|
||||||||||||
|  |
 et
me start by saying I’m a tad jealous
of you for living in one of my favorite cities. How did you end up
in Santa
Fe?  Joel: It’s one of my favorite cities too. My wife and I were always vacationing here, so we thought, “Why not just move here?” It also doesn’t hurt that Santa Fe is one of the best fine art markets in the country; a lot of people don’t know that. This tiny town blows away Chicago, L.A., and many other art markets. Becoming a local artist alone has made it all worthwhile, and has made my work more collectable. The creepy thing was that once I moved here eight years ago I had a déjà vu—like I was coming home. I kind of knew my way around. It was really a strange feeling. Mike: So where did you come of age?  J: I grew up in Whittier, California,
the birthplace of Richard Millhouse Nixon (laugh). My parents were
both art educators,
which
gave me a lot of exposure to the arts and provided a great art background—probably
better than my friends who’ve been to art school. My dad would
take a sabbatical from college and we’d travel to places that
had lots of museums. You could say I grew up in museums
and ancient ruins and such. I guess it was my destiny to
fall into the art world. My parents wanted one of us kids to become
an artist really bad.
My brother is a scientist and my sister is a lawyer. I was always
the maverick of the family. My siblings were very studious. When
teachers heard they were getting another Nakamura they were excited
until they met me, then it was like, “What happened to this
one?”
M: Well, the proof is in the pudding as the say. You’ve obviously made quite a name for yourself in the biz. Maybe we could start by having you describe your style? J: My style grew out of a personal exploration. When I first got into illustration I kind of got caught up in advertising and movie work. I had a lot of technical skill. The work you see now is stuff I just did for myself to kind of save my soul. I had all this knowledge about history and mythology and ancient peoples, and I was never able to use it in the work I was doing at the time. I needed an outlet for that stuff to bubble up, so I created a body of work and had my first exhibition back in 89’ or 90’. An art director stumbled across it and asked if I could do a record label for her utilizing that style. A light went on in my head and I thought, “This could be illustration too, and I’m kind of getting tired of working on Taco Bell ads.” I made the leap and never really looked back. Having been an advertising illustrator I knew how to market work. I found my feet quickly, was able to get a few awards, and that all propelled me forward. M: Could you describe your process in a nutshell? J: Most of the time I work with tin. It’s a tie-in to paintings from central Mexico that are painted on sheets of tin that thank a particular saint or deity for something or other. It also speaks to the Spanish colonial tinwork that is a decorative artform with mirror frames and all. I combine the two together to get that real New Mexico feeling with a painting, including built-in tin borders and then having some of the tin punched around images within the painting. It all came out of living here and being influenced by my surroundings. In the gallery world it really helps reinforce the New Mexico thing, and makes work more collectible. In the illustration world it both sets me apart, and reinforces a modern folk art aspect. M: Do you work from sketches or go right to tin? J: Oh yeah, I start with sketches. I’ll send a few rough thumbnail ideas to the art director and let them pick through and decide what idea is working or if they want to combine elements of different sketches together, then I’ll draw up a master plan. I generally work from the background forward. I silhouette my main images, almost like a road sign, and then build around it. So in many ways I work in reverse from how most people do it, tackling the main image and then moving on to the background. M: What kind of paints do you use? J: It’s all different kinds of polymer, or what most people call acrylics. I found that oil paints are not practical for commercial use for me, so I switched to acrylics. It’s what I know. I use about eight different brands. M: What does your studio look like? J: It has a big square main pod—kind of like a Borg Cube from Star Trek, you know. That’s my main work pod where I do most of my paintings. Then I have another attachment that holds my library. It’s a huge library of resource books and art books. I rarely have to leave my own library to do research. M: Do you work in other mediums? J: I’m trying to play around with sculpture a little bit. What I want to do is sculpt an item that I can cast in polyurethane and then paint an edition—each one being different. I got involved in this painted pony thing; you know where different cities were having different animals painted by local artists. Somebody in Santa Fe suggested using a horse, and we artists painted them for different charities. It was a lot of fun painting this big 3-D object, and then I thought, “I want to do something like this again.” M: Were they a hit? J: Absolutely. They made miniatures, and those are some of the hottest selling giftware items in the U.S. right now. M: Could you compare and contrast your gallery work versus your commercial work. J: The art I do is pretty much the same art. In commercial art someone else is dictating what the subject matter is. By the nature of my portfolio most people call me for things I’d be interested in any way, so a lot of times when I’m finished with an assignment I’ll explore that a little more on my own because something interested me, so there’s a lot of crossover. A lot of the commercial illustrations I do end up in the gallery anyway as people love to buy things that have been published; even paintings about technology for example. People love to buy paintings that have to do with Internet or technology issues because they’re really into that. M: Did you ever think that computer geeks would be collectors of your work? J: Never. I mean, whose going to want a painting about bandwidth? There are a surprising number of people that are eggheads, and nobody really paints anything for them, so when somebody does, they jump on it. M: I noticed that music is a dominant theme in your work. Any particular reason? J: Music projects are probably my favorites. Record covers are what got me interested in becoming an illustrator. I had an uncle that was a car designer; he worked on the Corvette and other muscle cars. I used to trip out on Yes album covers and work by Roger Dean and all that stuff in high school. My uncle said, “You know there are people that do that for a living, they’re called illustrators.” I asked, “How do I do that?” And he said, “You need to go to the Art Center in Pasadena and major in illustration.” That’s where he learned design. So I did that, and it really prepared me for the profession as far as work ethic and everything goes. What I didn’t walk away with was any practical business knowledge, but I managed to pick that up on my own by trial and error. M: Do clients come to you with an idea or just throw it in your lap?  J: I work both ways. Oftentimes a client will come
to me with a preconceived idea. I’ll do some research and come up with
a few concepts, and then I’m basically executing an idea that
they came up with. The way that I prefer to work is when they come
to me and say, “Here’s the problem we want to solve.” For
example, two of my clients, Merck and the Voodoo
Haitian Band, fell
into the latter category. They both gave me all kinds of freedom
to explore, which is pretty rare in this business. With the Voodoo
Haitian Band there was very specific kinds of imagery and placement
that had to be adhered to, and with Merck it was very specific too.
