Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Welcome to the Lehigh Valley Arts Podcast, where we explore the local arts culture in the Lehigh Valley. We’ll be doing this through conversations with individual artists, administrators, and organizations. We’ll explore all types of mediums with the goal of enriching local culture.
Ben Orr 0:11
Hey everybody and welcome back to the Lehigh Valley arts podcast. I am Ben and today we have an awesome conversation between Elise and Doug Trachtman. Doug Trachtman is a 26 year old artist, musician and food pantry coordinator. He grew up in Allentown, Pennsylvania and went to school at Temple University, and now is living in the Lehigh Valley area. Doug began making art as a child and drew frequently until high school when he took drawing classes and absolutely hated it. In college, Doug got back into creating both music and visual art. During his senior year of college, he turned his apartment into a makeshift Art Gallery, and hosted two art shows that featured his own art and some of his friends, post college Doug has been working on creating a brand surrounding his art and trying to vendor locally. His work is characterized by its bright colors and various happy subjects. His work is currently on view at the Art Beat Cafe, which is located at 432 State Avenue, Emmaus 18049.
Elise 1:10
Thank you so much for coming on the show.
Doug 1:12
Yeah. Thanks for Thanks for having me. Wow, you really just went into like podcast voice there. I didn't realize there's going to be an audible difference. But thank you. Yeah, I've I've dreamed of this ever since I first heard about it two weeks ago. iseliseHappy to be here.
Elise 1:28
Is is podcast was different from my regular voice. Just felt like a little bit more composed, like, oh, like, I don't know, when will less casual. I guess I do often come off as not composed stuff. No, I always wonder that and I wonder if other people like other artists that we've had on the show with their families and friends listen to and they're like, doesn't even sound like them. I always wonder you have to give us feedback. And me and I think I probably articulate a little bit differently when I'm in front of a microphone.
Doug 1:58
I did used to have my own podcast with a friend in college where we just did random stuff. We it was called I mentioned to you, this to you in person. Like two weeks ago, it was called Bob it with Gabe and Doug. And we were played Bob it I bought the original Bob it but I had the extreme two version already. And that's my podcasting history experience. It was very low quality, but it was fun to do. So I figured this would be a fun thing to do. talk in front of a microphone and pretend the live will stuff say I'm sure you do. First and foremost what the hell is an extreme Bob it to so you it's it's the one that you probably know of the opposite extreme to has the the spin it and the the flicking the there's only three controllers on the original Bob the extreme Su has five. And so I guess I could connect this to my art somehow is that in my early drawing of this project, which was like in 2021, I drew about it. And I put it on my Instagram and the creator of Bob had liked it. And then I reached out to him. And I was like, You're a huge inspiration to me. I love you. And he just like like the comment. That was a really big deal to me.
I follow him now. Yeah, he's talks about Bob and stuff.
Elise 3:12
Yeah, that's more than I've ever known about Bob it. So thank you. So I'd love if you'd just kind of tell us about your work.
Doug 3:18
I work at a food pantry. And food pantries are cool. It was not something I ever saw myself doing. But I started volunteering at one over the pandemic. And they asked me to work there because the person who was running it was like, trying to not work there anymore needed to take care for a mother or something. And so I've been doing that for a little over a year. And I really enjoy that I've made I made an art piece for them for my like year working there. And that's something that's like kind of very important to me is working, like to give back to the community and society and stuff like that. And I'm really lucky to be a part of like this kind of program. It's really great. We give out lots of nice stuff and pandemic and the world has been tougher than ever. So I'm just always very glad to be a part of something like that. And yeah, I'd like to do more volunteering, but I only do it sometimes this I get paid to do now. So it's not volunteering to say that's your fault. That's your full time. Yeah, I used to volunteer there, but I am not anymore.
Elise 4:21
You said you didn't go to art school, you went to business school, right?
