Tell us a bit about your background, and the disciplines and media your work comprises. Like most kids, I started drawing and painting around the age of four or five. I can remember building and painting clay dinosaur sculptures in the 2nd grade with my classmates; handprint paintings were one of my favorites. Later in the 5th grade, I graduated to drawings of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle characters. I was skateboarding a lot more those days- my dad taught me how to skateboard. I grew up in the small town of La Verne just east of Los Angeles, one of those perfectly groomed suburban neighborhoods. My High school art teacher and parents were always very supportive of my interests, and I had a lot of friends who enjoyed drawing and painting. My high school art teacher pushed me creatively and technically; he urged me to follow my art interests and to pursue studies at an art college.

I eventually studied art and design at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA. I learned a lot about image making and met a lot of really amazing instructors and artists over the next three years. While attending art school, I met Justin Krietemyer. We immediately worked well with each other, and before we knew it, we were working on commissioned assignments, art shows and websites together. It made sense for Justin and I to keep working together on projects, so upon graduation we decided to launch National Forest, a design firm that would exploit our individual talents and our collaborative chemistry. Over the last three years we’ve completed projects for traditional print campaigns, advertising, product design, interior design, art direction and web design.

Aside from National Forest we still find time to work on printmaking and personal art projects. I am constantly trying to find that impossible balance between making personal artwork and client driven work.

What kind of messages do you infuse in your personal work beyond visual interest? Beyond visual interests, I enjoy creating objects that other human beings can relate to- not quite nostalgic, but closer to a personal photograph or memory. I’ve always felt a stronger connection to tangible, printed objects, so that’s what I like to make. Most of the ideas for my personal works are created from past experiences and childhood memories. But I prefer creative freedom in my personal work so the concepts and ideas are different from piece to piece. I feel like my process is very intuitive, so many of the meanings or messages are often revealed after the piece is created.

When creating personal works, I like to keep most of my ideas fairly subtle or ambiguous; I think it’s important to let the viewer make their own assumptions about messages and meanings within a body of work. Another person’s interpretation, according to his or her own experiences, is very interesting and significant to me.

Would you share some artists, authors, movements, places, ideas that you’ve found influential? I just recently took a three-week trip with my brother to Japan and Thailand. I couldn’t believe what we experienced in that short of time. I am so used to working and living in Los Angeles that the entire experience became a genuine culture shock. Transportation alone was extremely different: elephant back, tuk tuk, long boat, speedboat, train, plane, etc. Both Japan and The Kingdom of Thailand are absolutely beautiful countries to say the least, and there is something very inspiring about interacting with a culture on the opposite side of the planet. Japanese printmaking and Asian art have always been of serious interest to me; while in Japan, I discovered a brilliant artisan by the name of Kiyoshi Awazu. I also very much enjoy the complete works of Mr. Tadanori Yokoo.

Although I appreciate many different artists, movements, etc, I always seem to fall back on the timeless- John Steinbeck, Ed Emberly, Paul Rand, Ken Kesey, Neil Young, Little Brown and Company, Saul Steinberg, Bruno Munari, The Eames. To me these artists and their art bridge time.

Can you let us know what you’re working on currently? I am currently finishing up a series of concert posters for the “Be The Riottt” music festival in San Francisco, working on several t-shirt graphics and one all-over pattern design for “Sixpack France.” I’m also working on a couple of artist series T-shirt graphics for Stones Throw Records, a limited-run letterpress print produced by DWRI Letterpress and concepting for a 3-D art/object/wooden/toy/thing with Android8. Justin and I are curating a 12 man poster print show, and working on several new poster prints along with re-printing a couple of older ones. I just finished the artwork for my “Threadless select” t-shirt graphic that is due out anytime now, finished a board series for Burton a while back that’s out this winter, and my contribution to Faesthetic just dropped. I am painting on some wooden objects at home for the hell of it, trying to learn how to cook a little better this month, trying to ride my bicycle more often and buying a drum set for the 3rd time. I’m also adding learning Spanish to my “to-do list”…

About Steven Harrington

Steven Harrington lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. Aside from owning and operating National Forest Design with fellow artist Justin Krietemeyer, he still finds time to work on both commissioned and self-inspired art projects of his own. Influenced by images, fashion and graphics discovered in Time Life Encyclopedias from 1965-1972, thrift stores, and The Moody Blues, his art might be termed contextual objectivism. That is, he views each piece he creates as a tangible object that is part and parcel of a larger context; the object helps define the context and the context helps define the object. Whatever feel or meaning the observer takes away from the piece belongs to the observer. Nothing is shoved down his or her throat. Discovery is the key. Some of his most recent projects include a four board series for Burton snowboards, contributions to the French clothing line Sixpack, and a series of silkscreen prints based on the idea of “community.” He has exhibited work in Los Angeles, New York, Dallas, San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia, Montreal, Tokyo, Melbourne and Barcelona.

By now, hopefully you have heard of Roger Ballen. If not, you are in for a wonderful treat. Roger is a photographer from South Africa and has made a huge impact on all of us here. We feel that he is one of the most important photographers alive today. He mixes art and photography with a strange design aesthetic to create surreal dreamlike moments that he captures with film. 5 books strong, Roger continues to amaze us with quality work that is equally inviting and foreign to the eye. We sat down with Roger in Minneapolis and found him to be a very kind and humble man. Without further banter, we present you with an audio-format of this interview.

