Fresh Fish Heads

–> Quality Time With Señor Yamamoto

~ INTRO ~

Who knew it would take more then an hour per interview not including travel time. It’s possibly ambitious overestimation scheduling four interviews in distant locations of Los Angeles, or just plain insanity. Regardless, after spending some quality time with my cousin and her son at the Long Beach Aquarium, followed by a leap to Venice Beach to meet with Frank Rozasy, I found the day half over and the schedule totally off. Maybe counting the miles between locations on my map would have helped. A workers demonstration severely backing up traffic around the Civic Center area right outside my destination in the Little Tokyo ‘hood really threw a wrench into my plans. Running hella late, I checked my cell and noticed numerous missed calls. Adrenaline was coursing through my veins driving me to complete the days mission. Yoskay had been patiently waiting and doubting if I was going to make it, especially when he realized I’d been given the wrong address. This initial sputter corrected, we finally connected at the spot Yoskay Yamamoto prefers to relax, sketch and take in the LA scenery.

~ BACKGROUND ~

Moments Of Truth ~ What’s your main form of creative expression?

Yoskay Yamamoto ~ As in medium? Like mainly, well. . . I don’t know. I like playing around with a lot of stuff. Mainly it’s paintings but I do sculptures on the side, like installations. And I do freelance graphic design.

MOT ~ How do you float between them? Do you have to change the way you work or anything?

YY ~ There’s definitely a similar aspect that I can apply to each. Like while doing some computer graphics I’ll come up with an idea I can apply to painting. Same thing with painting to another medium. Lately I’ve been taking pictures of a background or abstract images and bring that into Photoshop or Illustrator and mess around with it. So it works vice versa, even sculptures. . . well it’s good to have different outlets because I can get bored easily. I might paint for three months straight and come to a point where I have to sculpt something. It’s nice to have that option.

My main medium or focus is probably painting though. I think that’s my strongest skill.

MOT ~ What is it that always draws you back to painting?

YY ~ I think I just enjoy colors a lot. That’s a good question. I’m a big manga geek.

MOT ~ What, like ‘otaku?’

YY ~ Well, I wouldn’t quite say that I am but maybe on some level. So I think that shows a lot in my work, what I read and what I’m into.

MOT ~ Where did you grow up?

YY ~ A small town called Toba, 400 miles near Tokyo closer to the Osaka / Nagoya area. It’s right by the ocean.

MOT ~ Do you think that community had any influence on your ideas and how you express yourself creatively?

YY ~ Not necessarily art. Coming out here [to the U.S.] definitely because I just got bored. Watching two of my older brothers go through high school like everybody else, then college, then on to whatever. I don’t want to do that. So I came out here originally just to attend high school then I was going to return to Japan for college but I just had too much fun. You know, high school, the city college program, it was good.

MOT ~ Have you noticed any major cultural contrasts, say between urban and small town, U.S. and Japan…?

YY ~ Ahhh shit man, I haven’t gone home for like six years so it’s kind of hard to recapture what I felt.

MOT ~ What about from your childhood, does that come out in any way?

YY ~ I had a show in January called ‘Slanted Pigeon,’ the title referring to me being an Asian and Japanese and all that. That whole show’s subject matter was paying respect to my old cartoon heroes that I used to watch, like vintage forgotten heroes. Did you know that in Japan cartoons are so popular that every couple of months there’s a new show and the old one gets pushed back and you’ll only see it late night on the re-runs kind of thing. So I wanted to give a shout-out to all the characters I used to watch.

MOT ~ So there’s a high turnover rate for cartoon characters in Japan. Are they different characters or are the same ideas being rehashed constantly?

YY ~ There are certain continuous shows, take the ‘Power Rangers’ for example, that’s been going through since the late seventies. Or the ‘Masked Rider’ Kevin Rider has also been running since the seventies, but they change the main character each time coming up with some new names and new motorcycles.

MOT ~ Does anyone else in your family put a lot of energy into a creative medium? How did you get into it?

YY ~ Like I said I’m a big Manga geek so I used to copy a lot of the Manga I used to read. When I came over here, at the first high school I went to, I became friends with this guy JJ who wrote graffiti in Santa Barbara, which is like a pretty small town, and he took me around and showed me spots. We did graffiti here and there until finally it lead me to search. . . because I was never good at lettering, the only thing I could do was really characters. With that realization I kind of got over that whole graffiti scene and started looking into ‘Juxtapoz’ a lot and do more character based work.

Now I’m trying to step out of that whole base because when I look through that magazine everything looks kind of similar. I’m trying to switch up a little bit.

MOT ~ How are you doing that?

YY ~ By just being patient, trying not to rush it. I think style is one of those things you can’t just change with a finger snap. Sure, I wish I could, like go completely abstract or something else. I think I should just be patient and find out what my strengths and interests are. From there, narrow that down to a fine point. Right now I’m still messing around with characters, figures and landscapes, but I’m pretty sure eventually it’ll come down to some key things that I’m really interested in.

MOT ~ How do you go about identifying your strengths?

YY ~ It’s funny because the stuff I like always has a hard time selling. Those things that I’m like ‘whatever’ sells easier. So I don’t know if my self-critique is right about my style and where to go with my direction. When I finish certain work, some just speaks louder to me. When that happens I want to try that and maybe mix it with something else. It’s like I’m doing it because it grew out of a hobby, I wasn’t trying to be successful or anything. I was just trying to enjoy it. It’s weird because a lot of time people will look at a work and ask “what does this mean to you, what does this fish head mean to you?” I’m like not that deep, I just want to make images and share them with people. If people enjoy that, great, it’s mainly for myself actually.

MOT ~ The clip you have on your page of you working out the fish head image on that piece of wood, that’s pretty sick, how’d that come about?

YY ~ My buddy picked it up from a flea market and gave it to me. My friend Megan was attending Brooks Institute and had an assignment to shoot somebody doing something showing their progress. I said “Oh, I can paint and you can shoot me.” And she’s like “Oh, that’d be great.” It took some two hours and she had a gadget that took pictures every five or ten seconds so you end up with hundreds of hundreds images. She converted that to a Quicktime and gave me a copy. It’s fun, I love that little media. I think it’s funny because I look like I’m working really fast, like in some kind of sweat shop. I enjoy projects like that where I get to collaborate and it works out.

MOT ~ Have you had any mentors or guides for any of the mediums you’re working in?

YY ~ The person I can think of is the artist J. Shea nai, he does great work. He works a lot with found objects and assembles them making sculptures out of it. When he paints he puts all these wooden canvases together so as not to paint on the square stuff. That got me to experiment more and also a major reason why I started sculpting too. Before that I was strictly painting, then I had a show with him and was like “Shea, dude your sculptures are fucking rad man.” And he said “Oh, it’s just something called ‘model magic,’ you should try it out.” Then I started messing with it. He’s been a big influence on me.

Another guy is David Flores, pretty well known for stain glass style portraits and landscapes. Nowadays he does more design work then fine art work because I don’t think he’s had a show in a while. He used to be my mentor at my internship and is the one who helped me get into group shows. Without his help maybe I wouldn’t be as successful as I’ve been. Because it’s nasty, but it doesn’t seem so much about what you can prove out of yourself, as who you know, sometimes, to get into shows. I’m glad he helped.

Who else? Well, all these other artists, even though I’ve never met them in person, if I read an article about them it’s inspiring, giving me confidence to do my own things. Just recently I met this artist Kofie One and he’s really cool. I met him in the Seattle group show. Meeting with artists in different situations is pretty motivating too.

(We’re sitting outside Groundswork Café on the cusp of Los Angeles Japan Town area. I’m having lunch, two espresso’s, and hanging out just long enough for this interview at Yoskay’s think tank area. Unfortunately at the moment we’re semi distracted by a table nearby that is in a heated nonsensical conversation. Normally this would be just the spot for the ‘Psykoo Babbler’ to join in the urban madness but the day is rapidly revolving out of sight, I’m way behind already and there’s still two more MOT appointments in totally different parts of the city to meet. So although the digital recording is a little garbled now, the magic is in the air.)

MOT ~ How do you go about approaching different artists?

YY ~ This show in Seattle was hosted by Scion. Do you know how Scion does installation tours? I was invited this year. This particular touring show started in Seattle and is headed for Miami in December ‘07. The show displayed works by Kofie, Chris Yarmick and myself. The curator took us to dinner so we got to meet each other.

The gallery owner at Project art directs me sometimes, because when I have a hard time finishing a piece I’ll take it to my friends to get some feedback. Often I’ll do that with him because he seems to give me solid direction.

~ INSPIRATION ~

MOT ~ Do you follow an overall philosophy that you work by, something you find helps you stay creative?

YY ~ I just uhhhh…. Oh MAN, you lost me. I see a lot of artists get to one point and they start to do half ass work. Primarily I have to satisfy myself before anyone else.

MOT ~ Before or after, anywhere in the process, do you take an audience into consideration in some way?

YY ~ Not really, I like changing stuff a lot. Like, when you go to my website, it hasn’t really been updated for a couple years; maybe not since ’05. I may even have some stuff on there from ’04. What I’m doing now is completely different from where I started. I think my work is constantly changing and I like that. I’m not trying to paint my fish head character for the rest of my life, I’m not into that. I’m not into painting Space Monkey or Bigfoot for the rest of my life. I’m not dissing those guys, I’m happy they’re happy doing their thing, but I like change probably because, like I said before, I get bored a little too easy.

Some of the greatest artists like say Picasso had so many different styles, always coming up with new stuff. That’s a trait I really admire, that drive to always question your work, trying to change your style and subject matter. Artists who show progress and growth I really like, instead of just picking one style and stretching that over the next twenty years or whatever.

MOT ~ Is that something you can do on a conscious level or is it just built into your psyche? Or is it more like what you were saying about just being patient?

YY ~ I’m not really sure. One philosophy I do have is to not paint a character in the exact same way. Sure, I may paint a fish head, but he’ll be from a different angle or different perspective. Little tweaks help keep myself interested in my characters. From the extent that I get bored [of that character] even though I change the angle, I know I’m over it and it’s time to do something else.

For example, the fish head character I started doing it in ’04. Then I didn’t paint it for maybe a year or year and half because I’d just gotten sick of it, ya know. But people would ask me “aren’t you going to paint more fish head, more fish head?” Eventually, last year I started working with him again. Before that they were all from the torso and up, profiles essentially. Then I started doing this infant like, kinda weird proportion of the head being one and the body also one, a ratio of one to one. So it appears to be a baby with a fish head on it. That kind of progress makes me happy to see that I can take an old idea and create something new. That always puts a smile on my face.

Certain times I’ll get an idea but I can’t execute it because my technique isn’t there yet. So ideas that may be two or three years old, somehow I’m finally able to do them. That’s a signal to me that my skills have progressed. I don’t know, it seems that just because an idea is old doesn’t necessarily mean it’s outdated or a bad idea. It’s just an idea you had before but never got to use it to its fullest. Even Japanese stuff, I used to do a lot of Japanese based theme work then got over it, but now I’m coming back to it using more of the design aspect. For example I’ve been incorporating traditional textile design into my work. Like a full cycle, starting out doing the manga thing then got into graffiti then got into Ukoe-e and the Japanese tattoo style into more of an urban pop type of thing… just going around and around.

MOT ~ Sure man, life’s kind of like that. Do you ever feel drained of your energy to create? What brings you back to feeling creatively energized?

YY ~ Oh yea, sometimes I’ll get that thing people call ‘writers block.’ What’s that…? Certain times I just can’t do shit, so when that hits I’ll just try to at least sketch, even if I can’t sketch my own stuff I’ll try to sketch a picture out of a photo or something just trying to keep active. Here, I’ll show you my sketchbook.

See, a lot of stuff I just doodle. I may pick an image out of a photo and try to do that. This sketchbook I started in San Francisco two years ago. Sometimes I’ll sketch out other peoples work to just figure out what they’re trying to do, like Space Monkey. . .

MOT ~ Like Dalek there?

YY ~ OH MAN, he is technically crazy. Have you seen his painting in real life? It’s completely flat, you can’t see any brush strokes or anything.

MOT ~ Some people use that black sandpaper that’s used to sand metal with a little bit of water.

YY ~ Oh, water sand it, right, right. Well, lately I’ve been trying to experiment a little more. All these were pencil and pen sketches and I’ve started trying to paint into it a little bit. I’d never tried to do that in my sketchbook before, so it’s been kind of fun just playing around. Certain pages I might not like, so I’ll just paint it over and start again.

The sketchbook has always been like the backbone of my work. When I get metal blocks I’ll go back to my sketchbook. Even when flipping through old sketchbooks I’ll find an image that I may have never liked before – the same thing with music, you develop certain tastes along the way. I never really like The Beatles, but now I love them. The sketchbook is a good gauge of one’s progress too, it’s right in front of you.

~ TECHNICAL ~

MOT ~ So would you describe your process from beginning to end starting with your sketchbook?

YY ~ The way it sometimes works for me really depends. Each work comes out or starts out differently. I’ll sketch something and if I like it, it’ll work into a painting. Sometimes I’ll just start painting and in the process of enjoying working it out something cool may appear. This [sketchbook] is where I brainstorm and try to figure things out. I guess everything comes out of here and makes its way into my paintings and sculptures.

MOT ~ How can you tell when you’re working out an idea or painting that it’s reached that finish point?

YY ~ Well, I have a few unfinished paintings. Certain things sometimes are puzzles to me, and, as I work, it’s a search for the solution to fix the problem. I may do backgrounds and certain colors may not be right. It takes me a little while to figure out the colors.

So when it looks good to me, I know it’s done. Sometimes I’ll submit a piece thinking it’s finished and looks good. When it doesn’t sell and I get it back it may strike me “Oh, maybe this was lacking this, it’s missing this, that’s why people didn’t respond.” Certain times I’ll get a piece back and rework it and submit it again kind of thing.

MOT ~ When you’re working it out do you loose track of time, where does your mind go?

YY ~ Oh dude, when I’m in the mood, I’ll be sitting down at my desk for hours. Like certain times, it totally depends on my mood, I may get irritated, can’t focus and have to just take a break. When I’m enjoying mixing colors, just working on it time passes really quickly. That’s when I know I’m enjoying it too. It’s kind of a great feeling.

MOT ~ You’ve worked with a lot of different images and like to keep evolving. I’m curious how much creative freedom you believe you have from the perspective of it being intrinsic versus the society around you?

