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Words with Cornwall based artist and surfer Laurie McCall
What inspires you to create art? The things I see around me, images in non-fiction books, magazines, photos, other artist’s work, people. All of these contribute toward ideas. I love how limitless art can be, the possibilities are endless and that keeps me motivated to make my next piece. I never really know what’s coming next. I also get a real feeling of satisfaction when I finish a piece, so it can get quite addictive!
Preferred medium: I work predominantly in collage but often like to mix things up by adding paint and other artists materials. Most of the paper and imagery I use in my collages come from regular trips to car boot sales where there is always an abundance of old books, magazines and other treasures on offer.
Tell us about yourself: I studied graphic design at university and I feel that this training has had a strong influence on the work I produce. I work as a freelance Graphic Designer and practice art in my spare time, although I would love for things to be the other way around! I live on a little farm near a small seaside town in the southwest of England and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. I have been a keen surfer since I was whippersnapper so the beach is also a big influence and part of my life.
Artist, Andreas Schimanski grew up in Northern Germany, studied architecture and fine arts in Bremen and Berlin and was a student of Katharina Sieverding’s master class. He is known for his video works and installations. These days his approach is much more open, he works with photography paintings and video. Andreas Schimanski lives and works in Berlin, fell in love with New York and likes to work in London.
Artist, Nathan Cann speaks to Voight Kampff Magazine
Current City: Saint John, NB, Canada
What are your preferred methods of production and what materials do you like to use? I prefer to work daily, spending either the entire day in the studio pumping out ideas and artwork or at minimum, an hour of production a day. Even if I’m not creating something, I’m spending time in my studio space simply thinking. My new habit, is to work in series. Everything must be a series. Every idea I have has to be worked out in a series or mass produced until I’ve finished and created something I can respect or until I’ve made something so terrible I have to quit. Materials have no limit in my practice. I tend to find objects that are readily available more appealing, but even then, these found materials could be virtual aesthetics in video games (Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, etc) to old magazines or roaches/cigarette butts. Material choice is usually determined by the idea I am currently invested in.
What would you say are the main influences on your artwork. What inspires you as an artist? Moments, moments are my influence. Moments of thought, experiences, daily activities, art making, simple moments that I experience as an artist and as a person. I’ve worked with online first person shooters and how the event of death in these types of games is completely desensitized to the player who acts out these scenes on a daily basis. A similar moment of death experienced in popular games like Grand Theft Auto or All Points Bulletin became an acute focus in my practice; how innocent computerized bystanders become infused with the violent shenanigans the players creates. Moments of thought the artist has while working in the studio and progressing through life combined with a sense of spiritual zen practices, both ideas draw on the notions of daily activities. I’m constantly inspired by my surroundings, the events which take place within them, and the moments that go unnoticed.
Favourite music to design/work with? J Dilla, Slum Village
Favourite Book: House of Leaves
Favourite Movie: Pulp Fiction
Are you working on anything at the moment or do you have any future projects coming up that you would like people to know about? Enso 1-100 is my continual project about the study of the Japanese word for “circle”, a word that holds a strong association with Zen practice and minimalist painting. The focus of constantly making these circles is an expression of the moment. These circles depict the moment in which they are made and the thought that the creator was holding while constructing them. It is a look into the thought process of the artist. I figured that if I continually made them over and over again on a daily basis, I would eventually become a master Enso maker; however, I didn’t want to go about this project traditionally by using brush & ink. My Enso should be made as an expression of the artist with a focus on aesthetics and the idea’s of the artist being examined at the moment of the Enso’s creation. So while some of these works are terrible and abstracted, others have strong connections and interpretive meanings. I find that these are the perfect way for the viewer to examine the “maker” from the outside. My only problem is what I should do with them all.