I mean, we’re talking about migraine headaches and relief
from migraine headaches from their medicine. A lawyer from
Merck’s
medical and legal department had to approve my sketches (laugh).M: Talk about a middleman... J: Yeah, but it worked out really well. I don’t know if there’s ever been an illustrator to brand a medicine world wide before. In fact, at one of the neurology industry trade shows they had me signing posters for doctors (laugh). Way back when, we were the first to use artwork to sell this kind of product. As a result of the ad's popularity other companies have since tried to use artwork in the same way—although they haven’t been very effective. M: That was a pretty edgy approach for what’s considered a pretty bland industry. J: Yeah, Merck was almost forced into being different because their migraine headache formula wasn’t that different from their competitors that beat them to the market, so they couldn’t use all the cliché stuff. It was neat situation to be in as an illustrator. M: So where do you see your niche in the art world? J: My niche in the world of illustration, or how I’m branded, is that I’m the “myth” guy. If you want something spiritual, or that has a little deeper meaning to it, people call me. They assume I know about all mythology from all over the world, even though I don’t (laugh). They’ll call and ask, “Do you know about the so-and-so mermaid?” and I’ll say, “Oh, of course I do.” And then I have to go look it up in my library (laugh). M: How do you come up with your ideas? Do you have an active dream world? J: Sure, but I’m pretty private about that. I don’t really like to talk about how that works, but dreams definitely play into it. Also a lot of it comes from indigenous primitive cultures. If they want me to do a piece that has an African bent, or a New Guinea bent, and so on, I’ll research art that was done by tribal people long ago in those places, and use that as a way to bring the idea forth. I’ll adopt ideas from those particular cultural elements. M: As you pointed out, Mexican folklore plays a prominent role in your art, have you spent any time traveling in Latin America? J: When I was a kid we used to go down there quite a bit, so I began collecting folk art. I’ve since gone back on my own and explored around. One thing that I’ve always been influenced by is the celebration of color in Mexico and Latin America. One unforeseen consequence of moving to Santa Fe has been the improvement to my personal brand. I went from “artist” Joel Nakamura to “Santa Fe artist” Joel Nakamura. As a result, a lot of projects where the CEO demanded that they use a Hispanic artist, and they couldn’t really find one, came to me. They’s say, “We can’t find a Hispanic artist, but we know this Japanese guy that lives in Santa Fe,” and the response was, “Oh he lives in Santa Fe? That’s perfect!” Simply by virtue of living here they think I would know everything there is to know about being Native American or Hispanic (laugh). M: How do you promote yourself? Do you have an agent? J: Yeah, I have an agent in San Francisco, Jennifer Vaughn. But most of what I do is self-promotion, getting into the awards books and so forth. I’ve found that lecturing in a subtle way is one of the most effective promotional tools I’ve used. If I do a talk somewhere, then sometime down the road a person who was at the talk will hire me for a project. I can’t think of a single talk I’ve given that didn’t lead to more work. M: You mentioned awards, what have been a few of your personal favorites? J: Getting into CA for the first time back in the early 80s was pretty exciting. CA is the industry bible. Books like Society of Illustration are more of a peer’s book. For me CA is where I want to be. The cool thing is I’ve been able to get in with any iteration of art I’ve ever done, including my early advertising work. M: Are you exploring any new directions these days? J: Yeah, I’m always pushing in new directions. If you check out my Web site you’ll see a section called “primitive.” Those works are explorations of very distilled ideas of primitive art. I’m always experimenting. Some are complete bombs, and nobody will ever see those (laugh). It’s great to keep experimenting. M: Do you ever worry about your style getting long in the tooth? J: Not really. Folk art is really timeless; it’ll never go out of style. It’s not trendy, so I figured if I could kind of tap into that folk art aesthetic then it could be adapted to whatever is going on and never go out of style either. That way I wouldn’t experience the death of whatever I was doing, like back in the 80s when I had a trendy eighties style that died with the decade. My current dominant style is very resilient and has withstood the test of time. M: Tell me about your exhibit work? J: The great thing about doing shows is that it’s more about process than product. I like to create the work and I don’t really care about the sales. I make my living as a commercial artist, so exhibits give me an opportunity to explore a whole new body of work—much of which ends up in my portfolio. So it feeds back into my commercial appeal. Also it’s valuable to