Alex Pardee Interview
Posted in
Interviews on Jul 23, 2008 at 5:26 PM by
MadElephant
Current Mood: excited
1. Describe yourself, your artwork...who is Alex Pardee?
I’m a really overweight skinny illustrator who thinks up is down and bad is good, and I have rare disease where I uncontrollably just work and eat. I’m always changing, so I think my art kind of changes a lot too. The best way to describe my art is that it is undeniably just my insides. My guts.
2. When did you begin to develop your unique style and what are some experiences that might have helped?
Sam Kieth (who created THE MAXX) helped shape my outlook on art, not necessarily my style or my technical skill, which I am still trying so hard to improve!, but I was exposed to his art at a pivotal point I think, around the age of 15, right when I was discovering that I wanted to do art for a living, and more specifically, illustration or comic book art. Before that I was so held to relatively safe and standard comic art and cartooning. But when I saw Sam’s comic THE MAXX, it blew me away because here was this real comic book that you could buy everywhere on the same shelves as Spiderman and Batman and X-men, but the art was so expressive and weird and ugly and beautiful and emotional, and the stories revolved around actual fucked up human issues and flaws. I realized how attracted to flaws I was at this point and I think that was the beginning of it.
3. To elaborate on this last question; the themes in your work are relatively dark. What inspires you to conjure this imagery and why do you think people relate to it?
I don’t think I will ever fully understand what interests me visually about dark themes and imagery, the general taboo of it maybe? I just pretty much accept it and let it do what it wants, like George Stark in that book “The Dark Half”. The funny thing is that I constantly get this weird reaction like “Your work is so gory and dark and horrific” which confuses me sometimes because I rarely see that, and even if I try to look into my pieces with the exception of a few, there’s almost NEVER blood or guts or a lot of violence, I think it’s just almost like a weird Rorschach ink blot that somehow looks like it SHOULD be fucked up, so people see that in it. When taking recognizable imagery, like human nature and body parts, appendages, fingers, simple facial expressions, relationships like mother / daughter or captor/prisoner or something like that, and apply those themes to any shape or form it becomes relate-able. And at the same time it kind of becomes vague and open for interpretation. I like that in other art, so I guess I do that too.
4. Who or what are these different characters that you draw? Do they have names or stories? Are they rooted in people that you know? Inner demons? Crack heads you see walking down the street?
A lot of the characters that I draw are simply just aesthetically weird..things. I mean, the look of them or their actions probably stem from some random memories or something, I worked in a MALL at a toy store for 9 years! So there’s definitely some repressed visuals in there. Also, I draw what I want to see, and what I wish was lumbering out in the world. I wish when we went to the store, we had to drive around a giant 8 legged blob of hair and said hi to the bright blue blind guy with tentacle legs at the store. I think that would be interesting. I might get out more if that were the case.
5. What is your process of creation? For example, when you are working on a piece, do you have it mapped out in your head from the start or do you work off of instinct?
I have to map things out for commercial jobs, but that’s why I get so little commercial jobs, it’s really hard for me to just think of something and draw it. If you asked me to draw a football player I would freak out and tell myself that I can’t do it unless I actually went to football camp and studied them for months! So it’s tough. But any of my own stuff, yah, I’m a lot more fearless, I just kinda make shapes and sketch for hours with really loose ideas, and then eventually, I just decide to stop and work with those shapes and mold them into something that either tells a story or is visually interesting.
6. What are your mediums?
I like to try anything I can touch, from shitty tempera paint to inks to like, brake fluid or something. My favorite mediums are pen & ink, and watercolors. Those seem to be the constant. But I have been excited to finally explore more oil paints next year, I just got a ton of oils and I’m going to lock myself in a tiny room with no ventilation and see if that changes my ability for the better. That always happens to superheroes, right? That’s how they get powers...by experimenting in harsh conditions and then lightning strikes or something. That’s what I’m shooting for.
7. Elaborate on your background and the artistic path you’ve traveled to get to where you are now in work. In other words, what forms or mediums of artwork are rooted in you and what you do?
