Interview with Colin Matthes

This interview was written in two parts. It began on a bus to Brussels in the summer of 2008, and was completed in the woods of rural Ohio at the Harold Arts Residency Program, summer 2009.

q) Well, first of all please tell us a little about yourself.

a)Hello my name is Colin Matthes. Right now I’m on a bus in France on the way to visit friends in Belgium. My throat hurts. I have two buttons left on my shirt and two beers to keep me company.

q) Had you always planned on being an artist [or had you other hopes ?

a)No, I’ve always done drawings, but where I grew up no one was an artist and it wasn’t anything anyone ever thought about . In highschool I took shop classes and was considerably toasted throughout. Going to college without any specific goal in mind just barely beat staying where I was and trying to get a job as a carpenter. I missed orientation and ended up in a leftover art class. It stuck.

q) Do you have a preferred medium to work on? Why?

a)Ink on paper. It’s simple dirty cheap and beautiful. I also like building things with construction grade materials, especially cheap or found wood.

q) How would you describe your style?

a)Overall I am concerned with making human work, work that feels honest for me. This leads to making work that is sometimes topical, sometimes much more personal, and more often than not both personal and topical.

q) Do you go through any certain processes while trying to produce your work?

a)I bounce back and forth between research and making. When working on a project I make a lot of work, and start over a few times as my ideas become more developed.

q) What are you working on at present?

a)I recently completed a large wall drawing, titled Winners Circle, at the Haggerty Museum in Milwaukee.

Right now I am working on a comic about the economic collapse and popular uprising in Argentina in 2001 and the resulting collective approaches to personal and community empowerment after capital fled the country. This comic will be in an upcoming issue of World War 3 Illustrated. I am working on drawings and writing about Muhammad Ali, Roberto Clemente, Augusto Cesar Sandino, and Chico Mendes for a book project by Justseeds and Microcosm Publishing that is about people fighting for social justice in the Americas.

I plan to put out a couple small zines in the next few months and well as make a few prints.

In January 2010, Sailing the Barbarous Coast will open at the New Art Center in Newton (a suburb of Boston) Massachusetts. This will be a two person exhibition with Anthony Smith Jr., another artist whose work inspires me. The title, Sailing the Barbarous Coast, references the first US Military intervention, the Battle of Derne in 1805 that was an effort to destroy all “pirates” on the Barbary Coast. In Sailing the Barbarous Coast, we are witnesses to American aggression, power, and intervention, participating more as extras in an epic film than as writers who create the story.

q) What about recent sources of inspirations?

a)I’m not sure if inspiring is the word, but recently I have been thinking a lot about the relationships between war and economics. I am also researching the history of United States Military action overseas and continentally.

q) What are some of your obsessions?

a)Building things out of shoddy materials, drawing with ink, radical art, building things with other folks, working with friends, champion beer drinking, Irish whiskeys and stouts, shitty beer from Milwaukee, heavy and awkward art books, zines, prints, silly art, beat up stuff, junk in alleys, smashing all sorts of things (most recently a toaster).

q) Which galleries have you shown at and which galleries would you like to show at?

a)In addition to galleries I have made work to be located in the woods, in cities, and for print. I love looking at great gallery shows, but also love seeing work outside the gallery in everyday life.

I really enjoy making installations in galleries. I have shown at Inova (Milwaukee, WI), the Haggerty Museum (Milwaukee, WI), Space 1026 (Philadelphia, PA), Telefon Til Chifen Gallery (Copenhagen, Denmark), Metro Noviciado (Madrid, Spain), Anno Domini (San Jose, CA), Hotel Pupik (Schrattenberg, Austria), 5+5 Gallery (Brooklyn, NY), ABC No Rio (NYC,NY). I do not have a specific “dream” gallery, but I would like to show in Europe more consistently.

q) If people would like to contact you, how would you like to be contacted?

a)Email is cool: colincmatthes@gmail.com or colin@justseeds.org

q) Do you have any suggestions or advice for artists that are just starting out?

a)Work all the time, try to keep positive, don’t think too much about the artworld, work for yourself, your friends, your community. Make work about something you believe in.

Think about why you do what you do. Also, learn to write and learn a trade. I blew off writing in school and pay for it now.

q) Who are your favorite artists?

a)I have many friends that inspire the work I do. I work with the Justseeds radical art cooperative that consists of many artists whose work I have admired for a long time. Milwaukee artists including Brandon Bauer, Molly McKee, Adam McKee, Nicolas Lampert, Makeal Flammini, and Santiago Cucullu. And other friends around the world including Kati Heck, Sean McElroy, Jason Polan, Sue Coe, Karen Sanders, Jesse Connor, and so many others.

q) What books are on your nightstand?

a)No nightstand, but if you look on the floor by my mattress right next to the cooler and milkcrate you would see sketchbooks, Blackwater by Jeremy Scahill, Borstal Boy by Brendan Behan, and Horizontalism: Voices of Popular Power in Argentina.

q) To what weaknesses are you most indulgent?

a)My weaknesses are I cannot remember a goddamn thing, a nice infomercial can suck me in especially the flowbee one, and my asthmatic lungs.

