The Paint Crew

TRANSCRIPT OF INTERVIEW WITH MODERN ARTSY AFICIONADO MAGAZINE

Modern Artsy Aficionado (MAA): It’s a great pleasure to be interviewing you here in your studio – thank you so much for having us.

DamnPhotoArtist (DPA): Yes

MAA: Is this where all the magic happens, or do you have a laptop or a tablet you use sometimes? I noticed a nice garden with a fountain and a fire pit in your backyard; looks like a wonderful place to create art.

DPA: No.

MAA: Okay. All your work is accomplished on this desktop computer then. Can you tell us how it’s configured?

DPA: No.

MAA: It must be especially powerful to render the images you create.

DPA: I don’t know.

MAA: You have it playing music, too; some spirited alternative Rock, I believe. Do you always play music when you’re creating, and do you always have it playing so loud?

DPA: Yes

MAA: Just for this interview could you turn it down a little?

DPA: No.

MAA: Please? I want to make sure I can understand you.

DPA: No.

MAA: Pretty please?

DPA: No.

MAA: Well, moving right along then; tell me about the moniker you use, ‘Damn Photo Artist’. Where did that come from?

DPA: I don’t know.

MAA: Don’t you? Well, according to your agent, it’s a name you use just to aggravate more traditional art critics who object to the use of computers to create art. According to your agent, it’s consistent with your feelings that so many things you’ve done in your life has flown in the face of ‘tradition’; that your work has always challenged the status quo. Tell me about that.

DPA: I don’t remember.

MAA: Do you enjoy aggravating your critics?

DPA: I don’t know.

MAA: If I understand correctly, all your work is created using your own photography.

DPA: Yes.

MAA: Do you consider yourself more of a photographer or more of an artist?

DPA: Yes.

MAA: Which?

DPA: Yes.

MAA: I’m going to take that to mean you don’t put any more emphasis on one than the other. Let’s talk about your process because there have been so many questions about how you create the art you do. You’ve been previously quoted as saying you apply filters to a photograph in layers and then blend those layers in different ways, using different transparencies to generate art you call ‘abstract realism’ – art derived from a real-life image that abstracts reality.

DPA: I don’t know.

MAA: I’d like to use your work titled ‘The Paint Crew’ as an example. The subject of the image is quite clear: a group of men on a scaffold painting the side of a building. But the way colors shift and fade, seem to streak and overlap, oversaturate. It includes just what the eye would see, but not at all what the eye would see, within the same composition. It both interprets reality and warps it.

DPA: I don’t know.

MAA: I spoke with your agent about this work as well; he compared it to a previous work you’ve exhibited, ‘The Chalk Artists’, which won first place in category at a recent showing. He said the techniques employed were similar, though you spent much more time on the background for ‘The Paint Crew’.

DPA: I don’t know.

MAA: And about that background work, I’m told for a work like ‘The Paint Crew’ you zoom into an image and begin selecting small pieces of the photograph to work with independently, often pulling them into a separate canvas to apply vastly different techniques than the rest of the image, then copy the finished result back into the original image where it’s blended and filtered again to create a new whole. One of your finished works that started as a single photograph has been pulled into multiple images that are recombined into a single image again. Can you tell me if this is accurate?

DPA: No.

MAA: Can’t or won’t?

DPA: Yes.

MAA: What are you working on right now? Do you have new work coming out you’re excited about?

DPA: I don’t know.

MAA: You generally exhibit two new works a week on your blog; sometimes three. How far ahead are you working?

DPA: I don’t remember.

MAA: I should tell you I’ve talked with a friend of yours from your past – do you remember Sinole O’Leary?

DPA: No.

MAA: The two of you had a real falling out, didn’t you? He seems to believe he is responsible for your creative inspirations and that your entire career is based on the foundation he laid, but clearly trust issues have developed between the two of you.

DPA: I don’t remember.

MAA: If I tell you he told me not to believe a word you say and that he intends violence if he ever sees you again, how do you feel about that?

DPA: I don’t know.

MAA: Doesn’t the threat of violence frighten you?
 
DPA: No.

MAA: I notice you’ve turned the volume of your music up significantly. One more question and we’ll get leave you alone. Are you on drugs?

DPA: I don’t remember. Yes and no.

​-CH