Magazine

How does your participation in Make-It-Pop! resonate with the exhibition's emphasis on vibrant colors, graphic styles, and ironic subject matters?

Alex: I'm curious if Pop is still ironic, I think Pop could be like, America's cultural bridge language in the visual arts. I find high contrasts, bright colors, and irreverent subject matter to be aesthetically appealing and emotionally resonant for me. Vivid colors always feel like they're trying to pull and connect to me, I think that's why I love them.

Your plexiglass paintings reverse the cel animation process. Could you expand upon this? Also, what technical challenges came with mastering painting from the back?

Alex: Yeah, thanks! The method is a reverse of traditional painting, inspired by cel animation prior to digital technology. For the process, I would do line work mostly on the front, and would then paint on the back working from the small details to the larger shapes to get a smooth, flat effect when viewed from the front. The technical challenges weren't severe, I found it fun to think about the paintings from an extra-dimensional perspective. My favorite thing about my work from that period of time was coming up with ridiculous ideas, and having fun executing them. My sessions were full of laughter and silliness.

Your diverse background includes dance music, journalism, screenwriting, and caricature to full time painting in 2023. Have any of these fields carried over into or strengthened your artistic process?

Alex: All my creative work from my whole life connects and strengthens everything else. Sometimes it's surprising how much. When I start something new it doesn't seem connected to anything at all, but my perspective starts limited and then I notice more connections. Music has an impact on my visual language, writing helps me make sense of the undercurrents of my paintings and music. For example, with writing I tend to lean on symbols that I later perceive coming through paint on a level that was subliminal to me, such as symbols of the Moon, or the wilderness. With more conscious awareness I can then expand my practice to explore those more intentionally.

You cite that 90’s cartoons and comics serve as core inspirations. Is there a particular series or any aesthetic favorites from that era you keep returning to?

Alex: Cartoons, video games, and comics were like the general ambiance of life for me, an artificial world that I found appealing and could emotionally attach to. My favorite media was all over the place. Anything with mutants, postmodern humor, or sentimental characters. I like to envision and create my own characters as if they were part of that same strange milieu sometimes.

A majority of your works revolve around the aesthetics of the past through contemporary reinterpretation. How do you bridge these two worlds in unison?

Alex: I feel like it happens without trying, every era connects to the present. I'm deeply into history and I think about wide-lens contexts, so everything from the last 130 years feels really close together in my brain, I love it. I also really love prehistory. More than not, I think there isn't much of a difference in the world right now from 25 years ago or 1,000 years ago, it's pretty much the same world through my binoculars.

The media and imagery you reference from the past often use vibrant colors and saturations along with particular stylizations, which is also utilized through your personal processes. These aesthetic decisions often add more depth and emotion of nostalgia compared to that of a plain reality. Do you hope to convey those similar emotions or expressions in your own work?

Alex: It interests me that vibrancy feels nostalgic. It used to signify newness and a break from traditionalism, so tapping into everyone's Romantic sense of nostalgia you might have employed muted colors, emphasizing warm tones, or earth tones. We need to develop an even newer fresh color palette!

You were selected to be the Artist-in-Residence at Park Towne Place. What do you hope to create, advance, or complete during your time there?

Alex: It's really wonderful being there, everyone has been nice and it's inspiring getting to walk around and look at art all around the campus. I'm hoping to keep myself as busy as I can with my portraiture though, it's my goal to complete around 2,000 paintings in my "Wild Side" series, and I'm getting closer every day!