YY ~ Man, that’s interesting. New ideas are sometimes hard for me to come up with, something ground breaking or whatever. But like I said, I know it takes patience, I know every piece is not going to be my masterpiece. I know I do some crap work, some shitty work here and there, I just work through it. I mean, mistakes make perfection. Even Picasso, I’ve seen some shitty paintings he did. It’s not that big a deal for me, sure it’s frustrating but I try to tell myself to be patient, just work through it. It takes time.

MOT ~ What do you think it is that keeps driving you to make art instead of finding some other thing to do, or not doing anything at all?

YY ~ Dude, I can’t imagine doing anything else. That’s truly it! I get such a kick out of all of this. I think this is the way I can enjoy my life the most. Because having shows, sharing my work with people, getting feedback and people buying my work agreeing to the value that I put it out at… that’s such a good compliment to me. And it’s a weird kind of natural high that I get. It feels good. And I can’t imagine having that same kind of achievement or good feeling from just selling a car. I might sell a car and get excited knowing “hey, I’m making this much commission,” but it’s not really mentally or soulfully filling you up like you get to do with art or music.

MOT ~ If you had the chance to sit down and talk with any artists, or anyone you might find interesting, are there any questions you’d be interesting in asking them?

YY ~ Noooo, not really. I would just love to ask those dead artists or musicians how life was like during that time.

My main focus is pushing myself forward and not worrying so much about the outcome. So far I’ve had good luck. Everybody has up and down times. Without the down times I don’t really think you can appreciate the up times. Of course there’s inspiration in both emotions. When you’re happy you’ll likely create something that looks pretty. When you’re negative, sad, or whatever, you tend to create something darker. Both sides have important emotional inspiration embedded into them. It’s funny that a lot of what I consider my good work comes during down times. In up times I end up doing cutesy little things, and I’m alright with it, but when I do something that speaks a little louder, it has a greater impact. Too me, it seems that negative emotions tend to have that more powerful impact. I guess I just have an easier time transferring that emotion to an image. I mean, all the great songs are like sad miserable songs ya know.

Check out more on Yoskay via these links below

Yoskay’s homepage ~ www.yoskay.com

See more about the art and artists of the Scion traveling ‘It’s A Beautiful World’ installation project ~ www.scion.com/installation/

Yoskay’s profile on the Scion page ~ www.scion.com/installation/yamamoto.html

Become his friend at ~ www.myspace.com/yoskayyamamoto

A little blurb about the upcoming release of Yoskay’s fishhead vinyl sculpture ~ www.vinylpulse.com/2007/07/yoskay-yamamoto.html

Some of his work from a show at Think Space Gallery ~ www.sourharvest.com/thinkspace/east2west/index.php

Ground Up In LA

~ An Interview With Frank Rozasy ~

~ INTRO ~

On a daily basis, you encounter countless creatures doing what it takes to survive. Is survival simply getting enough to eat and protection from the elements, or does it go deeper? According to the commonly accepted breakdown, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, it evolves to a certain level. More levels could yet be uncovered. Winding down the classic Highway 1 into Southern California and dodging raging wildfire mayhem, Moments Of Truth has arrived in Los Angeles.

As we’re all too well aware, this rotating hunk called earth is in a state of constant flux. Winds that hurl flames in any and all directions is current proof of that. Some of us may fuel the fantasy of bodies frozen in stasis while the mind establishes believable illusions of a life. Though that doesn’t provide an answer, questions abound about life, from youth until adulthood, as a person seeks to comprehend their purpose on earth. Maybe it’s a lot simpler than we want to believe. One factor that seems to remain constant, no matter how much oatmeal you consume, is that certain geographic locations are attributed a particular status. A person who survives and achieves success in New York, Paris, London, or Los Angeles has. . . well, ‘made it.’ The rest of us, well. . . I guess we’re still trying to figure ‘it’ out.

In a cozy Venice Beach one bedroom apartment Frank Rozasy lives, breathes, and dreams among the materials he develops into expressions of his passions. Is your purpose survival, and survival as simple as following your passions?

~ BACKGROUND ~

Moments Of Truth ~ Hello Frank, thanks for taking the time to share with us. To start off, please describe the creative medium(s) you focus on.

Frank Rozasy ~ I’m a painter, a photographer, computer graphics artist and I do installations.

MOT ~ Has this changed or evolved over time?

FR ~ Oh yea, absolutely! It’s always been figurative, but it’s evolved especially with the computer. Once you start working with the computer, it’s like a pencil or anything else, it opens up infinite different venues and creative ideas.

MOT ~ Is there one you really enjoy focusing on? I see you have a lot of nice wood, do you use that for your paintings?

FR ~ Well, yea, if you’ll walk up with me I’ll show you. . . (Frank takes the opportunity to introduce me to his studio space. I love getting into workshops, I don’t know if it’s because of growing up with my dad as a carpenter and his woodshop being a place to explore with adult equipment and ideas or what.)

I’ve been working with my friend and model, her name is Doe, doing art of her for the last 25 years. That’s her, that’s Doe. I don’t know if you went to my website but I have hundreds of pieces of fantasy art and it’s all her. I’ve taken probably tens of thousands of pictures with Doe and make a lot of fantasy art. Also, I do nostalgic stuff which is – my father was a photographer – I take the old family photographs and do a whole bunch of different crap to it and then paint those.

Then I’m a jazz photographer, do jazz and I like old bebop (jazz brought out in the 1940’s that is described as fast tempo and improv based on harmonic structure rather than melody) Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and that kind of stuff.

MOT ~ Did you take all of those pictures?

FR ~ I’ve taken some of them, but more so I work with a famous jazz photographer called Ray Avery (Murray “Ray” Bertrand Avery) he gave me the use of his archives to do all of his stuff in my style. And the same thing, I got hooked up with Tom Kelly who did the naked Marilyn Monroe and the Michael Lopes archives, which gave me use of these other Marilyn Monroe photographers so I got the copyrights to use. Then I do beach scenes, landscapes, wilderness camping… I like to go out and camp, take pictures and my passion is the beach. I do long distance ocean swimming and I’ll take a ton of stuff on the beach and make art of that.

So basically that’s what I do. There’s my little art attack thing which shows all the shows I’ve been in since 1990.

MOT ~ That’s a cool map, I’m gonna have to get a photo of that! What do you think it is that draws you to this… this element and medium?

FR ~ The jazz, I’ve always liked jazz. My parents were into jazz and they introduced it to me when I was real young. Along with rock-n-roll and all that. Doing the woman fantasy pieces, I hooked up with this lady and we’ve been together and making art for 25 years sooooo, that’s that. The old nostalgic stuff, that’s family stuff. And the Marilyns just happen to hook on. It’s basically I just do art of my passions, where the passion is. It’s sort of a no-brainer, you do what’s in your heart.

MOT ~ Awesome. Joseph Campbell said it best, right?!

FR ~ Yea. And I never try to make anything for sale. I try to make it for art, and if I luck out and somebody buys it, cool, if not. . . ya know. Cause I tried one time to do stuff that I thought would be sellable, and it didn’t sell. So I let that go early on. Why bother to try and make things sellable that don’t sell, might as well make what’s in your heart and have that not sell and at least get some sort of reward out of it.

MOT ~ Where exactly did you grow up?

FR ~ I grew up here in Los Angeles, so I’m a native. At 18 I moved to London for awhile, then moved to the East Coast living in New York for awhile followed by Massachusetts, back to London, eventually around 1980 returned to L.A.

MOT ~ Did you notice different creative communities while living in these locations?

FR ~ Where I grew up was right near the hub of Los Angeles during the 50’s and 60’s. Like the Ferris Gallery there, and all these galleries. When I was real little, Thursday night they’d have these art walks. I remember leaving my house at the age of 12, 13, 14, with my parents and going out and checking the art. (His voice changes to express the awe of a young man) Seeing these artists, their galleries, and their lofts and everything. I was like, “Oh yeah, I wanna be an artist.”

MOT ~ So that was the moment when you really knew the direction you wanted to go?

FR ~ Well no. My earliest memories are drawing from going through “World Book” encyclopedias. I always knew that I was going to be an artist but it helped when I saw their lifestyle. I was like “yeah, this is cool.”

~ INSPIRATION ~

MOT ~ How have you managed to stick to it and continue to make art? Have there been obstacles?

FR ~ It’s like “why do you make art?” And the answer is “well, why do you breathe?” You just make art.

MOT ~ To put it succinctly, it sounds like your passions inspire your life of art.

FR ~ Yes, yes, it’s just whatever the passion is and it serves as an outlet.

MOT ~ How do you think swimming long distance in the ocean influences you?

FR ~ The long distance ocean swimming has something sort of magical about it. Basically I’m just a poor artist – not a struggling artist but a poor artist – sometimes when I get down I go out to the ocean, swim a mile. Before I may be thinking “man, life sucks,” and after finishing it’ll switch to “oh yea, life’s good.” It’s good, I swim on my back so my face is always up and there’s dolphin and sea lion encounters, along with pelicans and a lot other sea life out there in the bay. From swimming there for years I know a lot of the people out there. Overall, it’s sort of magical.

That’s just one of the reasons I would identify to make art, it sort of rejuvenates you. It doesn’t cost anything to swim in the ocean, and I’m on a reeeeal low budget (Frank breaks into a chuckle as he reiterates) I gotta find things for a low budget. There’s nothing to hurt you out there: no sharks, no jelly fish. Well, there are, but they’re all juvenile and not really going to do anything, these guys are afraid of the sea lions. Seeing as the sea lions are afraid of me, there’s nothing to hurt you out there. The only thing that could hurt you are boaters, but since I swim with my head up I know when the boats are coming.

MOT ~ Through the process of growing into art from a young age have you had various mentors or specific folks that have really helped guide you?

FR ~ When I was 18 and first went to Europe it was with my friend and his father. His great uncle was a very famous artist named Leon Hindenbaumer who went by Leon Hinden. He lived in Paris and was a contemporary of Modigliani (Amedeo Clemente Modigliani an Italian artist known for his work in painting and sculpture) and they knew all the Jewish artists that were living in Paris at that time.

When we got there he was about 89 years old; we lived with them and hung out. He took us to the museums there and was just a poor artist who had been very famous. One thing was, he couldn’t speak very much French, but what he said that stuck with me was that you have to persevere. It wasn’t until years later when I realized in college, reading art history, that his name popped up all the time. I was like “wow, uncle Leo, he’s the man!” No matter what happens you just persevere. He was an influence and I also like to read art history.

MOT ~ Any particular stylistic influences that before you settled into your own brought you closer? Can you describe how you came into your style?

FR ~ Probably the style that really caught me when I was young would be Edward Hopper. That American Realism, and I paint realism: photo-art realism, computer art realism, etc. I liked him because he was sort of loose but distinct and realistic.

MOT ~ Could you touch on your overall philosophy that may not just encompass your work but how you approach life?

FR ~ Like I said before, the most important thing is to have time, not necessarily money. If you have to work all the time then it’s extremely difficult to make art. My whole life I’ve either tried to sell my art or have a day job that I could make some money; as a cook, a packer, did landscaping. I’d always find something that allowed for free time to do my art. As long as that’s arranged and create the art from my passions, as far as working it out to make the art the pieces fall into place for me.

I’ve never had an art block or anything like that, I mean look around, I’ve got more then enough shit piled up to keep me creating. Although I know I’ll never fully get there, just make [art] and not get bitter about when you get all the rejections. Being an artist is worse rejection than being a baseball player.

Being a baseball player you get what, … three out of ten your batting .300, you’re an all-star, okay. An artist you send in your slides… well you don’t generally send in slides anymore, you send your jpeg’s and whatever to try and get into galleries and if you get one out of twenty you’re doing good. The rest of the time your receiving these rejection notices. Everybody who comes and looks at art – say you’re a brain surgeon, nobody’s going to say (Frank alters his voice to a duh) “Eh, you’re not a very good brain surgeon.” But everybody’s got an opinion about art so you need a thick skin and take the good with the bad, just don’t get bitter.

~ TECHNICAL ~

MOT ~ Even though you’re creating for yourself and expressing your passions, do you ever have an audience in mind that comes into play? Like do you consider who might be interested in viewing your work, or how to capture someone’s attention or change their mind about something?

FR ~ On some things, like my installation. It’s called “Walk On The Art,” and what I do is put these hundreds of pieces of art on the ground and make people walk on them. Walking on the art, destroying the art. . . for example I had one focused on species man has killed. The images are of species man has killed and folks are walking on my rendered images destroying them. I do one of my muse and model Doe. I’ve got thousands of pieces of art that range from 8’ x 10’ to 3’ x 5’, framed or images of fantasy’s. So besides walking on art and destroying art you’re walking on naked women and people get all bent out of shape. But, that’s the only time where I’m doing something for an audience. The rest of the time, I’m just doing it with myself in mind.

Sure, of course I know there’s a lot of people that like jazz, so there’s that audience there. I also know there’s a lot of people that like Marilyn, so an obvious audience there. Of course tons of men like the naked lady fantasy, another audience there. If you can see that picture there of Doe, I just finished it. I remember at that photo shoot I had her like that, screaming, and another, where her eyes were up looking very angelic, and I thought to myself “oh, the angelic one looks really nice and people would like it.” Then there’s the crazy one, and the crazy one was better for me, so I painted that one.

MOT ~ How do you go about gathering and building your relationship with your materials? Has what you use evolved over time?

FR ~ Usually when I take a picture, this here is a painting where I took a picture of Doe, then I had some other drawings and pictures from NASA and put them on the computer to work out the composition. From there I printed it, then drew it and painted it. That was the process on this one. Another is, I take the photograph and print it out in a half-tone photo screen, then paint it, and glue it on the wood or gater-board and you can see how it makes it crinkly giving it a textured surface. Some others are pastel images I’ve painted on. (Frank starts to rustle through his various works leaned against his walls to find one illustrating his description) Here you can sort of see some of the graphic art style, there’s one, there’s a sort of surrealistic type and there’s this one and this (imagine you’re sitting in his apartment getting to see different pieces, or flip through this posts accompanying photos again).

I’m always doing this, sort of the end result of the computer art, also the painted photography, and then the paintings with either oils or acrylics or both. I’ve got three main mediums or forms that I’m working in. The other ones are a series in oil pastels. As you can see it’s from the other image (blend of photography and computer graphic manipulation),  but I did it where it’s crinkled. After doing about 30 of these I haven’t really done any more the past couple months. There’s lots of texture involved. Sometimes up to three layers, colored ink, oil pastel, and another oil pastel and I’ll crinkle it and press it out building up a nice texture. That’s that ‘push pull’ shit they’re always talking about. Although the base images may be the same as the photography and computer graphics, these are in the painterly style. They’re all just real personal for me.

