Can you share as much as possible about each piece and how you conceived it:
VHS Heroes is from a series of permanent marker drawings of my family’s old VHS tapes. When I was young, they were almost priceless, we had a huge cabinet of them. My friends would come over and that cabinet was like a treasure chest with all those movies. A few years ago, my dad was going to throw them out, so I kept them. So there are obvious nostalgic associations. I’m also attracted to the way ideas/possessions/technologies change over time, so with these videos, it is them being outdated by technology. I redrew them with permanent markers to give them more of a young, childlike quality.
The Birth of the Giant Turtle is a beginning of the universe drawing, using the big bang idea. Various Native American tribes used the earth on the back of a giant turtle as their creation myth. The lines were drawn on paper, scanned, reassembled in Photoshop and then printed as a pigment transfer, which you can see/read a step-by-step here.
If you were to describe your work to someone who’s never seen it, what would you say?
That it deals with memory, both nostalgia as well as the fragmented aspects of memory. And perspective, how different people deal with being alive and dying and the various ways we explain and understand their surroundings.
What’s your creative process when producing a piece of art?
I begin doing sketch work on paper and the computer simultaneously, gradually merging those two. My recent work has combined drawings with photographs on the computer. Then I typically do several prints and then eventually convert those into marker drawings and paintings.
Could you share an image of one of your latest sketches?
This is a piece in the very early stages, which has the beginning of the combining of the drawing with the photography.
Would you share three things in your workspace that inspire you?
I have trees and cicadas, which was one of the main reasons I moved back home from Chicago.
I have my bulletin board:
And my desk:
What’s the most extreme reaction you’ve ever received in response to your work?
During a show several years ago, an old man who was asking me agitated questions about my work yelled out, "I just don’t get this! Any of it!!”
What art is hanging on your walls at the moment?
Mostly my work, though I have a few purchases: a fallen horse painting, a portrait of a person whose face looks like it is melting (the face is actually covered in a cream) and a ceramic head with a collage of feet hanging from the bottom.
What are you really into right now?
I’m watching Twin Peaks for the first time. I’m in the middle of the pilot episode and it is great. Also the audiobooks from The Teaching Company. I listen to them while I work. They are educational courses, excellent quality. For the past month I’ve been constantly listening to “Science Wars: What Scientists Know and How They Know It” by Steven L. Goldman.
What would be on your quintessential mixtape?
I actually make a mix tape each season. This is a favorite, from Fall 2006:
1. Whatever Happened To My Rock ‘N’ Roll (Punk Song) – Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
2. Are You Awake? – Kevin Shields
3. Ceremony – New Order
4. Gone – M83
5. Girls – Death In Vegas
6. Hafsól – Sigur Rós
7. Let Me Tell You About My Boat – Mark Mothersbaugh
8. Make Your Own Kind Of Music – Mama Cass Elliot
9. Ikebana – Kevin Shields
10. Sometimes – My Bloody Valentine
11. Open The Light – Boards Of Canada
12. This Modern Love – Bloc Party
13. Oskaborn Bjodarinnar – Sigur Rós
What are your vices/guilty pleasures?
I like watching bloopers from movies on YouTube.
What’s the first picture you can remember drawing as a child?
A whale. It had huge sun eyes and a big toothed smile.
If you were a dinosaur, what kind would you be and why?
The Loch Ness Monster, because of the mystery.
What was your last memorable dream?
Last night, I had a dream I was very large, Godzilla or King Kong size, and was walking around in a large city. The cars and streets were like the slot car racing sets.
Are there any upcoming shows or projects you’d like to share?
That info is always on my website.
What’s your motto?
The Boy Scout motto: Be prepared.
Hollis Brown Thornton
