I recently did an interview with NZ based artist Erin Forsyth for Kingbrown Magazines online blog. Here are the highlights and some images of her work. Isn't she awesome?
You used to be a ninja graffiti artist and now you do some large scale murals beautiful, raunchy illustrations. Can you briefly run down your history as an artist for us?
Mum says I drew my first real smiley face, eyes, mouth, nose in a circle when I was two visiting my older sister at kindy. My mum's an artist too so it's always been natural and encouraged. I'm pretty lucky in that way. I got A's all through school for art until I dropped out start of year 12. My art teacher at the time said I was too young to get into art school so I applied to do animation. Although I probably didn't appreciate it at the time, drawing for eight hours a day and learning the consideration of character construction and line work definitely continues to inform my practice today.
It was also great to be in a school full of people obsessed with drawing though half the class was busy doodling graffiti or nudey pictures. It was a relief to spend my day with such a large amount of people with the same passion. That was 1999, the year I first started tagging and the year I had to use my diversion! The next year I decided a life drawing of other peoples pictures was not the life for me and I applied for a private art school the day after the course had started, got accepted and started the next day. In retrospect they probably accepted me just for the cash but it made me feel a bit cocky and I was sourly disappointed to be in with a completely different group that could not draw and were not interested in it. So I dropped out of that too.
I then opened my own graffiti store 'Creep' a little while later and ran that for a few years. Got to meet all sorts and had a gay old time until some homies ripped me off. So I moved to Sydney which is where I met some truly talented and disciplined artists like Dmote and realized I needed to step my game up, develop a work ethic and stop being a bum if I wanted to be successful.
I'm lucky I have my mum, I'm lucky I didn't go through art school and I'm lucky I got ripped off. The short answer would be forever and then again everyday.
What are your favourite colours to work with?
Straight black and white. Anything lurid. As a combo traffic red, light ice blue and some nice dark brown...More black...
What do you prefer, going big or going small?
I like to draw really small intricate details if I'm working in black and white but generally this will be part of a much larger composition. I've worked on pigment liner drawings over A0 in size full detail. If I'm painting then I'd normally go big and bold or small and considered.
There are characters and themes that are re-ocurring in your works. Can you introduce us to these themes and characters and their personalities?
Sometimes I get hooked on drawing particular things for a while; wolves, birds, flannel shirts, side parts, skulls, Siamese twins and bearded ladies have all made regular appearances in my work. Last year I got on a bit of a circus theme and ended up painting a series which involved a pretty interesting cast of characters. Whatever characters I paint are interchangeable I guess; they can be the villain in one work and the hero in another such is human nature. I've got a weird little fascination with the archetypes of the prophet, the seeker and the vessel.
If you could bring one of your characters to life which one would it be?
From last year I'd probably bring the Siamese circus twins to life. We'd hang out and drink longies, but they'd constantly be whispering to each other about me when I turned my back and I bust them out of the corner of my eye then they'd not say anything and pretend I was crazy. It would get awkward after sometime. They'd probably try to escape my chaperone in the real world by saying they were going to the bathroom and then trying to stuff each other out a small window in a cubicle. Even if they got out it they couldn't run very fast don't know why they bother with that stupid crap. They're hustlers that are always screwing up the hustle.
How has your experience as an artist been in Auckland compared to other cities you have visited?
I stay in my room a lot more. This is good because I drink less often and am more productive. New Zealanders are a pretty talented bunch and although Auckland may seem slow when your stuck in it there is a lot happening and room for more. In other city centres all the lowbrow/outsider galleries, social media etc seems fairly established and it can seem suffocating if you want to try to get into those networks. It seems easier to set up your own thing here but alot more likely that no one will ever know if you do.
You're definitely one of the faces I associate with K Road, a neighborhood in Auckland like no other. What's your favourite thing about being a K road local?
The people, the people, the people! The history of debauchery and the quiet acceptance of outsiders. The scumbags and alkies, the young hipsters who don't know what their up to, the eccentric jaded artists and performers and the grumpy dairy owners. All together they keep K'Happy interesting.