Lately, I’ve been making art videos of my art and posting them on the internet. That way you can get people to look at your shit. On one site I get about 40,000 hits a month. Which is pretty good for art, nothing for porno, but for art that’s good. That means every month, I’ve got like 16 of them, folks are checking.

MOT ~ What do you think about the transition from art in the physical realm to the internet? I’ve noticed a general trend to really push the Internet, I mean, that’s what I’m doing here a little with this site. When I see some images on the net it might look great and then in person not so interesting, or vice versa.

FR ~ It’s funny, I’ve got a website and people will visit it and say “Oh, do you ever sell any art over the internet?” No, never. Why does anybody have to buy from there? It’s hard enough trying to sell from the gallery or studio. The Internet is sort of an in-between thing. Here in Los Angeles someone may see my work online and I’ll actually be able to get them over to my studio so they can truly see the art. I guess it’s like anything else, the better you know how to use it, say to make art or get it onto the Internet, make the jpeg image clear, nice, compressed, fast to come up, etc. I like all the Internet stuff, but just as another tool.

MOT ~ The titles on those works posted on your webpage are pretty interesting. I’ve had the question of how does one go about deciding on titles come up recently.

FR ~ Just the titles is what they sort of look like to me. Like I remember this piece where Doe is in these gears being ground up and I thought “Oh, that’s like Los Angeles, it’ll just grind you up.” Okay, ‘LA Will Grind You Up’ became the name of the piece.

MOT ~ Have you tried working around specific goals, say to build styles, techniques or anything really?

FR ~ I was pretty sure that if I put in a lot of time, that say by 30, that things would happen after I’d made all this art. That would lead to me being this blue chip artist by 60. Well, ya know, I ain’t the blue chip artist and I’m sixty now, still struggling, . . . well no, can’t use the word struggling, still poor. It’s like that’s the way it is. The one goal was to just be able to make art, and if I couldn’t make art, that’d be just horrible! Everything is about making art, if that means I’m poor but then I have time to make art, so be it.

MOT ~ In the process of you making art, how do you know when a piece is complete?

FR ~ Historically that is a problem with a lot of artists. For me it’s pretty straight forward since I’m doing realism. I sort of know when it’s done and probably like only one out of 20 pieces I do, those few I can still look at and say “that’s a great piece.” One piece here, I’d been looking at it and looking at it and somebody came over trying to buy some art, had looked at that one and mentioned they could see all the brushstrokes in the background and wouldn’t want it because they’d only see the brushstrokes. I thought I’d finished this one like two years ago, but after that person had left began to notice just how distracting those brushstrokes were. Right before you came up I was repainting the background. That’s usually not how it happens. Normally I’ll finish a piece and then go on to another. That creates the problem of having so much art. I have a storage unit, 6 ft by 12 ft and it’s just packed with art that I never even show anymore; I’m not really into destroying it. I know lots of artists that destroy their art, I figure I’ll just leave it.

MOT ~ I’ve been playing with the idea that some things don’t really have to be done. Plants keep growing, everything around us is constantly changing. It’s the realm of commercial or capitalistic interests that requires an image, article or whatever to be at that ‘done’ stage

FR ~ I guess it’s the artist’s personality that determines when a piece is finished or not. I think it was Rothko whose pieces were never really finished. He’d sell something and still keep it for a while.

MOT ~ As a final note, I like to ask if you have any glaring questions of your own for those that intrigue you, given you had the chance to ask?

FR ~ I read a lot of art history and think it would be nice to be around during certain times. Like to have been able to visit the Cedar Bar in the late 50’s and seeing DeKooning and Pollack hanging out together and shoot the breeze with them, or Lipan ne Gough where Picasso used to hang out in Paris. Maybe go to the dome with the impressionists and drink some absinthe. Maybe not question them about what they are and what they aren’t, but just hang out with them, listen to them talk about art. That’d be okay. The reverse thing would be somewhere a hundred years from now, like go to New York 2120 and listen to them talk. I think the bottom line is we’d all be together in the personhood of artists. Those with the desire to make, to get enough money they can make, how you handled the fame, how you handled the despair, and how you handled your personal life. I think we’d all be, say between 1800 to 21 / 22, it’d all be about the same. I imagine the stuff in the future. . . it’ll be cool.

MOT ~ I’d like to think that art and creativity resides within us all. Humanity didn’t start out driving to the superstore to buy things, and it’s unlikely art sat around contemplating what it is to be creative. Human kind followed the general guidelines of nature, survive, no matter where you are or what the conditions. Not an unheard of story, Frank Rozasy has managed to do the same, surviving to create art. Check out his website www.rozasy.com

Determined To Nature

Portrait Of A Tree

Have you ever aspired to be a “professional” artist only to find an aspect of that path too unacceptable? Maybe the thought of compromising your ideals to get paid for being ‘creative’ extracts the marrow from your soul.

Sitting down at Douglas Greer’s kitchen table at his home just outside the San Jose area, MOT heard the story of an unexpected rescue from the misguided idea of a ‘normal’ life. Childhood dreams of becoming an artist, postponed to avoid the loss of creative freedom for financial gain, found their way back again. Smoked gouda on Triscuits and Austrailian shiraz never tasted so good.

~ BACKGROUND ~

Moments Of Truth ~ If you would, please describe your main creative endeavors?

Douglas Greer ~ Well, it’s watercolors, in one word.

MOT ~ Has this changed or evolved over time?

DG ~ Yes, actually when I first started when I was pretty young, I tended to work more in other mediums. Say, for example, in college I worked more in oils. But then, when I quit to become a regular person and raise a family, I didn’t paint at all. I didn’t start painting again until I went to Ireland in 1989. The medium that I happened to pick up at that time was watercolors, and have since stuck with it.

Within the watercolor department, there is sort of an evolution. You may start off, not knowing exactly what you’re doing and then begin to evolve in a number of ways. One is subject matter; what do you paint? There’s standard things like still life and landscapes or portraits, something like that. What you do is work through a range of options until you settle on what eventually becomes what you’re most excited about painting. That’s the way it works, of course it seems logical that you’d want to use the subject matter you find interesting. Maybe portraits or still life’s aren’t your thing, so you don’t do those. That’s a key as well as your palette.

I happened to take a class while I was over in Ireland, the teacher – a noted watercolorist in Ireland – limited his palette to three colors: red, blue, yellow. There’s your basic primary colors, and he’d mix everything with those. I tried that for a while but eventually settled with six colors. Now I use six. The reason being is that for me, the three are not quite adequate to capture the full range. For example, on reds there’s a distinct difference between sort of an orangish-red and rose-red. In blues, there’s a cobalt blue but also the thalo-blue or even warmer the aquamarine blue. So it becomes difficult to distinguish the aquamarine in the sky and then again just a cobalt blue doesn’t give the complete sense of water. In each of the three primary colors, what evolved was essentially two reds, two blues and two yellows. From there I’ve been able to do anything. It is still a limited palette, but not quite. I don’t think you can get as genuine an orange red out of a rose red and vice versa, or out of just a standard yellow.

So yea, the answer is yes, you evolve in these various ways.

MOT ~ How long had it been that you quit painting or expressing yourself in creative ways before you got back into it? And what was it that triggered the return?

DG ~ It was just pure happenstance. My wife wanted to take a class in folk dancing. . . let me back up a bit. I was teaching in Ireland at the time under the Fulbright; we were over in Galway which is over on the west coast of Ireland. The local high-school had these adult classes and my wife wasn’t driving the car. It was built for the opposite side of the road, six gears and so on, so she really didn’t want to deal with driving. She wanted me to drive her to this class, which was about a good hour’s drive away. I didn’t see driving there, then back, then there again to get her back home again. So I thought to take a look at the catalog and see if there was something during that same time that I might like to take. Then there’d be no need to do the double trip.

So, I was looking at the catalog and thought, “well, Kelly dancing is really not me.”(we both break into a solid chuckle imagining this guy doing some traditional Irish dancing) I said “Hey, there’s a water color class. I used to paint all the time.” At one time I even thought of becoming an artist. So I decided to take that, just pure luck, happenstance. You never really know about these things. (The sound in his voice stills echoes a kind of amazement about that)

MOT ~ What do you think it is about painting, and painting in watercolors that has held your attention?

DG ~ It’s hard for me to explain. Acrylics are…. Sort of plastic. Oil is nice, but it tends to take a long time to dry. Watercolors are a real challenge, they’re tricky and not very forgiving. So in a way they tend to be very easy but fun. The effects one can get for what one wants are nice. Also, to me it’s the light that comes through the paper. What happens in watercolors is that it’s basically transparent. Of course you could go with gauche, which is more opaque. With transparent watercolors you use the paper to light up the whole piece. It’s like a luminescent. It provides you with lighting effects in the painting that I don’t believe you can achieve otherwise. For example water, I like to do paintings with water. Light is critical to interesting watercolors regardless of the subject you’re trying to paint. It may take a little while to get used to the light is not white paint but the paper.

Think of the sun out there in space, it’s absolutely cold, frigid, but then once the light hits something, like your own face or the planet and comes through the window of your home and just heats every thing up. It’s just amazing. So light provides life to a painting as well as to life on earth. It’s the light in the paper that really kind of fascinates me and I enjoy the challenge of working with it.

MOT ~ Where did you grow up, and did that community influence your interests do you think?

DG ~ I grew up in Portland, Oregon, in a section called Mount Tabor. Leaving the house out the back door, through the back gate I’d step right into Mt Tabor. A place where there were trees, fields, and reservoirs. A lot of water supplied for the city of Portland was stored there. I used to pick blackberries up there, chase pheasants, watch lots of wildlife. Yeah, that affected me. I became very accustomed to being in the woods, to being outdoors.

I don’t know if you’re familiar with “Uncle Remis” but in “Uncle Remis” Tales, like ‘Brair Rabbit’ and all that, there’s this thing about a laughing place. I think it’s important for everyone to have their laughing place. A ‘laughing place’ is somewhere that a person feels comfortable, where they can laugh and have a good time and mine happens to be outdoors.

Certain scenes in nature, maybe a single plant, tree or single animal, that I’d paint! It’s not necessarily landscapes, it’s something that really catches my eye, and what I try to do is to convey that to someone looking at the picture. I’m not trying to replicate the scene, just trying to point it out. Hopefully they’ll say “I’m going to watch for that,” or be more open to that when out in nature. I’m not trying to paint the moon, but to point it out and say “hey, take a look at the moon!” Part of the process is one that ends up shunning human influence or human participation. Generally I don’t like to do people or buildings. It would pretty much ruin it for me if the moon had a big ‘Coca-cola’ sign on it. So what I attempt to do when I’m pointing something out is to take it as it comes and not try to improve it with some human element. But a lot of people like ‘Coca-cola’ signs or houses, so they do that.

MOT ~ Do you think over the course of learning watercolors or overall, have you had any mentors, guides be them directly or indirectly?

DG ~ Oh yeah, there’s some great watercolorists. Hopper (Edward Hopper first became known for his etchings and later in his life, 1923, moved into the medium of watercolors) you’d say is one and some watercolors from Andrew Wyeth and the result is that you’re influenced by these masters of the medium. There’s no avoiding that. After awhile, of course, you start to develop your own thing and not paint what someone else has painted.

MOT ~ Did you notice this as a gradual change or did it hit like “puck” and happen fast? Or did it require very focused conscious efforts to develop your own style?

DG ~ I’d say it’s more a gradual thing. Some people may do it in a deliberate fashion and quickly. For me it was gradual. For a while you’re just groping around; like we were talking a moment ago about evolution.

Starting out, you don’t necessarily know what excites you. When you are taking a class or workshops, you’re often doing something somebody else has told you to do. So you’re not really picking out your own subject. They’ll say, “okay, go cut out a picture from a magazine” or they’ll set up a still life for you. Then at the end of the session they’ll critique everyone’s work or something like that. In these instances, you’re trying to do what the instructor is telling you to do.

That’s okay up to a point, but once you’ve gotten that feeling for mixing your colors and practice drawing the end result is that you develop somewhat of your own style unconsciously. If you do it on a conscious level, you’re affected more heavily by previous influences or noted people. “I was really impressed by so and so and I’ll be doing more of this.”

~ INSPIRATION ~

MOT ~ What is it that might inspire you to create these images, to put time and energy into the effort of painting in watercolors? It sounds like it could be something intrinsic you’d like to share images of nature that really strike you with others to some extent?

DG ~ You have an idea in mind, sometimes you manage to achieve that and sometimes you don’t. Even sometimes you do and it turns out to be a bad result. There’s lots of bad paintings. Georgia O’keefe had a lot of bad paintings, and the ones that are familiar to everybody are paintings that are good. Some painters would actually destroy what they thought were their bad paintings. As I recall, De Kooning was that way, he’d burn the paintings he didn’t like. So you just have to keep painting and in some ways you have to go through the bad ones in order to reach those good ones, so you don’t get too disappointed.

Every once in a while, it turns out that you say “wow, I got that feeling that I wanted, what I felt when I saw that scene.” That’s what really keeps you going, that’s the way I look at it any way. I’m not really trying to please anybody but myself.

MOT ~ Does an audience work into this at all for you?

DG ~ That’s kind of like what. . . well, to direct them in the same sense I would to see the scene. The word ‘epiphany’ is a good one to describe the moment. You work at painting in a certain way to get the person to see what you’re seeing, but it’s not necessarily that you’re trying to please that person. Like doing a vase of flowers because you know somebody’d like to see that. It’s more of what gave me a charge or buzz. If someone sees that in the painting, great, or maybe they don’t. I’m not trying to get anybody to buy it or anything like that, so it just depends. The main goal you strive for is really the feeling, and get the person who is viewing the painting to get that same feeling about it when they see what ever it may be out there in nature. Or you get them to open up and start noticing more scenes out in nature.

Like just looking at a tree. A lot of people don’t really appreciate what a tree looks like; the shape of the tree, how the tree behaves in the wind or the color of the tree. Trees are generally all green, but there are lots of different greens: grey green, yellow green and so on. Just trying to get a person to look for these kinds of things. Not too many people just paint ‘A’ tree.

MOT ~ Do you ever feel like those creative energies, while in flux, may be high or low and how do you deal with that? Do you have some way to recharge?

