Raudiel Sañudo, Nature’s at the Front Door

In case you missed it, Raudiel Sañudo is our current featured artist here at Thumbtack Press. That means we’re offering 15% off his work (use code SOOT at checkout) until the end of May!

I wanted to post a chat Raudiel and I did back in March of last year, when Raudiel explained his Soot character and some of his inspiration as a Mexican-American artist who spent a bunch of time in the midwest and Cali. It’s interesting to hear Raudiel talk about his work, he definitely has a grounded approach – like his work, it’s easy to relate to, easy to love.

You can read the chat in its entirety here, and go through all of Raudiel’s Thumbtack Press collection at his artist page.

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TTP: How’d you end up in bakersfield? At one point you were in Tijuana right?

Raudiel: My father has lived here since about 12 years ago, I used to visit him sometimes. I also used to live in Tecate, Mexico, it’s about 40 minutes from Tijuana, on the border with California. I lived in Tijuana for many years.

TTP: Oh ok cool – how’s your life different in Bakersfield compared to Tijuana or Tecate?

Raudiel: It’s very different, I spend my time working or painting. I like it here because I don’t have as many distractions. People ask what I’m doing living here, because this is not a cool place, but that’s one of the reasons that I like Bakersfield. I’m more focused on painting, and LA is not that far from here.

TTP: Do you miss Mexico?

Raudiel: I go to Mexico any time want, but for other Mexicans who live more to the south of Mexico it’s very difficult to go visit, they are always missing their towns.

TTP: I’ve still never been! Mexico and Mexican folklore is obviously a big part of your work.

Raudiel: I started to paint Mexican folklore since I started to paint, before I was visiting the US more often, but I started to be more focused when I spent some months in Wisconsin.

TTP: Where in Wisconsin?

Raudiel: In Appleton & Brillion (a little town).

TTP: What were you doing there?

Raudiel: I use to live with my family over there. I love Appleton, that was in part of 2007 & 2008. I got a lot of inspiration from the woods.

TTP: Yeah?

Raudiel: When I was in Brillion I lived on a farm, I used to shovel snow almost every day for about 5 months, there was a lot of nature, and at that time I started to paint more detailed painting, for example Nature’s at the Front Door.

TTP: Ohhh that’s interesting – that piece is so packed with symbols.

Raudiel: Yes, the landscape in the painting is what I saw from the window.

TTP: Interesting – what about all the ways the symbols and cultures interact in your work – from Mexican folklore to Wisconsin landscapes? It’s pretty nuts.

Raudiel: I always want to mix both (nature and Mexican folklore). I’ve been painting more of these little monsters lately, I have a lot of ideas to do, I still have ideas to paint from my time in WI. Yes it’s pretty nuts because sometimes I don’t know how to start. I mostly like to paint skulls & flowers.

[...]

Raudiel Sañudo, Little Soot

Raudiel: I started to paint the little monsters called Little Soot when I was invited to a group show at Oo Gallery in Kingston, NY and the subject was “sOot” so little soot is a carbon particle floating and messing around.

TTP: I love him. Him? Her? It?

Raudiel: There are males and females. The first one was a male.

TTP: They could start some kind of colony. They could multiply and take over the world!

Raudiel: Yes, I have a wedding on the sketches actually.

TTP: Haaa – that’s awesome.

Raudiel: A wedding portrait haha

[...]

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See Raudiel’s Thumbtack Press collection here, and don’t forget there’s 15% off with code SOOT until the end of the month.

By contributor Hannie Jordan

Alan Flinn, Big City

Thinking – we all do it (some of us more than others). Nothing gets the TTP bunch more revved up than an artist who gets us thinking, wondering, asking questions. Welp, Alan Flinn has served up some fresh food for thought in Big City.

Who is that man? What is he looking at? Are those dashed lines in the distance a commentary on pollution? Maybe those buildings are a subliminal advertisement for AT&T’s infamously great service?

Hell, not even Alan himself knows: “These illustrations are open to interpretation because I sure don’t know what they mean.”

Feel free to sit around and interpret this awesome piece all day long – it’s available here starting at $19.99.

Amy DeVoogd, Bicycle

Chicago-based illustrator Amy DeVoogd‘s work is all over the place, from newspapers and magazines to product packaging, advertising campaigns, and more. We’re thrilled to be working with her to offer high-quality prints on Thumbtack Press and her initial offering here shows why: Cities, fashion, bikes, bags, couples, energy, design, style – it’s city life at its best.