Artist, Rosie Curran speaks to Voight Kampff Magazine
Current City: I’m currently based in Brighton
What are your preferred methods of production and what materials do you like to use? I like using neocolours, inks and paint pens. I’ll normally start doing other ideas when I’m supposed to be working on something else then I’ll go back to the old one. Everything gets completed although I’m undecided on whether this is actually the most effective way of going about things but it does mean I end up with a ton of new ideas and drawings. I think its a reluctance to commit to making something that will be perfect from the off all the way to the end, as sometimes for me the result of this can come off looking a little cold.
What would you say are the main influences on your artwork. What inspires you as an artist? I like to produce work to make myself and my friends laugh. A big influence of mine is definately Vic Reeves and I love Chris Johannsson.
Favourite music to design/work with? Chromeo, Sebastien Tellier and Elton John.
Favourite Book: Favourite book is A Diamond As Big As The Ritz by F Scott Fitzgerald or Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut.
Favourite Movie: Favourite film is Fargo.
Are you working on anything at the moment or do you have any future projects coming up that you would like people to know about? I’m working on some stuff for a band called Traams who are on Fatcat records, look out for them! Also new painted window displays for Lick Frozen Yoghurt.
Artist, Tom Froese speaks to Voight Kampff Magazine
Current City: Vancouver
What are your preferred methods of production and what materials do you like to use? It varies but usually consists of starting with some drawings, scanning them in, and then layering coloured shapes and scanned bric-a-brac overtop. That is certainly what’s happening in the featured illustrations here. One of my favourite things to do is scan in hand-painted brush strokes and blobs and find beautiful accidental features to work for certain parts of my illustration.
What would you say are the main influences on your artwork. What inspires you as an artist? Main influences are both contemporary and classic. Lauren Nassef, Paul Rand, Saul Bass, Ben Shahn, Frank Chimero, Kate O’Connor, Ray Fenwick, Always with Honour … the list could go on and on!
Favourite music to design/work with? I really like working with music that carries on in the background without drawing too much attention to itself. Music that acts as a conveyor belt for my conscience. Lately, this is Tycho, Com Truise, Diiv, and Helios. I’ve also been known to dig into some shoe gazer music from time to time. Totally geeky and 1990s but it really energizes me sometimes.
Favourite Book: That’s a toughie. I have most enjoyed kids books like The Chronicles of Narnia, or picture books like Miroslav Sasek’s This Is series.
Favourite Movie: Probably The Royal Tenenbaums.
Are you working on anything at the moment or do you have any future projects coming up that you would like people to know about? I will be working with my friend Vince at Everlovin’ Press (everlovinpress.com) this year to produce a set of Canadian-themed letterpress cards. I’ll probably tweet about it sometime in the near future
Artist, Patric Dreier speaks to Voight Kampff Magazine
Current City: Leipzig, Germany.
What are your preferred methods of production and what materials do you like to use? I mainly work over photographic material I collect wherever I am, I go around and take images of the urban surrounding. With the collected material I start to rebuild what I had seen and transform it to new images I’d like to see, fragments of an imaginary city.
What would you say are the main influences on your artwork. What inspires you as an artist? Architecture.
Favourite music to design/work with? Minimal.
Favourite Book: Sartre, No Exit.
Artist, Scott Dickson speaks to Voight Kampff Magazine
Current City: Lawrence, Kansas- about 40 some miles west of Kansas City, Missouri.
What are your preferred methods of production and what materials do you like to use? I predominantly use a process that is both collage and décollage- rather than layering or removing, I create my pieces by inlaying material to create a single unified surface. The materials are strictly postcards (both old and new) and printmaking papers. Each card or fragment of a card is cut with an exacto knife and then taped in place on the back of the piece.
What would you say are the main influences on your artwork. What inspires you as an artist? Album artwork, quilts, architecture, science fiction films/books/art, and being outdoors.
Favourite music to design/work with? I listen to just about everything and often look for groups that combine elements from different genres. Some groups that have had heavy rotation for me lately are the following.
