wHat is tHe direction you’re going? How are you aBle to paint and support yourself as a painter?
Through illustrating. [laughs] Not only that, but when I was at Cal Arts, I liked designing clothes and t-shirt graphics also. When I was there, they had a facility there to make that, and we could use it whenever we wanted. I actually wanted to design for clothing companies and make art. That was my goal for when I graduated—to continue painting and become a t-shirt graphic artist. So when I graduated, I kept painting and started design graphics for t-shirt companies. Since then, 2004, I’ve been designing t-shirt graphics, and that’s how I’ve been able to keep painting. When I have a show, I can really concentrate on what I’m doing because I’m not really selling. It becomes a more intimate thing for me.
you can come out of scHool as an artist, and you’re tHrown into tHis vast pool of artists from around tHe country. tHe older an artist gets tHe more tHey are valued. do you ever tHink aBout tHat crazy world of money and art?
I’m happy to be in it. I’ve never been scared of it. I make what I make, and I’m here. I don’t think there’s anything to be scared of. The only thing I get scared of is not being able to pay rent. But everyone worries about that. I think hard about the things I do and the choices I make. But you can’t worry about being scared.
How do you Block out all tHat stuff? like tHe rent and all tHat stuff. it seems pretty evident to me tHat you’re painting wHat you feel.
I tell myself I’m doing it for me. I have to. But I do it for both. For my audience too. No matter what you do, you worry about how well it’s going to do. For me, I always keep that in my head. When my style started changing, I freaked out because I didn’t understand it. I did and didn’t. It felt so different to me. I have to keep thinking about what I’m making next. Even though my early stuff isn’t that different, the little things can make a big difference.
looking at your older work, and contrasting it witH your recent work, tHere’s a nice tHread. wHat i like aBout your style is tHat tHere’s a HigHly tecHnical aspect to it, But tHere’s also a deeply Human part of it.
Everything I photograph are things that I see that I really appreciate and think that other people should see and appreciate. A lot of the things are superimposed, and I take things from different photographs and bring it here or put it with these people or places because I think it makes sense. I did a Vans billboard project, and when I painted that I put all these things together because I know that they’re things that certain people see, but I know a lot of people who don’t see it or don’t pay attention to it. So that gave me the ability to show people and have them relate to it.