Anyway you can tell from our chat that Amy is also dedicated and so so passionate about her work. We had a blast chatting with her about how going back to grad school affected her process, the lack of faces in her work (and faces in illustration in general), how she was criticized for being too figurative, and more.

You can see her entire initial offering at her Thumbtack Press artist page.

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Thumbtack Press: Hi hi

Amy DeVoogd: Hey

TTP: This still a good time?

Amy: Yeah

TTP: Soooo first thing I have to bring up is faces.

Amy: Funny was just talking to an illustrator friend about that…She was admiring something I did and said it was cool how I could capture the mood with no face, and at first I was like, huh? Because I don’t remember that I usually don’t draw faces. And so I went to my website and looked and, sure enough – not many faces! To me it’s just normal! (Not to see the faces I mean.)

TTP: I love that - ”Not to see faces.”

Amy: It started with my not wanting my work to look cartoon-y, and also to leave some of it open to interpretation I guess. Plus my interest is in the shapes and design, and sometimes the face is just a whole ‘nother thing.

TTP: Yeah.

Amy: A whole world unto itself, ya know?

TTP: It’s funny there are some people who DO FACES. That’s their thing.

Amy: Right! And I totally admire that. But it’s just not my thing.

TTP: Yeah. And there are other illustators who don’t do faces, but I feel like few have the color your work does.

Amy: So cool that you mention that, because I’m in love with color. It’s all about color and shape. Cool that you noticed both things. And I don’t always like “nice colors” either. I was working on an advertising job a few years ago and was on a conference call with a roomful of people, and the account executive says something like, “And can you make sure not to use those *&;$# colors that you use.” I laughed. Kind of knew what she meant. She wanted acceptible colors, not odd ones.

TTP: Right. She wanted some Pantone. But each of your pieces (or many/most) has a focused color.

Amy: Yeah I love doing 2-color, the challenge of limiting the palette.

TTP: Sometimes with fewer colors the eye is drawn to shape, and with shape, we’re in the design realm…

Amy: I don’t always think “formally” like that (is that the term?) but that sounds good! Mostly just instinct, what feels and looks right. Am I talking too much?

TTP: No! So I looked up some of your other interviews that’re on your website, where you talk more about process.

Amy: The process has changed since then…I went to grad school!

TTP: I was just gonna ask!

Amy DeVoogd, Dressy Texter

Amy: Yeah, so I went through this awesome MFA low-residency program at the Hartford Art School. The program director (Murray Tinkelman) is one of the original illustrators from Cooper Studios!

TTP: Oh wow.

Amy: And he knows everything and everyone. And so anyway, I did a week with Nancy Stahl and Zina Saunders and it changed everything.

TTP: Like what specifically did you take away?

Amy: I had created this process of cutting stencils from frisket and using a paint roller to make flat colors. This stemmed from wanted to subract that “personal” feel that you get from a drawn line. And probably from doing printmaking in undergrad. And then I would scan in the painting and maybe do some touch up, but not much else. This was a one-shot deal, if I messed up I’d have to start all over, and also it was limiting in terms of how small I could cut details.

TTP: Right.

Amy: So before I spent that week with them, I had done vector work (Adobe Illustrator) but was never happy with the way it looked (too flat and mechanical). But they showed me how to approach my work using digital tools but with my hand-painted mindset. So I tried it and was thrilled that I could make it look virtually the same, with a lot more flexibility! So now it’s a mixture. I still cut out shapes and paint flats of color…but now I assemble everything digitally. And I think my straight-up vector work (which some clients want) got a lot better.

TTP: Are the TTP pieces all from this technique/mix of techniques?

Amy: Uh lemme check…Dressy is the old paint-only method. The rest are a mix. With three of them I was experimenting with other stuff, like in Big Shoulders with a monoprinted background, Emerald City is a pen and ink background.

TTP: Mary Mack is suuuuuuuuuper not flat.

Amy: No, the background is some texture I photographed on the ground or something, and the drawing in the background is vector, and she’s drawn in Illustrator (vector) and then drawn on top of in Photoshop. The bag might be drawn with pencil then scanned in and messed around with in Photoshop. Yeah it’s really just a mix.

