Michael Crockett
By Ariel Radock
Fill In The Blank Gallery: There are numerous terms associated with social and individual identity. To identify oneself as an artist is a particularly difficult concept utilized to firmly place one’s own character in the world of creative expression. What was your earliest memory of identifying yourself as an artist?
Michael Crockett: I was very young when I started to draw obsessively. By the third grade I was telling people I was an artist. I won't lie and say I knew what that meant at the time, but I was most influenced by Disney movies and 1970's cartoons than I was with any other children's activity. If I could draw then I was content with life. It may have isolated me a bit from other kids when I was young, but as we grew up I had something I could call my own and share with other people. It's not difficult to call yourself an artist as long as you truthfully believe that you are. I have been able to easily identify myself as this because without art I am not complete.
FIB: For an artist developing his/her own personal style takes time, work, and confidence. What and when did this moment occur for you?
MC: It occurred for me when I learned to separate influence and inspiration from straight out copying. After college I was confused about direction. I kept getting that dreaded comment "that reminds me of..." so I took some time away from my work. I traveled a bunch and played music a lot. In thinking about my work I realized that I was altering the styles I was influenced by. I was referencing someone else's originality. I may have been changing it but I was not finding my voice through it, I was simply following its artistic dialog. Taking that needed step away from my college work allowed me to live my life and find my natural hand again. It's easy to loose your self in other artists work. It's easy to forget what your own hand can do when you're trying to squeeze yourself into a style or ism that exists already. Influences are necessary but we can quickly be mimicking others without realizing we are.
FIB: You recently had your work represented at Art Basil Miami. Could you elaborate upon your experience participating in this celebrated event.
MC: I owe that honor to Art Whino Gallery in National Harbor, MD. I met this gallery owner in a Washington DC show I was in around 2008. An artist named J. Coleman invited me down to participate in a show he was curating. I met J. in the hay day of Myspace. J and I chatted many times about art and the possibility of sharing shows in DC and Boston. I loved how that site worked. It really opened a door of communication that did not exist before. Being able to talk with artists I would never have the pleasure of knowing otherwise. I found people all over the world that were doing interesting things with collage and alternative mediums. This domino effect from online communication brought me to Art Whino. Art Whino's goal is to unleash the work of today’s most underground artists working in the styles known as Low Brow and New Brow. They have one of the largest communities of underground artists anywhere in the US right now. They attended Art Basil Miami this year by bringing together two traveling shows they were curating. I had work traveling with them in the show titled "Life Essentials" which had over 100 artists involved. That show along with their other show titled "Old Skoolin" which also had over 100 artists involved became their entry to Art basil Miami last year. This was the largest show I had ever been involved with. There are tons on photo's here http://www.facebook.com/ArtWhino and here http://artwhino.com/miami/
FIB: Some of your drawings appear to be on pages of old books and notebooks. Is this an aesthetic incentive or another other purpose entirely?
MC: At first I was experimenting with type as texture by layering words into my work that I found in old books. I would cut them out and over lap them so they would create textures and patterns to draw over. I moved into drawing directly on the pages from books as a background for my work, blotting out parts of the pages instead of layering them. I fell in love with the aged color of these pages and began using the faded colors as flesh tones. Today the old paper has grown into a whole new idea for me. Now I can collage these old pages into a story, layering it under the flesh of those I paint. I can use paper ephemera from your own life, such as, hand written letters, favorite photographs and scraps of your own history to map out a visual time capsule of the life you have lived. I want to be more than an artist that can reproduce your likeness, I want to reproduce your history and being. The papers we keep in boxes under our beds and in our closets that remind us of our pasts are what I look for when I search for materials. Old paper is now as important of a medium for me as is the pen or brush.
FIB: Besides having a blog and other websites portraying your work, what made you decide to publish a book? Could you describe your process compiling, publishing, and promoting this exciting occasion.