I went to business school I studied this called Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship, which is kind of like, honestly, it's like a little bit of a bullshit major. It's like you want to start your own company. Maybe. Here's like, it was useful. Like here's tools to like help you guide towards that. And so if you already had something you're like, Well, I make clothing and I'm gonna start a clothing company like they can hook you up with learning how to talk to funders and how to market yourself and do finances all these other things. But a lot of it is just like for me like I didn't know exactly what What I wanted to do, I like, I really like creative ideas outside of like, here's this idea, like, we're gonna bring that into the world. And I always really liked that. But it just, I kind of chose it because it wasn't so solid on a path. But it also kind of ended up hurting me because at the end, I was like, I don't exactly know what I want to do, like I, I've run like little small companies like my Fiverr company or my art business, but nothing like that I wanted to do like full time or anything. So I enjoyed school, like the things the people I met and the things I did, and I got to try some cool stuff and meet a lot of interesting companies. But I'm kind of glad that I've gone towards nonprofit stuff. I certainly don't know if I'll stay there forever, because it's certainly not the most well compensated, but you know, I enjoy being part of it.
Like this comes up a lot. But we had this like concept we always covered like your, your, your full time gig, your day job or whatever. And then do you find it difficult to make time for the art?
Doug 6:03
I'm very obsessive with my art, I will say and so if I want to do it badly enough, like I'll make time for it. But it's very dependent on if I feel like I'm having good ideas, because sometimes if I go into start drawing, and I don't have an idea, it's very tough for me, and I'll just sit in front of the paper, and I'm like, I could draw anything, but I don't know what to draw. And I'll start something and I'm like, No, that's not good. Like I need to have somewhat of a fleshed out idea to start. So I spend a lot of time just like daydreaming or whatever at work, or not really daydreaming, but like thinking of like what I can do. And at least the way I work now, it's not too rigorous. So I tend to be have a pretty good schedule with it. It's more, the way I tend to be very hard on myself. And so I like I make a lot of stuff, I usually probably average. Like, I don't know, like two or three drawings a week, at least like this week, I haven't Well, it's only Monday, last week, I didn't draw, just because like I had been making a lot of stuff. So I try to balance like taking breaks. Because otherwise I'm just like going all the time. And that actually in the past has gotten stressful because I almost feel like I put myself on like a schedule with a quota. And it's like, you haven't been creative enough this week. Like you need to do something to like, you know, solve that. And so that can be tough on me mentally. So I try to be better about taking breaks these days. And so I do, you know, make a lot of stuff, but I kind of balanced space, when I like put it out or whatever. Like I sometimes I'll draw like five things in a week. And then it won't come out for you know, two or three weeks later, depending on how much I like it.
Elise 7:43
Also I have to, for those listening, tell you how cool your shirt is. I love that you wore a shirt with your own artwork on it.
Doug 7:51
Thank you. I have one of my old designs called don't have jazz attack, which is like this jazzy alligator guy. I was in Manhattan. And there's this store. It's a chain store called unique low you might know of it's like a big Korean clothing store. And they happen to have this program where they have blank white shirts and any thing that you wanted printed on your phone on the shirt that you have on your phone or whatever you can just print. And so I was with my family, we just printed a bunch of shirts, and I've made other shirts too. But like of this one is just this little print machine they had there. So I figured it would be apt you know to represent myself and not wear like someone else's art.
Elise 8:33
Totally. My favorite part is the foot question mark written on the alligator surprisingly, human four toed and pink.
Doug 8:41
Yeah. Like I could try to explain these things. But it's it's very much just like, what else can I draw on? And I'll draw something I do have like kind of a sense of humor about some of my artwork. Sometimes it's a little bit more serious. But I like to throw jokes and puns in sometimes, depending on, you know, the subject or whatever.
Elise 9:01
I was also curious. Do you ever work with other artists? Or do you kind of engage with the greater artists community in the area? Or is it something you're interested in?
Doug 9:12
So to give kind of a timeline in 2021, when I started like doing art, again, this kind of style and stuff, I have my Instagram right now. I did that from I think, April to about November and I was drawing little pictures. And then I took basically like a year off. And I started again, last October after I was in New York for a weekend and I saw a jazz show and I was like I want to draw it was also like after I got this shirt made and I was like oh I have this shirt like maybe I should make more drawings. And so now that I've been drawing, you know for, I don't know, it's been all it's like three quarters of a year or something. Again, I really only in the last three months have I been trying to get more into our community. I know We met at the RP cafe, our meet up thing, which That to me is like, a really nice, like low risk kind of situation when it's like a big group, sometimes I'm not like the best at socializing and different things. So something like that was always really nice to me how it's like small and you know, it's very casual. And networking, when you're actually making art is the best because you don't have to make eye contact with people and like, look around the room, he just be like, Oh, I'm drawing this and we're talking, it's really great. And so I really liked that. And then I have went to, I only went to one, but I want to start getting more involved in like alternative gallery stuff, I went to one of their meetups, and that was fun as well. I'd like to, you know, be part of more of the community, I haven't really done a lot of collaborative stuff. In a long time, I do have plans with a friend of mine, actually, someone I met at the RP cafe to maybe work on a piece together, I think that'd be fun, you know, get us both outside of you know what we normally do and try something different. I Yeah, I'd love to collaborate and try new and different things.
