Dan Murphy - Illustrator - Painter

Lovecraft

Dan Murphy

Name: Dan Murphy
City/State: Minneapolis, MN
Email:artisaweapon@gmail.com
Website: http://murphycommadan.com
MNartist.org profile: http://www.mnartists.org/
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/dan.murphy.39566905
Twitter: @ellecirka

Bio~ Dan Murphy grew up in the Twin Cities and recieved a BFA in Illustration from the College of Visual Arts in 2000. He has done freelance work for Milkweed Editions and The Rake Magazine, and is a contributing artist to CrowdedComics http://crowdedcomics.com.  He has exhibitied at Altered Esthetics, Soap Factory Gallery, FoxTax Gallery, and the Minneapolis Indie Xpo. He also plays guitar in the Irish/folk/bluegrass group The Double Dollars.

Elle Cirka

Tell me about your work? What are you currently working on? How is this different from past projects?
I primarily enjoy working with the figure and portraiture, whether it's within painting, illustration or cartooning. I'm currently working on a series of mini-comics titled "Elle Cirka", a semi-autobiographical story about running away to join a bizarre circus. I'll compile them into a larger graphic novel at some point. It's different from past projects in that it's the largest sustained narrative I've ever worked on, but it's fun to explore that world as I create it.

How did you decide to become an artist?
At age 10 or 11 I started really enjoying art classes in school and would draw all the time. Through middle and high school, there wasn't anything else that made me as happy as making art, which led me to attending to the College of Visual Arts in St. Paul. where I found being around other artists incredibly inspiring, which continues after art school with so many artists around the cities it really drives you to keep making art. It's a supportive community but it keeps you on your toes to keep improving. At this point in my life, I can't imagine not doing art, and wonder what "regular" folks do with themselves.

Mugshot

What was the best advice given to you as an artist?To keep moving forward, to understand your mistakes and keep going, and not be afraid to scrap it and start over. And also knowing when to walk away from a piece, accept that it's finished and you'll only ruin what you were going for if you keep messing with it.

Many artists struggle to find ways to sell their art.  How do you sell your work?  How do you market yourself?I've mostly been selling my work at places like the Minneapolis Indie Xpo and SpringCon & FallCon, and the occasional commission, but plan to market myself more online as well as at my websitehttp://murphycommadan.com .

Sketchbook

Who are some of the Minnesota artists you enjoy?
Alex Kuno http://www.alexkuno.blogspot.com/

Danno Klonowski http://staplegenius.wordpress.com/
Kevin Cannon http://kevincannon.org/
Britt Hammerberg http://brittch.com/
Lance Ward http://tatertotdiaperman.wordpress.com/
Matt Kriske http://www.matthewkriske.blogspot.com/
Athena Currier http://actionathena.com/
Lupi McGinty http://lupiloops.wordpress.com/
Chris Mars http://www.chrismarspublishing.com/
Sarah Morean http://smorean.com/
Steve Stwalley http://www.stwallskull.com/
Dan Olson http://bewilderedkid.com/
Ryan Dow http://ryandow.com/ic/

If I were to follow you around to see art in Minnesota, which places would we go? What would we see?The Walker and The Minneapolis Institute of Arts of course, but also galleries like Altered Esthetics. But I tend to remember the artists I see more than the venues I see them. Occasionally seeing some small indie films/docs at the Lagoon/Uptown or the Trylon Microcinema.

Paige

In addition to www.Local-Artist-Interviews.com, where do you go online for good art resources, whether to find a new artist, or to see what is going on in the art world locally and otherwise?

These days I tend to find out about new artists via other artists I follow on Twitter/Facebook and podcasts, not really any centralized source any more. But for mostly indie comics stuff I go here:

The Comics Journal http://www.tcj.com
Drawn & Quarterly http://drawnandquarterly.blogspot.com/

The Comics Reporter http://www.comicsreporter.com/
Inkstuds Podcast http://www.inkstuds.org/
Lutefisk Sushi Podcast http://www.cartoonistconspiracy.com/sushipodcast/

Paige / Blue

What can we expect to see from you in the future?
I'm participating in Creative Property at Altered Esthetics In September 2012.The show opens Friday September 7, 2012 from 7-10PM, and there is an artists' discussion on Saturday September 22 from 1-3PM.

