ROBERT RYAN: Baphomet & Shangri La

"Love is All", Robert Ryan

I first met Robert "Bink" Ryan when he set up a show for Crazy Dreams Band in his one-room studio slash gallery slash third floor walkup off one of Asbury Park's Cookman Street. His walls were covered in gorgeous framed works in a metaphysical-flash style and a third of one wall was entirely given over to a monochromatic cosmos mural by Daniel Higgs. Nobody at the party seemed particularly interested in our music, but Bink's fridge seemed to grow beer and everyone was pretty nice. The next day, I walked miles in a freak hailstorm to Robert's tattoo shop one town away where I received a rainbow ice cup and my clothing was dried in a laundry room filled with Chihuahua figurines. Asbury Park, New Jersey is sort of a magical wasteland in itself, and now Bink lives in the neighboring village of Ocean Grove, a plot of mansions and cottages on Methodist-owned land that closes its gates at midnight. He spearheads the musical entity Harmonize Most High and continues to execute dazzling works of art for flesh and paper.

What do you do?
I make paintings and tattoos and try to work on music as much as the painting and tattooing will allow for me to do.

What are you doing the most lately?
I feel like I have been traveling a lot lately and studying. I have been working with plant medicines and working on my posture and breathing. Of the aforementioned things I feel like tattooing has been occupying a big spot because that's what pays the bills.

How long have you done these things?
Tattooing for 14 years. Painting for about 16 and playing music for about 23 years.


How have the things changed?
Well I feel like its always expanding and contracting. Its always growing I'm always purging expelling all the bullshit that attaches itself to you on these paths. Earthly snares and such.

Why do you do these things?
For the Love

How does it make you feel?
Like my hero Sun Ra said "Music can be your greatest ambassador or your worst nemesis."

What's it like when you are unable to do these things?
I feel like I imagine a worried mother must feel like.

When was That Moment in your life that told you you would become what you are?
When I was young I used to live in an old house that belonged to Eugene O'Neal's widow and daughter, Agnes and Una. They lived there after Una divorced Charlie Chaplin. One night my cousin and I were playing in the yard and we both saw what we thought was Eugene O' Neal's

ghost walk past us. At that moment my mind was open to anything. I was Eleven.

How has your life changed to accommodate That Moment's effect on you?

Well I figured out right away that I wasn't taking the easy way out. To see ghosts and UFOs and consume LSD or live in Hare Krishna temple might be hard to explain to your friends and loved ones yet is still worth the experience.

How has your work affected your life in return?
I could be the poster child for what you should or what you shouldn't do with your life. It all depends on who you ask. Tattooing has shaped me as well as destroyed me, like my psychic baphomet. Music on the other hand is my Shangri La and painting might be the strongest of my personal connections.

How does your location affect what you do and who you are these days?

As you know I live between "Gods square mile" Ocean Grove & "The city by the Sea" Asbury Park. I feel as though I'm very lucky to work with some of the greatest people I know, I live four blocks from the beach and I play Frisbee with my dog almost every morning. The music scene here is so backwards and the art scene pretty much sucks despite the fact some of the best illustrators and painters I know live within 10 minutes of here. We all just exist outside our locale and I think there is something to be said about that.

What do you think of the future?
I think its an oblong oblivion.

What has David Lee Roth meant in your life?

He is like my favorite rock roll trickster. Giant Surfboards, Samurai Swords, Assless Pants, High Kicks, Monster Trucks! The guy is a Titan guarding the temple of Rock and Roll but then he gets busted buying dime bags of downtown julie brown ( middle school jersey weed slang) in Washington square park? This was a task I mastered in the 10th grade. He really is mystifying. I spent a whole summer surfing and watching the "Just a Gigolo "and "California Girls" videos on what felt like a perpetual loop.