see firsthand what the public reacts to. I’ve found that if you try to hard to guess what people are going to buy then nobody will (laugh). The key is to just be your self. People can sense that, and that’s what they want. M: Tell me about your gallery? J: I share a gallery on Canyon Road. That’s Santa Fe’s meandering road full of galleries. The tourist board says we have 300 galleries. I think it’s probably more like ninety. And we’re proud to say not one of which features Thomas Kincaid (laugh). M: Do you do any commission fine art work? J: Yeah, I’ve got a lady I’m working with right now that bought a dragon painting of mine, and now she wants a tiger to go with it. So we sat down and had lunch together and talked about what she had in mind. She shared how tigers are her animal totem, so I’m coming at the painting from that direction. That kind of work is really fun. M: How do you recharge yourself creatively? J: Through browsing books, going to exhibits, hiking, traveling. It helps to live in a really cool place. If you reach a brain dead spot you can go for a hike, turn a corner and there’s an ancient Indian drawing on a rock. It might be a thousand years old. What a great testament to visual communication that these drawings are speaking to you a thousand years later. I’ve done a whole series that was inspired by rock art. M: Tell me about the art community from your vantage? J: At the end of the day we’re probably all a dysfunctional bunch of loners. M: Do you ever get together as a community? J: Now and then. Years ago I got this idea of putting together a conference for illustrators so we could all meet each other. I helped organize the inaugural event out here in SF in 2000. We had a Pow Wow and met each other and it was very cool. Now I think there are plans to have a conference every other year in San Francisco. So it was a total grass roots effort and it still carries on in a different iteration every time. So it’s kind of cool to see that roll along. M: Any advice for the next generation?  J: For
illustrators, do what you love doing, despite
the trends. Stick to who you are and some day someone will discover
you. If
you do the right stuff you can make it, you know. The fine
art world is a bit different—more political. A lot
depends on the city you decide to live and work in. There are different
politics that
go on that are unique in different cities and situations. I know
that there is this whole movement where there are a lot of bizarre
galleries popping up with bizarre art, and I’m not sure if
any of that stuff is really selling, but it’s refreshing to
see you know. With illustration the cool thing is that there
really aren’t any politics going on. You can use the same old-fashioned
ideas of sending out your promos and marketing materials, and if
people like you they’ll hire you. They don’t care where
you live or what your name is; if you’re male or female black
or white. If they like your work they use you. So the cool thing
about illustration is that anyone can break into it at any time,
and it’s pretty much free of politics in that regard. M: Could you elaborate on the politics of the fine art world? J: There a lot of people that are really good that can’t ever seem to get a break, and can’t get into a gallery. There does seem to be some sort of weird politics involved with the fine art world—you know, whose reading about you, whose writing about you, whose buying your work, some people are really obsessed by having celebrities buy their work, they feel the need to write down in their resume that this or that person bought their work, I have celebrities buy my work but I never use their name. It’s a private issue and who cares who bought your work. M: I couldn’t agree more. So who bought your work? J: (laugh) I’ll never tell. © 2005 Mike Buchheit More "In the Spotlight" articles from the archives:Getting Down to Business with Paul Howalt, by Mike Buchheit The Pen is Mightier as a Sword: Talking with Ralph Steadman, by Mike Buchheit Baseman's World: Interview with Gary Baseman, by Mike Buchheit Nigel Holmes: Simplifying the Complex, by Mike Buchheit Just Making Art: An Interview with Artist/Illustrator Joe Sorren, by Mike Buchheit Wit's All in a Day's Work — Talking Shop with Von Glitschka, by Mike Buchheit Doodling in the Margins: A Day in the Life of Editorial Cartoonist Gary Markstein, by Mike Buchheit Pressing Business: A Conversation with Letterpress Guru Bruce Licher, by Mike Buchheit Mike
Buchheit is
a writer, photographer, conservationist, and avid outdoorsman living
in Grand Canyon National Park. His freelance articles and Southwest
images highlight the transformative quality of wild places, and
the aesthetic beauty
and social importance
of the arts. When not directing one of the country's leading
outdoor education programs, Mike enjoys discovering what makes
some of the design world's most creative minds tick. |
||||||||||
| Home | About
Us | Gallery | Self-Care | Nutrition | Biz
Expert | Law Corner | Calendar | Creative/Vendor
Directory | FREE
Downloads | Professional
Links | Book Nook |
© 2002
Kim Buchheit and Denise Traver. All rights reserved. Privacy
Policy