here are the thought-provoking words he had to say about his work:

“Telephone companies have been abandoning their public telephone booths by taking out the phones and leaving the structures beehind. (Probably due to the rise in cell phone users.) I want to reuse these structures as a way of communication with the public once more by replacing that empty space with paper-mache beehives. To me, this symbolizes the irony beehind the question, ‘where have so many of the bees gone’ and the theory that cell phone signals have been misguiding their normal patterns of migration.”

www.flickr.com/photos/theuglyyou

<strong>Ian Stevenson Artist Interview</strong>

What are some of the first projects you were involved in?
The first project I did was drawing in sketchbooks, and I did this for about a year before I thought about showing them online. One of the first paid jobs [I had involved] drawing in the Ladies toilets at Mother, a creative agency in London. I treated it like a gallery and enjoyed drawing in an interesting space.

Did you go into the project with an idea of what you wanted to draw or did it gradually come to you while you were there?

It was my first time drawing on the wall so I started off by referring to my sketchbooks. After a while, I drew without any planning. When I draw characters I like to create scenes that relate to the surroundings. The characters actually feel like they belong and interact with the toilet fittings. This approach has become a major part of my work.

A lot of humor is evident in your works. What kind of influences do you have?
I like comedy like The Mighty Boosh, Flight of the Concords and The League Of Gentlemen. Most of all I enjoy chatting in the pub with my friends and there are many strange new things created at these tables.

INTERVIEW CONTINUED BELOW
Although caricatures are obviously your strong point, do you dabble in any other kinds of art?
I used to work as a designer so I’ve done most things like websites, t-shirts, logos, animations, typefaces, photography, music, etc. I ended up leaving this world to concentrate on my own work and explore my own mind, but everything I’ve learnt on the way is useful.

Is your work primarily digital or hand-drawn?
Hand-drawn is the only way, and I find that characters created in the computer have less personality. [However,] I do scan the drawings in and use the computer for its basic functions.

Do you have any kind of formal training? How did you get into art?
I studied at Camberwell College Of Arts; we learnt how to think about projects creatively and approach the solution in new and interesting ways. I then entered the world of Graphic Design and learnt many things about to work in the real world. I left that after 3 1/2 years to work on my own ideas.

You drew all over the YCN website. What an amazing idea. Can you tell me more about it? Had you worked much with animating .gif images prior to that?
YCN liked the way I drew on things and brought them to life. They asked me to do the same to their website and I added characters that interacted with the graphics or sections on the site.

Pictoplasma greatly involved the public in the art creation process, and it was an amazing idea. What kind of reactions did you notice from it? (Editor’s Note: For Pictoplasma, artists drew outlines of scenes on the wall and the public was invited in to color the scenes in.)
It was a great thing to be part of and felt like a new idea for a gallery. The public liked getting involved, as I think most of them didn’t draw as a profession. They approached it without too much thinking, and great things happened.

INTERVIEW CONTINUED BELOW
Some of these galleries seem to get rid of the work the next day. Do they just paint over everything? Do you draw with non-permanent marker?
I’ve done a lot of non-permanent work, and yes, most of the time, it’s painted over. I use permanent pens or paint and treat it like it would be there permanently, but sometimes [that] doesn’t last long.

Al Gore’s channel created a documentary about you. What sparked that?
An independant film company called Institute For Eyes put forward a proposal to Current TV about doing a documentary about my work. The idea was to focus on the Rubbish Art project that I was doing, which involved walking around the streets and drawing on rubbish. Current TV really liked this idea and how it highlights environmental issues in a new way.

How has the response been for that, and where can readers watch it?
The response has been great, and it helps people to understand that I actually do go to the street and draw on real rubbish. It can be seen on the Current TV channel in the UK and also online… go to current.com, and search for my name.

Of all the projects you have done and participated in, which have been your favorite?
Most of the work I been involved in have been enjoyable as I mainly get left to do my own thing. That is when I think it works best. At the moment I’m liking the world of animation as it’s a development of what I’ve done before. It’s great to see things come to life with animation, voices, and music. Oh yes, that is fun.

