First of all
I would like to thank Cian and his class for their interest in my
work and for their great questions. What age are you guys again?
Anyway here goes.
Do you prefer
using computer or hand?
Do you use state-of-the-art technology for your work?
I like computers,
especially Apple. What kind of computer do you use? Do you use Apple?
Brian, we know
that you put the work in the scanner and then mix them, getting
a different picture. How long do you take on the computer with your
work and what are you trying to find in your picture?
How many pictures
have you made in the last year?
Did you ever
do something by mistake in art and then it turned out to be brilliant?
How many magazines
have you been in?
As an illustrator
I try to work on as many different topics as I can so I am not pigeonholed
into working on just one type of subject. So I can be working on
several unrelated
topics at any
one time. As a result my drawings appear in many different newspapers
and magazines, such as Rolling Stone (a music magazine),
The New York Times (newspaper), GQ (a man's fashion
magazine) and Newsweek (a weekly international news magazine).
I would say I have been in approximately...in fact out of my own
curiosity I counted 206 magazines and newspapers (worldwide) that
my drawings have appeared in. Some of these are no longer in publication
but have been replaced by new ones.
Sticking with
your statistical questions I did 77 commissioned drawings in 2001.
I love to work
with my hands and have always created my work with pencil, paint
and paper. I use a computer (Mac) only to experiment with colour,
I scan in my sketches and add and subtract colour until I reach
a decision. This can range in time from 10 minutes to a few days
depending on the piece of work. Once I have decided on a colour
palette I mix my paints and store them in jars till I am ready to
paint. The colours on the screen are always lighter and more vibrant
so I spend a long time mixing paint to try and match as close as
possible. Of course the paper absorbs a lot so it dries darker and
then there is the whole printing process which can change things
again. I tend to just concentrate on the illustration and let the
printing process do what it has to. Otherwise you would go mad for
sure.
I make mistakes
all the time, and sometimes something new will develop I find that
when I have finished an illustration and sent it off I forget about
it till I see it printed or get the original back. It is then that
I see what I was trying to do and can get a handle on where the
work is taking me.
What kind
of car do you drive?
I don't have
a car at this time as getting around where I live (Manhattan New
York) is best by walking. But I have had cars in the past. My last
one was a BMW 2002, a real classic (not to be confused with a new
BMW of this calendar year). Myself and Siúin (my wife who
is also an artist) are thinking of getting a place upstate where
we can have some studio space so we will need a car. We want to
get a pickup truck. The one we are thinking of is a Chevy (we had
seen a brown one driving by when we were upstate recently it looks
great). That has a space behind the seats for our dog Patsy. If
I could buy any car I liked and I had endless amounts of cash I
would buy by an Austin Martin (the original James Bond car in gold
colour).
Do you think
that George Bush will do well as a President?
Does George
Bush like art?
Do you think
Clinton was a better President than Bush?
Does the American
Government give money to art?
I'd rather talk
about cars than George Bush but since you asked, I like him. I don't
think I would have voted for him (I didn't have a vote then as I
only just became an American citizen in June 01. I think since 9,11
he has done a great job. It's hard to say if Al Gore got in what
he would have done? I liked Clinton a lot. I enjoyed watching and
reading about him. He had a lot of humor and seemed to be enjoying
himself and as a result it was kind of contagious. He lifted people
up, but then it was a different time, George Bush is reacting to
much more serious stuff. As far as I know the US government doe's
not give money to Art. Not sure what kind of taste George W has
but I just saw a clip on TV of him looking at a portrait of himself
and he looked happy.
Why do you
think George Bush does not give money to art ?
I really don't
know. I think he has other plans for money.
Is art the
same since September 11?
Are more people
going to the galleries in New York than there were before September
11? Are they buying?
How did you feel
when the Twin Towers fell? Were you near it?
Have you drawn
any pictures of the Twin Towers?
Did September
11 affect art?
I was in Italy
on September 11 and was stunned at the news. We live on 12th street
in the Village (Greenwich Village) which is close to where the Towers
were, We see them every day when we are out in our neighborhood.
I think 9,11 changed everything. In some way I think it's too early
to say how it has affected art. I still go to galleries and I guess
others do as well. I think people will always want to see images
that were made by people.
I have done
a number of pictures relating to 9,11. In fact after the disaster
every assignment was related to the subject whatever the publication.
Who is your
favourite artist at the moment?
Do you ever
buy anyone else's pictures?
What artists
do you dislike now?
Do you have many
pictures hanging up in your house?
I don't have
a favorite artist at the moment and I don't really dislike any either.
Siúin bought me a drawing by Pierre Le Tan a few years ago
which I love, but I tend not to buy work. I'm just as happy to look
at it in galleries or books. Besides I change my mind a lot and
would get bored looking at the same pictures. Having said that the
only work on the walls of our apartment is mine and Siúin's.
