“ BECAUSE IT’S THE VISIONARY INERTIA OF EVERY ANCIENT CULTURE, AND IT IS OUR COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS AND ANCIENT WORLD MIND.” starving artist who only gets popular after they die? It’s almost like a PSA on why you should never become an artist. But the art movement that I am in affects so much: movies, video games, toys, shirts, design, cartoons, skateboarding. Almost every part of our culture is inundated with art and design. It’s a good time to be an artist. I feel lucky. And it’s all on the backs of those that came before me: the Robert Williamses, the Big Daddy Roths, the underground comic companies, the weirdos and the visionaries who just did it and weren’t being given big-ass checks by Nike or whatever. All the kids my age who grew up with cartoons and 80s pop culture are now kind of the prevalent adults, and determine what’s kind of cool. So here I am, doing all this stuff. I’m not into heavy-handed pop culture stuff for myself, but it was fun to collaborate with Alex Pardee on [Butcher Kings]. I got to be like Mad Magazine cartoonist Basil Wolverton for the month! As for Dore, he would have been better off living now, as well as Virgil Finlay--the best of the best. In your Fragile Art of Existence series, you deliberately moved away from your typical freaks and ghouls type of thing and went into a whole other world. There are elements of nature and mystical spirituality. The overall tone is much deeper. How did this come about? Why do you think it’s so hard for so many artists to move away from what they’re used to and explore new territory? I think if you are concerned about keeping up an idea of what people can expect from you, then your concern is immediately about appeasing a projection, and your art immediately takes a back seat to being liked. It’s a pressure everyone feels once they are establishing themselves. This series of paintings was a risk for me, and it’s a place I am going back to as soon as I have the time. I want to take the risks because the rewards are great. I recommend that every artist do it. Your work definitely has a very recognizable aesthetic and style. How did that develop? What advice would you give other self-taught artists who are trying to find their own? Well, I would say it’s ok to be influenced by other artists, but be honest with yourself about it. If you really, really like someone’s art and you kind of use it as a guideline, that’s fine, but you have to know that your own style and voice is waiting to get out. The sooner you come to terms with the fact that you are deriving too much influence from someone else, the better. It takes years and years to get your shit together. It’s weird, because 24
I worked my ass off for ten years and then was like, “I’m ready to try and do this for a living.” But dudes are hitting me up on the interwebs asking me what I think about their art, and they just fucking started doing it. I’m like, “Keep going. Do 100 paintings and then hit me up.” I had 190 paintings in my first solo show, 180 in the next. They may not have been good, but I was dedicated to it, growing and learning. The internet has made it so people do a few paintings and are pushing them on their Big Cartel [online store]. That’s fine, but check your dedication to shit if you want to rise above the ocean of this stuff. What is going to make you better, or good, or memorable? That you already made prints out of your first 20 paintings? Fuck no! You haven’t even begun. Just work. Work your ass off and make sacrifices. The rest will work itself out. There’s something about really vibrant color patterns mixed in with super grotesque and demonic subject matter that just seems to make sense at this point. Why is that? Because it’s the visionary inertia of every ancient culture, and it is our collective consciousness and ancient world mind. I remember being young and always imagining these fantasy battle scenarios, like Terminators and Predators somehow making it to Jurassic Park and everything going crazy. I feel like your work somehow embodies that same kind of spirit. Yeah, except I think what I do is like a third grader gone mad. It’s funny; I’m just doing more twisted versions of what I have always done. I’m more gods and cosmos than Terminators though. Were you ever into Ralph Bakshi’s stuff back in the 70s and 80s? I got into it later, but I did remember liking the Lord of the Rings stuff. He really did some great stuff, except I think he bummed out a bunch of people he worked with. I love Fire and Ice. Top 5 favorite monsters of all time. Go! 1. Hulk 2. Godzilla 3. Jaws 4. Frankenstein 5. That horned thing from Conan Can we talk about your band a bit? What role does that play in your life overall? What are your musical influences? Ungoliant is on hiatus, maybe even indefinitely. Some of the dudes in the band developed different priorities, and I’m too busy to be a band dad, RVA MAGAZINE #10