Good news everyone! We're back with everyone's favorite artist content section here at What's the Skinny? That's right, it's Art On! Brian Despain's work is simply stunning. For someone like me that has a bit of a thing for robots, this guy is pretty much as good as it gets. Brian's ability to make his subject matter so incredibly realistic and delightfully ironic in it's tone is just one of the facets of his wicked style.
I had the opportunity to connect with Brian in his tree top fortress, high above the bustling metropolis of Fairfield through the magic of the intertron and here's what he had to say...
GS: What was the very first memory you have of art that really struck a chord with you.
BD: When I was four my neighbor’s older brother had these sweet images of dinosaurs painted on his bedroom wall. I was completely fascinated by them, probably more because they were dinosaurs rather than art but still. I ended up bugging my parents about it, begging them to paint dinosaurs on my walls but I guess they were worried about devaluing the property with a crappy dino-centric mural because they refused. They did however let me drawn a ton of dinosaurs on old printer paper, clip them out and tape them to the wall. Which I did, endlessly… Or at least until Star Wars came out three years later.
GS: You're clearly a Robot fiend - what's the draw?
BD: I love robots for a number of reasons. First I’m big on trying to make a connection with the viewer on an emotional level. If I were to put more “human” figures in my images the viewer would more likely be drawn towards feeling empathy for the character rather than allowing themselves to focus on how THEY, the viewer, feel in the same situation. Robots make the perfect faceless avatar. They’re human enough to get the point of the situation across but removed enough to allow the viewer to sort of put themselves in the robot’s stead. Secondly I’m putting these robots into some pretty dire situations, on the brink of utter destruction type of stuff. If I were to do that to a human there would be a lot of shock and outrage from people who would then miss the finer points of the image. A robot however I can do all sorts of horrible things to and people just happily go along with it. This allows them to be drawn in to the point where when they realize the macabre nature of the imagery it’s too late. Lastly, robots are just friggin’ cool man. They’re robots for god’s sake!
GS: Scenario: Desert Island, only you and one character from TV, who would it be and why?
BD: Jeannie from “I Dream of Jeannie”… And isn’t it obvious?
GS: What artistic movement throughout history has had the most influence upon society in terms of it's overall impact?
BD: I would argue that no one movement has had more impact than any other. In fact I would argue that the classic idea of movements is a bit of a fallacy. We’re taught history, both art and other, as this giant set of dates, places, events and people, e.g. The Impressionist movement started in 19th Century Paris by a number of artists including, most memorably, Monet, Degas, Renoir, etc. While this is true to a point it totally discounts everything that came before and after that particular moment in art history. What about the artists and the events that inspired the impressionists. I’m sure they didn’t just appear out of a vacuum, decide to create paintings based on “the moment” and then disappear back into the annals of time. History is a series of inter-connected moments all forming a web of cause and effect stretching back to the creation of the universe itself. To remove any one is to diminish the entirety, changing it inexorably from what it was to something new and but ultimately different. You can’t pick a movement to be the most influential without first paying credence to all that has come before it.
GS: You have some very important people coming to your house for dinner; What do you cook them? Provide recipe if possible.
BD: How important are these people? In all honesty anything that I would cook would most likely start with “Remove dinner and cooking tray from cardboard box…”
Thanks Brian! We'll be back with the next installment of Art On! soon, but be sure to come check us next week when we'll have some awesome new sneak peaks at the next hot GelaSkins release.
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