#drmcoat

Tell me about your work?

My work is kind of all over the place, I sort of have a hard time focusing on one specific way of making an image. That being said, my work has been most recently based in silkscreen, but I've been working on taking silkscreen techniques and applying them to other mediums like gouache painting and digital illustrations. My subject matter tends to be somewhat introspective or based around a specific memory or phrasing of words. 

  What are you currently working on?

I'm in my final year at the School of Visual Arts in New York so right now I'm working on my final portfolio. It's still in its baby stages, but my intent is to create a series based on different homes and buildings I remember from throughout my life. It's kind of narrative, but the buildings will sort of become the main characters of the illustrations rather than the people who occupy them.

How is it different from past projects?

I'm trying to slow down my mark making a bit, and given the architectural nature of this project I feel like I'll have no choice but to take my time a little more. I'm also trying to implement some techniques that are new to me like handmade textures and implementing them into the silkscreen process. I'm also trying to relax with this project and let everything fall into place as I work rather than be frustrated with trying to make a really specific predetermined image.

  How did you become aware of your interest in print making?

I found myself attracted to images with flat, graphic color without really knowing how those images were made, and I kind of failed miserably trying to replicate that flat effect through painting and drawing. Then during my sophomore year at SVA I took a class with Josh Cochran who urged us all to take at least one printmaking class, just to see how it worked and to see how the process can help inform other mediums that involve layering or the breakdown of colors. After that, I taught myself to lino cut, and was pretty drawn to that process of mark making as an alternative to traditional drawing, which I had struggled with so much in the past. I took my first silkscreen class with David Sandlin in 2012 and it has since been my preferred medium.

Was there a specific aspect to print making that attracted you?

Mostly the idea of multiples, I like that I can make 20 prints of an original image and that each image can be exactly the same or have slight variations or even small imperfections. Despite silkscreen having a pretty specific process that needs to be followed to create an image it still allows for a lot of experimentation. Also printmaking people are some of the coolest people. Everyone at the print shop is just really excited about making stuff, and that in itself is incentive to keep making things myself.

  What is your creative process like?

This honestly varies from project to project. If I work one specific way for a long time, the process tends to get monotonous and I get bored. Some projects involve a pretty intense sketch phase while other times I'll skip the sketch altogether and just go straight to a final image. 

Where do you pull inspiration from?

Inspiration is something I try to not sit around and wait for, if I'm feeling slumped I'll usually try to get myself to keep drawing as a way of sort of getting all the muck out of my head. I feel like you have to get all the shitty drawings and ideas out first before something that feels right starts to happen. That being said sometimes there are days when I'm stuck and am really bad at getting myself to keep drawing so I'll go for a walk or something that will hit the reset button in my head. Though honestly sometimes I'll just take a nap. 

  Is there anything you are trying to communicate through your work?

This varies from piece to piece but I suppose most of the stuff I make carries a sense of playfulness or something akin to it. At least that's what I've been told.

  What was the best advice given to you as an artist?

This line from 'De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period':

"The worst that being an artist could do to you would be that it would make you slightly unhappy constantly"

What is your goal for your work in the near future? 

Tell me about your work

In the sense of creating objects, I make photographs and books/zines. From time to time, dopey drawings, and I'm very interested in montage. Conceptually, I see my work as existing between documentary and performance, driven by an impulse to reveal and test the fractured, hidden world beneath our intentions and experiences.What draws me are situations existing between the narrative potential of the photograph and its silence—the in-between, the unseen, that which resists being photographed. Photography gives the impermanent the semblance of permanence. The photograph is an index of something that exists within itself, within the subject, or between my subject and me. History loses its meaning. Identities and relationships are in constant flux. Abandoned spaces become totems, playgrounds, or palaces; a suburban girl, a warrior. The Midwest becomes the site of a falling empire. But even with these designations, nothing is fixed. But stagnation and mourning are not my aims. I seek to create a stagnating but beautiful world, a way perhaps of both redeeming and of asserting the power of the lost.

  What are you currently working on?

I'm doing a little bit of everything at the moment, just trying to get my momentum back again. I'm slowly continuing to do my portrait work of internet boys, and am making some digital collages that blend my drawings of contemporary landscapes with colonial etchings of landscape. I'm interested in the way ideas of empire are still closely tied to issues of land and ownership. I just got a printer, so I'm getting my work off of the screen, and hoping to make some more book projects.

  How is it different from past projects?