My vices are beer, whiskey, work, sex, and being able to build a bedroom set out of milkcrates, scrap wood, and a cooler.

q)….your contacts…

a) www.ideasinpictures.org

www.justseeds.org

Interview with Paul Torres

q)Please introduce yourself.

a) I am an artist living in Los Angeles Ca, for most of my life, born in Chile, and raised there, I had my first interest in Art at the age of 2 with comics, and started drawing at the same time, my father hired a german tutor for me and my brother, him being an architect taught me some drawing too, then enrolled in correspondence schools at the age of 9, and came to the US at that time for 1 year, and fell in love with the culture here,the music, the movies ,cars, toys and the different types of personalities ,and nationalities and races, almost circus like, that fascinated me, which I have never seen in Chile, which is much more homogeneous there.

I came back to the US at 18 years old, and enrolled in US Army for 2 years that what quite an experience, did lots of artwork for them .At 21 I enrolled at Otis Art Institute , studied Illustration and Fine Arts for 2 years , then studied at Art Center which I have a BFA in Illustration .

I started my artistic career, by just letting people see my work , like neighbors , family , coworkers, and sold my first painting to a neighbor for $45 when I was 16. I then started doing painting commissions and portraits when I was in the US Army, after I left Otis Art Institute I got my first job with the Animation Industries Studios , DIC Entertainment in Encino Ca, doing Character Design and Background Design for " Slimer and the Real Ghostbusters" , worked also on "Cool World" ralph bakshi productions

At the same time I started Showing my Paintings in Art Galleries .

q) Where do you live and work?

a)In Alhambra Ca

q) How would you describe your work to someone who has never seen it?

a)I describe my work , as Realism with an edge, with undertones of social , and political commentary, and humor

q) How did you start in the arts? How/when did you realize you were an artist?

a)I had my first interest in Art at the age of 2 with comics, and started drawing at the same time, my father hired a german tutor for me and my brother, him being an architect taught me some drawing too, then enrolled in correspondence schools at the age of 9

q) What are your favorite art materials and why?

a)Pencils , color pencils, markers, Oils , I love pencil work because I can get the effect that I truly want with the forms, and markers are great for more lose work, and Oils are my favorite for painting, although I like acrylics for underpainting.

q) What/who influences you most?

a)Renaissance Art, Barroque Art, Italian and Spanish the most, then French Impressionism , and Goya, Brueguel, Dix, Dali, Paul Cadmus are my favorite for ideas too.

q) Describe a typical day of art making for you.

a)I need to get some excercise first, get up early like 5 or 6 am go to the park run a little , push ups, then I have to make strong black tea, and I am ready for painting, I try to work on 2 works at the same time back and forth.

q) Do you have goals, specific things you want to achieve with your art or in your career as an artist?

a)I want to make people happy with my work, and be able to improve and change the world as much as I can, with my work and also to enpower myself to be more independent, and have more of a voice with my work for a worldwide audience, and to definitely enpower others all for a good cause, to help other artist get better , and give them opportunities, and to give voice to the voiceless, by bringing awareness,

q) What contemporary artists or developments in art interest you?

a)Paul Cadmus was my favorite, he just passed away, I have very few living artists that I like, Harvey Dinnerstein and I cant think of another one, all the other ones I like they are no longer here.

q) How long does it typically take you to finish a piece?

a)It depends on the size, I can finish a medium size in 1 week, but my more involved works, 2 months, and my big ones about 3 months

q) Do you enjoy selling your pieces, or are you emotionally attached to them?

a)I mostly enjoy selling the works very much, with the exception of my very best works, which I have bought back 2 of them already, then I keep them for a while, and put them up for sale again

q) Is music important to you? If so, what are some things you're listening to now?

a)Music is very important for the mood of the work, I listen to mostly 80's and 70'a some 90's, rock, and some blues, jazz, and some caribbean spanish music like merengue.

q) Books?

a)Lots of history , detective series, art techniques, and biographies

q) What theories or beliefs do you have regarding creativity or the creative process?

a)I think first one should study as much as possible other artists, and then absorb it and make it knowledge, for one to use at anytime , a little here, and a little there, and always be in contact with your sorroundings, and aim to do something different and entertaining

q) What do you do (or what do you enjoy doing) when you're not creating?

a)I enjoy dining out , chinese food a lot, and lebanese, italian, and also going to the beach, and talking to artists friends, and movies, and some time alone

q) Do you have any projects or shows coming up that you are particularly

excited about?

a) Yes my Solo Show at The Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana this Sat Sept 5th

q) Do you follow contemporary art scenes? If so, how? What websites, magazines, galleries do you prefer?

a)I study the new contemporary scene a little, and also La Luz de Jesus Gallery , and Copro Nason , their shows a lot...

q) Ask yourself a question you'd like to answer, and answer it.

a)Well, what have I given up for art? and I say so much.. and I don't regret it at all :)

q) Any advice for aspiring artists?

a)Yea, start copying the renaissance masters, and work from life as much as possible, with a pen , pencil anything, it's the practice that matters, and start creating your own visual language

q) Where can we see more of your work online?

a)You can see more of my work on Myspace, Facebook, and my website

www.paul-torres.com

Thank you so much !