DG ~ It’s a combination. One thing you have to do is to be out in nature if your going to be painting nature. You have to be out there, and open to seeing scenes that have great potential in terms of the painting. The recharging is a lot of just being out in nature and seeing scenes. You’ll see a scene and just get recharged, saying “wow, that’s a trippy scene,” but it won’t necessarily be something you really want to paint. In other cases, it may be something you’d like to paint and it may or may not work, just being out there and seeing things you really can’t imagine seeing.

For example, we were in Alaska on this small boat with about twelve people. Frederick Sound is the specific area, a place where the humpback whales hang out a lot. We were just drifting for several hours in the middle of Fredrick Sound. The sun was going down and reached an angle that the light would strike the spouts of the whales in a way that created rainbows. Imagine, surrounded by whales, and there’s flashes of rainbows over them every few minutes. The water is calm, you see these explosions of rainbows over these whales. Just seeing the whales alone is a real thrill. Seeing a rainbow is generally a thrill. How often do you put them together? Well, you don’t put them together unless you’re out in the middle of Frederick Sound, surrounded by dozens of giant humpback whales while sitting in a little boat just at the right moment to have the sun hit that certain angle to create rainbows over these whales. It’s really quite amazing.

So you can take that, get charged and just enjoy that shock that says “man, that’s really amazing!” From there, you try to put that into a painting. Watercolors are easier for making rainbows then say oils or acrylics, but it may or may not be successful. I’ve done a painting of that, but I don’t know that it’s fully successful so I’ll probably come back to it.

Now if you can do a painting and capture that feeling that you had, yea, that would be terrific and give a buzz so as to recharge me too. Even if you don’t succeed, it’s been a terrific experience!

MOT ~ Do you imagine yourself having specific creative goals? Or say, challenge yourself in a way to keep expanding your abilities? Or maybe you could talk about goals you’ve set in the past that you’ve managed to achieve?

DG ~ Well, the goals, it’s kind of like with technique. You work at becoming good with your technique but also capture something special. For me, it’s finding something unique in the scene, or the plant, or the animal. It could be the way the light hits the eye of a bird. Birds have big lenses, it’s amazing, and sometimes the light of the sun can go through the lens and strike the bird somewhere on the beak or cheek creating an amazing effect.

You might see a duck, and the ducks feet are big because of their webs. It could be that one foot is on top of the other a bit pigeon toed with a silly looking expression on their face. It might be the whales with the rainbows. So essentially I’m looking for something that is kind of unique, striking, and capturing that “wow” sense I was talking about earlier.

It also makes the viewer work a little bit. I definitely enjoy scenes that tie in naturally. Like if you see a dead tree, and all these branches poking out all over the place, then a trumpet vine growing up covering the trunk of the tree. You don’t even see the trunk of the tree, just all these branches shooting out. In the center of all this is the trumpet vine with bright colors and beautiful flowers. One time I saw that and ‘click, ‘you can see that the trumpet vine is trumpeting!

As I go through my painting life, what I aspire to is capturing very unique and unusual situations that the viewer, with some work on their part, can see. They almost say, “this is a painting by Greer and there’s got to be something about this somewhat unique or a story being told.”

MOT ~ Have you had moments where you found those images that really struck you, but your skill level may not have been ready to recreate that feeling you had? If so, how did you deal with that? Is there some strategy to come back to it later?

DG ~ Yes, and what you do is try to repeat it over and over until you get it. And if you never seem to get it, well you tried at least. I mean look at Monet. Several of his works were repeated scenes over and over again: different light, different color effects and so on. There’s nothing wrong with, as I said a moment ago, most of the paintings I do, and most folks for that matter, aren’t all that great. We tend to know artists by one or two things. A really great artist by more then one or two, but most isn’t really all that notable. So you just keep trying.

Success is measured by how high you bounce after you hit bottom. I can’t remember who said that, but it’s a good saying.

~ TECHNICAL ~

MOT ~ Would you mind trying to give an overall break down of your process from beginning to end?

DG ~ Of course you start with and idea and then start to work on the composition. What’s going to be big or small, the position of the objects on the paper. I’m a believer in focal points. In abstraction there’s really very little depth or maybe even no depth at all. There may be little in the way of a focal point and just a whole lot of stuff going on.

Also, you want to get different values from dark to white and the sketch helps to do some preliminary development. Eventually you get to actually doing the graphite sketch on the paper. In watercolor, things can be so unruly I tend to stick to familiar materials and papers. You get in to a bit of a routine. It’s not always the same. Sometimes you may skip the value sketch and go straight to the painting, while others you may get into the washes and the backgrounds. In general, I think everybody tends to follow certain routines to get the results they want.

MOT ~ What is it that tells you when something’s done? Do you get that “wow” impact from the work that just lets you know?

DG ~ It’s hard to say. Sometimes you wish there was somebody behind you looking over your shoulder and holding a gun and they’d say “okay, it’s done!”and then shoot ya. “Whew, okay, it’s over.”

What I’ve done a lot lately is I’ll do a painting, just leave it on the board and just set it to the side and look at it. And sometimes I’ll put it away and bring it out again. I think it helps to really study a painting. One of the things De Kooning used to do was to sit for hours and look at what he was doing. He had some special chairs for this, and I say chairs because he’d often have his girlfriend of the moment with him too. A lot of the time he’d just be sitting there studying his painting. You might just even look at it and say you want to do something, and then look again in the next day or two and say “well no, I don’t want to do that after all.” And after looking at it for long enough, you arrive at that point and say “it’s done.”

Quite often what will happen is during that time of studying the work, you’ll notice things you do want to do because things are missing. For me, it really helps to take that time to study it intensely and confirm if it captures that feeling getting the message across. Once you get the message across, it’s done. But it is a very tricky business. That’s the hardest thing in a sense, to know when you’re done, because you could go on forever. In fact, it’s interesting that some artists like Arshaw Gorky, he painted in oil. He would paint and paint and paint and it would get three inches, four inches, five inches deep away from the canvas paint on top of paint. He’d work at it and work at it with the painting becoming extremely heavy. Maybe it’d weigh fifty pounds because of the paint. He sort of never knew when to finish except when it got too heavy, I guess, that he couldn’t lift it. Of course you can’t do that with watercolor though.

One technique that creates a nice effect, is when you do multiple applications of the same color on the paper. You put it on and let it dry and build up layers with still the white coming through in terms of the light, but you get a much richer effect by that. A lot of people starting out in watercolors, they don’t really know that. Some parts that you’re working on you do need multiple layers, which for many people can make painting in this medium boring. Multiple may mean for some, 10 or more applications of color to get the effect they want. You can get some amazing improvements by patience, which is another thing about watercolors.

MOT ~ I have a question that I’m experimenting with and it’s in regards to how much creative freedom a person has. Not necessarily in a conscious specific way, but maybe more of an inherent inborn way. Are you free to direct yourself, or possibly driven by external forces?

DG ~ Creative freedom is an idea that I have thought about. Since I have had a career in another field which has paid well and so on, I don’t have to realize any commercial gain whatsoever. For many people, I think they do try to appeal to the public. One of the things, while I was in college and was thinking about becoming an artist professionally, that really bothered me was in order to be an artist as a profession you had to actually sell something. This means that you’d need to paint something that would appeal to the public, follow the fad of the day or you’d have to in some way paint in the shadow of what would appeal to people. So you do things like “oh, if I put some big eyes on this child it’ll help sell it.” Or if I paint a little cottage with warm colors in the window, the little path leading up to it and that perfect sunset in the background it’s going to sell. That didn’t appeal to me. So I said “what I’ll do is just forget it and have a regular life, you know and not become an artist.” And that’s what I did.

Many many years later, after thirty years of not painting at all, although I must say during all that time I would look at paintings and say “gee, I wish I could paint like that.” It was always something in the back of my mind that, maybe, I would get back into painting. Now, that I’ve picked it back up again and been doing it for a number of years, I find I’m really free to do what ever I want. I have no thought of pleasing anybody about the painting. Yeah, it’s great to have artistic freedom. I think it’s really fun and I don’t like the thought of having to paint little kids with big eyes just to sell it.

MOT ~ Most of what we consider those classic painters, those “masters” of the various mediums of sculpture, painting and all that never really sold there work during their lifetime. At least not for the sums that they sold for these days. I mean, isn’t that where the idea of the starving artist has arisen?

DG ~ Well, they had ‘patrons,’ but in a sense, although they didn’t necessarily sell their paintings they did need to please their patron. You’re probably referring to people like Van Gogh and he really didn’t sell much of his work for. . . the great painters of the past often didn’t sell their paintings, but even the ones that did, didn’t have that in mind as much as trying to get the effects they wanted. They, in a sense, painted for themselves. I guess it’s like the expression “to thyne own self be true.” For an artist, I think that’s really important. When you’re not, the result is not something that’s really good, whether people buy it or not. No one ever went broke underestimating the tastes of the ‘American’ public.

MOT ~ If you had the opportunity to sit down with any author, philosopher, creative person for a conversation or an interview like this, do you have any questions you’d look to ask?

DG ~ (long pause. . .) It would kind of be interesting to talk to them, much like you’re talking with me. And yet, on the other hand, I think a lot of the really great ones didn’t think so much about what they were doing, they just did it. It just came natural to them, which is what made them good. It’s like for a person it’s natural eat a meal, but people who were great writers started writing, and they wrote and wrote and wrote some more. Musicians, they’d start playing and just did music and enjoyed it. If it comes natural to you, and you enjoy it, that’s the whole story. I don’t think there’s any real key to it. I don’t think you can tell somebody to do this and this and this and they’d become a really great artist. Or to hear that all they did was this and this and than became a great artist. Like cooking a meal that way. Just following a recipe doesn’t quite work that way, it works more organically. Circumstances, influence, genes, all kinds of things play a part. It’s often something they can’t explain themselves, but it’s fun to talk to artists and see what they might have to say. There’s a lot of truth in what’s been said. Like just do it every day.

Artists who are good develop certain work habits, and you often hear about those. Like I always found interesting Hemingway used to write dialog standing up at a typewriter. Then he’d write descriptive scenes sitting down in long hand. He would physically put himself in a situation where he’s attuned to the nature of what’s going on. Dialog is very broken and interrupted, and he got the feeling of that standing up at the typewriter. Now you could do the same thing, and not come anywhere close to Hemingway. It’s interesting. Every artist develops those little techniques, and they are fun to hear about. But I think 90% of what comes out of an artist is just natural to them, just following their nature.

When I was younger, I used to think there was some kind of formula one could follow to become a great writer, musician or artist. As I’ve grown older I don’t think that’s really true. The geniuses and the really great ones, it just kind of came natural. In most cases though, they did receive encouragement and lucky breaks. They may get a mentor or something. They’ll starve to do it giving no thought to their health and well being. That’s really quite remarkable.

MOT ~ I have this idea that there’s a creative element in everybody, it’s just that they may not have found how to tap into it. They may never. It could be because family background, or just lack of encouragement, or not found that creative release they could actually develop something in.

DG ~ There’s truth to that. Even with cooking or gardening, decorating your house, it’s all ways of creativity. It’s all great, it’s living.

I was reading once how you have kids in situations that you’d think are totally hopeless: poverty, father ran off when they were four, their mothers sick a lot, the kids friends are gang members or hoodlums of some sort. Then the kid turns out fine. Well, how does that work? They’ve found that there are certain consistencies that cause a kid to turn out good as opposed to bad. One of them is that there is something they do where people say “Oh, you really do that well.” Then they continue to do that gaining a little bit of self esteem, not necessarily universal self esteem. They realize that they can do something well helping them getting past and avoid all the pitfalls that are waiting there in life for them to turn out bad. Of course they also say a mentor, an adult who takes an interest in the kid, has major sway.

I think it’s very important, and it’s sad to see music programs, art programs and other kinds of activities like that be trashed in school because it’s thought to be irrelevant or unimportant in comparison to math or history or science. But yea, you can be creative brewing beer. . . or making wine, all sorts of things.

Yeah, I think everybody has it, and it’s good to encourage it. To me it’s really sad to see people spend their life in front of a TV. That is not creative, switching channels, no creativity there. They’re just killing time, “I’ve only got so much time here, what am I gonna do to get through this? I guess I’ll just have to watch television.” That’s really stupid, we’re not here to ‘kill time.’ But a lot of people behave as if that’s the case.

Bridging Dichotomies

~ INTRO ~

A friend of a friend led to the interview opportunity with mixed media creative Taiko Fujimura. The following quote lays out what she works to express in her creations. “The concepts she explores include quietude, peacefulness, harmony, unity, and universality. Her work is strongly influenced by Japanese wabi-sabi, an aesthetic system she strongly believes to be “beautiful” art and Japanese calligraphy, which she has studied since age six.” Hmm, I just noticed, that like my previous interview, Taiko started studying Japanese calligraphy at the age of six. Maybe that’s the age when young Japanese women traditionally begin to learn this. Could the inclusion of the study of this medium in Japanese culture spark a sense of creative expression? I caught up with her at a group show at the Market Street Gallery during San Francisco’s city-wide month of open studios.

BACKGROUND

Moments Of Truth ~ Hello Taiko Fujimura, thank you for taking this time during your open gallery to sit down and tell us about yourself, creative process, and work. Could you please describe the medium you work in?

Taiko Fujimura ~ I use acrylic in my painting works. My passion though is sculpture. Unfortunately, because of space constraints I paint to be able to store the works easily. I do enjoy painting as it allows me a certain freedom to do a lot. If it’s a 3D image [sculpture] I need to think about spatial elements, math involved. Just a lot of thinking and preparing involved.

One sculpture project I really enjoyed entitled “Ikebana” I like conceptual art. Sculpture is a medium that realizes my conceptual way of thinking. (An excerpt of her description describes “This series is an experimental abstract three-dimensional form that asks the audience to define their personal aesthetic sensibilities. Similar to how the placement of each flower in a vase may evoke distinct aesthetic reactions about the entire arrangement, the abstract depictions of objects in these pieces are constructed using discrete mathematical and technical principles.” Some images of this project can be viewed here: Series_Ikebana

MOT ~ So given the opportunity, without space constraints, would you focus your energy on dealing with conceptual ideas in the 3D realm of sculpture?

TF ~ I think soooo (she sounds possibly skeptical to make a statement in that regards).

MOT ~ Where did you grow up?

TF ~ I’m from northern Japan. It’s a smaller community. Maybe that’s what struck me. I imagined seeing the world, and so I traveled around when I was younger.

MOT ~ Are you parents or any other close family members artists as well?

