Blog

Artist David Cross is a Kentucky born Brooklyn settled artist and tattooer who's really carving out his place in the creative community. He draws his inspiration from a ton of really cool places and you can see it in the variety of his work. I managed to grab some time with him to find out a little more about what drives his creativity.

Alex:Where are you from? 

David: Born and raised in beautiful Louisville, Kentucky.

When did you start doing art? 

To be honest I can't remember a time when I was not making art. I think if you ask most artists they will tell you the same. I was always coloring or drawing. Legos were a huge one for me. Really helped me to learn that you can make the ideas in your head into something real and tangible. I remember seeing my mother draw this little character that she could do when I was 4 or 5 and thinking wow that is amazing, how did she just make that happen. I made her do it again and again  until I got it down and could copy what she was doing. such a huge moment for me I think. Made me always want to be able to do that, to bring what was in my head to the outside world.

What are you major artistic inspirations?  

Sorry this might sound all over the place so I will just make them into a rambling list.Gerhard Richter, Margaret Kilgallen, Robert Crumb, heavy metal music and imagery, punk, skateboarding, Oliver Sacks, traveling, having random conversations with strangers… 

When did you become interested in tattoo art/or when did you get your first tattoo?  

I think through skateboarding and punk I was sort of always around that stuff but somewhere along the way I figured out you could get whatever you wanted on your body. This idea intrigued me but it took me a while to figure out what it was that I wanted. Having said that, as soon as I graduated I was on a bit of a mission… well as much as a poor out of work skateboarder can be. I ended up getting the cover of Dag Nastys "Can I Say" record on Discord Records from a dude that looked like Meatloaf and did it in some dark nasty basement. I have to say out of the three of us that got something from him that night mine turned out to be the least regrettable. I still don't wanna cover it up even though it just looks like a purple flaming doo doo.

Then, who and what in tattooing inspires you? 

I had a long talk with a long time friend of mine that still tattoos in Louisville about a year ago, his name is Jeremy Payne and goes by the name Jay Fish. He's an amazing guy and a fantastic tattooer. What I first fell in love with while hanging out in his shop was the perfect line drawings for the stencils. A lot of what they were drawing was imagery I already loved but everything had this perfect line quality to it. I loved the idea of taking these ideas people had and playing with them and putting your own spin on it and making it your own. I don't have to tell you this, but taking for example very traditional tattoo designs and finding a way to put your own voice in it, to really make it your own, is so much fun. People see that little bit of history in the image but it has a totally new and different feel to it. I think that was the main idea I had going into this still ongoing series of tattoo flash sheets. I always love hanging out in tattoo shops that have their own collections of these things. The format is always similar but the content can be drastically different. I mean a Dan Higgs sheet tends to look nothing like a (place tattooers name here). I love the way those things look. going into smith street and seeing that they are only really showing original flash created by them is so awesome. I could spend hours in there looking at that stuff.

Lots of people get tattoos of your work how do you feel about that? 

I think it is fantastic. The way I am drawing things is not the easiest thing to tattoo I am sure, so that the tattooer still gets to make it his or her own a little bit by the way they decide to shade it or color it if they want is awesome to me. I drew it but you should, for sure, make it your own. That is my drawing but it is your tattoo so have fun with it. The only issue I have had so far is some people not doing the one thing I ask them to do, and that is to simply get a really quality tattooer to do it. Not your "buddy" or some crap scratcher from down the block. Look around and see whose work sort of matches the drawing I did and get them to do it right. Pay for the quality. It sucks to see a good drawing that you are proud of turned into junk that is going to be on someone forever. 

I was surprised to hear you have a day job because your artistic out put seems to be so massive, what kind of time do you spend making art? And if you can talk a bit about the process?  

I have always been pretty prolific in my work. I told myself along time ago that I was going to draw everyday no matter if I wanted to or not. I think it is one of the reasons I work in a few different styles and still like to try and play with new things. I just get so damn bored but I know I have to do it. It allows me to move around a little and see how different things will work. Sometimes it moves everything in a new direction and sometimes it just gets incorporated into existing things; and some times it just fails altogether. No matter what it was a learning experience and hopefully fun. I am lucky that at the job I currently have I can draw for a good portion of the day and it has been a huge help in me getting my work out into the world. I owe these guys at Transistor Studios and my boss and long time friend Damon Meena a lot.

The subjects of a lot of your works are like sexually charged mythological creatures or gods from a bizzaro pantheon, is there a grand story arc there or are they random snapshots from your universe? 

One particular series of drawings called "epic battles" was inspired by my friend Teresa Nasty. She has the funniest most amazing brain and our conversations always take these fantastic turns. We kind of came up with a story about her being this mythical goddess with all of these slaves defending her against this 2 headed monster that wanted to love her and at the same time destroy her. but in my crazy mind things always take strange turns and two-headed snakes and strange gear always turn up. I still don't know where that series is going and I am already 20 drawings into it. 