Do you have anything you'd like to ask me?
I would like your advice on my retirement idea. Dig it! A small shack, One man (or woman) in a hazmat suit and a dogbowl on his head. He makes burritos named after the famous songs of one of the most important rock and roll bands of our generation DE EVOLUTION BURRITO! Customer: " I would like one Mongoloid with medium salsa please and can I get cheese on that? Burritista: "Yes sir we can whip it." Customer : "Oh then whip it good"

All images courtesy Robert Ryan.

www.sanitaryelectric.com
www.myspace.com/americancloudsongs

Robert Ryan works at Electric Tattoo
314 Main St. Bradley Beach NJ 07720
p: 732- 988-8882
www.electrictattoonj.com

MARK RICE: A Little Hungry

Mark Rice, 2005

Mark Rice used to live in Bloomington IN, where he was well-known for his artistic and musical contributions to the sleepy city's generally transient and collegiate culture. He's toured the world, intermittently exercised some songwriting muscle, and as co-founder of Art Hospital (a Bloomington music venue and art gallery) he regularly showed his paintings, drawings, packages and installations. He once tried to fly off a roof with wings he made, and regularly frequented the same Subway sandwich shop as Jared. These days Mark performs as THIT and pursues graduate studies at RISD.

What do you do? What are you doing the most lately?
As of right now, I am listening to Oneida's record Come On Everybody Lets Rock. It sounds exactly like you think it would sound.....satin-y smooth.....Tonight is the night of my going away party. I am leaving my home of 11 years for the the east coast, specifically Providence, RI to go to graduate school for printmaking. So to answer this question, I would have to say that I am moving...To all who have moved or are planning to move, I have realized something about the entire process....The first is rather elementary....it sucks...bad...Its nostalgic and physically demanding, not to mention, if you are a pack rat like me that loves to write run-on sentences, then it is also, heart-wrenching and frustrating. The second part is rather difficult to realize when YOU, the mover, are caught in the depths of a powerful MOVE.....It is not only boring to discuss to friends who ask,"how's the move going?" It is boring to the speaker of the lumbering complaints that follow such a question...Its strange to hear yourself boring yourself to death....So, to answer this question in the public forum in which I have chosen to participate, I will answer a different version the question......"What are you planning to do?" Many things actually, thank you so much for asking!..........I will describe 2....considering there are many questions to this interview, this only the first question, and that I don't type very fast....The first will be my VERY first solo music performance. This with happen in Providence, RI on October 1st at the RISD Museum. It is part of a group show curated by RISD grad students entitled "This Show is About Rock n Roll." The second is a project that is in the planning stages entitled "The Private Self-Assurance of Poor Paul Portmoy." It is an interactive sculpture featuring music by Jordan C. Geiger of Minus Story and Hospital Ships (Lawerence, KS) It has to do with self-image, lies, and how not EVERYbody has a good sense of humor or is good in bed, but we all think we are, or have to think in some way that we are special....Also, for the last 10 years I have been in both national and multi-national music bands. In the past six years, you say that music was my job...although I was always terrified of thinking of it as that. Previous and current bands include: Magnolia Electric Co., The Coke Dares, The Impossible Shapes, The John Wilkes Booze, Ativin, Early Day Miners, and some more.... boom boom bam! NEXT!

THIT

How long have you done these things?
My mother, Judith Ann Rice, is a Renaissance Woman in her own right. Sculptor, printmaker, painter, ceramicist, teacher, and puller of amazing salt water taffy, just to name a few. Her and my father have always been more than supportive of not only creative ventures, but being true to yourself no matter what the consequences. I know that last one sounds a little cheesy. I'm a little hungry right now. I get a little hectic and sappy when I get hungry.....Long answer SHORT......I have been making things in someway or another for the entirety of the memorable part of my life.