MC: This book was a great way to showcase what I have been making over the last few years. I have been focusing on portraits which tends to be more of a private relationship between the artist and the patron rather than a shared experience. I wanted a way to bring others into this experience and the best way I could do that was to combine all the portraits into this one book. This way the entire series can be viewed together and you can see the progression from one to the other. Rather than trying to understand who the single portrait is, this book lets you see them all in one context. I feel this allows you to see what I am striving to achieve in portraiture as a whole.
Compiling these images meant being able to capture them digitally and in a printable format. I have studied photography, and graphic design along with drawing and painting so I am capable of digitally formatting my work for my own cataloging and storage. I try to do this with everything I make, if I can. Digital camera, scanner, photoshop and illustrator are also major tools I cannot work without.
Publishing is pretty much painless these days. Blurb.com allows you to create a book easily and free. They will publish one at a time if needed but also in bulk. The quality is amazing, there is no difference between a large publisher and a small printing company these days. The technology has improved so much that print is no longer dead, it's just changed its rules.
Promoting it is a much harder task than you would think, but thanks to online networking sites I can spread the word pretty quickly. Interviews such as yours help send the message across to a larger audience I wouldn't be able to contact otherwise. What I am learning however is that the word may spread fast online but people still hold back from buying online. I still have to be a door to door salesman if I want get them into peoples hands. This means having a bulk of them at my disposal to bring to shows and events. It's always good to have wares to sell at your shows. Having something, especially a book of your art, that everyone can afford is a great way to get your work into the hands of many. You can view the book here www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1117345
FIB: Currently there is a debate as to whether or not commercial illustrators should be called fine artists. What are your thoughts upon this argument?
MC: My opinion is that there is no difference between the two. If the work looks good on its own merit than it can be whatever the viewer interprets it to be. An image can be used to tell a story and you would call it an illustration, but that same image can stand alone on the wall of a gallery and take on a whole other identity. I believe that illustration or commercial illustration is just defined by the copy presented along with the image and not the image alone.
FIB: Many contemporary illustrators are using Wacom tablets and computers to generate their art. Have you ever considered using such tools in your work or do you prefer to strictly stick with traditional mediums?
MC: I'm a traditional kind of guy. I want my final output to be just that. if you look at my original I want it to be the same as the printed version. I want no difference between the way it looks in an advertisement or article and the way it looks hanging on the wall. I may use the computer to adjust sizes and contrast or to crop the image to fit but I'm not adding anything more to it with the computer. I do like the way technology has made colors and strokes look realistic these days. I think there are wonderful artists out there that have found their voice through the computer. My work however gets its results from being hand done.
FIB: What advice would you give to an emerging artist who has difficulty maintaining an equilibrium of commercial success and artistic integrity?
MC: Do it for yourself first and always. If you are striving to "make it" the reality of that can crush your spirit and you're going to need that if you want to be free from commercial restraints. Artistic integrity is equal to how confident you are with yourself. As long as you continue to believe you are expressing yourself truthfully, your integrity will be solid. I have a job as a commercial illustrator and at times it can slow down my desire to work for myself, but it supports my goals as a fine artist. It allows me to afford the studio space I need to work in, pushing myself further in the world of fine art. I will say that my artistic integrity is not a career path. I do not intend to retire from it as I will commercial illustration.
FIB: What projects are you currently working on?
MC: I am pleased to say this year I am in a new book by Findhorn Press. The author Cat Bennet used many of my drawings with her words to express the different ways drawing can be used to express yourself. You can read about it here catbennett.net/preface-and-introthe-confident-creative/
I'm also working with Terminal Press and their Zombie anthology book series being released this year.
I would also like to attend a few conventions this year and continue to spread the word of my book and a few toys I've been creating.
I continue to show my paintings around New England and hope to expand further into the states I haven't shown in yet.