TTP: But it’s all much more sort of involved than the old process? More tinkering?

Amy: I guess so, the other method I had been doing for so long I had down pat. And it was all very segregated: I came up with the composition and shapes, then turned off that part of my brain to cut the stencil, then turned that off to focus on color. Now I kind of do it all simultaneously. To be honest I feel as if I’m still working out this new process.

TTP: What about subject matter? Do you see that as having developed as much as the technique/process?

Amy: Oh, I never really thought of that. I guess it’s about people, that’s what I care about, the shapes of people and their clothes. When I was in undergrad I used to get in trouble for using clothing catalogs as reference. I love advertising!

TTP: Really? I thought *everyone* looked through the giant Vogues and such.

Amy: I went to undergrad in the still-lingering days of abstract expressionism – all my profs had been abstract expressionist painter – and I was figurative. I was “criticized” for my work being too “illustrative.” But my heroes at the time were Wayne Thiebaud and Alex Katz, and Ed Ruscha’s gas stations and Munch’s prints and Robert Longo – have you seen his stuff? Awesome big drawings of people looking like they’re falling, or dancing. Life size.

TTP: Yes yes – never seen one in person though.

Amy: I saw one in person! Awesome!

TTP: Like, blank backgrounds? Like the Mad Men opening credits.

Amy: Yeah, just graphite on paper. Love that opening credit animation by the way. I’m currently teaching myself animation -

TTP: Animation!

Amy: Yeah I want to make my images move. I have two “tests” up on Vimeo now, but it takes time and I’m so busy, it so often takes the back burner to work.

TTP: What about gifs – have you messed around with them at all?

Amy: Funny I’m working on one now! but mostly using After Effects with lots of mentoring from Zina Saunders (she’s my
support group.

TTP: It’s different if there’s a story or narrative vs. the sort of “illustrative animation” that you see with fashion or such.

Amy: Exactly, I don’t want to do regular old animation by the way, my work is more “documentary” or non-fiction you could say than telling a story

TTP: Right although that’s tricky because there are always stories.

Amy: True. It’s just that I don’t deny being very interested in the aesthetic of the thing and leave the rest open to interpretation.

TTP: Yeah. And you’re still teaching or no?

Amy: I teach a class here and there at SAIC.

TTP: Hence so busy.

Amy: Busy because of illustration jobs. Teaching is just every so often.

TTP: But that’s a good thing!

Amy: Oh yes, definitely! I just didn’t want you to think that I was busy because of teaching. That’s just for fun. I don’t want to give up my career to teach quite just yet!

TTP: Ha! This was really fun Amy I appreciate it.

Amy: This was much more fun that I thought it would be. Thanks!

TTP: Thank YOU. Talk soon.

Amy: Later!

Amy DeVoogd, Retro Miami

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See Amy’s entire initial collection over here at her Thumbtack Press artist page.

We extended the cherry blossom 20% off for TODAY ONLY! Use code SPRINGTIME at checkout.

Act by midnight CST!

El Gato Chimney, La Casa Della Polvere

Surrealism isn’t dead and we can prove it. Remember when people thought surrealism had run its course, like it was some kind of fad? The bellbottoms of art?? Pffffffft.

Please help us welcome El Gato Chimney to Thumbtack Press. His work is proof that surrealism is as alive, fresh, provocative, and (dare we say) FUN as ever. All his work has an energy in its composition, something that keeps your eye stuck to it, constantly roving around the symbols, making unexpected connections, probing the subconscious.

What’re the numbers for? Is that a tea kettle? A LION.

El Gato Chimney, Presa Di Posizione (detail)

We asked El Gato about how people experience his work. Considering that it’s packed with symbols and incongruities that are surprising to the eye (as well as the subconscious!), does he prefer people interact with his work a certain way? No way, he said:

“I love when one painting provokes opposite, strong reactions in different people. If I were to tell anyone beforehand how to read my work, this would never happen, and I find it very important that everyone finds their own key to the reading, only guided by their subconscious.”

Sounds like Andre Breton’s famous definition of surrealism as “Pure psychic automatism,” right? Experience the work, experience it purely, experience it deeply. Amen.

Oh, and as for the name El Gato Chimney, we have some guesses, but it’s as mysterious as the symbols in his work. When we asked him about the story behind it, all we got was, “The name is a very long story and I will tell you someday, you will have a laugh.”

