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Spraygraphic Interview with Artist Mark Dean Veca
By Spraygraphic | March 7, 2008
Spraygraphic Interview with Mark Dean Veca
SG: Please tell us about yourself?
MDV: My name is Mark Dean Veca. “Dean” is my middle name, as well as my mother’s maiden name. When I was about 20 years old my great-aunt suggested that I use my full name, which I have done ever since.
I was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, in 1963 and grew up in Livermore, California, a suburb of San Francisco. I went to art school at Otis in L.A., where I lived for ten years. I moved to New York City in 1991 and I worked as a museum guard and candle-maker for a while.
SG: Where do you currently live and work?
MDV: I now live and work in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, with my wife Lauren and my 8-year-old son, Luca.
SG: What mediums do you work with?
MDV: I usually work with ink and acrylic on canvas, panel, or paper, as well as with latex and acrylic on walls.
SG: Describe your working process when creating a new work.
MDV: When making a new painting I start by painting the composition on to some kind of background. I’ve been using the same textile pattern as a “found “composition for about 7 years now; it’s an 18th Century French “Toile de Jouy” style pattern. Then I start the line-work with black ink, alternating between complete improvisation and painstaking reproduction of found images. Sometimes the images conform to a strict theme, sometimes they appear random.
SG: What kind of things do you do when you get blocked or find it hard to create something?
MDV: Get something to eat, take a nap, go online, check the mail, look at books. The best thing to do is just start working, and eventually I’ll find myself engaged in the work.
SG: Can you please tell us a little about your installation Pulsation. How long did it take you to put it all together?
MDV: Pulsation took a couple of months to put together. Most of that time was spent designing the collection of Nike products and a silk screen print for the show. The actual installation took about 8 long days with a few assistants.
SG: How did you develop a sponsorship relationship with a company like Nike?
MDV: My relationship with Nike started when graffiti legend/entrepreneur/sneaker designer Stash showed some photos of my work to Nike CEO Mark Parker. At the time Stash’s daughter was going to nursery school with my son, and I barely knew him. As soon as he saw my work he knew Parker would dig it and Stash, being the super-generous dude he is, hooked us up. I have Stash to thank for connecting me to a lot of cool people and a lot of opportunities.
SG: Some of your paintings use cultural icons like Johnny Cash, Clint Eastwood, etc…and others do not. What factors are at play when you decide to include an icon in your work?
MDV: My selection process is pretty idiosyncratic. I usually don’t have a specific theme for a painting or for a body of work, and I assemble the images as I go- a sort of organic collecting. I try to find images that are both personal and universal that resonate with each other ambiguously. I also try to balance types of imagery as well: photo-based, cartoon, art historical, logos, etc., within each painting.
SG: Can you tell us a little about Debacle and how that installation came about.
MDV: Stephen Hepworth, formerly one of the curating team at Bloomberg Space in London, had seen my installation at PS 1/MoMA in 2000 and contacted me a couple of years later to do a project. That was the first installation that combined the pattern I’d been using in my paintings with a large-scale environmental work. It was an amazing space to work with such a contrast to the forms and colors I was using.
SG: Are your public space installations still up or are they only up for a limited run?
MDV: They’ve all been destroyed, except for some bits and pieces I’ve been able to salvage.
SG: Where has your work been seen?
MDV: Museums and galleries internationally. If you’d like to know more specifics you can check my bio on my website.
SG: Where will it be seen next?
MDV: I had a solo show open at Milieu Gallery in Switzerland (February 22, 2008). After I return to NYC, I’ll start to work in earnest on my project at the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans. I’m doing some kind of window treatment there along the front of their building in April. Then I’ll start focusing on a major installation that will open in October at Otis College of Art and Design in L.A., my alma mater. They have a great space there, and I’ll be an artist in residence for eight weeks this fall as part of the Jennifer Howard Coleman Distinguished Lectureship and Residency. I also have paintings in a few group shows coming up at Jail Gallery (L.A.) in March; Robert Berman Gallery (L.A.) and Joshua Liner Gallery (NYC) in April.
SG: What is your favorite color?
MDV: My favorite color is Cadmium Red Light.
SG: Who is your favorite artist?
MDV: As a kid I was fascinated with animated cartoons like Popeye, Warner Brothers, Disney, and comic books like MAD Magazine, Zippy the Pinhead, The Freak Brothers, and Heavy Metal. Also M.C. Escher and Skateboard Graphics.
When I discovered “fine art” in art school, I was drawn to artists like Ed Ruscha, Franz Kline, Warhol, and Philip Guston.
Aside from the influences I mentioned above I’d have to say Rick Griffin, Carroll Dunham, R. Crumb, Giger, Picasso, George Herriman, and Dr. Seuss, to name a few.
My all time faves would have to be Guston and Ruscha.
SG: What book/magazine are you reading this week?
MDV: I really haven’t been reading much lately. I read the NY Times online.
SG: Ever do a self portrait? Where is it now?
MDV: I used to, in high school and college. I really don’t know where…
SG: Where is your favorite place to hang out?
MDV: Farmer’s Market in L.A., 3rd and Fairfax.
SG: Any final words of advice?
MDV: For all you young artists out there: if you’re able to quit making art, you should.
roll the dice
if you’re going to try, go all the
way.
otherwise, don’t even start.
if you’re going to try, go all the
way.
this could mean losing girlfriends,
wives, relatives, jobs and
maybe your mind.
go all the way.
it could mean not eating for 3 or 4 days.
it could mean freezing on a
park bench.
it could mean jail,
it could mean derision,
mockery,
isolation.
isolation is the gift,
all the others are a test of your
endurance, of
how much you really want to
do it.
and you’ll do it
despite rejection and the worst odds
and it will be better than
anything else
you can imagine.
if you’re going to try,
go all the way.
there is no other feeling like
that.
you will be alone with the gods
and the nights will flame with
fire.
do it, do it, do it.
do it.
all the way
all the way.
you will ride life straight to
perfect laughter, its
the only good fight
there is.
Bukowski
ART: 1) Beatin Around the Bush (detail), 2) Beatin Around the Bush, 3) Boogey Fervor, 4) Mad Sick, 5) St. John, 6) Debacle, 7) Funky Jungle, 8. Funky Jungle, 9) Pulsation, 10) The Strangler, 11) Mark, 12) Mark
Topics: Artist Interviews, Graffiti-Art, New York Art Scene |
April 10th, 2008 at 5:00 am
[...] Mendoza, Aiko Nakagawa, Pat Rocha, Greg Simkins, Damon Soule, Stash, Heidi Taillefer, Ben Tour, Mark Dean Veca, Oliver [...]
June 19th, 2008 at 9:38 am
Hi! I’m an ‘aspiring’ mauralist amungst other things…I absoutely LOVE what you do! only a few shades and so much detail! Beautiful!