Yes- anything from ‘71-‘80
Father Figure- Congratulations For Your Loss
Town Portal- Chronopoly, Vacuum Horror
Delicate Steve- Positive Force, Wondervisions
Fang Island- Fang Island
Battles- Mirrored, Gloss Drop
Favourite Book: East of Eden- John Steinbeck
Favourite Movie: Two that come to mind are Lars Van Trier’s Melancholia and Lynne Ramsay’s Ratcatcher.
Are you working on anything at the moment or do you have any future projects coming up that you would like people to know about? My wife and I are in the final months before we leave the midwest and begin a thru hike of the Appalachian Trail- a 2000+ hike from Georgia to Maine. Before and after that I am spending a lot of time in studio working towards my first solo exhibition in November 2013 at Plug Projects in Kansas City, Missouri.
Artist, photographer and musician Taylor Loftin speaks to Voight Kampff Magazine
Current City: Memphis, TN
What are your preferred methods of production and what materials do you like to use? Lately, I’ve been throwing the gouache around a lot, and then laying down ink line work over that. Very graphic/illustrative. I’ve also been obsessed with gold metallic paints for about a year now. I don’t sketch a whole lot. I wish I did. Usually I just get an idea, contemplate, perhaps do a couple rough sketches if I’m unsure, and then go for it. It never looks the way I thought it would, but I like that. This method of production will certainly adapt to my level of seriousness. But right now, I’m just having fun learning.
What would you say are the main influences on your artwork. What inspires you as an artist? I’ve been strangely influenced by Eastern Orthodox Iconography. Can’t get enough. Combine that with a nostalgia for Mississippi and weird stuff happens. It’s something of a Southern Gothic outlook. Strange yet beautiful. I want to paint the human condition as I see it where I am. But I mostly just paint rocket ships instead.
Favourite music to design/work with? Right now I’ve been listening to Sufjan Stevens’s new SIlver & Gold album to get me in the Christmas spirit. And then Ty Segall, Jay Reatard, and JEFF the Brotherhood to get me out of it.
Favourite Book: I’ve been reading a lot of Flannery O’Connor lately. But I think Kafka has inspired me the most this past year.
Favourite Movie: Wes Anderson is my favorite.
Are you working on anything at the moment or do you have any future projects coming up that you would like people to know about? I’m currently learning how to draw, because I don’t really think I know how to. And I have a band called The Leave Me Be’s. I find myself combining more and more of my skills as a visual artist into this music project my friend and I started in his storage shed last year. I love it.
Bandcamp - The Leave Me Be’s
Artist, Justin Angelos speaks to Voight Kampff Magazine
Current City: Burlingame, California
What are your preferred methods of production and what materials do you like to use? I use mainly scissors and spray-glue and my primary materials are magazines, old paper, spray paint and ink.
What would you say are the main influences on your artwork. What inspires you as an artist? I like creating something new out of something old and I’m often inspired by the images I find within the magazines and books I collect. Life, death, the animal world and primitive culture also inspire my work.
Favourite music to design/work with? I like being transported to another place while creating a world for my work to live in. I’ve been listening to a lot of dub-step in the past few years. Beastie Boys, NIN,TV ON THE RADIO, Kings of Leon, Kid Cudi, EL-p on heavy rotation as well.
Favourite Book: The Hobbit and 2012 Fiskars catalogue
Favourite Movie: Gummo
Are you working on anything at the moment or do you have any future projects coming up that you would like people to know about? I’ve got a group show with some amazing artist coming up in 2013 at CES Contemporary in Laguna Beach, California and I’m working on a book of my work entitled “Raise the Dead” Stay tuned!
Artist, James Kaufmann speaks to Voight Kampff Magazine
Current City: Iowa City, Iowa
What would you say are the main influences on your artwork. What inspires you as an artist? I look at a lot of art and I suspect that all of it is grist for the mill. I’ve always liked drawings by John Casey, Thinkmule, Mel Kadel, and Sean Alexander. I wish I could make work like that of Karl Wirsum and Jim Nutt. I am also fascinated by the wood “sculptural” pieces done by Richard Pearse. They are amazing, almost more like collages somehow, and they are an endless source of pleasure and inspiration.