Interview

About Roger Ballen

Roger Ballen was born in New York City in 1950 and has lived in Johannesburg South Africa for almost 30 years. Beginning by documenting the small dorps or villages of rural South Africa, Ballen’s photography moved on in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s to their inhabitants; through the late 1990’s Ballen’s work progressed. By the mid 1990’s his subjects began to act where previously his pictures however troubling fell firmly into the category of documentary photography, his work then moved into the realms of fiction. His third book Outland produced by Phaidon Press in 2000 was the result.

In the fall of 2005, Phaidon press produced its second book by the artist, entitled “Shadow Chamber”. The book focuses on the interactions between the people, animals, and or objects that inhabit Ballen’s unique image space. Ballen’s recent work enters into a new realm of photography—the images are painterly and sculptural in ways not immediately associated with photographs.

What are you working on? I was away for three months in New Zealand on an extended surfing – drawing trip and filled a couple of sketchbooks. I have been back for a couple of weeks so far and am just sifting through all of the new material and making stuff out of it.

I am trying to approach my process differently. My usual approach is to think of a project that will take months or years to complete and then wade through a never-ending marshland of monotony and boredom. You know the saying 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration? The outcome is usually exciting and positive for me, but the process drives me mad, and bored.

Instead of doing what I’ve always done, I have been trying a lot of mini-projects that can each be completed in about a day. I wake up in the morning and spend about an hour thinking about the mission of the day. Then I just get down to making it happen and try as hard as I can to finish it in one go. If I don’t finish it then I just store it away as a ‘nearly complete’ work and move on to another one the next day.

A lot of these ‘day projects’ have been animation, and some have been technology sketches. I really like what has been coming out so far.

Do you have any set goals for this work or are you just interested in the creative process? What has been the result? My goal is to not allow myself to get into routine based work. I have a habit of creating formulas in my process and getting locked into them for long periods. The work reflects this and has a stiffness and stagnancy that I am getting picky about. Instead, I am trying to just let my drawings lead me wherever they want to go, whether or not that direction fits into some comfort zone in my process. It is a bit scary because every morning when I sit down to a project I am not sure whether I am going to be able to pull it off because it may be all new to me. I have yet to have one flop though! It just takes more active focus and less monotonous grind.

I also have a bit of an umbrella goal to use this new work as material for some sort of song based animation(s). Not sure what or how yet, but it will probably end up going there. The stuff that has been coming out of it so far has been really light, positive, and quirky. A lot of it has been inspired by the incredible environments of New Zealand and the experiences I had while I was there.

Are you taking a break from client driven work then? How do you think your experimentation crosses over into client generated work? Yes, I am taking a break from client-driven work for now. I had more than I was comfortable with last year and am trying to give myself a chance to make stuff that I really care about now. I make projects for myself and release them on Presstube, and then that personal work acts like a net to snare the interest of potential clients; then I get job offers. That seems to be the cycle. The best thing to do if I have no money is to make as much stuff for myself as I can and just forget about trying to directly get clients. It works much better to set bait with personal work and just let them come to me. That way the client projects I end up doing are based on personal work that I am really excited about instead of some diluted commercial Frankenstein that I made for someone else. That is why I post no commercial work on PT. Generally the only place to see a Presstube made TV spot is on TV and I kind of like it that way.

Your work has been showing up often in the art world this past year. What do you think or hope this next year (2007) will bring you? I would like to say goodbye once and for all to commercial work and just focus on self-initiated projects from now on. I hope this is the year I will be able do it, but who knows.

What is your greatest dream? That is a difficult question to answer; I adore my job and lifestyle and could hardly ask for more. Having a mini-ramp in my studio would be pretty good. Being as good a parent as my parents would also be high on the list.

Have you ever shopped for reptiles? Do you think that if you listen to heavy metal that your chance would be higher to own a reptile? I have never shopped for reptiles, but I used to frequent a reptile shop in an old neighborhood I lived in. They had a really good selection of strange creatures. It smelled really bad and I would try not to breath through my nose. One day it burnt down with all the animals in it though, which I thought was sad. Crispy! I do listen to heavy metal and I still haven’t bought a reptile, so my answer to that second question is no.

About James Paterson

James Paterson is a visual artist who also works as an illustrator, broadcast & web designer. Paterson’s unique synthesis of drawing, animation and programming have attracted the attention of a variety of galleries and clients worldwide. His personal and collaborative works have been shown at the London Design Museum, The London Institute of Contemporary Arts, The Pompidou Center in Paris, The Museum of Contemporary Arts in Taipei, The Seoul Metropolitan Museum of Art, biforms in NYC, The Sundance Film festival, and The Israeli Art Museum. He has also done commercial work for clients such as Nike, Burton, Bjork, VH1, Deisel, HP, Apple, Sony & Target. Paterson’s work exist online at two primary sites: Presstube.com (his personal space), and Insertsilence.com (the space dedicated to his collaborative work with Amit Pitaru of Pitaru.com). James was born in England, but has been in Canada since 1988. He currently lives and works in Montreal.