After curating Printed: Contemporary Prints and Books by North Carolina Artists at the Greenhill Center for NC Art and being on the Lump radar for years, we decided to find out a little more about Fick with this email conversation.
Jerstin Crosby: I was thinking about it and I guess I've never heard where you're from originally.
Bill Fick: I was born in Indonesia and grew up in Venezuela (early 60's through the 70's). My father worked for an oil company.
JC: Wow, I was expecting Virginia, or maybe Michigan. I bet you ate some really great food growing up in Venezuela.
BF: Definitely, I'm a big fan of Latin American food.
JC: Do you think that up bringing consciously or sub-consciously affected your work in any way?
BF: I think both. I've always been interested in narrative images and Latin America has a strong tradition of that. Holy icons and other religious images were very common - especially during holidays. Something that I'll never forget is how during Easter full sized Judas effigies were hung from trees. Very strong and scary image for a kid - so perhaps that subconsciously led me to make bold graphic work as an adult.
JC: I can see the icon influence perhaps in the singularity of most of your work. One grotesque face, or one skull. Maybe we should collaborate on a Judas piñata. I'm trying to think of what exactly would come out of a Judas piñata when you whack it open.
BF: Making a Judas piñata would be cool. Maybe suckers would come out.
Hmmmmm, an installation of piñatas would be amazing. Maybe the Cannonball guys would be interested in something like that.
JC: Suckers, exactly, I was thinking of those sculptural prints that Tom Huck, and Cannonball are making.
At World Market they have those chocolates that are packaged to look like gold coins, maybe that could be the surprise inside.
BF: The sculptural prints are very cool. They could also be made with photocopies - much faster. Chocolate coins are perfect. Sweet greed!
JC: Is "Printed" your first time in the role of a curator? If not, what
are the others?
BF: Yes.
By the way, here's a link to a good review that came out a few days ago. Hope it helps to bring in a few people.
Press Link
JC: Ok, last question. I swear. What America really wants to know, do you believe in El Chupacabra?
BF: El Chupacabra is a nasty creature. I definitely believe in it. Kind of like a blood sucking boogey man beast.
Find out more about Bill Fick at Cockeyed Press.