Elise 11:10
I will say I met Doug a couple of weeks ago at one of our community artists meetups at Artbeat cafe. And he immediately facilitated a group activity where we each took turns drawing on a sketch and then would pass it to the next person. And I feel like very, the attitude that you put into the activity was very reflective of your artwork. Because after after seeing like what the final product of a lot of them was, it was all like, flipped question. Like horse eat pizza, a bunch of really random weird stuff. So I appreciated that. It made my whole day.
Doug 11:46
Yes. So like with the activity, I just figured everyone would be kind of trying to work to make the most interesting piece of art, they could, but I also saw it sort of as a game. And because you're passing it to the next person, if you if everyone else is taking a little bit more seriously than me and I write something specific, they have to like, take that as you know, oh, we have to go off of this, like I just wrote about stubbing my toe. Now that has to be included. And so I just figured if I could like mess with the other people by including weird things, and it made it more creative. So I think everyone enjoyed that. I don't know, like, where I got that game from I know, it's obviously not something I made up. But I feel like my older sister, she would go to like acting camps. And she'd always come back with all these improv games they would play. And I feel like it's reminiscent of something like that, where it's just like, you start, it's kind of like, you know, it's like whisper down the alley where like someone says something, you'd say it's next person and just like transform. So yeah, something like that. I guess
Elise 12:44
That's what I was gonna say. It's a very bizarrely visual version of whisper down the alley, where you can build off of it if you want, or you can add to it if you want, but you don't really have to.
Doug 12:52
So the first time we had like six people we just drew on paper we had I brought crowns. And I usually draw with crayons, but they were like a very low investment, piece of art material that I could bring. And then there were some markers and stuff and we just pass it around, you had one minute to draw whatever you wanted, and pass to the right. And it went quickly. And then we did a second time. And the second time, I think there were eight people and I made everyone draw with their non dominant hands, which made it a lot trickier. But it was it was like it was still good. You know, it was it was much more challenging, because I feel like no one really draws with their non dominant hand that often I mean, someone does, but not most people,
Elise 13:33
a lot of people wrote to and then the handwriting was progressively worse because I had to write with their non dominant hand.
Doug 13:39
I found it very right area of my dominant hand is not so good. So I mean, the non dominance worse.
Elise 13:46
Very good. Well, we are here to talk about your artwork in particular. And I love that you mentioned in your bio that you frequently made art as a child, took a drawing class hated it, and then kind of got back into it. So I'd love if you just kind of tell us about your work.
Doug 14:03
Yes. So as a kid, I guess I used to draw like, like I was into manga cuz my friend got me into manga. So I draw like little characters and stuff like that. And I was never very good at drawing like people or faces, but that's what I would always try to draw. And I would draw like superheroes and other you know, stuff like that when I was young. And then in ninth grade, I took drawing class, and I sat next to this kid named Jason I'm not gonna say his last name because he's obviously listening. And he, like every day, you just talk about how like his life goal was to be on jersey shore that television program. We were in ninth grade, so it's not like we could drink or anything but he was like, Yeah, gym tan laundry. Like, that's gonna be my life. And he's like, you know, the skinny white kid like me, so it's not like, we think we're gonna be I don't know, it was just a very bizarre situation. The thing that I like other than that, which was a really big part of it. Was that I, you know, as an artist, I have my strengths and weaknesses. And I feel like my biggest strengths are my stylistic choices and not my, like technical aspects. So some of the projects were interesting. Like we did two point perspective and stuff, which makes like cool 3d shapes and things like that. And then we did like, you had to, like draw some picture that you picked, like accurately and I did to Canon I mine wasn't very good. And it just like, wasn't something I enjoyed. And it made it to like regulated and because it was graded, like I don't like my art being like, graded on a scale by like, one objective or subjective person, obviously, like she's, I guess the teacher is trying to, like, include how hard you tried. But I don't know. Also, another kid that sat next to me was weird, too. There's just so many weird people that draw. I'm one of them. But these people were not the people that I wanted to sit near where I was drawing. So fair enough.
