You’re new show recently opened at Rivet Gallery, how did opening night go? Would you go back in time and change anything? 

Opening night went well.  It was nice to have five or six sales before the reception.  That’s always a good feeling; and then to have those sales double by the end of the night, it’s hard to come up with a reason for doing something different.  As far as having more time to prepare, that can always help if you’re willing to take advantage of it.  A lot of the ideas for the paintings had been drawn out years ago, though.  Then they sit in my sketch books and sort of mature.  I don’t paint them until I think they can’t be developed anymore, so in that respect, even a couple of months wouldn’t have helped.  If there would have been more time, I’d have just made more wooden sculptures.

Any feelings on the vinyl/art toy movement? Do you collect or customize?

Well, I kind of collect.  No, that’s not true.  I just accumulate stuff.  I haven’t done any real serious customizing since I used to make playsets and props for my ninja turtles or take apart my G.I. Joes to make super soldiers.  As for my feelings on the Vinyl/art toy movement, please don’t hate me.  I have a real hard time taking it or any “low brow” related movement seriously.  Not because I think it’s an invalid method of expressing oneself, but to be a movement there has to be a direction.  It seems to me that there are a lot of really talented people out there just vying for recognition and a spot in the limelight.  Sales mean more shows.  More shows mean more attention.  That just tends to breed artists whose objective is to sell.  If that’s the case, then the direction of our art is in the hands of the galleries and patrons and not in our imaginations.  I’m not saying I’m any different.  I’d love to be rich, but that’s not my dream. 

It’s annoying to me that the director of my local museum has probably never heard of Biskup, Baseman, or Ryden (and I mean no offense in any way to these men), but I understand why.  We are missing all the necessary requirements to be a movement.  No manifestos.  No leaders.  These artists don’t have followers, they have copycats.  We don’t even have serious critics.  There isn’t even a unified name for the “pop naivism, folk art, surrealism, outsider brow” movement for everyone to begin to subcategorize themselves.  Sometimes I wish we could just call it contemporary and shove it down the elite establishment’s throat.  If all that can change, then the art/toy industry will have a solid place to stand.  Toy makers are a little handicapped when it comes to artistic freedom simply because of the sheer cost of production and time involved.

most inspirational handle-bar mustache: Rollie Fingers, Dali, Dick Dastardly?

That’s a great question.  I suppose it would be impossible not to be influenced by Dali.  And I always rooted for Dick Dastardly on the Hanna-Barbara Olympics.  However, when I was very young, from about five until nine years old, my mom gave me a Milwaukee Brewers placemat to eat my cheerios on.  I have no idea why we had it since we didn’t live in Milwaukee or where she got it or why, for that matter, anyone would think that brewers of alcohol would be a good influence on children.  Well, that placemat happened to be of Rollie Fingers who was pitching for the Brewers at that time.   So, every morning I had to look at that mustache until I finished my breakfast.  I think it really messed me up.  A mustache like that can be scary to a kid.  I had blocked out Rollie for years until I just happened to catch a special on the greatest mustaches in the history of baseball.  Keith Hernandez took first over Rollie.  What a crock of shit!  It took what, a week for Hernandez to grow that bad Tom Selleck rip off?

i’ve heard you like peace and quiet, do you think living in the midwest is reflected in your art? do you see your style being different if you were living in, say, manhattan or tokyo?

Oh, the Midwest, isn’t it just grand?  I don’t think living here has been that influential.  I mean, it has, but not in a more profound way than when I’m in L.A.  People are the same everywhere, and plants are the same everywhere.  They just look a little different from one place to the next, if that makes any sense.  When I say I like it quiet that doesn’t mean I prefer the sounds of crickets and birds to the honks and sirens of cars, it means that sometimes I just wish everyone would shut up.  Some people should just shut the hell up.  I think my style has been mostly influenced by people who have been dead for a very long time.  I just paint what I like, and that’s not going to change wherever I live.

allow me to bring out my inner seinfeld and ask, what’s the deal with apples? they seem to appear quite frequently in your art.

There are a couple of subjects or symbols I’ve started to reuse over and over again in my work.  Apples are probably the most frequent.  I’m not sure I can easily explain their meaning.  They don’t just represent one thing.  When I’m designing a painting, it has an overall meaning or story or feeling I’m trying to convey.  I’ll take these “icons” or characters from previous works and recast them in the new piece to help make the work more meaningful and successful, like the way a director will use the same actors for all of his movies.  The objects’ personalities develop a little further every time they’re used because they take with them the preceding connotations they stood for, and eventually they do start to get type cast.  When none of them seem to fit a part, a new character gets created and then becomes part of the revolving cast.  I’m sure this is all really boring.  I hope you’re sorry for asking.  I meant to say that the apples mean I didn’t get enough hugs when I was a kid.

besides from art museums, what has been your favorite museum you have visited? why?

Tough one.  I really like aquariums.  I don’t know if that counts.  The one in Monterey is by far the best I’ve been to.  Everything in the ocean is so odd - the shapes, the movement, the textures.  I always walk away with a new colour palette idea.  I won’t eat fish because they look so weird.  I don’t want those slimy little aliens in my mouth.  I like zoos, too.  I did a lot of zoological illustration in college.  It doesn’t bother me that the animals look sad.  I think all animals look sad.  I’ve just always assumed it because people were around.  When we’re not around, they’re probably really enjoying themselves.

in an all out brawl, who comes away the victor: zombie, ninja, pirate, or viking? and which one would have the best artist career in modern times based on historical context?

Don’t be ridiculous.  You know full well that it depends on the location of the fight - home court advantage and all.  But, whoever got bit by the zombie first would probably have the upper hand.  I mean, a zombie ninja could be pretty unstoppable.  I’m gonna have to go with the zombie for having the most promising art career:  First of all he doesn’t eat, so starving to death isn’t a possibility.  Second, I can’t imagine his sloppy technique being much different than Basquiat’s.  Third, the American public is obsessed with blood hungry, drooling, rude, morally and intellectually absent assholes that smell bad, have missing teeth, and dress in rags.  Just look at Amy Winehouse.

i see you have written a novel, do prop design, paint, sculpt, etc… what artistic way of expressing yourself do you find the most self satisfying?

Oh, probably painting.  It’s not the most immediately satisfying art to make, but the audience can connect to it almost instantaneously.  It’s a standalone piece.  It doesn’t have to go with anything.  You just look at it.  You don’t read it.  You don’t walk around it.  You don’t wait for it to do something or reveal itself to you.  You just look at it and feel and think.  And if it’s a good piece, and I mean a really good piece, it changes you.  And you’re never the same.  And you don’t do a thing.  Just sit and look. 

if you weren’t creating art, what do you believe you would be doing?

I always wanted to be a really successful accountant.  I’d work nine to five, have paid benefits, vacation time, sick days, weekends off.  I’d have a wife and a nice house.  I’d have kids, and I would never have to worry about putting them through college.  My parents would be proud of me.  And when people asked me what I did for a living, I’d say, “Oh, I’m an accountant,” and I wouldn’t have to explain anything.  They’d just know I counted stuff.

if daniel elson was a fisher-price toy, which toy would he be and why?

Um….is there like a turtle or something that explodes when he drinks whiskey?  I think he’s part of the Sesame Street line.  They should really go back to making those old wooden pull toys.  The early stuff that was developed under Margaret Evans Price is great.

Popularity: 24% [?]