A lot of my past projects have been very distanced from me emotionally or physically, and have also had very finite endings. As long as I had enough to give a glimpse of a time, place or issue, I was, in a sense, satisfied. I keep moving away from a more traditional way of thinking of photography, even if it is just the form. 

  Where would your dream destination shoot be?

I was in Albania and Macedonia this entire summer, but had a lot of other responsibilities there. I wish I was able to have done a lot more there. There just seemed to be so much information embedded within the land, structures, and people that I would have liked to have explored a bit more. I also think I'd like to do more work in Ohio, which I actually see as being kind of similar psychic space.

Have you had anything go wrong during a shoot?

So far anything going wrong has been my fault. . . either in my head, lack of preparedness, or just a general mental block. 

  How did you handle it?

So far my subjects have been pretty generous, and I think at this point I've been able to figure out a construct around the exchange that allows for it to be open enough to be fruitful in some kind of way.

What was the best advice given to you as an artist? 

I had a professor, Nancy Davenport, who told me I didn't have to have separate practices for different types of work, or think exclusively in projects. It's incredibly simple advice, but it can be very hard for someone working with photography to deal with, since the history of the medium has really been shaped by the photojournalist and street photographer. 

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time when you’re not making art? 

Petting my cat. My friend also bought this huge mansion rowhouse thing in the hood so I like working on making it look ok again.

What is your goal for your work in the near future?

Get that stuff on the walls! I suppose that's the aim of most artists though. I'm hoping to start doing work with video. I've been shooting it like I've been taking photos, its just a matter of finding an appropriate form for it.

If you could be invisible for one day with your camera…

Tell me about your work?

My work is kind of all over the place, I sort of have a hard time focusing on one specific way of making an image. That being said, my work has been most recently based in silkscreen, but I've been working on taking silkscreen techniques and applying them to other mediums like gouache painting and digital illustrations. My subject matter tends to be somewhat introspective or based around a specific memory or phrasing of words. 

  What are you currently working on?

I'm in my final year at the School of Visual Arts in New York so right now I'm working on my final portfolio. It's still in its baby stages, but my intent is to create a series based on different homes and buildings I remember from throughout my life. It's kind of narrative, but the buildings will sort of become the main characters of the illustrations rather than the people who occupy them.

  How is it different from past projects?

I'm trying to slow down my mark making a bit, and given the architectural nature of this project I feel like I'll have no choice but to take my time a little more. I'm also trying to implement some techniques that are new to me like handmade textures and implementing them into the silkscreen process. I'm also trying to relax with this project and let everything fall into place as I work rather than be frustrated with trying to make a really specific predetermined image.

  How did you become aware of your interest in print making?

I found myself attracted to images with flat, graphic color without really knowing how those images were made, and I kind of failed miserably trying to replicate that flat effect through painting and drawing. Then during my sophomore year at SVA I took a class with Josh Cochran who urged us all to take at least one printmaking class, just to see how it worked and to see how the process can help inform other mediums that involve layering or the breakdown of colors. After that, I taught myself to lino cut, and was pretty drawn to that process of mark making as an alternative to traditional drawing, which I had struggled with so much in the past. I took my first silkscreen class with David Sandlin in 2012 and it has since been my preferred medium.

  Was there a specific aspect to print making that attracted you?

Mostly the idea of multiples, I like that I can make 20 prints of an original image and that each image can be exactly the same or have slight variations or even small imperfections. Despite silkscreen having a pretty specific process that needs to be followed to create an image it still allows for a lot of experimentation. Also printmaking people are some of the coolest people. Everyone at the print shop is just really excited about making stuff, and that in itself is incentive to keep making things myself.

  What is your creative process like?

This honestly varies from project to project. If I work one specific way for a long time, the process tends to get monotonous and I get bored. Some projects involve a pretty intense sketch phase while other times I'll skip the sketch altogether and just go straight to a final image. 

Where do you pull inspiration from?

Inspiration is something I try to not sit around and wait for, if I'm feeling slumped I'll usually try to get myself to keep drawing as a way of sort of getting all the muck out of my head. I feel like you have to get all the shitty drawings and ideas out first before something that feels right starts to happen. That being said sometimes there are days when I'm stuck and am really bad at getting myself to keep drawing so I'll go for a walk or something that will hit the reset button in my head. Though honestly sometimes I'll just take a nap. 

  Is there anything you are trying to communicate through your work?

This varies from piece to piece but I suppose most of the stuff I make carries a sense of playfulness or something akin to it. At least that's what I've been told.

  What was the best advice given to you as an artist?

