Intricate details combined with a strong imagination, result
in intriguing images that enthrall you with their unsuspecting depth. Artist,
Nicholas Di Genova, meticulously constructs insane life like images, and this week
he let me check out his studio.
At
the moment, creatures are the focus of your work. How do you decide on the
various creatures featured in each piece?
It depends. Sometimes I see characteristics in
various animals that I think would be interesting seen together in a single
organism… An example of this is a creature that I just drew, the Apocalypse
Toad… It is essentially a toad, but the front part of it is botanical, a type of
pitcher-plant… I see it as a hardy creature that could live in a habitat with
very low air quality, considering it can breath air, water, or through
photosynthesis, the perfect creature to survive in a post-nuclear environment
where the air quality would be very low… I guess it's preemptive evolution… I
picked those creature components because I thought that the resulting chimera
filled an interesting potential void, but also because I thought the components
were visually interesting as well…
Have
you always been interested and intrigued by creatures in general?
Yes, when I was a kid my dad exposed me to
nature at a very young age. We would always go hiking or fishing, or when were
were driving in the country and saw a deer or other wild animal, we would stop
to appreciate it, and my dad would tell me about it, why it was shaped the way
it was or what senses it had that were particularly acute… That led me to start
keeping pets such a fish, amphibians, crabs, turtles, lizards, and I used to
draw all of my pets… My interest in animals came about when I was really young,
and hasn't diminished at all…
Your
work is extremely detailed, and the colours are impeccable, can you describe a bit
about your process?
Sure, I do mainly two types of drawing… the
colour work is done as a traditional animation cell is drawn, I draw an image
on the front of a sheet of translucent mylar in black ink. Then I flip it over,
and paint it from behind with animation vinyl, the same stuff they painted all
the early cartoons with… The result is extremely flat and extremely saturated.
I chose these materials because they allowed me to pay homage to one of my
biggest sources of visual inspiration, Japanese animation. The black and white
drawing is far simpler in process, I used dipping nibs, and draw with black ink
on white paper… The black and white work, although it seems simpler, takes
forever. Sometimes I will work the entire day sun up to sun down, and only
complete a square inch…
Why
is it important to work in this way?
I just want to make the best things I can… I
would rather make one well-executed drawing than a dozen so-so drawings.
Although my way of going about things doesn't exactly make me rich; drawing a
square inch a day is an awful way to try to make a living, but it is
satisfying...
You
did a massive piece composed solely of extremely detailed tiny butterflies,
20,000 in total (is that correct).
Can you describe this piece in more detail and the concept behind it?
The concept is extremely simple, I wanted to
see what 20 000 (it was actually 20 009, to make it a proper rectangle)
butterflies looked like. I am always reading animal facts that include numbers
large enough that I have a hard time picturing what they are referring to… 50
000 bees in a common colony, pre-Columbian buffalo herds reached 30 000 000,
stuff like that. Huge numbers that I could not really imagine… So I drew 20 000
butterflies just so I could see what a group of 20 000 of one type of animal
actually looks like. I chose butterflies because there was room for variation
in each unit, which I thought would keep me sane while working on it. If I
could, I would do grids of 30 000 000 animals, because i would love to see what
that looks like, but if I want to hand draw the piece, its just not possible…
20 000 butterflies took me 18 months of nearly full-time work, and it really
messed up my wrist… I'm working on 10 000 vertebrates right now, and its
proving to be just as infuriating, but part of me loves the monotony of it…
7.
Your
work has also shown worldwide, can you describe one of your favorite shows.
My favourite show would have to be my most
recent solo show… In February I had a solo show in NYC at Fredericks and
Freiser Gallery, a gallery I have been showing with since 2004 or so.
Previously all of my shows were either all mylar pieces (my colour work), or a
mix of mylar work and paper drawings. I was always worried about doing a show
of just black and white drawing, I was unsure if people would find it
interesting because my audience is used to seeing my colour work. But in
February I did a show of all black and white drawings, including the butterfly
piece, and I was so happy to see that it went well… Sales were ok but not
amazing, but i got a review in Artforum, which has always been a dream of mine…
In the end, I took a risk and it was worth it, which is way more satisfying
than taking a risk and having your show fall flat on it's face, which has also
happened to me...
When
did you put together your first book and what was it about?
I put together my first book in 2003, it was called Time to Chew,
and it was 20 drawings that I had done over the previous two years… The subject
matter had way more of a street art aesthetic to it, which was what i was into
at the time… I really liked the book when it came out, and I sold quite a few
of them… I just put them together with
a photocopier and a stapler. I would do the printing at Kinkos, hide the
photocopy key, and just take off… I was way more ballsy back then, I would
never do that now. I saved all the money from sales to have the second printing
printed professionally… My big
mistake was making it 11" x 17", shipping it is a nightmare. I still
make books, I had a book come out in 2007 with a publisher in Spain of all of
my colour work, and I put out a zine called Wunderkammer through Koyama Press.
I'm working on the second issue now, it is long overdue…
8.
Describe
two of your favorite creatures.
I love hermit crabs. I used to raise them when
I was young, and I would lay them out on the floor and watch them mess around
for hours… Although they are called hermit crabs they love being around other
members of their own species, in the wild they can be seen travelling in large
groups. Another favourite is the Hyena, but they are not exactly cute, except
for when they are pups… As scavengers they fill a very gruesome niche in the
Savannah ecosystem, and they are perfectly adapted to fill this niche, even
down to the way they look and move. I appreciate their intelligence, their body
structure, their stomachs, their jaws are really impressive and there is
something really ghoulish about the way they move and sound… They fill a
gruesome niche, and they look and act the part perfectly, right down to their
lumbering gait and pre-pubescent mocking laugh.
9.
How
would these two creatures interact if you put them together?
The Hyena wouldn't even notice the hermit crab.
The hermit crab would be thinking: "Oh #@*!, oh #@*!…" for a few
seconds, but they would walk right by each other and both have a fantastic day
hanging out with their friends…
10 What are you most looking forward to in the future?
In my personal life, I'm really looking to UFC
121, its for the heavyweight title. I'm not into violence, I'm a very subdued
and gentle person, but I've enjoyed watching martial arts since I was a kid. As
far as art goes, I'm really looking forward to releasing the second issue of my
zine, although I think I made a mistake in calling it Wunderkammer, I think it
is too common of a name. I may change the name for the next issue, I've got a
few title ideas in my head. I'm really looking forward to my solo show in
France, which is in one year, and I'm currently writing the script for a video
piece that I'm really excited about. I'm not sure if it will ever come to
fruition because I have never done video work before and a little intimidated,
but I'm enjoying the process so far. Basically I'm looking forward to getting
better at drawing, but experimenting with new mediums as well…
What do you hope people take from your
work?
I hope my work allows people to forget about
their lives for a few moments, enough for them to experience a sense of wonder
similar to the feeling they got when they saw a wild animal or flipped through
an wildlife encyclopedia for the first time when they were children. I want my
audience to experience a brief instance of awe when they meet my creatures.
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