END.

www.ianstevenson.co.uk

<strong>Bask In Your Thoughtcrimes Artist Interview</strong>

February 2008 Interview

“[I find my materials in] alleyways, roadsides, and other places you’d expect to see junk,” Bask explains. “It’s like being on a treasure hunt sometimes, looking for that perfect panel to paint on.”

When we last spoke to Bask over a year and a half ago, his work was largely motivated by political and social issues. They featured huge amounts of iconic commercial figures and symbols, for example, the Morton’s salt girl or dirty ol’ Linus from The Peanuts.

“When I first started incorporating brand icons into my work, I started to notice how people would react to certain paintings of mine,” Bask recalls. “I started to recognize the power of “the brand,” and their collective messages to consume, consume, consume.”

ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW

One commercially-inspired piece piece that stood out at that time was one that was created using a sign from an old coffee shop in Miami. The piece was entitled Harvey’s Cafe, and featured half of the green Starbucks crest emerging out of the carcass of Harvey’s Cafe’s old hand-painted sign. Bold red letters above the Starbucks crest read, “COMING SOON,” and a small message is inscribed in ink, saying, “Another failed attempt to fit in.”

At that time, Bask didn’t think much about the closure of the coffee shop and was simply excited to have found an interesting new panel to paint on. But when he returned to Miami months later, he saw that a brand new Starbucks had opened in the location of the old Harvey’s, and it made a significant impact on him.

“We all have heard and seen examples of large corporate chains pushing out the little guy, but this case hit home with me, and I didn’t really know why,” explains Bask. “Maybe it was the change of guard switching out one humble little coffee shop for the bigger, better new one, or maybe it was the fact I actually had a piece of Harvey’s in my studio like an old fossil, [as] proof that it once stood.”

Although Bask does not seem any less politically or socially-aware now than he was before, his works have changed through the years — in context and in influence.

“As an artist, I’m influenced by the current state of affairs as a whole,” Bask says. “There are broad issues like the war in Iraq and our government’s constant missteps, but I’m also influenced greatly by personal issues. Over the years, my work has become less political in theme and more personally intimate in meaning. I’d rather my paintings inspire than preach.”

ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW

But in some cases, sometimes a message is on the tip of Bask’s tongue, waiting to be heard by the world. We were lucky enough to have Bask custom-design the cover of this issue for us, and as a fan of all types of music, he was clearly inspired by injustices in the music industry when he created this piece. The art features a vintage-style man who looks like a stereotypical corporate fat cat. He is donning a suit and smiling cheekily while a cigar pokes out from through his teeth. On the man’s hand is a scraggly puppet he is controlling; the puppet wears an anarchy t-shirt and is waving flags that say “indi” on them. It’s a clear and forceful message.

“The piece is inspired by the state of affairs in the music industry,” Bask explains. “Words like “indie” and “punk” seem to be fading fast, and in their places, we get deluded [artists] owned by large record labels. I’m not saying [all musicians] on large labels are evil and bad, but in many cases, large labels use smaller, more underground labels in an attempt to legitimize themselves to audiences. They are basically buying street cred.”

As a full-time artist, Bask works at home, in his studio. He may not paint everyday, but art is on his mind daily. Like most artists, if he has a show coming up, he tends to go all out and dives in headfirst. On the topic of crunch time before a gallery showing, Bask says, “I’ll paint 20 hours a day for a week straight, then crash for a few days and repeat the process.”

Bask’s pieces frequently have a decayed look to them, and the amount of detail in every nook and cranny of his work is sometimes hard to keep up with. His pieces look like they’ve been weathered for years, and the paints crack, blister, and peel with personality. These effects, coupled with the use of bright colors and innovative thinking, help Bask’s work command attention in the streets as well as in the galleries.

It is sometimes difficult for artists to find venues that have their best interests in mind, but Bask believes that with enough perseverance and patience, any artist can find those galleries.

And as for the ones that might not look as kindly upon his work as he’d like, he has no qualms about them. To him, it seems simple. Artists need galleries to hang their work in. Sell yourself.

“It must be my graffiti, ego-driven personality,” he says, “but I make my work to be seen by as many people as possible. I chose to be a career artist, and there is no room to be shy.”

But there is a little room to be shy as an artist, particularly when it comes to being present at your own art shows. “[It] is very intimidating,” Bask says. “It’s like standing in a room naked while people come up and praise and/or critique everything about you.”