This line from 'De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period':

"The worst that being an artist could do to you would be that it would make you slightly unhappy constantly"

  What is your goal for your work in the near future? 

Tell me about your work

I am an illustrator using mixed media to produce original artwork, small press publications, prints, and comics. I use the term illustrator loosely because I am self-taught.

  What are you currently working on?

For the last six months I have been working on an ongoing series called ‘One Week’. It is made up of large abstract images using mostly ink (and some graphite) on bristol board. I am also working on comics and other projects. 

  How is it different from past projects?

Last year I released an art zine and spent most of my time working on comics that never came out. In the past few months I have had the opportunity to show some work that I have made publicly for the first time which is different than drawing in my sketch book.

Tell us about your background, how did you discover your knack for Illustration? 

I have been making comics, zines, and flyers with friends sporadically since I was a kid. I haven’t been completely focused on it until recently. It still feels very new to me. 

  What are your influences?

There is an endless amount of talented people and way too many for me to name them all. I really love the output of Nobrow, Youth in Decline, Koyoma Press, Study Group, and Icinori. Illustrators like Farel Dalrymple, Jillian Tamaki, Michael Deforge, Amanda Vahamaki, Thomas Herpich, Sam Vanallemeersch,  Sammy Harkham, & Jordan Crane are always making unique stuff. There are authors, movies, and albums that influence what I do, too.

  Are there any particular subjects you’re exploring in your work?

I think there is a visual similarity in most of my work. Everything that I have made can exist together or apart. There are themes and ideas associated with the “One Week” series and other projects but nothing that I feel is needing an explanation. I like to draw things that I have a personal connection with for the most part. 

  What was the best advice given to you as an artist?

I have learned more from listening to people discuss their approach and attitudes about their own art than anything. Any feedback that I’ve received I have definitely considered and thought about.

Is there anything you are trying to communicate through your work? 

Doing the work incessantly and having fun while doing it is my only immediate priority.

  What do you enjoy doing in your spare time when you’re not making art? 

I try not to feel guilty about the time that I spend not making it and balance all of the other important aspects in my life. I like to read books. I like stupid shows about food. 

What is your goal for your work in the near future? 

I will have original art available for sale some way or another. Maybe I will get some comics or stories out this year. I am interested in making more prints. I am interested in writing more. I have a lot of ideas that I’m still feeling out so you can get updates at http://cargocollective.com/victordevlin if you want. 

  What are your overall goals as an artist? 

-Tell me about the first piece of art you ever remember making?

I found a whole box full of drawings the other day that I did when I was 3, but I don't remember doing any of them. I do remember drawing Pokémon from the games and trading cards back when they first landed in South Africa in first grade. Typhlosion is still my main man.

-Tell me about your work?

This is the single hardest question I have ever been asked, it's like the first date "tell me about yourself" question. I make things that I like to look at, that's about it. I wish someone else would tell me about my work, that would be the best way sort this one out.

-What are you currently working on?

I recently started making and mixing my own inks and dyes. I'm trying to bridge the color gap between my traditional and digital work by using scanned inks and dyes. I'm happy to report that my inks are very effective in dyeing human skin and the hair of Staffordshire Bull Terriers, my dog is not pleased. Wear gloves.

-How is it different from past projects?

I'm used to having some sense of control over a project, but these inks are very unpredictable. They do what they want, when they want to. 

-How did you become aware of your interest in print making?

I only recently became aware of my interest after I was fortunate enough to be taught basic printmaking by one of South Africa's finest, Vuli Nyoni. I always associated the word "print" with a tedious industrial exercise, it was only after Vuli showed us how flexible printmaking is as a medium that I became interested. I usually focus on illustration and collage, I'm quite new to printmaking.

-Was there a specific aspect to print making that attracted you?

Just the way prints look, the aesthetics, the history and the range of different things you can do. Litho, Monotype, Woodcut, Screen printing it's like the first time you found out what 58008 upside down on a calculator means.

-What is your creative process like?

First things first, I put on Wu Tang Clan, then I look for anything on television with Stephen Fry in it (that usually takes less than a minute) and put it on mute. I crack a window, shout profanities at my room mate and then it's off to the internet. That's how 90% of my projects are done.

-Where do you pull inspiration from?

I work with a close knit group of art idiots, and just seeing one of them touch ink to paper makes my hands itch. We inspire each other. (I can already hear them making animal noises as they read this)

-Do you have any printing secrets you’d like to share?

Wear an apron, for goodness sake WEAR AN APRON.

-Is there anything you are trying to communicate through your work? 