What is Method and Manners?
Method and Manners is a shared studio space on Upper Queen St in Auckland (Queen St is the main rd in Auckland CBD). We set it up two years ago because it was too hard to join other peoples studios and each of us involved needed a space to work. There are thirteen artists working there now. It's not a collective; each person that works there has their own professional creative practice and we just provide the space. The building itself is a gem and belongs to the neatest father and son team I know. They've been running an electrical repairs shop downstairs for more than 30 years. Our space up top used to be the call out centre for electricians back in the day. We're the first people they've ever rented it to and they like us and we like them.
Method of Manners just had celebrated its second birthday, big congrats! What are your future plans for the space?
Me and my business partner just signed another two-year lease on the space which is excellent. We have been talking about hosting exhibitions in the kitchen area (which backs onto our own private
carpark which backs onto a cemetery which backs on to 'K'Rd) for the past two years so hopefully we get round to it in the next two!
What are you working on at the moment?
Right now I am working on an illustrated series for reproduction in lurid coloured acrylics and heavy Indian ink outlines. They look like eighties stickers outta chewing gum packets. Film is good too but my camera died when I went down to paint at the graffiato festival in Taupo.
Follow me on www.eyesoreon.tumblr.com to check out my recent works.
I stay in my room a lot more. This is good because I drink less often and am more productive. New Zealanders are a pretty talented bunch and although Auckland may seem slow when your stuck in it there is a lot happening and room for more. In other city centres all the lowbrow/outsider galleries, social media etc seems fairly established and it can seem suffocating if you want to try to get into those networks. It seems easier to set up your own thing here but alot more likely that no one will ever know if you do.
You're definitely one of the faces I associate with K Road, a neighborhood in Auckland like no other. What's your favourite thing about being a K road local?
The people, the people, the people! The history of debauchery and the quiet acceptance of outsiders. The scumbags and alkies, the young hipsters who don't know what their up to, the eccentric jaded artists and performers and the grumpy dairy owners. All together they keep K'Happy interesting.
What is Method and Manners?
Method and Manners is a shared studio space on Upper Queen St in Auckland (Queen St is the main rd in Auckland CBD). We set it up two years ago because it was too hard to join other peoples studios and each of us involved needed a space to work. There are thirteen artists working there now. It's not a collective; each person that works there has their own professional creative practice and we just provide the space. The building itself is a gem and belongs to the neatest father and son team I know. They've been running an electrical repairs shop downstairs for more than 30 years. Our space up top used to be the call out centre for electricians back in the day. We're the first people they've ever rented it to and they like us and we like them.
Method of Manners just had celebrated its second birthday, big congrats! What are your future plans for the space?
Me and my business partner just signed another two-year lease on the space which is excellent. We have been talking about hosting exhibitions in the kitchen area (which backs onto our own private
carpark which backs onto a cemetery which backs on to 'K'Rd) for the past two years so hopefully we get round to it in the next two!
What are you working on at the moment?
Right now I am working on an illustrated series for reproduction in lurid coloured acrylics and heavy Indian ink outlines. They look like eighties stickers outta chewing gum packets. Film is good too but my camera died when I went down to paint at the graffiato festival in Taupo.
Follow me on www.eyesoreon.tumblr.com to check out my recent works.
Upcoming projects your looking forward to in 2012?
I'm working on EYESORE a series of paintings that look like bubble gum sticker art. I'm going to put them in as many places as possible. It gets a little sad when your work only gets viewed for two weeks at an exhibition or two hours/minutes at an opening so I'm experimenting with different ways of presenting my work. We're making a yearbook for K'Rd this year and my work has decided they want me to help them open a museum. I could always do more!
And on an end note, last question. Do you have a Dream Project?
A massive installation somewhere like the Gagosian or Collette would be nice now wouldn't it? Well it would definitely be useful. What I'd really like to do though is buy up a couple of dirty cheap
old properties in obscure parts of New Zealand and establish a trust to donate them to as artists retreats... I'd love to make a few books...A comic book would be rad. And paint some more, draw some more.
www.erinforsyth.wordpress.com
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