What moment or time in your life was the catalyst to your journey into art full-time?
There were many moments like this, but the most pivotal moment was when I dropped out of art school. I was a painting major but after starting to make videos with my friend Dave Stewart, I decided to drop out and teach myself how to write, direct, edit, and more. Making sketch comedy, graffiti, skate, and music videos led me to animation, which helped further define my art style. That led me to co-create a couple Adult Swim shows, which led to my involvement with Liquid Death.
Did your relationship with art change when you became a father?
Definitely. At first, I had to prioritize which ideas were worth spending time on and which weren’t worth taking away from my time with Apollo. And that was healthy for me as I’m a workaholic who sometimes gets bad anxiety. But it turns out that Apollo is an amazing artist so we draw together constantly now. He’s only 4 years old but he’s already a better artist than I was at 8, and his art inspires me daily.
Is there a time period in your art journey you feel most nostalgic about?
I’m most nostalgic about the days making comedy videos with Dave Stewart right before Mr. Pickles got picked up. Often times we’d skip the script and just come up with ideas for characters while driving around. Something would pass by would spark an idea and we’d pull over to start filming. I try to apply that notion to my art; just going with it, not always knowing where I’m going, just steering it along as I go.
In the early years, I went back and forth between a cartoon drawing style which I started in middle school, and a more realistic painting style I retired many years ago. Along the way, my cartoon style evolved to become more realistic than it once was.
Music was what first inspired me to make videos back in the day. A certain song can paint an entire story in my head. And the same goes for art, a certain sound can steer my pen this way or that.
Collaborating with Suitcase Joe on Illustrated Madness was amazing. I had a blast drawing characters on top of his incredible photographs. He’s my favorite photographer so this collaboration meant a lot to me.