Other than that, I'm not sure what one should expect from me, I'd be happy to spend the rest of my life like Lucian Freud or Egon Schiele, in a paint spattered studio with good light, painting portraits of people I find interesting. In any case I'll be out there creating stuff that at least interests me, and if others like it, I'm ok with that.

Dan Murphy

Altered Esthetics

Website

LAI Gallery Profile

Athena Currier - Cartoonist

Athena Currier

Name: Athena Currier
City/State: Minneapolis, MN
Website: http://actionathena.com/
MNartist.org profile: http://www.mnartists.org/
Facebook page:http://www.facebook.com/ actionathena
Twitter: @actionathena
Tumblr: actionathena.tumblr.com

Bio:
Athena Currier grew up in Northfield, MN and is a graduate of Hampshire College.  Her senior thesis project at Hampshire was a comics magazine called Burn Book  , each issue of which was devoted to analyzing a different stereotype or label (Slut, Hick, Hipster, and Geek).  Athena received a DART (Design, Art, and Technology) grant to help fund the first print run of Burn Book.

After graduating from Hampshire, Athena returned to Minnesota, where she has continued to work on comics.  She has exhibited at the Twin Cities Zinefest  and the Minneapolis Indie Expo, and her art has been featured in many places, including Altered Esthetics Gallery,  City Pages’ Annual Comix Issues,  MPLS.TV,  Broken Pencil Magazine, Sunoikisis.org,  and the Sketchbook Project.  

In 2010, Athena was nominated for a Lulu Award (presented annually to honor women in comics) in the category of “Best New Talent.”  Athena has been posting new autobiographical comics to Action Athena every Mon/Wed/Fri for over four years.

Tell me about your work? What are you currently working on? How is this different from past projects?

I am working on a few different things; I seem to work better when I’ve got a bunch of balls in the air.  I’m making a minicomic for Lutefisk Sushi (I love this project, and have contributed to past editions).  I’m making a short comic to submit to an anthology.  And, as always, I’m making three comics a week for my website, Action Athena.

One thing that’s changing about my work is that I’ve begun to use a font that I made of my own handwriting.  It’s not perfect (it still looks a bit “computer-y”), but it’s okay, and it saves a lot of time, and allows me to focus more on the drawings.  Another change is that I am trying to make myself work larger--on bigger pieces of paper.  This generally makes the art look better, but I am often too lazy (or too stuck in bad habits) to bother with it!  I need to fix that.

How did you decide to become an artist?

I have always liked drawing and writing.  I used to think of myself as more of a writer, but I’ve always liked comics.  I started to really fall in love with comics in high school, and then fell more intensely in college.  In the early days of my webcomic, I didn’t think my drawing skills were very good, but it was still so much fun to draw.  That energy is still there today.  The idea of just writing something often seems too serious and overwhelming.  But drawing a little comic always feels approachable and fun.

What was the best advice given to you as an artist? 

You don’t have to listen to everyone.  Every person is going to have different things they like and dislike about your work.  Stop worrying about whether someone’s critique is right or wrong, and just listen to the parts that feel right to you.  It’s your art.  Not everybody is going to like it, and that’s fine.

Many artists struggle to find ways to sell their art.  How do you sell your work?  How do you market yourself?

I make very little money as an artist.  I am paid for my Broken Pencil comics, and the comics I’ve done for City Pages.  I have a store section on my website.  I sell Burn Book through Indy Planet, and my big 340-page Action Athena collection through Lulu.com.  The minicomics I just ship out myself, with personal letters!  I also sell all of my comics at the conventions I go to, and have sold some at local bookstores (Boneshaker Books and Yeti Records).  I mostly market myself through my website (Store Link), and other social media sites.

Who are some of the Minnesota artists you enjoy?

There are about a million cartoonists in the Twin Cities, and I feel incredibly lucky for that.  Nordeast in particular is full of them.  It would be an impossible task to name them all, but I will list off a few: 

Zander Cannon http://www.bigtimeattic.com/ 

Kevin Cannon, http://kevincannon.org/ 

Steve Stwalley, http://www.stwallskull.com/

Danno Klonowski,http://staplegenius.wordpress.

com/ Dan Murphy, http://murphycommadan.com/ 

Dan Olson, http://bewilderedkid.com/ 

Ryan Dow, http://ryandow.com/ic/ 

Britt Hammerberg,http://brittch.com/ 

Britt Sabo, http://www.bsabo.com/ 

Lupi McGinty, http://lupiloops.wordpress.

com/
Ken Avidor.  http://www.roadkillbill.com/


Ken.html  

There are also some other important supporters of comics, chief among them Jamie Schumacher http://www.purenoumena.org/ and Sarah Morean. http://smorean.com/ 

If I were to follow you around to see art in Minnesota, which places would we go? What would we see?

