It’s always just beginning. Everything is always just beginning. —Jakusho Kwang
Lot #48
PunchGut Fargo, North Dakota Rox Out, 2009 Mixed media on wood 16 x 9 inches Range: $275 - 325
PunchGut: Given the wide array of images that greet any
Some New Town gives a glimpse of the view from a midnight
visitor to the Punchgut Studio’s website, it’s not hard to believe
riverbank fishing trip; and Buckets of Rain shares with
Punchgut when he comments that his favorite piece of his own
non-midwesterners the look of a sheet of rain advancing
art is always the one he’s currently working on, looking at, or
across a field.
fomenting ideas for while in the midst of a late night catfishing expedition. Drawing his inspirations from stimuli as varied as illicit firecracker packages, 1980s video games, distorted photocopies, wood carvings and outsider art, sailor tattoos, and cartoons of every kind, North Dakotan Punchgut (Punchy to his art-nerd friends) jots down sketches as soon as they flit through his brain; any delay, and they’d be lost, scattered to the winds. This way, though, they’re waiting patiently when the time comes for Punchy to rifle through the stack and embark on his next artistic endeavor. From the time he was a scribble-minded kid, Punchgut has created memorable images, and while his grade-school recipecard rainbows never seemed to catch on, nowadays he takes his fledgling artwork from sketch to screen with just the right amount of ambient creepiness to keep each piece sharp. Some of Punchy’s most sought-after creations are his stunningly evocative art prints, illustrating the small joys of prairie life: Squish the Moon shows the silhouette of a small child with the glowing moon held between his thumb and forefinger;
Beyond these, his work can be found on everything from a slew of beautiful but disparate screenprinted and limited edition posters for Americana bad asses, the Drive-By Truckers, to his Jim Flora-esque Three Blind Mice illustration for Microsoft’s Partner Channel, to the so-cute-it’s-threatening Panda Pirate from I Want Your Skull zine, fanzine, magazine. Look for Punchy’s prolific images on bookstore shelves in The Art of Modern Rock, The Art of Electric Frankenstein, and Rockin’ Down the Highway, and stapled to light posts and record-store bulletin boards near you.