What does Acrylicana stand for?
Acrylicana was a combination of “Acrylic” and “Americana”. I like the sound of both words and having them relate to plastic, paint and culture.
Describe your style:
Bright, funky sweet stuff for the mind.
Can you share a bit about the piece and how you conceived it:
I started it about nine months ago. At first I just wanted to do a bunch of kooky mushroom friends hanging out in a forest or on a hillside. After leaving it alone for three quarters of a year, I found that it needed to become more colourful, combining simple patterns, and taking place underwater instead of on land. It came together much better this way.
What’s the first picture you can remember drawing as a child?
I remember drawing Ariel, The Little Mermaid, a lot when I was 5.
What’s your process in creating a piece of art?
I tend to write things down a lot before starting a piece in order to organize myself. There’s a ton of notebooks filled with lists that mean nothing to anyone else but me. Then I start sketching and figure out colours. If it’s a digital piece I’ll sketch it out in Photoshop and then decide if it’ll be finished in there or taken into Illustrator to become a clean, vector work. I use my Wacom Intuos 3 and spend hours hanging out in these programs working on designs and illustrations.
Who and what are your creative influences?
Peter Max, Margaret (Walter) Keane, Erte, Lisa Frank and most recently, the work of Japanese artists from the 1960’s.
What’s the most unusual canvas you’ve painted on?
Shoes, so far. I hope to expand that into “anything I can make a mark on”, but we’ll see.
What’s the most extreme reaction you’ve had to your art?
One of the latest ones I heard was that the piece literally stopped the viewer’s heart and she found she was holding her breath while looking at it. Endangering art appreciators everywhere. I like that.
If your art was music, what would it sound like?
Europop.
What music is rotating on your iPod?
I just bought Lady Gaga’s album, so that’s in heavy play. Also, Yasunori Mitsuda, Kylie Minogue and Alphabeat are playing an awful lot as of late.
What is your favorite color?
Pink.
What art do you have on your walls?
I have nursery room wallpaper on my walls and, for some reason, a lot of magazine clippings and Zippy cartoons. It’s a weird place.
What websites do you check out regularly?
deviantArt.com, twop.com, and twitter.com.
Name three things that you love about deviantART:
Access to the public (either criticism or positive comments), using it as a testing ground (if something doesn’t go too well there, you can learn from it easily before setting it to print) and having a network of friends within the website. I’ve made some wonderful connections there and it’s taught me a lot.
If you had to design yourself a tattoo what would it be and where?
Weird coincidence, I’m doing just that (looking to get it done within a couple weeks). My first tattoo will be a quarter sleeve on my left arm that’s a good deal of my Fun 2 funky design.
What are your most treasured possessions?
My external hard drive, Windsor & Newton ink set and graphic tablet.
What are your vices and guilty pleasures?
Reading Perezhilton.com and smoking the occasional cigarette while dancing at goth kid clubs.
Any advice to other artists thinking about submitting artwork out there?
Do it and then use your network. Artists are sad, sad people if no one’s watching. ;)
If you had to change careers, what would be next?
Stand-up comedy. Sounds extremely presumptuous that I’m funny at all, but if I HAD to, I’d go for something else that’s extremely difficult to accomplish and that’s based upon the reaction of an audience.
Are there any upcoming shows or projects you’d like to share?
I’ll be showing in group shows at the Genuine Artikle (NY) in February and March ‘09. I’m working out a schedule for live webcast shows where I’ll be working on stuff on air along with round of questions. It’ll be similar to the stuff I’ve been working on in my Youtube channel, but live and with audience interaction.
Mary Winkler