We would definitely stop at Altered Esthetics Gallery because that place (and the Q.arma Building as a whole) is always full of wonderful stuff.  All of the buildings in Nordeast that get featured during Art-A-Whirl are great.  I also love the MIA and the Walker.  But since I’m a cartoonist, I have to admit that my biggest art inspirations come from the library--the new Northeast Library, which opened in spring of 2011, is fantastic.  The Minneapolis Public Libraries have a great comic collection.

In addition to www.Local-Artist-Interviews.

com , where do you go online for good art resources, whether to find a new artist, or to see what is going on in the art world locally and otherwise?

I read a lot of webcomics.  Some of my current favorites are Sauceome, http://www.sauceome.com/  Octopus Pie, http://www.octopuspie.com/ and Stop Paying Attention.http://comics.lucyknisley.com/

What can we expect to see from you in the future?

I have received the Dean’s Fellowship to the Sequential Art MFA program at the Savannah College of Art and Design.  So I will be living in Georgia for the next two years!  I can’t wait to see what changes the program will bring about for me and my art.  But I know I will be back in Minnesota eventually.  I love it here, and the community and support among artists in the Twin Cities cannot be beat.

Talia Carlton - Comic Artist

“One of These Things… (We Were Having a Great Time ‘Til You Showed Up)”

graphite, ink, & colored pencil

Talia Carlton

Name: Talia Carlton
City/State: Bloomington, MN
Email: talia.carlton@gmail.com
Website: www.impendingtalia.com
MNartist.org profile: Talia Carlton http://www.mnartists.org/artistHome.do?rid=287286
Facebook page: Talia Carlton

Bio~
I am 22 years old and have been drawing since I could hold a pencil. I graduated from the University of Minnesota in May of 2010 with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts and a minor in Japanese language and culture. I lived in Minneapolis as a student, but recently moved back to my hometown of Bloomington.


Tell me about your work? What are you currently working on? How is this different from past projects?
Although I enjoy painting- acrylic and watercolor- and have some sculpting experience, my work is usually drawn. I have used oil pastels and conte crayons, but right now work mainly in brush marker and colored pencil. Though most would label my work illustration I find that label restrictive and insulting, since many believe that illustration is not art, while I firmly believe that what I am doing has artistic merit. I recently had an ink drawing shown at the Fallout for the STAND Anti-genocide He(art) show, and for about two years have been working on a comic about the life of an art student that I hope to publish. I think that there is great artistic potential in the world of comics and animation because of the unique way that these formats juxtapose words and pictures. I also consider myself a writer, because I am always working on stories and poems, and I write the scripts of my comics before or as I am drawing them.

“Refugees” graphite & ink

"What is Art?" is certainly too big of a question to ask here, but what do you hope your audience takes away from your art? What statement do you hope to make?
I want my art to be accessible to the common person- anyone who is willing to take the time to look at my work and think about it should be able to understand it. I don’t like conceptual art that asks too much of the viewer without giving them an in. Most people don’t know the vernacular of the art world. The words we use to describe our medium and process are meaningless to non-artists, but our work should not be. Art for me is about opening a dialogue with people from all walks of life. It’s about breaking barriers, not erecting them.

That is part of why I draw in a style that most would consider illustration- where things are drawn as they look in real life, but simplified. I want my messages to be understood. That does not mean I don’t expect my viewer to think and process for themselves what they are seeing. I imagine viewing my art as similar to reading a book. I provide symbols that are recognizable much the same as words are, but it is the job of the viewer to put them to together to understand the whole story.

“Gingerbeard” graphite, ink, & brush marker

What was the best advice given to you as an artist?
The sort of advice you hear as an artist is complex and contradictory. On the one hand, people will advise you to create what you want and not worry what others think, but on the other hand, they will tell you that without pushing yourself to do work that is new and difficult for you, you will not grow as an artist. Both things are true.