Rock. On.

See all of El Gato’s initial offering at his Thumbtack Press artist page.

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Don’t forget you can still get 20% off (use code “SPRINGTIME” at checkout) until 4/20!

El Gato Chimney, El Base E La Scala

Italian artist El Gato Chimney is the newest artist we’re working with to offer high-quality, affordable art prints. We were immediately interested in collaborating with El Gato when we saw the way his work translated into a huge range of  mediums. His surreal works elevated cabinets and walls into something else entirely, almost like artscapes. There’s something about experiencing his work, something about their composition and energy – it tricks you into focusing on parts of the piece you didn’t expect.

Anyway we’re extremely honored to work with El Gato, who was kind enough to take the time to answer some of our questions about Bosch, experiencing surrealist art, what he learned from street art, and more. 

You can see all the works currently available at El Gato’s Thumbtack Press artist page here.

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The only comparison or influence you name in your bio is Bosch. What’s your relationship with him? Is he strictly an inspiration for you, do you feel like you’re continuing the project he set out on so many years ago, or something else entirely?

Bosch was, and still is, a huge inspiration to me.

Although he is considered a visionary, the subjects of his paintings were related to the cult he belonged to, but it is undoubted that he helped tremendously to bring the invisible worlds, disquieting and magic, to the attention of the public.

He probably was the first who showed that there is something more beyond classic beauty, reason and technique… I am trying to go in this direction.

The titles of your TTP pieces are all over the place. Big topics like time and earth and change – even though your pieces aren’t really narratives or political or trying to tell a story. I feel like the pieces are events in themselves, which makes them hard to “title” in the sense that putting a title on it can affect the way people experience your work.

Yes, this is true. The title are extensions of the painting themselves and are an important part of the finished works. Most of the time the titles aren’t related at all to what’s depicted on the canvas, because I don’t want to influence the observer in any way. Finding the right title takes a lot of time and I never find it easy.

Staying on that idea, knowing that the experience of looking at your work is an engrossing thing (following the letters and the numbers and the objects and making sense of it, or not making sense of it – it’s a surreal and psychological experience), do you place any restriction on how people interact with your work? I mean, it feels like your work could be more affected by the context of its showing than other work. Do you prefer people to experience your work in certain ways? How is that all affected by “digital galleries” and the internet at large?

The elements, symbols and words come from my studies of folklore and religions, and I try to include them in my poetics and revise them my way. I don’t want to place any restriction on how people interpret my work.

I love when one painting provokes opposite, strong reactions in different people. If I were to tell anyone beforehand how to read my work, this would never happen, and I find very important that everyone finds their own key to the reading, only guided by their subconscious.

El Gato Chimney, Presa Di Posizione

Can you say a little bit about your process, material, and studio? Where do you get the best work done? What’s the craziest medium or material you’ve worked on? There are some really unexpected mediums in your portfolio

I paint with acrylics and sometimes, depending on the support, with spray paint. I love printmaking too, especially etching. I’ve often had the chance to create ceramic and resin sculptures, they are very interesting techniques, but they also require very expensive equipment and lots of time.

I like to try new things, so in the past I agreed to customize vinyl toys, bikes, cars and even manhole covers! Crazy, but lots of fun. I don’t have a favourite place where I work, I tend to be inspired both in the street and in the studio, although lately I am spending more and more time in my studio, with my books around me. I study all the subjects that interest me the most and that I want to include in my art, travelling as often as I can to experience them firsthand. I am a good observer and I try to channel what surrounds me everyday into my work. I collect my sketches and my thoughts into my beloved notebooks, and when I need some inspiration I flip through them and I let them influence my subconscious.

Where do you think the time you spent/spend doing street art shows up in your work? Obviously you’re still the same person (I think!) who paints, but is the approach so different between street works and paintings? How is your approach different, if it is?

The time spent painting in the street was very important for me. I never attended art school and the street gave me the chance to meet and to work with several great artists that taught me most of what I know; also, it is a very competive place, and at the beginning this encouraged me to experiment and to improve.

I think I have reached a good equilibrium between street art and studio art, I have a classical approach and an underground spirit.

At the moment I can’t call myself a street artist, because in the past years I felt the need to be in my studio to focus on some aspects of my work, but this doesn’t mean that I will never do street art again, I am just waiting for the right idea.