I've seen your work on paper and wood are there any other mediums you are interested in working with? 

I have a million ideas of things I want to do but money always seems to get in the way. I have some interesting things that should be coming out through Artifact Publishing this year so keep your eyes peeled for that.

Do you have any plans to work on a larger scale I know for one I'd love to be walking down the street and come face to face with one of your characters?  

Working in a larger scale is the next challenge I want to tackle. It is a little scary due to the amount of time I know I am going to have to devote to even one large drawing. The biggest piece I have been working so far is 18x24 and one of those averages around 30 hours or so. To go bigger is a huge investment but something I am very excited to tackle. 

Technique wise your work looks so meticulous but the subjects seem to be anything but rigid. Is that an intentional juxtaposition?  

Absolutely. I always hope that a little comedy comes through in what I am making but I also want people to see the time and technique in the work. It is fun to watch people view my work in person. At first you get a giggle or a smirk but then you see them lean in and notice all of the tiny detail and pattern work. A lot of the time they can get so lost in it that when they finally notice what they are doing they are 2 inches from the drawing. I love that. It is always what I want to happen when I am viewing art for the first time. I also love that it takes people I minute or 2 to realize that it was all made by hand and not on a computer.

Any parting words of wisdom??? 

Work everyday, put all of yourself into what you are making, and never be afraid of what someone might think. simply....be honest with what you do. 

read more

Christen Carter started Busy Beaver Button Company as a pure pursuit of her passion and curiosity. After spending a semester in London where she noticed the popularity of custom made 1" pins she came back to college in Indiana resolved to one day be The Button Lady. Eventually she settled on the name Busy Beaver Button Co set up permanent shop in Chicago where the shop has remained a very active part of the Logan Square community. 

The Busy Beaver team has grown to 15 people who assemble buttons baring the designs of bands, artists, brands and politicians - over 50,000 designs and millions of buttons have made their way through the small operation over the years. In honor of the tradition of pin back buttons her company is carrying on Carter even set up the first button museum to show how the simple pins have evolved over time. It is very safe to say that Carter has become The Button Lady and a damn good one at that. 

Busy Beaver Button Company 

Website 

Facebook 

Twitter 

read more

There is no better way to take a look inside the world of tattoo than to sit down with a tattoo artist. I grabbed some time with Charles Foos artist and owner of Reade Street. Having spent time in shops in New York and Baltimore he's got a solid take on what's going on in the trade today.

When and where did you start? 

In 2003, I did an apprenticeship with Elio Espana at Flyrite Tattoo in Brooklyn, NY.

Do you come from an artistic background? 

I do. I have a BFA degree from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, and a Master of Fine Arts from Hunter College in NY.

Who would you consider your greatest mentor? 

You! Elio set up a really great situation for me. While he was my teacher, I feel that I was really raised by everyone at Flyrite. I was learning great lessons from Nick Caruso and Steve Huie, and I owe Kelly Krantz a huge debt. It taught me a lot, just being able to be around and to watch him draw. I built my first machine with his guidance. Later I learned a ton from Mike Drexler and was lucky enough to build a machine with him. I felt very fortunate to be around those guys.

But, to answer your question, I learned the most about technique and work ethic from working around you, both at Flyrite and True Blue (Queens, NY.)

 Top 5 current favorite tattooers? 

• Chris Trevino
• Dan Trocchio
• Brian Bruno
• Mike Rubendall
• Ed Hardy

Top 5 artistic influences—non tattooers? 

• Marcel Duchamp
• Gerhard Richter
• Henri Matisse
• Kawanabe Kyosai
• Utagawa Kuniyoshi

Our craft is steeped in history and tradition. Do you feel it’s more important to preserve those traditions, or advance and evolve the art? 

I think that that you first have to learn the way thing are done, and then you try to add to it. I wonder what tattooers like Sailor Jerry would think about contemporary "Traditional Tattooing." He, from my understanding, was looking to move things forward.

I find for myself, I would be bored approaching every tattoo with the same set of rules. I think that when you have been working for a while you look for the way to keep it interesting.

Tattooing is very different from the art installations you’ve done in the past. Can you draw some parallels between them? How are they juxtaposed? 

Really, as much as I try to consciously separate them, I think that the one thing stands as a common thread is a desire to do different types of things. For me, in tattooing, I think that it's important to satisfy your client as well as yourself. I think that being versatile helps in reaching a wider audience. In Fine Art, I am concerned with the viewer, but making them "happy" isn't as important to me.

From Baltimore to New York, then back to Baltimore, how has your art changed after your time in New York? 

Yep, I'm back! I think that it's been good for me, taking on new challenges. In New York I had a lot of support. Working at Flyrite, I was in a situation where I wasn't allowed to get away with anything. When I got to Baltimore, I felt a little on my own. I had to push myself.

