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Monday, 19 April 2010

Interview | John Casey

John Casey, an American artist and illustrator creates pieces of work which are strange and unsettling. His work focuses on bringing these strange yet endearing characters to life, using a range of different mediums from pen and pencil to sculpture. If you’re brave enough to look past the initial shock of John’s work then you’ll get to know some quite interesting and humorous characters. We got to know John and his illustrations a little better by asking a few questions.
This was one of my fave interviews!
I’ve been having a search on the internet on the reaction to your work, and it seems to come to a similar consensus. One blogger (John Martz from DRAWN!) posted: ‘I don’t know quite what to make of the strange drawings and sculptures of John Casey, but I kinda like ‘em!’…
JC: Reactions to my work range from “Yikes, that’s some creepy shit” to “I like that funny, creepy shit.” I can understand folks being initially repelled by my work. I distort or morph my characters and often place them in uncomfortable situations. I can see how that might put a viewer off. But the adventuresome who spend some time with the work will hopefully discover different layers to the work, possibly some humor.

I started from a similar place as Martz, there’s a kind of initial grotesque element to your work but a curiousness soon takes over and wouldn’t allow me to take my eyes away. Once the initial shock had sifted away, I was left with humanising and heart warming characteristics emanating from all of your figures. Each character has it’s own individual personality. Where does the inspiration for these illustrations come from?
JC: I try to conjure feelings from a very intuitive place emotionally. That probably sounds a little new-agey, but it’s the truth. The characters are a kind emotional self-portrait. The world I have imagined for these characters is a place where people’s bodies distort or morph based on their states of mind. The basic laws of physics and biology do not apply in this world. Hands and noses and heads grow large, heads detach from bodies and fly around, eye sockets sprout hands and flowers. It’s kind of like having an unfortunate super power.

You speak in your statement about how you’d rather people didn’t refer to these illustrations as monsters as you see elements of yourself in them...
JC: I suppose everyone has some monster in them. The term monster can be used in a one-dimensional manner connoting a simple frightening creature bent on malice. I see my monsters more like Shelley’s Frankenstein where the monster is also vulnerable and misunderstood. I try to conjure these beings from a dark place in my mind, but once I shine the light on them they seem absurd and fragile and funny at times and not so scary.
Do you feel that you’ve left a chunk of yourself on the paper once you’ve finished? As though it’s a kind of creative detox?
JC: Yes! That is a good way to describe the result of my creative process. I’m not always 100% pleased with the result, but as long as I can channel my intuitive flow, the work will convey an honest attempt at something personal.

How do you begin a new piece of work? Is it a process which consists of constantly analysing your own characteristics?
JC: There is not much overt self-analyizing. A new piece begins in a relatively simple way. I usually imagine a character in a situation, and then I tap into the intuitive stream and try to let the being emerge naturally in the initial pencil drawing. Once the idea and being begin to take form, I then apply more conscious decisions. But these decisions are usually formal ones like “Does this hand look better here or behind the back?” or “Should the head be looking the other way?”
There are also so many tensions flying around these characters. Sometimes I didn’t know whether to be repulsed and look away or laugh. How do you create such a juxtaposition of emotions on one page?
JC: Honestly, I’m not really sure. When I go to that intimate intuitive mental cave, I enter blind. I grope around for the thing that feels right but won’t look directly at it. I need the dark stuff to remain a mystery to me. I just try to release the tension onto the paper, or into the sculpture, during the process. At some point I try to make “wrong” conscious decisions. A character seems like it should be posed a certain way, but then I reconsider and say, “There is probably another way this could go.”

Do you take inspiration from other artists?
JC: Absolutely. I think it’s important to look at all kinds of art to simply understand your work in the greater art context. It’s also equally important to spend the time in the studio on your own work, but overall art appreciation only adds to one’s development.
You also mention in your statement that this fascination stems from childhood. Why this interest in weird and perhaps at times disturbing characters?
JC: When I was nine-years-old, I had a couple of surgeries to correct my misaligned legs. I was convalescing for almost a year. My friends would come by and visit, but this was before the advent of video games, so they’d soon get bored and go off to play in the sunshine. I’d end up alone a lot, and I would pass the time drawing and inventing all kinds of weird creatures. I did that sort of thing at an even younger age, but the fascination and devotion really developed in my ninth year and has carried me to this point.

I really like how you talk about the ink being permanent and that you have to know when to stop as there’s no eraser or going back once a mark is made. How do you know when you’re finished? How do you stop yourself from thinking it needs one more or two more marks before it’s complete?
JC: Practice. Practice and ruining many a decent drawing. There’s no definitive stopping point in a pen and ink drawing. It’s more like reaching a saturation point. I’ve come to discover that less is more.
The Pictoplasma: Pen to Paper show opened in Berlin last week and is due to open in Paris early May. Hailing from the USA, how do you feel about having your work touring Europe? Does it make you proud to know that it’s so far away from home?
JC: Yes indeed. It is quite pleasing to think that a part of you is out there traveling the world and making an impression. Makes me want to be there in person.
All images belong to John Casey 2010 http://www.bunnywax.com/

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