It’s pretty simple, I started in like 3rd grade trying to mimic drawing Garfield and Haggar and then moved on to drawing Garbage pail kids, became a skateboarder, went into the mental hospital, got out, was put on medication, tried to draw comics for real, got into graffiti, then transitioned into my own comics and from there started experimenting with painting and just said, "This is what I'm going to do until I explode and die."
8. What is it in your day to day that motivates you?
The satisfaction in accomplishing something. Doesn’t really matter what it is, even if it’s a failure.
9. How do you work? Messy? Organized? Lefty? Righty?
Damn, I wish I was organized. I’m a mess, with pretty much every aspect of my life haha. Especially my work. I have paint or ink on every piece of clothing I have, even my bed sheets and towels. It’s retarded. And my disorganization is what causes a lot of stress, but I’m getting some help with that now thankfully. And I’m left handed, but I’ve never been able to do anything with my left hand, even when I was little, it’s always come naturally with my right.
10. Could you talk a bit about Chadam? Who is he and in which twisted corner of your brain was he born? How long were you in labor? What does he do for fun?
Chadam’s overrun my life for, shit, over 2 years now I think. The creation of Chadam was a weird birth, it was a backwards birth. I created the idea of his future before he was even conceived. I created Chadam for the band The Used when we were coming up with visual concepts for their album “Lies for the Liars” which I art directed. We knew we wanted to create a character that we can also expand and give life to beyond the music and visual sides, but we didn’t really have any concept beyond that. So I created Chadam, and since that initial sketch, every aspect of his life has kind of manifested itself step by step, aside from the general origin and world that he lives in. It’s like, “oh, he needs a friend? Ok, well, he’s friends with an 8 year old girl with a pumpkin head and vine-hair, and she has a hand puppet named Manda.” Then more and more of his mythology would work around that idea of constantly using my imagination to continue to build off of the small amounts of foundation that we gave ourselves. And for fun…he cries. His head hurts a lot.
11. What was the process of making the real life Chadam costume? What are the materials you used? How long did it take?
It was a long but awesome process. I worked with a movie effects company called Monster Effects, in LA, and because Chadam and the other characters had such weird huge heads and unique shapes, it was all trial and error. The masks are all rubber latex (with some fur and plastic parts), but because they are so big, the first Chadam mask weighed like 80 pounds! We had to build a whole support system for it, it was silly looking. So it was a trial and error process, but we worked on getting them right for like 4 or 5 months.
12. Could you talk a bit about the Chadam movie that you’ve been working on with Warner Bros.? When will we see a trailer?
It’s being kept under wraps as far as the story and stuff for the most part, but I have been working on it with HD Films and WB for over a year. What I CAN tell you, is that it’s going to actually be 10 different 5 minute episodes that altogether form a 50 minute, fully CG animated movie. We are using the Unreal Engine for a lot of the creation and execution, which is something that is normally used for video games like Bioshock and Gears of war. It’s looking beautiful, we have a lot of talented teams of people working on it, like Exigent, House of Moves, Epic, The Engine Room, Jon Wayshak helped with the storyboards, Dave Corriea helped with concept art, Adam Peterson helped me write the story, etc. It’s a dark drama-horror-fantasy-coming of age movie! We crossed a lot of genres but that’s just naturally how Chadam’s story and his world fell together. We are actually showing the first ever glimpse at the Chadam show next week at the San Diego Comic Con. I’m really nervous because almost no one except us that are close to the project has been allowed to see it but I’m pretty sure they will dig it. Also, there’s gonna be a cool announcement about it too. We got some pretty insanely awesome voice talent for it.
13. What is Cardboard City and how did you get involved?
Cardboard City is simply a collected group of like-minded creative friends that, over the years, have all crossed paths and respected each other’s work, and we’ve collaborated on a bunch of things. The group is mostly musicians & DJ’s (Like Daryl Palumbo, Cage, Yak Ballz, Aesop, Dj Glue,), but there are a few artists, and now even an actor (Shia LaBaouf). I got linked up through working with hip hop artist CAGE a few years ago. We hooked up and kinda worked on some stuff together, and become close friends even though we lived on different coasts, and through him I met a lot of the other guys and we just have always clicked.