I finally feel that after 3 years I've managed to create that down here in Baltimore. Working with Tomek Szumiec, J Ranno, and Kyle Oxford, has been pretty refreshing. It's pretty positive. There is a lot of constructive criticism and everyone's just looking to do the best possible tattoos. Everybody is pretty open and hard working.

Reade Street is an old shop that you have revived. How have you made it your own? 

Yeah, Read Street Tattoo Parlour has been around since 1999. It was a pretty daunting task at first. I have never owned a business before.

Seth Ciferri created something really great in Baltimore, he had great artist working here and an impressive list of guest artists passing through. There was a lot of history to preserve and I wanted us to live up to the Read Street name.

When we first bought the shop, we renovated. I felt the need to put our stamp on it. We didn't want to feel like we were living in someone else's house. We also felt the need to let people know that it was us running the show now.  I wanted a place that would be comfortable to work and comfortable for our clients to get tattooed in. I think I've achieved that.

It has been really great owning a shop that I have always respected. It's been a lot of work.

We are local businesses and local artists. How important do you think it is that we support other local businesses and the community that surrounds us? 

I do think that it's important. I think it's crucial. New York is a prime example of how people support each other and create successful businesses. Baltimore has l a smaller scene, but I feel very supported by folks and I try to support them.

I always wanted a place were people felt comfortable just stopping by to "shoot the shit." I know that we had that at Flyrite, Sundays and Mondays were two of the busiest days of the week. That's why I really like that we have the word "parlor" in our name. A parlor is a place where people sit and talk. The world is loosing it's human element and sense of community. That is one of the things that I really like about tattooing, that you deal with people. (For better or worse.)

How important is it for us as artists to maintain and support the tattooer community? 

It's important. I think that it's one of the things that we still have. Most occupations don't support each other the way that tattooers do. I think that there are people out there strip mining the industry, but for the most part I see tattooers who care about tattooing. People who care about it as an art form and who treat it as more than a job. I just try to surround myself with them.

read more

 

Thanks to the members of the Columbus Crew soccer team for coming out to the Cleveland show and giving us these great jerseys. 

- FM

read more

This week we're handing the reins over to tattoo artist Alex McWatt, so he can introduce us to the artists, inkers and other things that inspire and inform his work. You may recognize Alex from his Hold Fast segment that ran a few weeks ago. But he is also one of the most interesting people we've come across with a very large community of creative minds around him. We thought he may have some fun sharing that world with you all so over the next six days keep checking back for more of his stuff. 

To get the ball rolling Alex did an interview with block print artist Dennis McNett whose work ranges from large scale sculpture down to paper prints.

Alex: Who are your major artistic influences?

Dennis: Major artistic influences? I'd say Richard Mock for sure. He did politically charged linoleum cuts for the New York Times for about 18 years. He's one of the main reasons I stayed in New York. All the other artists I initially met were really pretentious and were just basically telling me what I was doing wasn't good enough. So I met Richard, and he was super encouraging and just gave me some really good advice. And then, of course, all of the graphics and aesthetics coming out of the early 1980s skateboarding scene, like Cortland Johnson, Powell Graphics, Pusshead, and Zorlac. All the aesthetics out of Thrasher Magazine, like all of those raw Xerox-like looking things and all the punk album covers at the time. Those album covers are just fucking sick. All of them are really cool. And then outside of that would be like Nordic mythology, storytelling from all cultures, not just like Nordic stuff, but any type of lord storytelling.

A: Mythology . . . that's awesome. Has tattoo art influenced your work at all? And is there a 'who' involved in that at all?

D: I'd have to say no, but it always seems like I get lumped or shown with tattoo artists. People always ask me, “Do you do tattoos?” Or, “Can I use this for a tattoo?” But the stuff I do doesn't really translate, because it’s not drawn to be tattooed.

A: Cool. And you know, as this is a tattoo site, it kinda makes sense that that's why I'm drawn to you and want to interview you for this. I know you don't have super visible tattoos, but I know that you do have tattoos. Have you found that that's, like, affected the way people look at you in the art world? Maybe not though, because it’s not like they are out on your neck and stuff like that.

D: Not so much, and most of the tattoos I have I got from trading for my artwork. I like what they do, and they like what I do.

A: This is a wordy question, but you have a style that's very distinctly yours, and it’s constantly evolving, but it’s like always very easy to spot as Dennis Mcnett's work. I think. Do you find it hard to kinda reinvent yourself without departing from your core style, or is it, like, easy to grow and still just be you? I know a lot of artists are basically like one hit wonders, they find something that works and then that's it, you know? And they never get interesting. But that's not the case with you, I feel.