Not at all, I'm way too young to communicate anything. I know that I'll just embarrass my future self if I try to make my work sound intellectual.

-What was the best advice given to you as an artist? 

"To be frank, I don't like your work." 

-What is your goal for your work in the near future? 

Tell me about the first piece you ever remember making?

As a child I always had a huge fascination with dinosaurs. I would watch Jurassic Park on repeat and play with little T-rex toys until my family couldn't handle me fiercely roaring at my toys anymore. So I suppose the first original drawings I ever remember making were little Crayola drawings of various dinosaurs when I was in elementary school. I would completely make up new types of dinosaurs, name them, and then playfully try to convince my mother that they actually existed at one point in time. 

  Tell me about your work?

My work is often times a projection of my own emotion as well as my own imagination. The subject matter in my work varies depending on how I am feeling at the time or what is going on in my analytical head. I am from a small town that is basically surrounded by woods. Living there and growing up in a technologically advanced society has really made me contemplate the way we live our day to day lives. One minute I can look around and see people getting all flustered on the way to their day jobs that they despise. Then the next minute I could be totally alone running through the forest living like a wild animal. Having the two polar opposites in my everyday life made me really think about people as a whole not living their lives to the fullest. I wish I could just morph into a fantastical creature that doesn't undergo the daily stress of society. This thought process is what really got my creative juices flowing. You might see me painting wizards who are choking themselves or characters floating in space chugging cups of coffee to get the energy they need to be productive. I sort of see myself and others around me doing similar things. We sometimes are driving ourselves mad with this need to "succeed" in society and make copious amounts of money because we think we need it to be happy. But I'd be a hypocrite if I said I'm not somewhat money hungry myself. I struggle with the ongoing fear that I won’t be able to sustain comfortable living conditions for myself and a future family. I think everyone at least puts some thought into that. I would say that the imagery I produce is a projection of my complex thought process and analyzation of the world around me combined with the irrational fantasies that I hopelessly imagine myself being a part of. 

  What are you currently working on?

Lately I have been doing a bunch of experimenting with linocuts which has been quite intriguing for me. I'm still working on paintings and drawings that you would typically see me producing but I've also been doing a lot of new concepting that toy with mountainous environments, lustful thinking, religion, and the emotion that can be behind all that. 

How is it different from past projects?

Mainly because I have just been working a lot more from observation as opposed to completely abstracted subject matter. I'm also using new elements that are quite controversial in our society so I'm excited to see how people will respond to that. 

  Tell us about your new interest in linocut printing?

I've always considered getting into printmaking because of the sole reason that I like items in large quantities. I also think that art should be for everyone to appreciate. Not everyone can afford to buy paintings that cost hundreds of dollars but prints are cheap to buy because they come in quantity and I'm into that. Linocut printing has been very interesting for me because I like the subtractive process. There's a lot more to think about when carving from a block as opposed to creating a drawing. Also, I see the process as beneficial to me in the sense that I've begun to think more about my use of negative space in all of the work I've been concepting. I see myself gaining knowledge as I'm carving my linocuts just because of the process as a whole. 

  What is your creative process like?

Every day I contemplate all kinds of ideas for new artwork. The world as a whole is constant inspiration for me. My head is always a sea of new ideas so I'm constantly making side notes and quick little drawings that I might use in the future. I usually work through the compositional aspects as I go along though. I like to have the general idea subject matter wise pretty much set in before I start the final piece but as I am starting a final work I might make compositional changes a number of times before I actually start to put down any of the medium I am using. I tend to over think a lot of things so sometimes I will get stumped and have to put a piece down for a bit in order to clear my mind. Usually I will have like four or more projects going at the same time. 

  Is there anything you are trying to communicate through your work? 

I hope that people can get a taste of my own thought process when they look at the style of my work as a whole. The characters I create are all seemingly in a state of deep contemplation. I attempt to communicate this notion of constant anxiety throughout my works altogether but I'd say each piece has its own reasoning behind it that people may interpret in their own way. 

  What was the best advice given to you as an artist?

 It would have to be a past instructor rhetorically asking me "Who wrote the rules?"  

  What do you enjoy doing in your spare time when you’re not making art? 

I've always been deep into skate culture and everything that comes along with that. I shoot a good amount of skate photography and I also enjoy skateboarding myself. Nothing tops live music though. I'd rather go see a band I'm into live than anything else. There is just something about that output of emotion from myself and others during a live set that I am completely addicted to. 

What is your goal for your work in the near future?