Is it tough keeping that work 
separate from your own artwork?

I think the two of us, Justin and myself, even while we were in college, were both really interested in choosing our image making as some sort of vehicle to explore personal ideas. That’s really what my personal work is—either exploring new ways of seeing things or visual ways of exploring personal stuff like all the ideas or concepts that I have in my sketchbooks. My personal work always has this direct link to me as an individual where as National Forest is very much about the sum of its parts.

How do those sketchbook ideas turn into a piece for you? How do you jump off from there?

Lately, it’s been about coming up with 
these various ideas and reoccurring themes or concepts I’ve been thinking about. For example, my last show that was touring in Europe was all about the theme of connectivity—how certain things can connect human beings who may be from different sides of the world. I’ll just take a loose concept like that and just start jotting down words or concepts that are relevant to those ideas. Then, I’ll kind of expand on those and start generating sketches that I think reflect those words or thoughts. From there, I’ll start moving towards a finishing point and go back and forth between the computer and by hand. From there, I’ll get down a composition and start figuring out or writing it in stone whatever it is I’m trying to relay. Also, I’ve always been inspired by the world of screen-printing and being able to do things in editions. Over the last several years, that’s how my work is executed. I like that other level of intuition that starts to happen with the silk screen process—the ability to print on various materials and in a large number of additions.

How do you choose that medium?

I think a lot of it is trial and error. I’ve been very consistent in printing on old paper. I’m a massive collector of vinyl records from thrift stores, and I really dig on the paper that they used for the inserts. I like how that paper ages, and the quality that it has. It gives it a little personality and is something that’s a little more tactile. I’m a big fan of tactile dimensional objects. I’m the type of person that collects old pieces of paper or posters that have graphics on them. To me, it shows that there is a human being behind the work, and it shows that the thing has aged and is aging because everything is constantly aging.

You seemed to like dimensional things, such as shapes.

Recently, I’ve been starting with shapes, usually very big shapes—like a triangle or just a horizon line. When I’m coming up with those words or phrases, at the same time I’ll start looking at shapes and using those as sketches or how I think I can create a composition that works best for that idea.

Is there a reason you choose these certain shapes?

During that preliminary stage of working up an idea you sometimes hit that wall. 
Personally, I hit this level of frustration where I’m trying to come up with these ideas, and I’m wondering what it is I’m even trying to communicate, or how I can communicate this thing. Typically when I reach that point it’s time to get away from developing an idea in that way. So, I’ll just jump to making an image, or I’ll jump right into the computer. I’ll start just drawing really big shapes to just kind of see what comes out of it. I think it’s just become a natural way of working.