D: I think that the work is definitely changing, I look at stuff I did a few years ago, and I look at the stuff I’m doing right now, and I think that stuff just happens naturally. You kind of start making stuff and get either bored, or steered in a different direction, like going from the 2D stuff to the 3D stuff. Going to mass, going to performances, and then going back to like, OK, now what else can I do?

Like, now I'm working with leather as collage material, so I'm having the patterns laser etched onto leather, and that just came from going, OK, these prints are cool, the collage and stuff, but what else can I use?

A: Texturize them, kinda.

D: Yeah, so we are just generating leather as collage material. I'm looking into some other materials to laser etch and put over on the to surfaces. The other thing that I think is helping it, like, kind of go in different directions is going to different places and doing something very specific to that area. This wolfbat mythology that I started to make up there is a story of each place we've gone, like a storyline.

A: The size of your work seems to be getting larger in scale, along with its dynamic interaction with people. How much bigger do you think it can go?

D: That's been discussed. I'm looking for a really big space and funding that I can just spend two months in and go bananas, because a lot of these places I'll go and the stuff that I built is done in four days. Like, that whole thing in Laguna, the whale, the wave, and that whole wall was done in four days. If I had a month to just stay in a space and work, I could really do some damage in there. So I definitely want to go larger, but I've also been making things smaller, like the mask I was doing and going really big on and stuff, but then I've realized that if you go smaller, people can actually take it home. A lot of times the bigger stuff gets destroyed or recycled in some kind of way, like the panels from the ship. I built a castle out of them. Stuff like that, the pieces from the whale, and the wave, will probably come back so I can use them for something else. Or sometimes they just get left places. Like I'll just plop a sculpture down in an empty lot it will stay there for a while.

A: I notice you're doing a lot of stuff with, like, the younger kids. That's a little bit more recent, I think.

D: Yeah that's totally new. Up until then I worked with mostly college age kids, 18-22.

A: And they're already ruined.

D: Yeah, pretty much. And the cool thing with working with those young kids is they don't have any filters yet. Like, no one said, “Oh, this and that doesn't go well together.”

A: Or, “That's silly.”

D: Yeah, or, “Why would you do that?” Or, “You're wasting your time.” There's nothing like that. There's no filter. It was crazy. It was the boys and girls club where we did this thing, and you could hear them lining up at the door, and it sounded like wild animals! I like it because they were getting all excited because I had one of the wolf bats hanging out at front, and they knew they were going to be making that mask and they came in just like a wildfire. And the stuff that they came up with was just insane.

A: That's dynamite

D: So we were definitely on the same page, that's for sure.

A: That's awesome. Are there any mediums that you haven't experimented with but want to?

D: Not really.

A: You'll find it when it comes to you maybe?

D: Yeah, pretty much anything I've wanted to do I just do it. Something I have thought of playing around with is furniture. Like, just going nuts on a chair, or a table. Just make an insane table, you know?

A: I got a furniture guy, if you need it.

D: I was thinking of having a show just of that. Just trick out a space like it’s a Wolfbat living room, or something. Like chairs, tables, chandelier, heart, etc.

A: This is how we live, that's pretty awesome. Another question is most people, and maybe that's a big statement, but still, most people don't really work with their hands anymore. The work you do, however, is very much hands on, which I think is a kin to tattooing, I mean, yours isn't one-on-one, but the piece is one-on-one. How important is that human touch a factor to your artwork? You know its obviously not like mass produced. It’s, like, you physically have to make this stuff, each one, every time. Is that an important part of what you are saying with your artwork?

D: Um, I don't think I'm trying to say anything with it. I've always made things, since I was a kid, and we do use some stuff for, like, if I do an image and that image would work better 2ft x 2ft rather than 1ft x 1ft, we'll blow it up, screen it and use it for whatever.

A: But, I mean, even that screening process is still like you're doing.

D: Yeah, I mean I'm definitely, like, a craftsman geek. I like craftsmanship. I like to see how things are put together, like, the tactility of those prints apposed to a Xerox or an ink jet printer. They're totally different. Not everybody can see that stuff.

A: Do you think people appreciate the amount of time and effort it takes to not only just to do what you do, but, like, kind of master a craft like printmaking, or something, that is so hands on? Like yeah, anybody can do it right away, but to actually spend the time to do it that well, I mean, that takes years. I think that's being lost in society a bit and being undervalued.

D: I think people do appreciate that stuff because, like, say I make some stuff, and I have it hanging somewhere and people go up to it, they like it and then they ask “how did you do this?” And I reply, “Oh, I get a chisel and I carve it.” And they are like, “Really? Wow!" Like, they really just start getting into it and ask about how it’s done, so I think people appreciate it. I think there's still an audience for that stuff, and I think, because so many people are just doing stuff off the computer and just cranking it out, that when someone actually finds something that's handmade they see the difference and like it.

read more