Siúin is a textile designer and has designed a wonderful
throw which lies on our couch. It's big and it's pink. So if we
get bored with our art collection we just put it in storage and
replace it with more of our stuff.
Who is your
painter hero?
I
don't have a painter hero but I do like a lot of artists' work.
I guess the best way to fill you in would be to list the artists
from my bookshelf: Picasso, Bacon, Hockney, Calder, Léger, Magritte,
Eric Fraser, Milton Glaser, Robert Rauschenberg, Philip Guston,
A.R. Penck, Ralston Crawford, Rockwell
Kent, Eileen Gray, Domenico Tiepolo, Rachel Whiteread, David Salle,
Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, David Suter, Frida Kahlo, Georgii
Stenberg, Iosif Gerasimovich, Egon Schiele, De Chirico, Le Corbusier,
Jenny Saville, Peter Brooks, Ralph Steadman, Francesco Clemente,
Barbara Kruger, Stuart Davis, Chuck Close, Ross Bleckner, Brian
Maguire, Glen Baxter, Kathy Prendergast, Seymour Chwast, Tamara
de Lempicka, George Grosz, Keith Haring, Jackson Pollock, Henry
Darger, Christopher Wool, Calder, Gerhard Richter,
Antony Gormley, John Kindness.
Would you
run a gallery?
Is art getting
more competitive?
I wouldn't
know how to run a gallery and wouldn't be interested as there would
be too much time spent talking. It's like a business and that just
gives me the creeps. I like to keep things simple and straightforward.
In fact the less talking the better. I do virtually no talking all
day. Most of my day-to-day conversing is done via e-mail. That includes
getting assignments. There are a lot more illustrators than there
used to be and art directors have a world of talent to choose from
(it really is not important where you are any more). There will
always be other artists who have better ideas and that kinda shakes
you up and keeps you on your toes.
What age
were you when you started art ?
When you were
younger what did you dream for your future - was it art or something
else?
Who taught you
art?
I guess I was
3 or so. I don't know exactly but I was very young. I think everyone
starts off drawing and painting when they are small as a way to
learn. I don't think I thought of it as art, it was more like magic,
creating images that I couldn't even explain.
I always wanted
to be an artist although I told everyone I wanted to be an astronaut.
I don't know why. I guess it sounded more dangerous. I also wanted
to be a soldier but deep down from when I first started to draw
I knew I wanted to do this forever.
When I was
at school (High School) I was not interested in anything other than
art. I really wasn't interested in any of the other subjects. I
had a hard time spitting back information. Art was so basic, just
making marks on paper. I knew I could do that.
I don't think
anyone taught me. I don't think anyone really can, you just draw
and paint and you discover it for yourself. If you really like something
you spend a lot of time doing it and you grow with it.
What was
your first picture ?
Again I don't
remember my very first but I do remember an oil painting I did when
I was 12 or so it was a painting of the cattle market on the North
Circular. I grew up opposite it so it was an obvious subject. The
cattle market was full of small houses for the farmers to make deals
with the other farmers. Surrounding them were loads of fences where
the cattle would be. My house was very tall so from the top floor
looking down on the market it looked like a village in the country.
Fortunately at the time I didn't realize that it was the cow's last
resting place before they were slaughtered. Had I known that I wouldn't
have made a picture of it.
If you had
a choice to go somewhere and draw something would you either go
to space, stay here on earth and draw a picture of your family or
go underwater?
It depends.
If I am just going for a short trip or forever. If it's just a short
trip then I would like to go to space. It must be amazing to look
at the Earth from space but I wouldn't like to be stuck out there.
Do you use
the internet to get pictures off ?
I send some
of my finished drawings via e-mail. It's really great. I don't have
to wait for the Fedex guy, I can just send them when I'm ready and
it also means I can stretch my deadline (printing deadline for a
magazine/newspaper) till the very last minute. When I was living
in Italy last year I sent all my illustrations that way but now
that I'm back in the U.S. I have started to send out the originals
again.
The reason I
started to send the originals again is when I would scan my illustrations
I would sometimes correct the image, maybe brighten a colour or
remove an unwanted mark. The end result was that the original was
different from the scanned version. When I was working on the original
I knew if I made some unwanted marks I could clean them up later
without having to redo the entire illustration. As a result the
original finished illustration was becoming more like a sketch rather
than a finished piece of work. I think the computer removes you
away from the reality of things.
What is your
favorite picture that you haven't got bored of?
Usually my most
favorite piece is the piece I just did. I just did a painting of
a man's head (it looks like me a bit but it is not supposed to).
He has a shaven head. I don't. It's a very pale except for the shadow
of the shaved head. What I wanted to do was to focus on the top
of the head, forcing you to look at that area. From a distance you
really only see the shape of the top of the head. I really think
it worked out as I wanted it to. I like it a lot.
What do
you think art will be like in the year 2050?
Who is leading
the art world now?
What is the most
competitive area in art at the moment?