Why do you do them? How does it make you feel?
Ummmm.....A seemingly easy question....I suppose I prolly do it (this is real deep down now) because of control. I like a little tiny area that I get to be GOD. I do it for many more reasons now, but that one has definately been a long runner. I spent a lot of time alone and made little cities. Being able to get lost in something and have hours go by.....This can happen with anything (lawn care, cake baking, CLEANING, staring, etc.) Now that I am getting a bit older, I try to put this Zone to good use in the music, art, or the curation or organization of each, respectively. I really like the Zone, the concentration mode that when you emerge you get to step back and see exactly what Mr. Hyde happen been working on. Feel? Well, I feel nothing in the Zone. If all is going well, I feel nothing in the Zone. Exciting Pressure? It might be called that....I guess I dont know...NEXT!

THIT stage

When was That Moment in your life that told you you would become what you are? What happened?
I am constantly oblivious. Only in retrospect to I usually realize what big "life trends" like that mean. I really didn't even know you could go to school for Art until halfway through my undergraduate degree. If I'm not having to make money to pay the bills, sleeping, or doing some sort of simple math, I am prolly making something or thinking about making something. It not usually a very intellectual process nor is it a strenuous one, nor does it happen always the same way...been little baby steppers towards a product and hopefully that one inspires another one and so on....Let me think a little more, but I really don't think I have a "Moment." Lots of little ones...

How has your life changed or not changed to accommodate that moment's effect on you?
Well, I slowly started living in buildings and homes that have less of a focus on comfortable living space (kitchens, beds, couches, cable tv, reliable gas/heat/electricity/water, etc.) into spaces that accommodate a larger range of projects (i.e. trailers, warehouses, tarp houses, garages, etc.) And also, learning to live on a fluctuating and low income (bartering, recycling, simplifying, etc.).

How has your work affected your life in return?
Well, I have only lived once that I remember (sometimes) so the only other way to answer would be to compare my life to someone else's life and I feel that to be a dangerous and weak argument. I am happy when work is going well and I am frustrated and annoying when work is going bad. Mostly happy though. HAPPY!

Does David Lee Roth affect who you are? If so, how?
I respect the man's taste in fashion. If he is a sex symbol (is he?) that is heralded by heterosexual women and he will choose to wear say, a woman's one-piece bathing suit, wear his hair like a WWF skydiving instructor, and paint his face like a sun-burned Avon lady then, shit, man.....Now that I think about it he has inspired me a lot!

Do you have anything you'd like to ask me?
That "Moment" question really got me......can you answer that one for yourself? I would like to hear that....and then when you are done could you answer it for me?
When I was 15 I was listening The Clash London Calling for the first time ever through walkman headphones and when the first bars of that song came on, I looked up at the sky which was perfectly blue with Octobery colors drifting all around and I thought "YES" just like that in big large letters and felt whole and thrilled by it.

HILARIOUS MARK STUFF:
www.goatmother.com
goatmother.blogspot.com

MIKE TAYLOR: Rad to Look Like a Carnie

MIKE TAYLOR is an artist living and working in Miami, FL. His drawing and printmaking style reflects the environment of his artistic post-adolescence in Providence, RI, as well as a broader range of influences from Gary Panter and Raymond Pettibon to the psychedelic palette of the seventies and sixties. His tattoo work, similarly reflects creative contemporaries Daniel Higgs, Robert Ryan and others: a mythic sensibility that transforms the interpretation of the myth, in a traditional style. While reactionary, politicized and endowed with sneaky commentary, Taylor's work is often light-hearted and excitable.

What do you do? What are you doing the most lately?
Mostly I draw. But that has lead to a years-long bout of screenprinting, painting, collage, crappy sculpture, a couple of videos, and a few years back I began to tattoo. I play music, I cook, I hang out with Jessica. I go to work. This month I've drawn a lot of comics, but when I'm working on an image for a print, it's all I do for a week or so. So lately, as in this week, I'm doing comics.