TF ~ My uncle is and mother as well. My mother is a dancer but she didn’t teach me though, because my father didn’t want me to dance in front of people. So they told me to learn calligraphy instead. Essentially they wanted me to sit down quietly, and be a ‘nice girl.’ (she breaks out into laughter at the thought of the ‘nice girl.’) That’s what I worked in for a long time.

After I left Japan I felt this freedom that I don’t need to be a ‘good girl’ so much. That I could do whatever I want. And so I did start to get into performance, singing. I used to be a singer. It was fun. Eventually it’s grown into my focus on painting, but I’m always working in some creative medium to express myself.

MOT ~ Through these various mediums, and more specifically what you’ve been working on more recently, have you had any mentors? (As I’m trying to ask the question, city life strikes as sirens blare by just outside on Market Street causing a little distraction and possibly shook to the system.)

TF ~ Yes, especially within the calligraphy. I would exchange what I could for them to teach me. Like maybe some accounting or house cleaning, whatever. I learned a lot from them. I’ve also taken classes at the Asian Art Museum working with Chinese brushes and techniques. They instructed how to harness and use your energy and that around you. I’ve always been interested in Chinese philosophy and wanted to understand it better.

INSPIRATION

MOT ~ So what is it that inspires you to work in these expressive mediums, be it sculpture, singing, dance, performance, painting? Can you explain those elements inside you that are driving you to do this?

TF ~ Hmmm, really everything inspires. Every day I have different ideas of creating things. Maybe I get confused or distracted easily by all these ideas that jump into my head. I try to choose the best one, but it’s hard. You know, when you walk around and see a car or trees and it sparks something in me.

MOT ~ How do you filter that? What allows you to make the decision what to work on?

TF ~ Usually I create a few things at the same time. As I work on them I’ll do some comparisons that will help me decide which one(s) are more successful or represent my idea best. Also I try not to do work similar to the current trends, especially American ones. I try to differentiate myself. But still I create different kinds of art and refine my style.

MOT ~ Can you elaborate on this difference you see that exists between this ‘American Style’ and the style you’re trying to refine? What’s different about it?

TF ~ (She takes a long breath and pause to figure out a way to put it into words) Umm, well I guess I work at trying to create something that I don’t believe I’ve seen here in the states. Maybe to describe what I mean it would be a mixture of European and Japanese ideas. That would be a little bit of philosophy, imagery, history, blended together.

MOT ~ Do you have any particular influences aside from nature and just walking around seeing things that encourage you or drive you to create? Are there any artists, for example, that may have struck you at a young age?

TF ~ Marcel Duchamp is one, a French artist into cubism, futurism and Dadaism. One of those people working in that realm of ready made art, of ‘Urinary’ fame.

(According to Wikipedia Henri Robert Marcel Duchamp is often associated with Dada and surrealist art movements. His influence on post WWII art and art collecting by the works he created to shake up peoples thoughts on artistic processes and art marketing)

”The creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act.” (Marcel Duchamp)

I think he created these particularly shocking works in his 50’s or 60’s before I was even born. These ideas were so avant-garde at that time. What I admire is that he tried to work in different styles and challenge the ideas of the time. People criticize him, say what he did was kind of stupid and blah blah blah, but he still kept doing what he thought he needed to do. I respect that.

One issue that I think exists for many living artists is to create art for arts sake.

TECHNICAL

MOT ~ Do you have set creative goals that you have achieved and or are still working to achieve? Could you please describe them?

TF ~ So, I’m sort of everywhere it seems. My main goal is to continue to refine my style. A more concrete goal for this year and the following is to get my work out and have more shows in the states and in Japan.

MOT ~ Can you be more specific about what you are doing to develop that singular style?

TF ~ Well, I think I need to open my eyes and look around more. I see my attraction to so many things as a problem. I like everything, different kinds of arts. Slowly I’m narrowing my focus, as I’ve now restricted myself to visual arts and not the dancing, singing, performance stuff.

(As I’m transcribing this interview, I’m remembering that we were interrupted by someone arriving to film an interview with another one of the artists sharing the open studio at the gallery. Suddenly Taiko and I are almost whispering our questions and answers to each other as the others converse in the front area. We are now actually sitting in a corner where several pieces of her work are situated and it’s almost as if these paintings are whispering at us too.)

Returning to the idea of sculpture, I really enjoy working with these ideas of physics, because it has to stand up and withstand various elements. Connecting the different materials together also provides other interesting challenges. Painting seems a little more simple with the bushes, canvas, paints. Not so many physical tools involved as in sculpture and I find that easier to a certain extent.

What I’d really like to say, my general idea or philosophy is that two opposites co-exist in our space. This can be seen in certain simple dichotomies like female to male, bad to good, light to dark, you know, that kind of stuff. With my work, I seek to find a way that realizes the coexistence of this dualism. At the same time, I want the viewer to feel happy and harmonized. Females cannot totally understand males, people can’t totally understand each other, it’s just so hard to realize that understanding. For example bad people, totally bad people cannot understand good people in the same way. (giggling a little as she say’s) I might be wrong… but I see these two extremes and try to find the middle ground. That’s part of why I choose to use extreme colors in my works. Like black and red, or white and black and use that composition and palette to illustrate this idea.

Before this I was thinking more in terms of an eastern versus western and trying to bridge that gap to create better understanding.

MOT ~ It sounds like you imagine a very broad global audience that you’re trying to bring together?

TF ~ Yes, I’d agree with that.

MOT ~ Have dreams ever come up in your work? Or how do you view dreams and do they play any role in your work or your past, say childhood?

TF ~ Yes, I have very vivid dreams that I try to sketch. Usually I’ll remember them for a long time after having them and they tend to be colorful.

MOT ~ Could you break down in step by step terms your process from idea inception to final work?

TF ~ It changes at times. One day I may look at my old pictures and photos and see something that catches me enough to start painting. I generally wont complete it, but go on to something else to come back to it at a later time. If I find some recycling materials, something that I think is so pretty that it shouldn’t be thrown away I’ll preserve it to use on something in the future. I don’t like waste. I can work quickly too, especially if I have a deadline. Deadlines can prove helpful for me, which is one reason I try to schedule shows. They force me to get to work. Otherwise I just might take forever.

MOT ~ So you mentioned that you tend to spend a lot of time on a piece, and employ deadlines to help you get something done. Say if you remove that, how do you know when a piece is complete?

TF ~ Yea, it’s a difficult part. Especially when it’s painting. Maybe it’s a subconscious decision for me. If I want to do a realistic piece, I’ll be conscious. For more abstract works, I think it’s acceptable to be unconscious about it.

MOT ~ Say you had the opportunity to meet some creative person, someone you admire, or say Duchamp or somebody, do you have any glaring questions you’d like to ask?

TF ~ Sure, I often go to shows, art receptions, try to find the artist and ask questions to learn more about them. Say like “which to you consider your best piece, and why?” Just general questions I guess, to try and understand them as a person and how they may be reflected in their work.

Taiko has a lot going on. Pay a visit to her site for more photos of her work and upcoming events. taikofujimura.com

Also check out other upcoming shows at Market Street Gallery

Cultivation Of A Polished Rune

Aoi & Her Work

~ INTRO ~

After calling Aoi and three text messages later we’d decided to meet up at the Lake Merritt area of Oakland because it’s a fairly easy landmark to locate. Originally built in 1953, the lake is described as “a focal point, it stands as the jewel of Oakland, even crowned with lights” by oaklandnet.com. Sun setting behind the lake provided a spectacular backdrop to capture some photos of Aoi’s calligraphy work. Tons of people were jogging by and we even had to ask a couple people for help to hold some of her larger work.

Following the ‘photo shoot,’ we headed towards a nearby area to escape the encroaching dark cold air. At first thought the local Starbucks appeared a solid location to conduct an interview. Closer inspection revealed it rank with chatter. Across the street, Colonial Donuts proved a more hospitable interview environment. After ogling the pastry selections we both settled on apple turnovers, with she an Earl Grey tea and I a ‘Milk Chug’ to wash it down. We sat down in the middle of the shop snacking on the goodies while discussing what calligraphy entails for her.

~ BACKGROUND ~

Moments Of Truth ~ Today is Thursday, October 18TH, 2007 and I’m here with Aoi Yamaguchi. Please describe your main mode or medium of creative expression.

Aoi Yamaguchi ~ Primarily, I do Japanese calligraphy. I’ve been doing this since I was six years old.

MOT ~ Are there specific differences for Japanese calligraphy in comparison to say Chinese or Western forms?

AY ~ The Japanese form is really unique, based on traditional culture. I use special brushes and papers. Like if I was just to draw the alphabet, it’s very simple lines, while there’s a lot of curves and three different styles of characters [in Japan], hiragana, katakana and kanji. Kanji is the most complicated one and consists of [a] bunch of strokes. It’s really hard to write, but that’s what really makes me want to do it and learn it because it’s hard. If it’s easy, I can be more creative, it takes time to learn it but we need patience to develop the skill.

Any of the three characters can be used, but we don’t use katakana that much. It’s more for foreign words, like English, to describe the sounds. The kanji has the meaning itself. Each character has it’s own meaning, different from the English alphabet, A, O, Y don’t really mean anything on their own. The kanji character itself has different kinds of meaning depending on how we combine them with others. I think it’s really interesting.

MOT ~ Are there any other mediums that you also like to work in?

AY ~ Music, yea, I spent ten years learning piano and I love singing. I took jazz singing course before. Even when I was little I loved singing, was in choir. Also the music industry interested me, so I learned how to make beats, how to set up the microphone, pressing CD’s from the recording studio, using the console and stuff.

MOT ~ If you had that ideal life where you could focus entirely on whatever you wanted what do you think that would be?

AY ~ I think I would do calligraphy, but if I can play some music that I made, that is if I could write calligraphy while listening to music that I made would be great.

MOT ~ Where exactly did you grow up?

AY ~ In Sapporo. My fathers job as a teacher had us move around to so many places, only in the northern island, Hokkaido. I went to so many different places, but mostly grew up in the suburbs, like a little town. There was lots of beautiful nature like trees, flowers, the sky’s so beautiful, great mountains. So I was in touch with nature when I was little. That’s maybe why I got more creative about how we see nature. Then I moved to Sapporo, the largest city on Hokkaido when I was fourteen. Since then, I’ve lived in the city and learned different stuff. I experienced two different worlds.

MOT ~ So your father is a teacher, did your mother do any art, or anyone else in your family?

AY ~ My mom would draw a little bit. My father is more creative with words. He was a Japanese literature teacher, kind of a writer of books and poems. He is like a philosopher, loves to think, wonder about things, and bunches of books to read. Also, he was very interested in psychology too. I was kind of a difficult kid when I was little (laughs at the thought of it), I didn’t like to fit into society. How do I say…. I didn’t like the strict rules I wanted to be free all the time, like a little bird, flying around everywhere. Needless to say my parents had a hard time with me. This may be part of my interest in philosophy, psychology, those abstract areas, same as with art.

MOT ~ Have you had mentors, teachers, especially in calligraphy that have helped guide you?

AY ~ When I started my mom took me to one of those places to learn calligraphy and he was an old master. His wife and he were both teachers, it was like private lessons with other students like me; starting out in elementary school to high school as well as adult level too. There’s a bunch of different levels, so for like a year span, every year – I was pretty good at it I guess – I’d get to the top. The next year we would start from scratch and I would get prizes and trophies; this encouraged me.

When I started, I lived in that town only two years. Generally my mom would drive me, maybe one or two hours back to the town after school, once a week. When we finally moved too far away to drive, I would write calligraphy at home and send it to the teacher so he could do the corrections with red ink. He would write where I needed it to be thicker or stronger, send it back, and I’d fix it.

MOT ~ So you did have to do it on your own for awhile?

AY ~ Well, yes and no. My mom does calligraphy too and she would teach me things as well.

~ INSPIRATION ~

MOT ~ What do you think is your main source of inspiration for creating your work? I notice some of the words or phrasing used in your work reflects a kind of global and peaceful perspective. Could you elaborate on the ideas you work to create and express?

AY ~ Well, I work to have a message to tell people. If I was just a stupid person, not thinking about anything, with nothing to say and not conscious, then I would not have found fun in calligraphy.

For example, growing up in the countryside among nature inspired me. Today, many of those same towns have become more modern with buildings, so it’s kind of like people destroying nature for their own profit. It’s just that money mind, not caring to appreciate nature. That’s how we can breath you know, oxygen, the trees produce it and we forget such a little thing. I think that people should remember the important things, not just focusing on how to get A’s in school or something, which also has its importance, but just stop and think about some of these basic things for a moment. Why do you live in this world?

When I feel like people are forgetting about these things, or am angered by something, I am motivated to put those feelings and thoughts into words. People then can see it and hopefully influenced enough to change their actions. My hope is that through my efforts I am making some little change in this world.

What I envision that I’m trying to do is challenge the limit of words. Take emotion for example. It’s really difficult to describe, right? We can’t say I’m happy but a little sad. It has to be a bold statement. There are some little feelings that can’t necessarily be put into words. So I’m trying to challenge those possibilities using my vocabulary to describe them.

MOT ~ Are there specific creative goals you’ve set? Some kind of five to ten year plan, things you’d like to learn more, or anything like that?

AY ~ Just simply I want to keep performing, in more places if possible. I’m also planning to travel around the world, maybe some three to five years from now. I’d like to bring my brush and paper with me and demonstrate in front of people in other countries and see their reaction.

You know, Japanese calligraphy is a really traditional culture we learn in school, but there are fewer people who carry on afterward. Most students just do it for class, not on their own. I don’t want people to forget this beautiful traditional element of Japanese culture. With computers, text messages on cell phones, you don’t really even need a pen to write anymore.

I think I’m pretty young, and do have a few friends still doing calligraphy who also do some teaching at the calligraphy school, but I’ve chosen not to focus solely on calligraphy like them. With my broad interests I’m working to explore my limits in all of them.

MOT ~ These elements can overlap, yea? So when you were training, moving in Japan, working on your own, how do you and did you keep yourself energized? What keeps you motivated?

AY ~ I think I just love words. If I’m just living a daily life, I feel like I’m lacking something. It’s this feeling that I’m not doing something important, something’s being forgotten. We all have thoughts, and think everyday, if we don’t write it down we’ll forget. I personally don’t want to forget little moments like that. To save them, I like to keep them on paper, or even on computer, keeping a journal. Sometimes I draw, or random words, even glue movie tickets or other elements of my life.

Imagine driving a car. If you don’t drive it for a while, you forget elements of it and are not as fluid anymore. To keep from having my skill level atrophy like an unused muscle, I have to keep doing it.