14. “The Secrets of Hollywood” is one of my favorites of your endeavors. How did you come up with this idea and the clever “secrets” written about various celebrities and socialites? Feel free to elaborate on your view of Hollywood and the people in it.
Hollywood’s such a love hate thing. It’s retarded, and most people involved in it are retarded, but at the same time, I’m so enthralled by a lot of what happens in Hollywood. It’s like any supervillain, like the Joker. Yah, the Joker hates Batman, but if Batman didn’t exist, the Joker would have nothing to do. I admire so many creative people in Hollywood individually but as a whole, its this weird Voltron of hungry and heartless aliens who’s first words when it meets you are “what can yoooou do for meeeeee?” The way the whole “Secrets” thing started was because somehow I stumbled on the fact that Keifer Sutherland is a twin. That’s true. I was so amazed for some reason about that because it seemed to be such uncommon knowledge that it seemed secret. So I just thought it would be funny if everyone in Hollywood had these weird secrets. So I investigated, and sure enough, they did. Everything in that book is true.
15. What advice would you give to students studying the arts?
Just absorb as much as you can. And be persistent. That’s the best advice. But the persistence should come naturally if you love what you’re doing. But it’s the most important thing. Be patient, do your thing, practice, admire, copy, be jealous, study, hate yourself, anything that pushes you to improve and learn.
16. What is an average day like for you? First you wake up……
And freak out that I think I’m already behind schedule. I try to answer emails in the morning, and pick up any pieces from whatever I was juggling with the night before. Meet friends for coffee, which is like the only social life I have right now besides my girlfriend. Paint / draw and watch shitty movies and think “Why do I keep renting these direct to DVD movies EVERY day!?”. Then realize I’m behind on Dexter season 2 and watch some of those and get happy. Stay up really late at my studio and do interviews in the middle of the night.
17. Any exciting exhibitions or projects coming up?
Aside from the Chadam movie with WB, I have a big new project coming out in October with HURLEY, and I finally have an art book coming out. Upper Playground is putting it out, its called Awful/Homesick. And I have a big solo show at 5024SF in January. And I’m constantly working on new designs for Zerofriends, the clothing and art-print company that co-own and art direct. (http://zerofriends.com/store/)
18. How does music influence or inspire your work if at all? What sort of music do you listen to?
Anything with noise influences me, really. Music, movie scores, movie dialogue playing in the background, talk radio, books on tape, podcasts. I get lonely with silence, so I have to constantly have some audio influence. Music doesn’t necessarily dictate my style or subject matter, but it helps me get through it. When I’m working I listen to a lot of movie scores, I love Tomandandy, Daniel Lanois, Clint Mansell, the Rza, and Angelo Badalamenti. Also music that sounds like score, like Godspeed You Black Emperor, Portishead, and Taughtme. Aside from that though, I’m a super big old hip hop head. I listen to almost anything from 1988 to 1994. Old bay area mob / gangster rap like e-40. I love wu-tang. I don’t know. Some newer stuff is rad too. Cage is amazing. Topr, Z-man, Aesop Rock. And At The Drive In’s “Relationship on Command” is my favorite album ever I think.
19. Speaking of music, how did you get involved with The Used and various other album art projects? Does the music influence what you create? If so, could you give examples?
I got involved with the Used by a friend of Quinn (the guitarist of The Used) showing the band my art online. At the time I had a small website and I was practically homeless, selling 5 or 6 paintings a day on ebay for 10 – 20 bucks a piece. I had just got my first real comics job working on OJO with Sam Kieth, and The Used just basically called me up and the next day I was working for them. It was pretty surreal. Most of the jobs, with the exception of The Used, I have to start working on them long before the music is done, so it’s hard to draw direct influence, but I have a strict thing that I have to work directly with the band, as opposed to a label or a manager. So we form a good relationship and talk about stuff a lot so the concepts and ideas stem from just bullshitting with the bands and being friends. I think it’s better that way. With The Used it’s been a little different because I got the chance to actually just throw myself into the whole project and sit with them in the studio and live with them while they were creating the music so yah, that had a heavy influence.
20. Anything else you think the world should know about you?
That I’m really tired….and that I bleed probably more than I should. And I want a hamster that I can turn into a champion.
Check out my art at eyesuckink.com
