Steven Harrington

This month our featured artist is Californian designer and illustrator Steven Harrington (www.stevenharrington.com). With an imagery connected to 70’s aesthetics and its organic feel you would say his style is retro while we believe it’s, in fact, one of the freshest artists around so we decided to interview him for this site.

First of all: Why, where, how… did you become an artist?

I have a few theories. It may have started the day I was handed my first crayola crayon or maybe it was that hand-print Christmas tree I made when I was 5. I’ve always really liked making imagery and playing with color, and for some reason I just kept on doing it, right through middle school, past high school and then I really decided to get ‘serious’ about it in college. I guess you could say that’s when it became a reality. I met Justin Krietemeyer while attending art school, and shortly after graduating we formed National Forest (www.nationalforest.com), a collaborative design studio specializing in art direction and print design. National Forest keeps me busy, but I still, somehow, make time to work on personal artworks and prints and things. It’s been a pretty natural progression.

It looks like much of your personal visual universe comes from your childhood. And I would say also influences from the 70’s and hippy-psychedelic culture graphics. Is this so? Could do try to detail the ingredients in the mixture of influences that your work feeds from?

My childhood has had a tremendous influence on my personal works. I constantly find myself digging back into my ‘memory banks’ for inspiration and ideas. I feel that young people have a natural ability to see the animate world around us; they relate to objects as if they had a character and as if they were alive. Later on you are taught quite the opposite: wood is dead, fruit can’t breathe, the wind isn’t a person… the only other relevant beings are humans. I guess I’m trying to find my way back to my younger days of thinking. I want to be able to see the world as it was before I was taught that reason and logic and science had to be superimposed on the universe. It seems like somewhere along the way most of the westernized world has lost the sense that fire, mountains, water, rocks and the whole of nature is a dynamic living organism.

And there are a few elements that keep showing up in your work: triangles, circles and squares, winks, animals… I guess you want viewers to make their own assumptions but any clues on what all these represent in your world?

I enjoy using reoccurring imagery. The triangles, circles and squares are easy… According to Ed Emberly, all things visual are created using these three simple forms. I agree with Mr. Emberley. As for the other things, I like to give myself time to develop and explore simple ideas. Many of the elements I use have a lot to do with multiplicity. A puzzle piece represents connectivity and community because it’s identity is found when connected to another piece. A wink is a gesture with many meanings depending on the receiver, the sender, and the context in which it is given. A circle, square, and triangle mean a whole lot more together as complex shapes than as individual ones.

And I also noticed that there’s not just many animals in your work but also quite some other elements from nature. I don’t know if you come from an urban background but you live in a big city now, like many of us. How’s the relationship between you-the city-nature and how does it reflects on your work?

I grew up camping a lot with my parents. Spending time at places like Big Sur, Yosemite, San Elijo, El Capitan−pretty much all of the California state parks. So I love nature and being outdoors. Don’t get me wrong. I think that Metropolitan areas have a lot to offer culturally within the arts, music and film. And although I enjoy living and working in Los Angeles I would rather surround myself with sky, mountains, ocean and forests. It just feels more comfortable to me, and this is why I like to use it in my work.

I guess we could say you are a proper artist probably just because you feel like one (or maybe you don’t) but also because of the fact that you do purely personal work and show it in art galleries and so on. But you also have this company, National Forest design studio with your partner Justin Krietemeyer. First question is maybe obvious: How do you manage to do both things: the commercial and the “purely artistic” stuff?

It’s hard to balance life in general, but you just have to make the time for the important things. When everything’s important, then you have to make the time for everything. Balancing National Forest and Art-time is the easy part. Its fitting it family time, girlfriend time, beer time, party time, cooking time, healthy time, love time, happy time, that’s the hard part.

Also, do clients ask you to do the same type of art they see in your personal work when they ask you to do something for them? Does is depends from the client? Do you expect to someday feel as free to do whatever you feel, no matter if it’s a commissioned work or not? Do you think the challenge to create what the client needs also enriches your work and you enjoy the restrictions commercial work has for that reason?

Depends on the Client. Sometimes clients want a signature art piece and sometimes they just want something designed or art directed really well. I like to do both and the balance between the two is important. I can’t imagine only making commercial work, nor can I imagine producing solely personal work. The two fuel each other. The restrictions of commercial work can be great because it tends to push me out of my ‘comfort zone.’ I like that it forces me to make things that I wouldn’t typically make. At the same time, I enjoy the challenge of making personal work. I am my toughest client. Making work for myself teaches me a lot about my own being, a self-realization in a sense.

I would like you tell us about your creative process. How’s the balance between analog and digital, between the process and the result,… can you elaborate on this, please?

Really, all I need is a pen, a piece of paper and a table to start my projects. Some ideas are scribbled in a sketchbook I keep next to my bed. Most of the work I make at National Forest for clients is created within the computer, so I love being able to make things for myself by hand. By the time I get home to work on my own art I reach for a pen before a keyboard. I’m not saying that I don’t use the computer for personal work; I’ve just recently made an effort to try and do more drawings instead. The balance between the digital and the analog is a fine line. I feel it’s very important to always let my viewer know that there is a human being behind the work.

What have you been working on recently?

Slowly but surely making new work for an upcoming art show scheduled for November of this year. Always making new things for the ‘Sixpack’ clothing line in France. I’ve been contributing to a bunch of new publications as well: two new books put out by Die Gestalten Verlag, one very large book published by Victionary and several books put out by Maomao Publications. I will be releasing a three-color screen print through Youworkforthem very soon here and possibly a couple of pieces with the radical dudes at Kidrobot. National Forest has been very busy as well−some new things with Burton recently and collaboration between NF and WeSC in the future.

And any interesting project coming up that you can tell us about?

I do have several art shows planned for the next year or so. The first is a two-man show with Justin Krietemeyer. We will be showing at ‘Subliminal Projects” in Los Angeles CA mid November. I will be releasing a bunch of new prints through my online shop ‘You&I’ shortly after, so keep your eyes peeled. The second art show is a solo show scheduled for May of 08 at the Lazy Dog gallery in Paris. Lionel from Sixpack.fr is helping out with support/sponsorship so we’ve got a bunch of really exciting things planned for that one. I might even see you in Spain around that time if everything works out.

Some project you would love to do but didn’t have the chance or nobody has asked you to do yet?

I’d be really interested in creating three-dimensional sets for a large-scale fantasy play. It would be radical to build a life-sized world of fictional environments using old world gadgets.

Can you turn us onto some artists or something interesting that we should know about?

I went on a camping trip to Yosemite and stumbled on a little shop in the woods that had the most amazing collection of mugs with owl designs on them for a quarter each. I bought every single one. I fought with my girlfriend over who got to keep which mug since we both discovered them. She ended up with the best one.

July 31st, 2007 11:40pm Administrador