Brendan Monroe Interview

I have followed work of Brendan Monroe for the last five years, and his evolution as an artist has been remarkable. Brendan was nice enough to take some time to answer a few questions regarding his thoughts on his art prints, process, and upcoming projects.

Transposed

I recently received your “Transposed” screenprint and like all of your other prints, the quality is top notch. It seems that with your prints you use more traditional printmaking techniques, such as screenprinting, letterpress, or intaglio printing. What draws you to these forms of printmaking? Is there any reason that your prefer these kind of techniques as oppose to high quality giclee prints that many artists produce today?

Oh yea. I’m not really into the giclee prints. The reason is that when I make something that is an edition art object I’d like it to have some kind of hand from me in it. I know with giclee of course the original image is made by the artist, but then in the edition process there is not really any art making. There are some things like zines that I will make editions of and not do much or any work by hand, those are more along the lines of product, but there is no claim that it is a piece of art in any way. If an artist is making prints in an edition traditionally or by any hand printing method the artist is most likely considering them art pieces. I think that’s important for the artist when it comes to putting the work out there and I think it’s important for buyers to consider when they are buying art.

Sour Leaves Zine photo courtesy of We Read Comics

You have stated that you release zines in order to flesh out the characters from your paintings. My favorite zine of yours is “Sour Leaves”, which follows the escapades of one of your characters, the Sour. The Sour has been featured prominently within your artwork. How did this character develop, and when can we look forward to seeing him again?

He’s an old guy now. I’m not sure I’ll be painting more of them or not. I tend to cycle through characters and try to constantly invent new ones. The Sours came about when I was drawing a lot of trees and forests. They were based off of lemons, therefore they got the name “Sour”. I wanted to make something that was living in plant form take on a more animal form and have some control over their own destinies, so I had them grow, fall off the branch and walk away. That’s generally where the adventure began. Then all kinds of weird crazy stuff would happen. I tried to throw in there as many surprises as I could.

Sour Vinyl Figures

You also released a series of great vinyl figures based around the Sour, which were a big hit with collectors. Do you have any interest in releasing other vinyl figures in the future?

Maybe maybe. I would kind of like to, but I have to say I have a strange itch that making more and more plastic things is not so great for the world. I don’t know if anyone has made any recycled vinyl figures yet. I’d be into that. Or maybe some other kind of material would be good. I know more and more artist are using wood lately.

Do you collect any artwork yourself? And if so, whom do you own works by?

I think I collected more things before this whole economy crash stuff happened. Now and then I try and trade if the other person might be into it. Some of my favorites I have are Neil Farber, Eishi Takaoka, Jacob Magraw-Mickelson, and Mark Allen Miller.

Finally, Aside from your upcoming solo show “Figments” at Galerie L.J., which open in September in Paris, is there anything else we should keep an eye out for?

I’m not sure how much I’m allowed to talk about it but I have been working on some stuff with a French company called Sixpack. They make lots of great stuff and collaborate with other companies too. So yea, I have a few things that will be released with them in the near-ish future. I’m really excited about them, but will wait till they’re done before saying more.

I would again like to thank Brendan for taking the time to answer my questions. His website can be found here along and his Etsy shop here.

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One Comment on “Brendan Monroe Interview”

• Dawn
  

  Great interview! He is so nice. That was very interesting.

  08-03-10 » 3:16 PM »

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