Sunday, February 24, 2008

Jason Polan Interview



Jason Polan's Lump show, Eat Me Alive, is days away from being taken down but we revive Polan for one more romp on TeamLump Sucks.

Jason Polan interviewed by Jerstin Crosby

JC: Do you have a creed? What is it?

JP: I am Jewish. We were never raised very religious, but I am still
Jewish. Did I answer this question correctly? It was a pretty
intense first question.

JC: Yeah, you can answer them however you wish, or you can refuse to answer. Maybe though, I should have asked if you had a personal motto instead of creed. I was really looking to use creed in a sentence.

JP: To quote the singer pink, I M!ssundaztood. When I saw the word creed this is what went through my mind:

1. that was a comic book I used to like
2. does he want to know what religion I am
3. I will go to dictionary.com to clear all of this up

So, let's scrap the original answer--this is a new one.

1.) Do you have a creed? What is it?

Yea. I want to make people happy.

That is the answer to I think what you are asking. Once we get the ball rolling I think this will be fun.

I am attaching my submission for Copy Rats. It is Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen Combing His Hair. I hope it looks ok. I copied it from a comic book. I forgot to write down who the artist was (I think Curt Swan) so I will go back to the bookstore tomorrow and hopefully find it again. Is this drawing ok? Let me know if something else will
work better.



JC: Your Jimmy Olsen drawing sure made me happy. I've asked this question before to an interviewee, and I love it so much, I want to ask you if you have any recipes that you like to make, and could you share them with us?


JP: Jason's Buttery Garlic Pasta

ingredients:
pasta(any kind you like)
water
butter
garlic powder (dry, not fresh)

1. boil water
2. cook pasta to desired texture
3. strain out the water
4. put some butter and a little bit of the garlic powder on the pasta
5. let the butter melt while folding it into the pasta, with the garlic powder
6. enjoy


JC: Yum.

When you were young, what did you imagine yourself being? Anything other than an artist? I wanted to be a house painter, which I eventually got to do much of; dreams do come true.


JP: I wanted to be a major league baseball player for a while. It was a little odd, I kind of knew that it was an unrealistic idea even when I had it but I still felt that it would happen. I thought some major league scout would see me somewhere and offer me a position on his team.


JC: I just realized how well the Jimmy Olsen drawing you sent me goes with the cover art that I had chosen. Like peas n' carrots.

Are you currently working on any new books?

JP: I am trying to finish off compiling recommendations for the second issue of Recommended.

I am getting together with Shawn Creeden (do you know him, he is really nice and a good drawer) tomorrow to work on our book Wrestlers and Wildlife

Taco Bell Drawing Club Vol. III will be completed by mid march (do you want to go to taco bell and draw some sweet pictures to send to me?)

There are a couple others I can't think of right now. I stayed up too late last night and now it is early this morning. I watched the movie, Mean Creek, which was really sad and then I watched Swept Away, the Guy Ritchie/Madonna movie, that I thought was going to be funny because everyone hated it and I like Guy Ritchie but it was just really terrible and put me in a weird mood so then I had trouble falling asleep and my friend just called and I am now up enough to start doing things.

I am glad the Jimmy Olsen drawing worked out ok.

Talk soon. Sorry I sound so bitter in this email. I need to wake up!

JC: I'm gonna mail you the new book. Don't know
Shawn Creeden, maybe i should though. And of course I'll go to a taco bell and make stuff for v.III, I'll be there anyway, doing yoga.


JP: I am not usually one to offer advice, but you should get Ashton to take action pictures of your yoga session at taco bell. It will be the talk of the inter-web. Taco Bell Yoga Club? There is no stopping you.

I was just licking an envelope and got a papercut on my upper lip. Possibly something i shouldn't be sharing? I don't care.

JC: I went to the post office today to mail you some zines but prez day was in effect.

I never know how to end the interviews for Teamlump Sucks, so if you have any final words of wisdom you would like to share with the electronic audience at large, you can use the last question as a platform of sorts.

JP: Sorry about the president's day fiasco. I hope things got out ok today and it wasn't too crowded. There were 82,000 people in line before me at the post office here. Are we really done with the interview? For my last question can I ask you 5 questions to be part of it? You do not have to put this in if you don't want. These are the questions:

Did you have a favorite restaurant to go to when you were little?

Do you like reptiles and/or amphibians?

How often do you get a haircut?

Do you like to cook?

Do you ever dance?

JC: 82,001 Mohicans.

Did you have a favorite restaurant to go to when you were little?
A lot of my time as a kid was spent trying to convince my parents to take me out to restaurants, mainly McDonalds and Showbiz Pizza, but we never ate out anywhere, and I think that drove my hunger. I also remember trying to convince them to open a restaurant and let me run it.

Do you like reptiles and/or amphibians?
I used to have a very small turtle named Slick Rick, and a larger more boring turtle named Barney. Neither would eat enough lettuce so we released them. My brother is good at catching snakes, like gifted at it, and snakes won't let me get them, too slick. A few months ago I found a new turtle, very ugly, and not cool turtle, named Ludwig. I let him go soon after he rejected my attempt at re-creating his
natural environment.

How often do you get a haircut?
Right now, not very often. But when I keep it short, I cut it
sometimes too often, with sheers, maybe once a week. Do you cut your own hair?

Do you like to cook?
Yes! I had to do it for work for years so I kind of cook stuff when I'm hungry. I received a food processor for christmas, which does good hummus and salsa. I'll make you some if you're ever back in North Carolina. I could do a southern cooking night featuring fried okra. I wish Iron Chef would do okra as an ingredient one show.

Do you ever dance?
Wow, ummmm, I guess. That's a little personal don't you think JP?

For more information about Jason Polan, visit him at www.jasonpolan.com!!!

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Copy Rats!!!!












Copy Rats, 24 pages with accordion pull-out comic, xerox, 2008. Very Limited.
$5 (includes shipping)


Hi, check out this new zine we put together called, Copy Rats, with art from Lump Lipshitz, Jerstin Crosby, Jason Polan, Thad Kellstadt, Matt Furie, Aiyana Udesen, Josh Rickards, Alex Hatchett, and K Whole.

The artwork chosen and produced for this book fringes on the idea of artists re-claiming images and characters we get bombarded by in mass media but are otherwise protected by copyright laws. Copy Rats has everything from tantric Alf orgies, feminist Cathy, tatted up Utz girl, BMX cruising Terminator, and hip-hop sesame street characters.

To order Copy Rats send $5 (per copy) to:
Lump Gallery
Copy Rats Order
505 S. Blount St.
Raleigh, NC 27601

We use the money to create more books.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Bill Fick Interview






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.