Elise 15:57
If you already like making art, it's hard to like kind of fit into a con find where something is graded. I always had the issue in school to where, when I was a kid, I always liked making art. Like, I want to be an artist, and I just got really discouraged when I take classes in school, because I felt like I wasn't doing I wasn't doing it right.
Doug 16:25
Yeah, I'm definitely more of just like, you know, figured out creative kind of stuff and less. I certainly I am big appreciator of, you know, people who can draw accurate bases and people and forms and things like that. That's never been my strength. And so I spent a lot of years not drawing after that. And I didn't really get back into making any kind of physical art until really in college. At college, I just kind of decided at one point that I wanted to like just be, I guess more experimental, I could say just trying new things. And like the podcast is one of the projects I tried. I just started like drawing all kinds of stuff. And in my final years of college, I lived in apartment with two of my friends from high school, I was actually only friends with one of them from my high school. But we like we both went, we all went to the same high school, but I wasn't friends with one of them during high school. It's what I'm trying to say. Anyway, they were good roommates in that they let me put whatever I wanted all over the walls of our apartment. And I turned our apartment into like my makeshift art gallery. And some of the pieces were like, like thought out, like I drew this, it's like interesting. And other ones. were literally like, I think I probably explained some of this to you, I put a sheet of bubble wrap on the wall where I popped all the bubbles, because I didn't want anyone to be able to pop the bubbles. And they'd be like, oh, there's bubble wrap, I want to pop it and then they couldn't and like that feeling of, I can't pop the bubbles. And I wanted to like that's art. You know, it's like art can be anything, like putting a feeling on someone. So I also we had a pair of jeans on the wall that I put up there, there was my roommates carton of almond milk was on it was empty. Of course it wasn't like milk on the wall. Just like I printed out a picture of Kevin James and I put that on the wall just like there were you know, real like drawings too. But there was just a lot of nonsensical things I thought made it more fun. One of the collections on the wall was in maybe 2018, something like that. I interned at a company over the summer. And it was a tech company called crossbeam. And I'm not a tech person, but I studied business. So that's how I fit in there. And it was two founders and five interns when we started. And like the first day we were all the interns are just like sitting at this little office or rent sharing an office with this other company that my boss used to work or I wondered, he was the CEO or something. And there was no logo for the company. So I was like, I'm going to draw a logo for the company. I just took out like a sheet of notebook paper, and I drew with pencil and I wrote crossbeam on it. And then the next day, I was like well like that logo, you know, I could have I could have done more. So I drew another logo and then second logo was like a little bit more involved. And then I just decided to draw a logo every day that I was there and I hung them up around like there is this whole collection. I started bringing markers it's not like I spent a lot of time where I spent like 15 minutes in the morning and saw I guess being paid much says you know, no one cares and then paid for your art. They some of them got like more they would get like more and more abstract. Some of them had like nothing to do with the company or even looked like a logo. Because it was called crossbeam like one of them was like Jesus on the cross and like a laser beam and stuff like that. That was like just a fun, weird project that I did. And so I had all of those logos hung up in our apartment. And we had like styrofoam heads that I drew all over. We didn't so we just had had stuff all over. And so I had, we had these two big art shows that I hosted the first one. Well, my apartment was called Dreamland, because I always thought it was cool when like a place has a name. So I was like, we're gonna name it. And it was named after Kirby's Dreamland from Super Smash Brothers will stop from that, but it's in that. And, yeah, we had an art show. And we put up I put up this giant piece of paper on the wall that someone gave to me because I don't own a giant paper. And I bought markers. And everyone got to, like, draw on it. So we had this huge collective mural. And I bought snacks. Because if you go to college parties, at least the ones where I went school, a temple, like, you know, there's drinking, and there's loud music and stuff, but there's never any snacks. And I was like, you know, if I went to a party, and I wanted to go there, like there'd be snacks. So I went and I bought a bunch of snacks, and beer, and I played music at it. And it was a really good time. And then we did another art and like friends brought art. And so we had lots of other people's art hanging out for a while. And then we did the same thing. But like more intense a bunch of months later. And so that was a lot of fun. Yeah, I'd say a lot of things.