MOT ~ When you write regularly do you write in a calligraphic way? Like while you’re journaling do you consider or naturally consider layout and positioning or words and letters?

AY ~ Yea, yea yea, I do.

MOT ~ Do you work out ideas for future projects in that book?

AY ~ Sure, but it’s mostly just random ideas. When I come up with some kind of cool expression or a random order of words that hits I’ll think “Oo, that’s cool!” and write it down. Then if an art show’s coming up, I have to write something, I’ll go back to my notebook and “oh, this is cool!” and start working with that. It’s useful for me to keep a journal like that.

MOT ~ Do you think dreams or memories come out in your work? For example, some people might look back at a dream and try to paint that.

AY ~ Aaah. . . I have a bunch of weird dreams but no, I’ve never tried to express them. For example, I imagine something, set up a story in my head and try to draw a picture of it in my head. Then describe that picture with words, not dreams, but yea, I can see that.

~ TECHNICAL ~

MOT ~ Could you describe the main tools you work with?

AY ~ Brushes of course. For calligraphy brushes there’s certain kinds of animal hairs used. The hard ones are generally made out of horse tail. There’s also brushes out of monkey hair, sheep which is really soft. That’s what I often use because I can get more creative about the line. Beyond that, there’s soooooo many different kinds of sizes HUGE to tiny, and the price can be extreme as well. Some little ones can cost 8000 yen like about $80 USD. The low quality ones are still about $30 USD.

MOT ~ Is there a noticeable difference?

AY ~ Oh yea! A really good brush will allow for a really smooth line as well as listen to my direction. If it’s a bad brush (she starts illustrating with her hands just what happens) and you go in one direction the brush won’t return to a natural position but remain in the previous direction. It keeps the shape and I have to fix it before each new stroke. Also bad brushes hair come out and “beep” stay in the work. I hate writing with poor quality brushes for those reasons.

MOT ~ Well, you take it to another level though too. I’ve seen you use a mop and other things.

AY ~ Oh yea (laughing at my mention of it or something), I’ve used a mop, plants. They make interesting strokes. I don’t mind trying new things. It’s fun to use those things. I’ve even thought about using my own hair.

MOT ~ Really. Still attached or detached from your scalp?

AY ~ (she just laughs at me) that’d be kinda cool though. I don’t know, it’d be hard to wash it off. I’d like to try it with braids, which may make it easier.

MOT ~ Maybe somebody could hold you as a brush and write. The living brush.

AY ~ Hahaha… yea some strong person, that’d be cool.

MOT ~ Are there any books or stories on calligraphy, novels, philosophy or anything that you may go back to, that may inspire you or keep you motivated?

AY ~ I like a lot of philosophers, psychologists. . . I love Freud, he’s weird, but I love him. I love reading poem books. I especially love reading the Japanese poet Iyumu Takahashi. Tokio actually got to meet him. Sometimes he lives in New York but he basically lives in Okinawa. He traveled around the world with his fiancée for two years, taking a bunch of pictures, and kept a journal along with poems that he later turned into a book. There were several series of it and I found it extremely inspirational. Sometimes I’ll write the words from the book. It just really makes me want to think about the meaning of life, making me really creative.

MOT ~ Do you think you could explain your overall process, in general that goes from idea to real world?

AY ~ For example if there’s an art show, and a theme for the show, I’ll first think about that and have to go to some place by myself. I can’t be with a friend or anything. It’ll be some place quiet, alone, and think; developing the idea. During that process I’ll write down what comes out. Then I’ll go home, put on some really abstract music – say Jazz or experimental, absolutely no words just music – and try to write with brush and paper. This is practice.

I generally have to do a lot of practice to figure out the layout of the words. I’ll try several times, and unfortunately dump lots of papers even though papers are so expensive… because they’re special hand made ones, but “aaahhhh, no not this one,” until I reach the right one. Calligraphy paper should be dry completely so I leave it out for a day or two. Once it’s dry I’ll put another thicker paper behind it, which is hard but regardless. Sometimes I’ll frame it, or use different colored paper, adding those finished details.

MOT ~ Do you think you use techniques that are particular to you, that may distinguish your still from others?

AY ~ Other peoples styles? I guess so, but you know, calligraphy is originally unique depending on who writes. Sometimes if I write the really fine lines, really beautiful, perfect and neat I have to keep myself calm. On the other hand, if I’m writing a big one, than I have to maybe dance for a little bit, exercise, or move around to get excited and then I will “yeah” be ready. So I just let it go, let things flow. If it looks cool, then it looks cool to me.

MOT ~ When you’re working on something, preparing for the work, what is it that tells you that’s where you want it, that it’s complete? What’s the message from your brain to your stomach to your hand that shouts “yea, that’s how I want it to look!”

AY ~ Calligraphy basically uses the white paper and black ink. So on that basic level, the important esthetic element is how we use the space. How should the white be out and the density of the black should cover the paper. If there are a lot of words, like in a long poem, I’ll have to look at it from a distance to get the perspective. I have to see if it’s too black or too white. The balance is really important. It shouldn’t be 50/50. It can be 30/70 or 1 to 99, but the placement of the letters is extremely important. The order of the words, it’s kind of hard for me to say. For example if I’m writing “art is beautiful” I can think about it, it’s more we can do this in Japanese, and break down the word and chance the line for balance purposes.

When I’m writing a long poem, I’ll first dip the brush into the ink and start writing, eventually it will run out. Where to start the next section is important. At the start it’s thicker and rich in ink going to more vague and thinner. In the middle I will start the black. That way it flows darker to lighter to darker, so it doesn’t look like the top part is all black and the bottom all white. That’s the traditional technique. I have to think about the timing and adjust the use of the brush and ink.

MOT ~ How do you acquire the funds to purchase brushes and paper? It sounds like an expensive medium to work in.

AY ~ It’s super expensive. Well for me, because my mom does calligraphy too, she buys a lot of the equipment and ink. If I ask her, she often helps out because she appreciates that I keep doing calligraphy. I don’t have to worry about it unless I want the super good product. I just do a part time job and pay for what I can, but I’ll generally need to ask her. I feel sorry about it sometimes, but she’s actually happy that I’m keeping at it. My teacher is also happy about it too. He’s sick now, and can’t really teach any more. The last time I went back to Japan, I showed him pictures and he was like “wow, that’s good, you can do it in America.” Maybe that’s part of what makes me still want to keep doing it. I’ve received something important, that’s what I’ve learned from my master, my teacher, my parent, and if I stop, what’s the point? To make them happy is probably also one of the purposes.

It’s also great to sell some work. Sometimes I can sell them. Right now the Japanese restaurant Ozumo near the Embarcadero center (a very high class Japanese dining experience) has some of my work up. And also, the last time I had show in New York, one guy who just happened to know the artists in the show sent me a message via myspace interested in buying my work. Randomly it can happen. Another opportunity grew out of my involvement in the music industry. A rapper in Oakland asked me to do calligraphy for his website, and people who go to his website see my work. From that I get messages from people about my work that really encourage me to do more and better work. I’m not really too worried about that element of it though.

MOT ~ Say you were to sit down with someone, Freud, whoever, someone you’re into and have the opportunity to ask them some questions. Would you have any questions for them?

AY ~ If it’s an artist, or even any of those philosophers, I’d ask them when you wake up in the morning, what is the first thing you think about? I want to know what the first thing they think about is.

MOT ~ Do you wake up thinking about calligraphy?

AY ~ Ahh, haha, no.

MOT ~ Do you ever do calligraphy in your dreams and wake up with your hands in painting position?

AY ~ No, no, it’s weird though? Hmm. Maybe I don’t remember. I often have a dream of flying in the air. Maybe that represents I want to be free.

MOT ~ You’re not free?

AY ~ I guess I am, but I’ve got things to do. I’m not like completely free.

MOT ~ I also have a question about creative freedom. Do you imagine that you have creative freedom?

AY ~ Yes, I think so. Since I’m doing this in America, most people don’t really know about calligraphy, leaving me to do whatever I want. Even though I’m not satisfied with work that I do, people still say “Wow, it’s beautiful!” I’m like “really, I think this is crap.” But that crap is so beautiful, I guess it all comes down to how people see it. And also, I don’t mind if somebody asks me to write for them, “I’ll pay for it, could you write something for me?” I don’t mind taking their requests. I want to write the art work to fit their needs.

I like my style, I don’t have to like my style but I like it. Sometimes I think I suck, that I’m no good anymore. It’s all about patience, a lot of people lack that, and sometimes I loose mine. I want to challenge my patience until I find the best, to reach the goal.

MOT ~ So to go back to Japan, do you think what you’ve been doing here would not be as accepted as here? Maybe because they’re more knowledgeable there?

AY ~ Maybe? But there’s so many masters over there, 60 or 70 years old who know so much about calligraphy. They can judge me based on those traditional elements, or style, but they can’t judge me when I write creative writing, more modern work. So it’s not about judging or that.

When I took the class in high school, thinking I could get an easy score, the teacher was a totally different style then the master I originally learned from. My master was very traditional. Good at writing beautiful letters in a perfect way. I’ve never seen any work better than his. My high-school teacher was much more modern. He’d say “do whatever you want, just think about the words and if that’s favorite words, just write it.” Even though I may think it’s not good, he’d say, “look at this, so awesome.” He would find the good part from the bad. If I’m a teacher, I’ll be like that. Kids may say they’re no good, but I’ll find that positive elements of the work and we raise it from that point.

MOT ~ Do you imagine teaching in the future?

AY ~ Yes, I will. Well, I kind of am already. Not like on a continuous basis but people have asked me to show them things. I’ve gone over to there house or them to mine. One time, a graphic designer was learning about typography and thought it would be helpful to learn a little about calligraphy so he asked me. I think every thing is related.

See more work by Aoi Yamaguchi and bulletins of upcoming events and shows at Glamourous Monochrome and some photos at Freedom Blue Birds

A tool of some sort will always be required to communicate via the visual form with some kind of character, but how much longer will it be standard practice to use pen and paper? Is it even standard practice any more? Even in countries that may not appear to have all the comforts of the ‘advanced’ nations cellular phones are affordable by the masses. More often then not, the least expensive way to communicate is to send text messages. Has the era of passing notes in class ended, or using ‘post-it’ notes to remember something? Many people may be relieved by the standardization of text. Some handwriting can be like trying to decipher ancient hieroglyphics. The development of Gutenberg’s printing press in the 1430’s may have heightened the move toward a non-hand written form but block printing existed even prior to this. It has been mentioned that the use of film for photography is fading away. Could the use of paper and pencil to write ‘long hand’ be heading the same direction? It may depend on the political power of the paper and pencil lobbyists.

In all seriousness, what is called art today can be traced back to those original forms of communication like cave paintings. Much like modern letter forms can too. Eastern calligraphy is an element of traditional culture that displays character, patience, flow, and creativity. Handwriting analysis is based on practitioners abilities to read characteristics of an individual in the way they write. As far as I know, you can’t do the same by deciphering how they type. What’s my point? Maybe nothing more then observations. The written word has always been one of those things I’ve enjoyed viewing, especially calligraphy. I love the way lines can move and blend from thick to thin and take all different kinds of shapes. I’d just hate to see that fade away into something only read about in online textbooks.

* UPDATE *

She is now part of the collective ‘Sureality In Reality.’ You can check them out at www.sir-sf.com

“Rage Your Dream”

 

Discovering individuals dedicated to any particular thing in the modern fast paced materialistic boarders of the United States is so rare I find it surprising. How does someone spend most of their time and energy focused on one thing, thus sacrificing time otherwise used to enjoy all the desired leisure activities: video games, television, viewing professional sports or going out to clubs? Austin Oseke, 28, is a publisher, comic book artist and to sum it up, describes himself as an entrepreneur. He revels in those challenging opportunities that a small business owner encounters. It is a constant state of adjustment with an overflowing closet full of hats. Examples of these roles range from dealing with all the elements of publishing, to artist, writer, creator, business development, marketing, and more. After deciding on, followed by actual achievement of specific goals, a foundation to continued success is laid. Ones confidence than builds, allowing a steadily broader vision to grow.

BACKGROUND

Moments Of Truth ~ What would describe your creative activities, either on your own, or as part of your business?

Austin Oseke ~ I use eigoMANGA as my vehicle for my creative energies. If I just wanted to create a comic book store, I would have done that. My desire was to develop a business in the entertainment segment. I love music, television, doing concerts, events, and try to bring these creative aspects slash initiatives into my business. I see my company as my opportunity to project that, and it’s very effective for me to do it that way.

MOT ~ Do you think the medium that you’ve used has changed over time, and do you expect it to continue too? Or go in any particular direction in the future? I know you used to have a lot more time to draw. . .

AO ~ If we’re talking about comics, the medium has changed definitely. It’s all about the Internet now. What’s funny about that is that I received recognition through Wizard magazine because of the Internet. I told them “we are in the digital age, and it’s a really great tool to publish your comics, get them out there, and tell your story without going through the conventional red-tape to get your comic out there.” It’s a great tool, I mean, to a certain extent, you can now even create comics on the Internet. It’s great, I like it a lot.

When it comes down to it, there is no replacement to just sitting down with a pencil or pen and just drawing. There’s no replacement for that. That’s where your energy, your passions just flow. Eventually, sure, when you want to touch it up and refine it for print you’d touch it up after scanning it into the computer. It all starts with just pen and paper, drawing and jotting down your ideas. That’s the source, the foundation where it all begins.

MOT ~ Is their a particular reason why you use this segment of the medium, or just drawing in general to express yourself creatively?

AO ~ It’s kind of difficult to say. Basically, it might be because comics are the easiest to get started. If you want to project an idea, publish a book, write something out, it’s easier then creating a movie or producing a music CD. It’s just you, drawing, writing, refining it and publishing it into a book. Of all the mediums, comics were easiest for me, and for a lot of people to just make something and get it out there. Later you can branch it out into things like film and video. You can see in the current movie industry that they’ve been tapping into a lot of the comic book stories. A lot of the great source materials are based off of comics. It’s just fairly simple to circulate, people tend to get the idea right away or the essence of it and if they like it, they’ll get into more advanced mediums.

MOT ~ Where did you grow up?

AO ~ I grew up in Houston, Texas. My nationality is Nigerian, that’s where my parents are from.

MOT ~ Do you think there are elements in your Nigerian roots or the Texas / Houston community that influence your ideas, methods, your creative energies?