Bask has not found much difficulty in finding galleries in where to show his street- and graffiti-influenced work. As far as he can tell, street art is becoming more and more mainstream.

“From my experience, street art today is so in vogue that galleries are open to artists that present street elements in their work. Too much so, in my opinion,” Bask admits. “Street art is becoming so mainstream that the figurative pond is becoming muddied up. But like with everything else, time will sift out the true from the rest.”

END.

August 2006 Interview

You use a lot of commercial references in your work. Why? What does this have to do with growing up and noticing the similarities between communistic propaganda vs. commercial icons?
I use commercial images as metaphors or symbols of contradiction in scenarios playing out in my work. The other purpose they serve is as bait to viewers who identify with a particular icon being used. I use the power of familiarity and twist them to deliver a message of my own. As for the communist and commercial comparison? They both use very similar tactics using images to promote a way of life. In capitalism, you have choices, but each individual brand pushes their product the same way a totalitarian regime pushes propaganda.

When did you first find a correlation between communistic propaganda and commercial icons?
When I first started incorporating brand icons into my work, I started to notice how people would react to certain paintings of mine. That’s when I saw a very specific relationship between commercial images and regular folks. I started to recognize the power of “the brand,” and their collective messages to consume, consume, consume. In the Communist regime I grew up in, the message was different, but the way propaganda was relentlessly promoted through the media was very similar.

Do you consider yourself a political person?
I think “conscious” would be more accurate than political. A political person, to me, is someone active in anything from protesting to running for office. Although many of my paintings are political, most of my work deals with more personal and social issues.

What advice can you give artists who are trying to get their work out independently?
I’ve never taken a crash course in art promotions, and have kind of worked on intuition. The secret formula is to be consistently productive in all things involved with your art, and don’t be lazy. The other advice I would give is: make your own opportunities, instead of waiting for them to find you.

What was the first art piece you remember doing that people took notice of?
I think when I used to make little handmade holiday cards for my family as a child. The satisfaction I got after presenting my toiled mess to someone and making them smile was the best feeling ever.

Your works definitely use a lot of textures. Is the love for textures something you’ve always had? Did it emerge naturally from being a street artist first?
Doing street art definitely shaped my approach my art, which would include how textured my work is. Aside from how appealing textured surfaces are to me, what I really enjoy is the challenge of painting on them. It makes it look more like art to me, rather some manufactured promotion.

What is the message behind your street art, and what do you think of random graffiti that does not put forth a message?
The Bask In Your Thoughtcrimes campaign promotes free-thinking and the separation from the status quo. The word “thoughtcrime,” as you may well know, was first coined by George Orwell in the book 1984. I found this word very fitting and appropriate to the message I was trying to put forth. As for other graffiti, I love it. I love all forms of street art, be it a commissioned mural or a tag on a dumpster. The art is the message when it comes to street art and graffiti, and to me, there is no higher art then it.

Can you pick one of your pieces and explain it?
I made [“Harvey’s Cafe”] from a panel I took from a coffee shop that went under in Miami. I don’t live in Miami, so I never had a chance to visit this place. Now, I’ll never get the chance. From what I could gather, though, it was as mom and pop as you can get, and had been there for years before closing. At the time, I didn’t give it any further thought beyond [the fact that] I just found a great panel to paint on. A few months later, I returned to Miami and saw that a brand new Starbucks had opened in the old Harvey’s location. We all have heard and seen examples of large corporate chains pushing out the little guy, but this case hit home with me, and I didn’t really know why. Maybe it was the change of guard switching out one humble little coffee shop for the bigger, better new one, or maybe it was the fact I actually had a piece of Harvey’s in my studio like an old fossil, [as] proof that it once stood.

REDEFINE stands for a lot of the things that your “bask in your thoughtcrimes” mentality does. That being said, it seems similar to your mentality of non-conformity. Want to give our readers a message of sorts in your own vein?
I guess I would quote slogan coined by Joseph Campbell and tell your readers to “follow your bliss.” Non-conformity is a state of mind, so as long as you wake up every morning and love what you do, then, in my opinion, you’re winning the game of life. Not everybody can play a guitar or paint a picture, but everybody has individual hopes and dreams that can be achieved if pursued.

END.