Elise 21:10
Now, that's good. That's good. And what was the what was the reaction to the artwork that you had presented?
Doug 21:16
So a lot of people had already just came in and out of our apartment because my roommate just knew a lot of people. So like, if not during our chili, people would come and just like look at the stuff we had. But during the art show, I think people like really had a lot of fun with it just because like some of the pieces were like kind of cool, but more like more the ones my friends brought were like, actually good. Well done pieces, but mine was just like fun. And people seem to enjoy it because I Philadelphia has a cool art scene, but I was never really involved with it, at least at that point. So I always just wanted like an alternative to like frat parties that I didn't really like. So I just kind of created what I thought would be like on thing Do I think it like really reciprocated well, and like people talked about it, at least the people I knew like all seem to be really into it. And so I'd love to do something like that again, sometime. Maybe like more organized.
Elise 22:10
From like an art history standpoint, there's a huge precedent for like people just posting arches in their house. Like that's very salon style. But sounds way better than him.
Doug 22:20
Yeah. Yeah, our apartment was like a pretty good setup. And so it ended up working out. Yeah, college was just a good time to try lots of stuff out. Another thing that I did, which is not related to my art is that I just say this, because it's always fun to tell people I used to own a store on the website Fiverr, which is a service marketplace, where you can sell anything you want starting at like $5 or whatever, but services so like graphic design, or like writing or film editing or something. And so I started this store that sold band names, puns and backhanded compliments because it like really puns was the first idea because I don't know why I looked it up. But I looked up and there was like two people selling puns on Fiverr and I was like, I could do that. And honestly, I'm not that good at puns but I did sell a bunch I instantly backhanded compliments and I sold some bad names. Honestly, I have no idea if the people use them. But like one of the projects was like we're a lawn care company, like come up with puns for us. And so I feel like the ones I came up with, like pre Gen Blue was like lawn in order and like lawn of the red or something with Lord of the Rings, I think I don't remember but I just made a bunch of puns and I sent them to people. And so I was really proud of the fact that I like made a little bit of money doing that.
Elise 23:37
It's like the best college side gig.
Doug 23:39
Yeah, I mean, it wasn't I didn't make much, but it was worth doing it a few times. And then like when people actually did order, I was like, what do you do? Like what's wrong with you? Why are you going to me on the internet? Like you're so dumb to take me to do these puns that I offered to make for you? I'm not even that good. I mean, obviously I didn't say that. But like, you know, that's reputable on your on your part. That's questionable.
Elise 24:04
I mean, I've bought dumber shit than that.
Doug 24:08
Yeah, it was only $5, so it wasn't very risky.
Elise 24:12
They're just like, Oh, look at this poor crazy man selling puns on the internet. Oh, give him $5 for his time.
Doug 24:19
Yes, so like, I think in those stories, you kind of get that. I like doing like interesting kind of experimental projects and artwork and I didn't talk as much about it but I'm like very into music and I like adding like humor into the things I do. So not all my art is humorous, but I definitely like add humor to certain things when I can show you it's because that's how I am.
Elise 24:42
Yeah, I feel like you're just even from looking at the artwork you shared with us and work on your Instagram in your Etsy that it is you have a very definitive style like material illustrative and very colorful and I think a lot of it is very humorous. Is that something you feel like you have I found a more defined style like recently or is this kind of a style that you've always worked in?