AO ~ Ever since I was little I liked drawing. I remember when I was either five or seven, I drew Voltron, that giant robot. I don’t remember much about how, but I remember drawing that. It was funny that at my school, they thought I had something, and my teachers always encouraged me to keep at it; really develop my skill as an artist. My parents are something else all together. My father is a professor at a university and my mother is a nurse but used to be a principal. Essentially academia dominated at my family’s house. Our culture is like academics and stuff, so they really frowned upon my work. I had lots of battles with them early on. My mother thought I would never make any money drawing, that I was just wasting time.

This had a lingering effect on me. So say for example, I used to have this large comic book collection when I was 14. My father took all of them and tried to throw them away. At that age I was really impressionable. People like Jim Lee I looked up to, collected his work; it wasn’t just comic books to me but a collection of art. That was very upsetting to me because that’s what I was trying to do. To this day with all the negativity I received from my folks I still am a little bitter. Well, maybe not bitter, but still have this underlying voice in the back of my mind telling me comics are a kids thing.

Even though I’m a publisher of comics – and I love that – it’s tough to appreciate people properly sometimes. All around me are people who have spent their life working in this segment and will probably die doing animation, it’s their life. At this point, I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished, look forward to doing more, but because of the way I grew I just feel I don’t appreciate it as much as I should. Even after my parents have seen my work, my comics, see that I have this company, it’s taken them a long time to accept it and be proud of it. When you are young it molds who you are.

MOT ~ Have you had any influence in the positive spectrum from mentors, who’ve turned you on to better navigate this medium? You may have mentioned Jim Lee as a kind of pseudo-mentor.

AO ~ I had a lot of mentors growing up. As a publisher, the person who inspired me the most, his name is Pat Lee, who had his own comic publishing company around my age. He was in Canada, a real big shot back in the day. I saw his work, great stuff, and emailed him. He had this team of other young kids running the company. If he could do it at that age, why can’t I?

So I sent him this email, “Hey, you’re just 28 running this comic company, I’m so inspired and blah blah blah…” Through that we developed a relationship, and pretty much been helping me since day one. He supplied advice on how to publish comics, how to start a business and everything. He’s been my coach, he even said that. That was great because this guy is like a legend in the industry.

INSPIRATION

MOT ~ What is it that inspires you, to create what you create and get these stories out there?

AO ~ It really changes a lot. This started when I was 20 in Houston. At first, all I wanted to do was to make some comic books. With all the red tape to work with DC or Marvel, it just seemed impossible. But I really loved what I was doing and couldn’t just give it up. For a while I just worked on my own fan comics. That is comics just based off of my favorite cartoons, and used the Internet as a way to bring it out without having to deal with a publishing company. That was my real reason.

Then I started getting some attention, receiving a little bit of recognition and stuff just started happening. People started to like the idea of my website, and just as the business has gone on, it has also propelled me forward. Although I was asking myself today “WHY am I doing this?” Then I kind of realized something looking back. At the age of 19 I was a computer programmer employed with a Texas Oil company, basically a competitor for Enron. It was a strange thing, that I loved corporate America while at the same time hating it. I hated pretty much everything about it but loved the strength of corporate America. That’s when I decided to start my own business, develop this identity, I want to become big one day but I want to be anti-corporate. The goal is to find a way to encompass those strengths without the corporate dais, (waving his arms dramatically) without all that stuff.

That’s what made me want to start a business having that financial freedom, that success to do what you want but on your own terms without having to adhere to the strict corporate structure that stifles creative adaptations. That really drove the entrepreneurship of developing this publishing company starting out. Remembering that recently triggered a renewal, which has inspired me again these eight years later.

MOT ~ What are your influences, business model, artistic, etc?

AO ~ My first influence for my own personal comic was based off of Akira Toriyama the creator of ‘Dragon Ball Z.’ I also really like Jim Lee’s art work, but he really is an artist. Currently I’m really inspired by Chinese comics and their artists like Andy Sito. These guys, the artistry in their story telling, . . . it’s just really profound. When I work on mine, I study theirs and reference it.

Also, I like to watch a lot of films. I am really driven by imagery, and how it can tell stories. Let the image tell the story. That really inspires my work, not to be so wordy and let the imagery speak for itself. If I see someone doing that well, I respect that and want learn from it; what I see in the Chinese comic artists now. If you see a really great setting or something really beautiful, it brings something positive out in you. I’d like to do that just by having people see an image.

MOT ~ Could you discuss your overall philosophy?

AO ~ It’s evolved a lot of the years and may now be more business based. When I first started my philosophy was ‘Rage Your Dream,‘ based off a Japanese pop song. Basically what I got out of it is to just work really hard, be driven, stay focused, sacrifice everything you can and focus on your dream doing everything you can. If you push your body to the limit to achieve you are giving it your all. That’s what I thought when I was younger, now. . . I mean, when I first started I did a lot. I broke up with my girlfriend, we were engaged but I just knew we were going in two totally different directions, I quit my job, and literally lived in the university library doing my work. There I slept on a couch. . .

MOT ~ What were you doing at the library, studying or something?

AO ~ Well, I didn’t have a computer. Actually I did, but it was just too decrepit to do what I needed for the website. So I used the universities library facilities to work on my business. Neither did I have a car, and it would be extremely late when I’d finish working so I couldn’t get home because the bus had stopped running.

MOT ~ What? Was this a twenty-four hour library?

AO ~ Sometimes yea it was, but on the weekends it wasn’t. (He let’s out a chuckle, whether it’s embarrassing to think about or just one of pride knowing that he did this to achieve his goal and it feels good I’m not sure) When the library was closing down I’d hide somewhere. After it had closed, the security systems were on, that’s when I’d go to work. The computers would still be operational, and I’d stay there until I felt like going home and just have to bust out through the fire exit. The alarm would ring all over campus, but what…, ya know?

MOT ~ (Just a look of disbelief on my face, very surprised that he went to this extent to get his comics out on the web)

AO ~ Yea, those were the days man. Just ‘rage your dreams,’ do what you have to do.

MOT ~ Did they not catch on after a while?

AO ~ Of course the police did, and I would get caught and kicked out all the time. It was cool. Keep in mind this was very early on. The officials learned what I was doing, and respected what I was trying to accomplish. Eventually the university provided resources, counseling, free classes, things like that to do what I had to do.

Now, I guess my model or philosophy is now. . . or the motto we’ve developed for our group is “fairness, clarity of information, and accountability.” Those three things make everyone synergetic and work together in a positive way. We use that philosophy and it has really helped us.

MOT ~ Are there any specific concepts, symbols or ideas you really try to work with? Or specific information and ideas you attempt to spread?

AO ~ I have my own work as well. One comic I was doing was the ‘Dragon Ball’ fan comic. The main character is a kid but in an adult body. My goal with that was to make him mature and to show he’s grown up.

Then I started doing my own stuff. What I’m working on now is very spiritual, Christian based. I’ve been working on it four years now, and not trying to preach to anyone in my comic, just tell the story of a man looking for peace in a very violent world. There’s just a lot violence, a dystopia, when a system breaks down and there’s just lawlessness everywhere and this guy is in the middle of everything trying to recover peace.

I guess it’s a reflection of me in a way. When I was discovering myself, it’s a retelling of my story of how I found peace. Not just that though, I’m trying to be political as well and put that question out there, “What would happen if we don’t resolve global warming or if a government has too much control over things? What will happen when people become so liberal they loose their foundation about stuff? Essentially it’s a ‘what if,’ and all this stuff that were living life now. I feel that, really. With all the liberalism, advancement of technology, the political scene right now with the war, global warming, and I feel as an artist it is leading to some type of social decay. On my comic I’m depicting that decay, and I want to get a guy who’s just basically lost his memory, woken up in this world and in the process of figuring things out. So he’s woke up in this new world, trying to figure things out and I write about it how people are experiencing their lives there. How they survive and find new beliefs or revert to old ones. It’s an exploration of discovery into what makes people tick. Why do they do things the way the do?

I’m just very political now. When I first started out I was all into superheroes, good guy versus bad guy. Now, a little bit older, I realize that there’s no black and white; everyone has shades of grey. That’s what interests me now. That and I’d like to take the medium of the comic book in a more philosophical and political direction. I’d also like to work with other artists who talk about society. We just picked up an artist, he’s from Rwanda and went through the whole genocide in Rwanda and I want to tell his story. This guy lost his family, and wrote a comic book about what he experienced there. In the comic medium now, they don’t do that. It’s all this superhero stuff. I think we need to tell the real life peoples story too. Those living life by the system how its set up, be it being born into extreme poverty or the opposite of normal suburban life, they’re still sad for some reason. What’s that? It’s time to do art work and stories about that aspect of the world. It seems worth while, and I can feel proud about what I’m doing.

MOT ~ Have you in the past set creative goals and reached them? Or, it sounds like you’ve set some, and are possibly still working towards them?

AO ~ Yea, I’ve had a lot of goals that I have reached. Of course I always wanted my books to have major distribution, say in Tower Records or Borders, in major retail stores all over the country, even in Canada. And it has actually happened, several years ago. That’s something many publishers don’t even reach and we actually did it. A more recent achievement has been a little radio show based in San Francisco that was an extension of our comics. Now its on XM satellite radio. It’s a lot of Japanese pop, and various other kinds of music. It was just a past time thing, that has now caught a buzz and now we’re on XM. These are goals you never think of, I’m just somebody from Texas, an average student. I just wanted to do something, had a vision and kept at it. I’m really surprised that things are working out like this. Especially that it was reached.

One really exciting thing is a Hollywood studio recently contacted me and asked for my comics. It took about a month but I’ve now put together a media kit of all our comics and sent it off to this agent. We’ll be meeting in the next couple weeks, and who knows what will come of it, but the thought of being developed into film is great. Actually, we had two artists who created some work that is now being converted into TV shows. One guy’s show is a werewolf story that’s going to be on FOX next year. The other now has a show on Nickelodeon called ‘Teapot.’ That’s a new goal I’d love to realize, to see my comics on TV.

The goals that I’ve set when I was younger, I’ve reached them and I’m happy. It’s hard to see what else to accomplish. Now, it’s about getting those different more philosophical stories developed and published.

MOT ~ We all have our ups and downs, and it sounds like you’ve had quite a few. How do you stay energized or re-energize after a tough period?

AO ~ My colleagues and friends, we’ve been working together a long time. We draw from each others strengths. It is really tough to do by yourself, I did it that way for about a year. It sucks. It’s great to have a strong team! I have my faith, I am a believer and have peace with that. My faith keeps me inspired. People say I have a strong drive, I hear that a lot. I get a lot of accolades for what they refer to as “my relentless ambition” to one day make it.

MOT ~ You’re making it.

AO ~ Nooo, no I’m not there yet. I really want to be up there, an enterprise you know. Because what I want to do man, my deepest dreams are to be a leader in my field and make a new standard. I’m tired of seeing franchise stuff. As a reader that likes to see lots of things it’s time for a step up. It’s time to develop series that are more in tune with what the readers want. Like American readers, sure we like anime, we like Japanese comics and such, but there’s some stuff we don’t like about anime. For example, how they prepackage it for the US, the translations, or the way they rewrite it. We can do it ourselves in our own way.

So when my company develops pieces for this market or any other, we can create a new standard for how people read comics and how they want to engage with the medium. Not how it is now. I feel we can do that, that’s my ambition, something that’s driven me all this time. I consider myself an artist, but I’m very enterprising and desire to be a really strong business leader. That’s really driving me.

TECHNICAL

MOT ~ Can you break down your process, say more specifically with your own comic books, from the spark of an idea in your mind to what gets it to the final detailed story?

AO ~ When I have an idea, I think about it in my head, jot it down, develop an outline of the major points. After that is complete I’ll develop a script, it contains character descriptions in each panel. Then either I, or a freelance artist will illustrate the script. Once it’s been illustrated and refined with inks, I will run it through the computer to put it in a publishable form. This puts it at print level to have a physical book that you can announce to distributors with a particular release date and the distributors will let stores know that your book is out and start taking orders. A month later or so you get the quantity to print is determined, the printer prints that many and sends them out. Finally, you get paid and do it all over again.

THAT’S how you make a comic.

MOT ~ When you are working through something, how do you know when it’s done? Like see it and know, “Yea, this is how I want it.”

AO ~ Oh yea, I totally get that. How do you know when it’s done? Well, that’s hard. As an artist you’re always a perfectionist, wanting something. You’ll always find something that’s wrong with it and just keep at it, even if there’s a deadline. You can try to make everything perfect but can’t really do it all. (Getting a little lost in the question, he lets out a chuckle) Hmm, how do I know when something’s done…?

MOT ~ Yea, is there some trigger inside you, a sixth sense or something?

AO ~ Holistically you can never get everything right. As long as you get the idea down, it conveys the message you want to communicate to your audience then it’s essentially done. You can always make new editions of comic books, which may be an advantage of the medium. Say you find a spelling error or something. For me, it’s tough, if you say in your heart that 95% percent of the message you want to get out is rendered than you are done.

MOT ~ So it is never done.

AO ~ Well, from the artists perspective, or say from my perspective it’s never done. Only if you’ve lost your project files, those files that allow you to edit, then it’s really done! I mean look at movie’s, they come out with that director’s cut later. It’s never done, but it all depends.

MOT ~ I can imagine some people coming back and repainting their painting even after it’s been sold and in somebody’s house. (we both laugh)

MOT ~ A question that has been recently suggested is how do you acquire the funds to support this? I know you’ve been doing this for a while, several years actually and it’s like you work to work.

AO ~ When I first started, I quit my job. Of course I’d had some money saved, but that wasn’t much. For so many years I was really broke. I received no support from my folks, but I wanted to do it and just kept at it. I bartered a lot, traded my skills as a programer for various stuff. Sometimes I could get interns adjoined to the project. Eventually I earned credit because I was able to build some working capital, and build credit to do bigger and better projects. Then we started to outsource our services to studios that wanted to make comics on their own which was a great way to build revenue. That’s what we do now. For so long I’ve been trying to get some venture capital backers. Really, it’s why I moved to San Francisco. It was the dot com age, start ups were everywhere, and I thought I could do it too. Nope, not here in the ‘Silicon Valley.’ All they want is high tech companies, not really media. Plus, to top it off, everything fell off.

For a while now we have been boot strapping, just doing what we can. At the same time give a very strong impression. We did not want to project the image of amateurs, doing our best to make the most competitive project out there without having to reveal that we’re on a shoestring budget. Actually, I think this has been very helpful for us, it has garnered us a lot of respect and credibility.

