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Finish this sentence: “If I wasn’t an artist, I would be a….”
Designer? Is that far enough? I think--I do design work as well so I do commercial illustration so I guess I currently am still a designer but ah I don’t know I think the two are almost hand in hand and there is very little grey area between the two so I think I would still be able to do creative work as a designer even if I wasn’t an artist. But even if I wasn’t a designer it would be some kind of position where I could have creative control. And have you always been a creative person? Yeah, well I don’t know if I’ve always been creative. I think its kinda cocky of me to say I’m creative, so. I’ve always been quirky, found interest in things other than sports. I’ve always been interested in painting and making art. When I was a little kid my parents took me to China Town. I’m from Scarborough so it was a big deal to go there and they got me a paint kit or whatever. So that was like the first thing because it was so exciting even getting the materials and then to painting with them. How did you get started? Yeah, well my grandma painted—everyone was a hobby artist kind of. My dad painted, my aunt painted, my cousins a photographer so everyone was sort of very accepting of the arts. There was not any resistance from anyone. That really helped me. I went to regular high school and then I went to OCAD for drawing and painting...I went to George Brown for a year first so I could get into OCAD. Most of your stuff is on the computer. Do you still ever paint or draw? Not at all, no. Paint was a tool to express the images that I wanted to make that I didn’t know how to make any other way. So now that I can make them all digitally it’s sort of not necessary for me to paint. Do you have a “day job”? Umm…not really. I do commercial illustration as well as art making and occasionally I do these workshops at OCAD. There’s this digital painting lab that’s opened up and it’s for painters who kind of want to do things like me. And want to apply new skills to the traditional practice. So they had me in there last year like one on one with students. It was really super cool. It was informal so it was really cool and you could help students with individual projects one on one. This year I might just be there for faculty, professional development so they can learn some of those skills and disseminate them to their students. Oh! So you went to OCAD and now you’re going back and teaching the teachers? (Laughs) It’s kind of funny to put it that way but I’m teaching them different things. A lot of them are traditional painters that didn’t grow up with computers like I did so now I can go back and it’s an easy way for them to pick and choose what they want to learn. Add it to their own artistic practices. So you make a living on your art? Yeah, I guess so. Along with my professional illustration. But a lot of companies contact me for my specific style. So it’s not completely different. It always looks like I made it. What’s your typical process in creating a piece/How long does it take? It’s hard to say. It takes usually…it could take a week or two weeks to make something work. Now its been taking me so long cause I’m getting really concerned with how people see the work. I mean, I kind of want to look like I’m progressing and make it interesting for myself too. I don’t want to make work that looks exactly like the last thing I made. Now it’s kinda hard for me to find that certain spot to start at. And I just got back from San José a few days ago, and I was there a few weeks so I’m just adjusting to like real world versus like “the California” world. Do you find being on the road with your shows inspires you or gives you new references from which to draw? Definitely…not. No, I thought it would. I was like “this is going to fill me with all new ideas”. But it totally didn’t. Your focus is on something totally different and yeah… Ever had any funny/weird responses to your work/stalker fans? No, no. (laughs) No, I don’t anticipate that happening. I think its cool for artists because we can be in paper and we can be on TV or whatever and still no one recognizes us. ‘Cause it’s kinda like this [points at one of his pieces]. You can operate off the radar. I like that. Do you like talking shop or are you a more in the background kind of person? Yeah, I mean, I like the background. But I guess I kinda feel like, I don’t mind it but I feel like…why would anybody care? I’m proud of what I do, but I don’t understand why anyone would want to read about me or something. You mentioned before about my process? I use about four different programs in total, including one for my iPhone. I can rough in things on my iPhone and email it to myself. When I get home I put in these archetypal images in every one. So the clouds are the same and the smoke stacks are all the same. I keep them the same to give that sense of continuity in the works. Then I pop in the absolute stand-ins and then from there I get a feeling for what it’s going to look like. If its going to be a big monument in the center or be more random whatever…and the camera angle. And then I have to find the right colour combination that takes forever. Does that long process frustrate you? No, I mean it’s cool. I have to wait like five minutes before it renders so it’s sorta like “Okay, lets see what this looks like.” So then I go do administrative stuff and then go back and see and say “okay, maybe not”. It’s a lot of that kind of stuff. Do you ever have to leave a piece and walk away? Yeah, like sometimes, like right now uh I’ve been working on something and I’m not sure. So I might just render it and then tomorrow morning just kind of take a look at it with fresh eyes and I’ll probably know right away what was wrong with it or what needs to be done. Sometimes I’ve had pieces that are just dunzo, never been finished. What’s the biggest sacrifice you’ve made for your craft? I don’t think I’ve made any? I’m still able to do anything that I want. What keeps you motivated? Each piece I feel like I can make my own biosphere so it’s kinda like playing God a little bit so it’s kind of like enough to keep me motivated. Like “what kind of world am I going to make away”. It’s very rewarding in a Godlike, selfish way. What was the hardest decision you ever had to make? Art wise? I dunno. I guess it comes down a lot of the time to cost. So sometimes I have to weight the options about whether I should spend the money to make work or show when it isn’t for sale necessarily or participate in a show where I might not have the money to make the prints and the frames and to ship it but then it might be good exposure. So that’s difficult. I’ll always air on the side of exhibiting. Almost always I’m like…I’ll spend the money. Who is your greatest support? I’d say my partner Juliana. Because without her I wouldn’t be able to do the things I do for sure, for sure. If you could give the world one piece of advice, what would it be? I don’t want to say something that I’ll end up regretting cause that’s a big thing to say. Can you email me the question? (laughs) What is your idea of happiness? Umm being surrounded by other happy people. As long as everyone else is happy, I can be happy. If there’s like one or two people who are not happy then I can’t be happy. I try to be super nice to all my friends so it sort of comes back to you. I think it’s super important to make sure everyone around you is content. I’ve noticed some work in your work that there are kind of the remnants of humanity but no humans. So if it’s a zombie apocalypse, where do you go? Who would you want to be with? Uh…I’ll be straight up. I like horror films but I hate zombie films. They are the most frustrating cause there is no logic they are like mindless and they just come after you. It’s so frustrating. (…) Yeah, well I can say why I don’t put people in the work? (laughs) People do ask sometime and it’s a funny thing. I kind of create the work so it exists in no particular time and space. So I might have a castle made of stained glass or maybe a modern building made out of some crappy material but it’s like this mix of materials and architecture is unable to nail it down to any particular time and space. It doesn’t look like the past because they wouldn’t have stained glass castles. It’s not the future because that’s not a contemporary idea. So yeah, in the work I try to put it in a vacuum of time and space and I think the second you put people in, it nails it down ‘cause by their clothing. Their clothing right away you know where they are from and if they don’t have clothing its pre civilization. After the interview, I harassed Alex for the answer to the “What would you tell the world?” question. His response was: “One piece of advice would be to treat everyone as if it's the last time that you'll see them. is that too grim?” Frankly, I think it’s pretty spot on! |