What are your preferred methods of production and what materials do you like to use? I like working with old paper on vintage book covers and I like working by hand. When I draw there is no plan. Things just happen.
Favourite music to design/work with: These days I am listening to the Black Keys, Joe Zawinul, Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra, and Buddy Guy in no particular order.
Favourite Book: Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell and The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt. I have reread the former 6 times.
Favourite Movie: Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets and Sergio Leone’s The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. I can watch these films again and again.
Artist, Jordan Clark speaks to Voight Kampff Magazine
Current City: Upland, California
What would you say are the main influences on your artwork. What inspires you as an artist? I like to turn the lights off in my room, use one little lamp to light up my desk, and listen to music…
What are your preferred methods of production and what materials do you like to use? I like to use an x-acto knife, scissors, and a gluestick. I like to use books and magazines from the 1940’s to the mid 1980’s. I like the aesthetic of the pictures more than the ones nowadays. They are too glossy
Favourite music to design/work with? My favorite music to work with would probably be: The Growlers, Ty Segall, Lou Reed, The Modern Lovers and the soundtrack to High School Musical 2.
Favourite Book: My favorite book is magazines
Favourite Movie: Can the entire fourth season of Seinfeld, count?
Artist, Ben Giles speaks to Voight Kampff Magazine
Current City: Kingston - London
What are your preferred methods of production and what materials do you like to use? Materials that have been used before, found objects, forgotten things, Juxtaposing mediums and things, anything remotely childish.
What would you say are the main influences on your artwork. What inspires you as an artist? Colour, and I suppose reaching for a clarity in the piece and myself. Music has always motivated what I do more than art, the compositions of music and the way some artists deconstruct the typical structures of music, you could say as an artist this is what I try to do with my pieces, gathering all the components, the chorus, melody, bridge, intro etc etc from disparate sources and piecing it together like a composer.
Favourite music to design/work with? Don Caballero, Storm and Stress, Battles, Deerhoof, more recently Tenebre, Electric Electric, Dad Rocks, This Town Needs Guns, Everything Everything and Gallops.
Favourite Book: The Sound and the Fury, and Manhattan Transfer
Favourite Movie: Memento, Taxi Driver, The Proposition, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, 2001 Space Odyssey, Tree of Life, Oldboy, Lost in Translation.
Are you working on anything at the moment or do you have any future projects coming up that you would like people to know about? I’m working on a few exciting projects but it’s too early to say what they are at the moment, but some should start materialising just after christmas, and hopefully a couple of shows next year, other than that I’ve just been collecting different materials to continue my practice.
(crate sculpture is a collaboration between Ben Giles & Harry Fletcher)
Artist, Siard Bijkersma speaks to Voight Kampff Magazine
Current City: Amsterdam
What would you say are the main influences on your artwork. What inspires you as an artist? Music and film are the biggest influences on my artwork. Music has a direct influence on my work. I can’t work without it. It works like a soundtrack. So I would say, music and film, but experiences as well. I also want to become a movie director, so that’s what inspires me mostly.
What are your preferred methods of production and what materials do you like to use? It all starts with ideas, daydreaming, listening to music and brainstorming. Once I have an image in mind I’ll start working on it right away. I don’t do any sketches so the brainstorming part is the most important part of the process. I prefer to think and daydream a lot before production. I like to use A4 paper, black markers, paint, colour pencils, a Sakura Pigma Micron pen, and a drawing pencil
Soundtrack to your life: Interpol, Paul Banks, The Cure, The National, Mogwai, Alec Ounsworth, Bon Iver, Instrumentals
Favourite Book: The Stranger - Albert Camus, , Freedom - Jonathan Franzen ,The Trial - Franz Kafka
Favourite Movie: Junebug, The Vicious Kind, Sunshine Cleaning, Away We Go, Little Miss Sunshine, Memento, Mulholland Drive, The Straight Story.
http://www.theamericansoundtrack.com/
The project ‘The American Soundtrack’ is supported by the Mondriaan Fund