MOT ~ What do you think about your level of creative freedom? Earlier you mentioned trying to release new story lines, how difficult is that transition?

AO ~ Oh man, as a publisher, that’s a huge challenge! Sure, I can put out anything I want, but the buyers and distributors are always safe with super hero comics, those stories following the time honored tradition. Those sell. It’s a franchise. Our first comics, like Rumble Pak and Sakura Pak, is your straight up super hero stuff. They are big hits, and able to get them to market very quickly. I wouldn’t necessarily call it beginners luck, but as long as we were on that level we could give them anything.

Current experience speaks otherwise. It appears that the distributors only want to deal with our Rumble Pak, that style, they want that first. After showing them something different they really drag their feet on it. We usually have to sell them Rumble Pak too

One comic that we’ve brought out now is pushing this boundary. It’s a coming of age story. A man from Korea comes to the United States and tries to adjust. They have this company that no one is interested in this story line. They would rather have some sci-fi anime fighting samurai’s or something. They don’t want some Korean coming over to confront corporate America. They don’t want to deal with that.

What we are forced to do to appease the distributors is to take our own initiative. To push this new idea we hired a call center in Canada to call stores all over the world. In conjunction with this we’ve been taking out expensive adds and trying to host some cool events. The comic book industry may talk about ‘thinking outside the box’ but it’s lip service. It’s still stuck in the time honored super hero. So, it’s been a challenge to try and introduce new stuff. It’s a test of our abilities to find new approaches to expand the market. We really have to push hard, shove it in peoples faces and make them actually look at it.

It’s one thing to have creative control and do what ever you want. It’s great. But it’s an entirely different matter to sell that to your customers if they are set on only one thing. Not exactly one thing, but seem unwilling to try something new.

MOT ~ It sounds like it’s not just the customers, but maybe distributors and shop owners who won’t risk change. The customers may be into it, but how would they know if they can’t read it.

AO ~ Yea, that’s pretty much the case. When we show these comics to fans they really like the idea. Kids take pictures next to the full-scale poster of the Korean guy. You’re right, it’s the distributors, the publishers we work with, the press professionals with the problem with it. As a new type of comic for the US market, they’re just safe with the franchise. That’s what pays bills, and their about making money, not about exploring other ideas. That’s what I’ve realized on this level. I was in Borders, Barnes and Nobles, Tower Records and Walmart, ya know, and my comic was successful. I believed they would take anything we did, and it’s not the case. I am really committed to publishing these types of stories. No selling out of my vision here.

-CONCLUSION-

It is exciting to sit down and hear stories like this. What more do you need to hear to know that if you focus and set to something, it will take shape. As Austin and I sat and discussed his history and future in the lobby at the former Ansonia Residence Hotel, Bob Marley blaring in the background and the constant buzz of residents entering and exiting I caught a glimpse of the energy that feeds this guy. Very potent stuff, not just the abundant amount of Redbull. Yo, Austin, lay off the Redbull and start drinking more Yerba Mate. Keep on pushing, those new ideas are solid. They just need the exposure to catch on. If the founder of ‘Underground Comix’ R. Crumb could develop a whole new genre so far removed from the superhero segment, the door is wide open for you. Thanks for sharing.

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A Blue Note: Sketched In The Raw

Blue Note: Sketched In The Raw

In the land of Daisuke Maki, everything around him could be a seed that may develop roots into a project. Working in the field of graphic design is for him the opportunity to “make things better both visually and functionally.” Unbeknownst to me, I’ve stumbled into his Lower Nob Hill apartment this Wednesday October 10th, on his birthday. Apparently, because it’s a weekday, he has kept it under wraps, planning to celebrate with friends over the weekend. Not wasting any time, we crack open a pair of ales and set to some question and answer as city life continues on the streets only a few stories below his opened window.

* BACKGROUND *

Moments of Truth ~ How would you describe the creative medium(s) you focus in?

Daisuke Maki ~ Graphic design. It starts from sketching with pens and paper. Then after making rough sketches, I’ll go on the computer and execute my idea. I used to be a fine artist before. . . or at least I wanted to be a fine artist before. After studying fine art for two years, I spent the majority of my life wanting to become a painter – since I was little even – until I met a guy in Japan who did graphic design. He showed me his stuff and it clicked, “oh shit, this can be my job!” I didn’t know how successful a focus on fine arts would be, so that’s the time I switched to graphic design.

MOT ~ Would you like to get back to what might be considered “fine arts” work in the future?

DM ~ Yea, definitely. [In regards to what I do now,] graphic design is about having the subject first and our job is to make it better and more appreciable. Let’s say there’s a cell phone, there are so many cell phones around, and you want to make a better cell phone. That became an icon. Our job is to make things better both visually and functionally.

Graphic design is based on business more, always money related before you start doing the job. Also, you have to think about the target audience, budget, among other elements. It’s more challenging in a way because you have to put your creativity into [the existing concepts]. I’ve found that pretty interesting.

MOT ~ Where did you grow up?

DM ~ Tokyo. Well, actually I’ve moved around a lot. I was born in Tokyo, then moved to Kawasaki. For middle school I went to Chiba, which is basically the middle of no where pretty much. After I got tired of it, I moved to Canada, spent five years there including high school and two years doing fine arts in college.

MOT ~ Do you think living in and experiencing these different communities has influenced your work?

DM ~ Definitely! Not just because of the environment, but also meeting different types of people. The friends that I had in Japan are a lot different than high school friends. Meeting people in different countries forced me to totally open up to different perceptions about life. Like to everything essentially.

MOT ~ Do you think it comes out in the way you create your work?

DM ~ I hope so (said in a questionable voice). (Then we both laugh, why…? Hmm, that’s everybody’s hope right?)

MOT ~ Do you have any particular memory when it really struck you to work in a creative medium/field?

DM ~ Yea, well, when I watched movies [as a kid], say a movie about fire fighters, I’d want to become a fireman. Or I watched ‘Top Gun’ and want to become a jet pilot. Those are real temporary states, although I’d always wanted to become an artist. I liked to draw when, let’s see. . ., I was less then four, even three. Like in kindergarten, I kind of thought this was going to be my job some how and never changed my mind since.

MOT ~ Have mentors been a factor in helping guide you in the graphic design industry?

DM ~ In both skill ways and mentor ways. For example, one of the guys I talked about from Japan, he was a year older then me, had a real strong idea what design was all about. Also, a couple teachers from school had really good ideas of what graphic design is all about. I got really impressed with how they think about graphic design. He was the one always fighting to show what was happening in the world by working to find a direct way to incorporate real world occurrences in his design work. Incorporating these concepts in graphic design magazines, posters, and other communication materials with super visual graphics. I was really surprised how people could do that, and [thought] how I’d really like to do that.

* INSPIRATION *

MOT ~ What inspires you to express ideas in some creative way?

DM ~ It could be just everyday things. Anything I see in the world like here, stuff in the news, camping.

MOT ~ On certain projects do you try and explore different subject areas, or is it more about preset guidelines?

DM ~ Well, it always starts with research about the project. For now, I research about the project, the company, what they do, their target, competitors and think about how we can sell the idea making them better. This generally requires a fair amount of research because things are constantly in flux.

MOT ~ How about any creative influences, or styles that you really like or think about incorporating into your own work?

DM ~ Pretty much everything, like music, graffiti, fine art, photography, yea, it’s everything for me. I’m trying to expand my style more and more. I don’t stick to one style, I want to keep pushing myself constantly develop something new to me. It’s tough to say, I read books, look at magazines, graphic design books, but I think it’s all connected.

Once something hits me, it hits me. I’m not trying to seek from everything, but when I like something it automatically comes to my mind. It just gets stuck in it. I think that’s how it works.

MOT ~ Can you explain your over all philosophy?

DM ~ The big plan is I just want make things better then they are right now. Did that answer your question? I mean, there’s so much shit around, not just product wise or visual thing but overall concept of like, . . . everything has to be a certain way, all about commercialism. I don’t believe in it, so I kinda want to put more independent or more street stuff into, but I don’t want to just show them “Hey, this is what’s happening the streets.” I want to filter the streets through me making a completely new stage then show it to the public and let them know this is one way of showing stuff. I try to always come up with something making things raw, I just don’t want to be following some style, be a follower. That was good question though, maybe we can come back to that later (obviously not entirely happy with his answer).

MOT ~ Are there specific creative goals you’ve set for yourself, or have you had any in the past that you’ve accomplished?

DM ~ No.

MOT ~ No, nothing like that?

DM ~ No, I’m still seeking my goal.

MOT ~ When you work on something creative, it can take a lot of energy, physical and mental. Does this happen to you, and if so do you use any strategies to keep yourself charged, energized and on point?

DM ~ Not really. When I start, I need time to come up with something good. I don’t have any ritual, when I get tired of working on it, I just need to go back to nature, go camping or sit in the park on the weekend and just relax. . . . And drinking helps too (hahaha… we both laugh).

MOT ~ Can you, you’ve kind of already explained this a little, but could you expand on how your process works from beginning or idea stage to its material release?

DM ~ I try to make rough ideas in an organized way, but when I come up with something good it’s more of like a gut instinct. Trying to be more stable, because sometimes I can’t come up with what I want by the deadline. But I always meet it in the end, but still, I want to be more consistent. I believe all creative moments are like that. When [the idea] comes, it comes, when it doesn’t it doesn’t. I just follow my instinct.

Dealing with deadlines isn’t really that stressful, I just get stressed out dealing with overtime work. I don’t mind, I like the job as a graphic designer, the overall job doesn’t make me stressed so much, but when I have to handle three or four projects at once and have to work overtime even when I have something else to do after work, that makes me stressed out.

MOT ~ Do deadlines, stress, whatever, do they cause you any hindrance in your ability to develop ideas slash create viable concepts? Or maybe a better question is what are your strategies for balancing stresses with creative flow?

DM ~ It’s usually the same, getting back to nature, slow myself down. Get relaxed. Also switching between my different jobs, say company logos to package designs helps refresh me too.

Do you want more beer?

(Speaking of which, Daisuke grabs a couple more brews for us to continue to relax, celebrate his birthday, and quench our thirst. Kumpai!)

MOT ~ How much creative freedom do you have? How much is it your idea and how much the clients?

DM ~ Not much [creative freedom], to be honest. There’s like certain projects that I’m so confident about and I get props in the firm, but that doesn’t mean the client’s going to like it. Even though [the firm may] push it, the client may say it’s not viable, so it will just die. It’s a tough part of graphic design for me, but I think I can live with it, get used to it. Any designer faces the same problem. The clients are not the creative people, that is they’ve hired us for our creative abilities. But at the same time they have certain minds, and they are good at doing business or explaining the philosophy of their company, etc. Even though the graphic is really tight, and we think it matches the company, if they say no, that’s it; the end of it.

MOT ~ How do you continue to put your fullest energies into projects that may just be rejected?

DM ~ I hate to say this, but I get money constantly, I mean I’m paid to do my job regardless of the outcome. Let’s take painters for example, there’s no limitations so they can do whatever they want. . . but… so it’s nobody to critique the work, it’s all by yourself. Sure, sometimes you do a shitty job even though you’ve spent a month possibly painting it and sell it. For me I can do creative job still, and if I can’t sell the idea I still get paid. So I really don’t want to blame, or focus on that kind of stuff. It’s not all about money, but I still need to eat and drink, ya know. (Laughing as we both look at our fermented beverages nodding in agreement)

Also, I know what I like in my gut. At the same time when they reject my idea I might get angry for a sec, but then I remember ‘hey, this is going to be in my portfolio and I’m not going to just work for one firm my whole life. So whatever I do is what I do. In a way it’s fine art too, because I follow my aesthetics, I can keep those ideas and apply it to the next time.

Yea, I can get stressed out for a real short time that a client didn’t like my concepts or direction, but I think it happens in any job. If you make music, you still have to sell it. I think any creative job is pretty much the same.

* TECHNICAL *

MOT ~ Do you have any particular techniques, programs, … you use?

DM ~ Illustrator. Adobe Illustrator. I try to do my own drawing, like my ‘Blue Note’s’ project, which was a really fun project. I try to put drawing in my design whenever possible. I tend to aim to keep it more raw.

Other then that, I just look around the city, go shopping, see new stuff, clothing, shoes, anything. Music helps me a lot too. I read books a lot, constantly read two or three books at the same time, which helps me get through what I’m thinking and narrow down all that’s going on in my head. Or get new information and try to put it in my way, filtering through it, express the way I want. That’s the way I work.

There’s a poet I really like in Japan named Shinkaro Tanigawa. He writes about nature, freedom of the soul, and I really respect that.

I try to enjoy everything, and think it impacts me. Anything that I feel is exciting can be influential to me and with out even knowing about it hits me. I tend to automatically put it in my designs, almost subconsciously, so I don’t even notice. Yea, music is like a big thing for me. It’s two totally different mediums, design is all about the visual while music is auditory.

When I listen to music, it’s supposed to have nothing to do with the visual. With music I can see certain colors, styles, hmm, maybe not style. How can I put it? Yea, maybe I can say style. Like when I listen to jazz I think “how can I express myself in a visual of jazz?” When I listen to hip-hop it’ll be totally different, or techno, classical, whatever. My point is to capture and point out the music, I can’t really explain how I process it in my brain, it just works out that way.

* CONCLUSION *

As soon as we finished, our conversation leapt on all other subjects from wrestling masks, more on music to all kinds of conspiracy theories. As sagging eyelids signaled this guy needs his sleep, Daisuke mentioned that our conversation after the interview seems more interesting, and a more fitting discussion of ideas to post. Possibly, I agreed, but it didn’t really match with the format of this project (nor had I recorded it). Still, it was a lot of fun spending his birthday chopping up ideas and putting back some suds. Thanks Daisuke for taking your time to share!

Historical findings index a long trail of the creature called homosapien’s forays into design. Possibly starting with tools to hunt, basic characters to communicate with, to aqua ducts, pyramids and musical instruments. Human beings build on ideas to make something else, often under the guise of ‘to make something better.’ I suspect it is just what we have been designed to do. When someone decides to do something and believes some kind of tool will make it happen, they will work to make one. As material availability and circumstances alter, following generations will adjust the design to fit current needs. Adaptation to one’s surroundings will continue.

Daisuke Maki’s website is dmdsign.com “In Art We Trust” to see more of his work or inquire about him designing something for you. Also, feel free to post questions for him in the comments section of this post.

* UPDATE *

He is now part of the collective ‘Sureality In Reality.’ You can check them out at www.sir-sf.com