Artists should always try new things- new media, new subject matter- from time to time. But we should also be true to ourselves. And of course, they tell you to never stop creating. I think that’s the most important. Constantly hone your skills. Sketch from life, do color tests, doodle, whatever you can to do to make sure that even if you’re not working on a major project you are always thinking art.


Tell me about your working space and your creative process?
My work space right now is my living room. I have a cart overflowing with pencils, pens, markers, and paints. I have an easel with a self portrait I have been working on now and again. I have a bag of colored pencils and another of brush markers sitting next to the couch, and my most favored drawing pencils and pens are in a small box that is always with me. I have sketchbooks of various size and a pad of tracing paper (which I hardly use, but it is good to have ion hand). Pretty much everything starts as a pencil sketch. A lot of it stays that way. If I draw something I like, I outline it with the pens, base color with markers, and add a little depth with colored pencil. Sometimes I only use one or the other.

My drawing often ends up on scraps of paper or in notebooks that I originally meant only to write in. And then there are the stories. I write a lot of dialogue, people talking to one another. Sometimes I am compelled to describe a setting in words instead of pictures. I usually tells stories with both pictures and words, but occasionally I will write one with no pictures at all (though I often sketch the characters out to play with what they look like). I have a tricked out macbook from ’06 with some of my writing saved on it in case I want to rework a story. It also has Photoshop CS2, which I use to fix up sketches that I have scanned in so that they are dark enough to be seen, and to edit my comic pages together and add the lettering. My handwriting is indecipherable, sometimes even to me, so this is absolutely necessary.

I prefer to finish a piece all in one go, in one day, or even in just a few hours. Sketches only take minutes. If I am working on a bigger project I will still do a lot of work at once, then I’ll leave it alone, sometimes for days, before touching it again. I will often draw pictures from the middle of a story, or even the end, before the first pages. This sometimes makes it hard to show people what I am working on, so I make extra sketches of the characters and places that don’t give anything away.

“Great American Art” graphite

Who are some of the Minnesota artists you enjoy?
I really admire Nancy Carlson. I’ve met her several times, and took one of her classes on children’s book illustration. I like her process for developing an idea. Her website is here: http://www.nancycarlson.com/

I also admire Kate Johnson because she is so active in the arts community and is really a go-getter. We graduated from the same arts program and I’ve known her for a long time. http://www.mnartists.org/artistHome.do?rid=185648

Recently I had the pleasure of seeing a children’s book art show at the Bloomington Theater and Art Center where the works of Mike Wohnoutka (http://www.mikewohnoutka.com/) and Beth Peck were shown. Both artists delighted me. Mike’s work was as whimsical as Beth’s was haunting. It was interesting to see two very different approaches to the same work. I will be watching to see what both of them are up to in the future.


If I were to follow you around to see art in Minnesota, which places would we go? What would we see?
I would spend a lot of time walking the NE arts district in Minneapolis, where there are many fascinating small galleries. I also know of a few in St. Paul that are tucked into corners next to cafes so that you’d hardly notice them from the outside. I like to check out the galleries at the Bloomington Theater and Art Center regularly, because they showcase some of the best in Minnesota art. Bloomington is a large suburb and the center is a fairly big deal to artists trying to gain more attention.

One thing I like to do for fun is check out the art show at the MN State Fair each year. Depending on who is judging and who has entered each year, you get a lot of variety in terms of both media and message. It is unique in that there are artists of all ages and from all walks of life participating, which doesn’t happen in the small galleries.

“Computer Eye” graphite & ink

Where do you go online for good art resources, whether to find a new artist, or to see what is going on in the art world locally and otherwise?

I like to check MPR’s State of the Arts blog.
I also follow other art blogs like Drawn
and the Center for Cartoon Studies

and others just for fun, like this
http://heyoscarwilde.com/
as well as too many individual artist blogs to count.

What can we expect to see from you in the future?
In the future I hope to do more experiments with color in paint and oil pastel and to make some larger scale work because so much of what I do is small and I want to push myself. I will also continue to work on my comics, such as Little Artists, because I feel absolutely driven to write them.

Hopefully I will have enough pages to promote a book, either in print or online, soon. I am trying to find a balance between meaningful, political discourse and humor in my work. I want to use my art to make a difference, but I’ll always be a comedian at heart.

Springboard For The Arts