I have a solo music project that will be released in the next month or so. Check out some samples here www.myspace.com/themoonbloods
You can keep up with everything I'm working on here www.facebook.com/hazeleyesstudio or here www.hazeleyesstudio.blogspot.com
Prints of my work can be purchased here www.redbubble.com/hazeleyesstudio or here www.zazzle.com/hazeleyesstudio
Of course I will continue to self publish collections of drawings and paintings through my online publishing company Vesica Books. www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1117345
I can be contacted here hazeleyesstudio@gmail.com
FIB: Fun bonus question. If you were a love child of two artists, who would they be?
MC: Oh just two won't do... I would make out with Kent Williams, Dave Mckean, James Jean, Lucian Freud, Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimpt, Windsor McCay, Bill Watterson, Lisbeth Zwerger... and so many more. I may contract syphilis but it would be worth it.
The Lives I Wish To Paint
An explanation of the figurative meaning in the works of Michael Crockett.
I am a painter of the human experience. What do I mean by this? I’m referring to the way that I use human elements as a mode to explore and compliment relationships to the individual life I am trying to paint. My paintings must have a connection to the life they are representing. They are more than just interpretations of my subjects. They are collaborations.
I refuse to only paint the shell of the figure. A portrait can stand alone in its beautifully crafted likeness, this I will not dispute. But I will always believe that it can be more than a carefully scrutinized discipline. As an experimental figurative painter, I have always intended to push the old views to the side and follow my own instincts.
What I have been developing for over 10 years is a new approach to portrait painting. I have learned to incorporate patterns such as type, found objects and paper into my under paintings. Collaging these elements into a gradation of pattern and color that blend together forming many parts of the finished portrait. Some of the ways I have experimented with this collage is to use it to literally form the muscle & bone structure, light and dark papers will affect color and tone or highlights and Shadows. Swirling patterns or photographic images can push and pull the surface creating a real sense of space.
This collage technique has allowed me to incorporate personal elements into whatever painting I am creating. Handwriting and personal messages can be blended into the skin and backgrounds. My subjects may bring me paper ephemera that holds some form of sentimentality for them, to collage into their likeness. Any paper Items such as cards, photos, letters, etc. can be modeled into my portraits. I find this process of layering paper with sentimentality into a portrait of its patron will create a work that not only captures the subjects likeness but share a deeper personal meaning about them.
Lately I have been painting portraits of people in my life. These faces I capture are my people. Those artists and musicians, the worker bees and political thinkers I spend my time with. I do not seek to exaggerate their likeness, but in fact reflect it through my work. They are the folks that make me believe in what it is I wish life to mean. They exemplify, through their own lives, the characteristics I seek within my own. They are not regular people. To me, these people are the reason I am. I do not exist alone. I do not separate myself from them. Together “we” are a reason, a unified reason for life. The life I wish to paint.
I will always use the figure as a bridge to help connect the way I see and feel. The human form is my favorite vessel for metaphor. Whether it's close personal relationships I'm investigating or my own invented subject matter. The human form is ever present.
I exercise this idea everyday. Sketching quick pen and ink figure drawings over found paper. These are studies in shape and form that I let flow out of me as often as I can. I let go of any reference and allow the subjective thought to escape. These are a great release for me. I display these collections on the wall in overlapping scattered groups. The effect being a massive amalgam of characters dancing across the walls as they do in my mind.
I'm interested in creating a direct relationship between the viewer and the work that is a fresh escape from the norm. I want the viewer to be engaged by what the piece has to say as well as show. They should find themselves wanting to investigate the details of these individuals. From a distance my paintings will be reflections of their subjects, but the closer you get to them the more abstract they will become as they reveal little secrets about themselves. A familiar juxtaposition we all live with as we try to discover the details of ourselves in relation to each other.
2 Comments
Reader Comments (2)
Michael i think you are more than original. i think you are someone who sees and expresses what others cannot but wish they could.
i've adored your work since the first time i saw it...and continue to view your work in awe...drawing i something i've never been able to be concrete at, even as an artist myself. your interpretation of the human condition evokes such emotion for me. the feeling i get from viewing your work is like no other. every morning when i leave my room i walk by my own michael crockett!! how exciting! you're fantastic guy michael and i wish only the best for you! cheers! (ps, great interview)