How long have you done these things?
Not to sound snarky, but since I could hold a pencil I've been drawing on stacks of the old computer paper my dad would bring home from work. I would draw pictures of guitars, barbarians, superheroes, and later, all the bands I knew I would be in. Of course, by the time I was in bands, it would have been fully uncool to look like the carnies I drew back then (however, I know that right now, it's back to being rad to look like a carnie, and I love carnivals too!). I started screenprinting in college and then immediately shelved the skillset...I only screenprinted t shirts when my band toured. College makes you hate art, you know? Or it made me hate art. I went back to screenprinting a couple of years later, like in 2001, and then hit in earnest. I started tattooing in 2004, maybe? A friend kind of arranged it...I had been getting work done for many years and expressed interest in learning, but at 29 or whatever felt I was too old to begin another path. Turns out I wasn't. We're never too old to feel like amateurs!

Why do you do them? How does it make you feel?
I may be unqualified to say why I do these things. I could make a list to tackle both questions, and that will touch around the issue:
-I love immediacy
-I have an innate need to feel understood
-I have to keep my hands busy (I grew up in a smoking household)
-as a child I was very skinny with very hairy arms
-art had always moved me
-I feel unqualified to live in the world as -it-is-becoming

When was That Moment in your life that told you you would become what you are? What happened?
Mostly it was movements against what I interpreted as the world trying to predetermine me into submission. I suppose every artist that draws gets told as a child that they'll grow up to be an artist. So when I went to college on an art scholarship I wanted to be a history teacher. Then I taught for a while and realized that I was on the right track with the art thing and I shouldn't be ashamed to feel compelled towards such an "irresponsible" calling as the fabrication of images.

How has your life changed or not changed to accommodate that moment's effect on you?
Hmmm...well, I'm not married and don't have any expensive diseases. But I am poor, so I guess I'm doing it right. Maybe the seriousest answer is that my needs are modest, which is practical for an artist in a capitalist economy.

How has your work affected your life in return?
I am seldom suicidal because I feel compelled onward by a purposefulness that comes in and out of focus...when I'm trying to be serious I sound like a dick. I just want to be wonderful at what I chose to do. So I don't make time for what a lot of people think is fun and I'm bad at keeping touch with my extended family. I analyze things to much/enough to enjoy them.

What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think about David Lee Roth?
Diver Down's pre-eminence as a classic record EVEN WITH the lame covers. It can be enjoyed spiritually, academically, and physically. DLR's early support of punk. His relationship with Henry Rollins. He claims to read a book a week and know three languages. The fact that he publicly stated that spending early Van Halen money on cars and women wore out, so he began taking classes, because knowledge is an actual investment.

Do you have anything you'd like to ask me?
Lexie, do you think I should move to Baltimore?
Yes, definitely! You will not be homesick for humidity, mosquitoes and violence.

Do you think you make "feminine" art?
No, not really. But probably. I think all good art embraces the masculine/feminine as recombinable elements of the same mutating whole. I'm not saying I make good art. If I make anything feminine, its definitely fighting against itself.

What attracts you to Baltimore?
It is weird, affordable and crammed to the brim with creative, interesting people.

What artists do you admire?
Ashley Snow Macomber, Shaun Flynn, Jen Kirby, Kehinde Wiley. Every one who gets away with it. Whoever it is that designs tapestries you can buy at the MegaMall. My roommates Nate Nelson, Sarah Jablecki and David Spelce Jr.

What was your first band like?
Pop punk. We covered "Skulls" and had one show. It made our friend Janaka barf.

Do you make art every day?
No.

Would you prefer to not work a day job?
Yes.

Thanks, Mike!
Mike Taylor's work can be seen at www.emptymountain.org

images by Mike Taylor. Top to bottom:

Pursuit, 200?
(Mike Taylor's self-porttrait)
Orthodoxy Looms, 200?

His favorite book is Crime and Punishment, his favorite movies are Blue Velvet, The Bicycle Thief and The Wizard of Oz.
He loves all animals and all colors, but especially cyan and bright orange and mint green.