Ok, lastly: What’s the story behind the name El Gato Chimney?

The name is a very long story and I will tell you someday, you will have a laugh.

El Gato Chimney, Airiness

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See El Gato’s TTP collection in its entirety here.

Colin Johnson, Percolate

We had some trouble getting this last new piece by Colin Johnson up, but the TTP robots worked hard and emerged from deep within the mechanical bowels of the Thumbtack Press gears with their steel bodies stained with oil and rust and the problems solved.

So, behold! The other new Colin Johnson piece! Percolate fits in with the other collage/paintings in Colin’s Thumbtack Press collection. The works like those we talked about yesterday, with their insane detail and lessons on colors and composition. Something about the boldness of changing the feeling of pieces right in the middle or all over the canvas.

Percolate doesn’t just change in the middle of the piece, it transforms into something totally different. But despite the pretty brazen move, the piece works. Here’s a shot of some of the piece’s details – look how Colin’s eye for detail and use of circular symbols helps ease the  piece’s vertical transition:

Colin Johnson, Percolate (detail)

There’s more on Colin’s work in our post about the other three new pieces and at his TTP artist page.

Colin Johnson, Everything & Nothing

Illustrator/collagist/painter/collector/Sun Ra enthusiast Colin Johnson has some spanking new work up at his Thumbtack Press artist page. Colin’s long been a TTP favorite for his incredibly detailed works (see: Big Numbers, Heart & Teeth, Effloresce, the Flotsam & Jetsam limited edition, etc.) his wit, and the works that defy any kind of easy description.

Colin Johnson, Everything & Nothing (detail)

And now there are three new ones! Colin creates his pieces with a combination of painting and collage, layering thousands of found scraps with paint. His work is a master class in composition, and the three new pieces are no exception.

To take one example, the black/grey/red theme in Everything & Nothing (above) seems to pop out in five somewhat distinct sections, but each section has its own narrative and symbology, even as it all connects into one picee. Notice how the body figure in the bottom right balances out the Eugene Delacroix quote in the top left. Or the rhythm of the snaking blue figure on the bottom of the piece, sneaking into the redder box just above it.

It can keep your eyes busy for days.

Colin Johnson, Frequency

Here’s a chunk of our interview with Colin back in November for the release of his Flotsam & Jetsam limited edition release:

Where do you find all the pieces you use for the collage? Do certain pieces rely on a certain aesthetic of collage scraps or do you use anything you find that you think works? 

I generally use collage pieces from older magazines and other piece of ephemera usually from 1950 or earlier. I try to only pick the mostly visually striking bits that I can find that are hopefully old enough, and obscure enough, not to have any copyright issues. If the resulting aesthetic gives the feel of pop culture or Americana then so be it. But I usually don’t strive to put a label on the final result of my efforts. I’m really just trying to produce the most visually arresting piece possible.

Sooo…where are the secret illuminati messages hidden in the piece?

If I told you that I’d have to kill you! Ha, ha. No, really, I would. Kidding! Actually, there are some numbers, letters, or symbols that I add in each piece that are personal to me and the rest are all elements that I find to be visually striking. However, I never really point any of those elements out to other people, because even if I did, each person is going to relate to the individual collage bits in his or her own way. I’m hoping and expecting that people will find and make their own connections with the work and that they are going to do so regardless of any input on my part.

Colin Johnson, Defenders of Nature: Mer Man

Matthew Woodson, Odd Man Out

Due to popular demand from his vocal and passionate fan base over on The Canary and elsewhere, we’ve just added this new print by Matthew Woodson. Get Odd Man Out framed (like above), on canvas, or on a number of heavy papers. You do you.

Matthew was also featured on Supersonic Electronic earlier this week. Basically, he’s killin it.

And you can always see more of Matthew’s work over at his Thumbtack Press artist page.

Alex Varanese, Alt/1977 Mobile Voxx Ad 

So this Radioshack ad (below) offers a cell phone for $1,500. That’s four times as much as an iPhone, but hey who can turn down “Affordable handheld communication convenience?”

It’s all summed up so well in Alex Varanese‘s Alt/1977 series. Alex turns his satirical and incisive eye on music players, video games, computers, and phones. Alex’s faux-ad for the Mobile Voxx calls it out: “Like any other phone. But without the wall attached.”

See the rest of his Alt/1977 series at his Thumbtack Press artist page.