Doug 25:05
In college, I think I wanted to, like draw with markers. And I just like sharpies were markers I knew. So I bought some, and I started doing stuff like that. And then after school during the pandemic, like I started, I don't know why, but I bought these big pieces of paper, and I made like, four or five, like really big drawings, all with tons of Sharpies. And I have I've never, I haven't done anything that big since. But I just kind of liked the, they're available in most places. I like, you know, target a river by Sharpies, and I knew what they would look like. So that's kind of when I started, like, a very kind of defined style. And so people always tell me, that my stuff reminds them of Keith Haring, and I certainly never take that as an insult. It's always compliment, but I tend not to see it that way. I certainly see the influence but I'm much more influenced by the modern artists Romero, Brito, who's like a very famous artists these days, and he probably was very influenced by Keith Haring. And so that's probably where I get that, but it's a lot of like, thick black lines on the outside, I go through a lot of black Sharpies, and then like colorful stuff on the inside and patterns. And so it's always like very contained in the black outlines, which is like the Keith Haring slash burrito, or whoever else does that. And so I just started doing that because my, I have a lot of Brita stuff around me, my parents are big art collectors. We would just always go to like, my entire childhood, any like weekend, I would be in like a different place in Pennsylvania or Philadelphia, or obviously, that's in Pennsylvania, or like New Jersey or something go into like, just like outdoor art shows and stuff. And I didn't really like it at the time, because I was like, I wish I was, you know, at home watching TV or something. But it was really cool. Like just getting exposed to all that kind of my parents were always really into like bright, colorful artwork, like happy stuff. And that's just kind of what I adopted. And so my style is sort of based off of those things. It certainly changes as I am starting to get actually a little good at drawing in my opinion that I can like actually draw straight lines and stuff. Which has taken me quite a while but yeah, my my styles, like just lots of lots of like, stripes, stripes, you know, like that's a classic thing I do, I have like a whole kind of language of symbols that I use, not that they mean certain things, but use a lot of hearts, x's stars, virals, like, you know, simple shapes that I just are like, the things I know how to draw, and I think would like look well. So it's really, to me, it's less about like that, I think I'm good at drawing. And then I'm good at a range. I think I'm good at arranging pictures, like, I'm like, the subject goes here, and the things around it, highlight the subject. And the only thing I like, remember learning in an art class, like my whole life, I guess was in like seventh grade, we were doing some painting thing. And the teachers like, you want the colors and like the things to lead your eye around the picture. So I always like think about like, what you look at this thing first, but then you want these colors on the side to like draw you away from that a little bit. So you get the whole experience. And so with the colors specifically, like I think a lot about that, and I kind of like it's obviously it's like, I can't like actually draw it and test stuff out. But in my head, I kind of just imagine how the different colors will work. And usually I get it right sometimes I don't but that's how it goes.
Elise 28:42
I was wondering I just because of how my brain works. I was wondering, when I first saw your artwork, I'd seen it at the cafe before. And I immediately was like, I wonder what that guy's sketchbooks looks like. I was thinking like, it all looks very. When I think of illustration, a lot of the time I picture it mentally as like kind of sketchy or like a lot of line work and stuff and your stuff is so while it's very, like doodly and style and there's a lot of wavy lines and curvy lines and zigzags. It's very clean. And I always am curious, like do you have like an analog of all or a log of all of these like lines and accents and like additional illustrations that you use of your work?
Doug 29:24
A very good question. And the thing is that I don't have a sketchbook I anytime like I tear a page out of my notebook, I kind of like I want to finish a piece I want the piece to be like a good piece and I want it to you know, like be part of the collection. Not everyone you know is that but basically I draw everything in pencil. And then I go over it in Sharpie black marker for like the first thing and then I double I double outline it. And then if I'm aware of what's going on, I'll take a picture of it because I usually have All black and white pictures and then I do the color, I have like a formula, it's pencil, then inking them, like second inking, which is the black marker, then then is color, then detail. So like any stuff on top of the color, and then I go over all the black again at the end to make it darker. And then the final step is I scan it into my computer, I email it to myself, and then I edit it on my iPhone, cuz I could like probably use some kind of real professional editor editor, but iPhone, like photo op, I know like how it how the colors react to it. And so I have like, a formula for that as well. Like, I'm not gonna give it all away, because you know, that would be I don't want to give away all my secrets, but it's like, exposure 25 brilliance 25. Like I have basically like the numbers that I tend to use and certainly changes sometimes. But it's it's almost very formulaic and half of I kind of think half the drawing is before the drawing starts is just ideation. Like I spend a lot of time just like, that would be a good idea to draw or like, I want to draw a subject of this, or I want to be funny, but I don't know what it is. And so it's a lot of just thinking, like, what I would like to draw what I think I can draw and like, what I have enough spirit like yeah, there's just like a few different kind of boundaries that I set myself on, I guess.
Elise 31:23
Yeah, yeah, that was my next question is it seems like you've kind of got a very boiled down technical process for your work. But in terms of creative process, I see a lot of it incorporates like text and humor and pop culture items. Is there. Do you have a specific process for that? Or is that just something that you're like, hey, I could draw that out in pencil.
Doug 31:42
It very much started of just like what I think I could get away with drawing because I now can do some like more complex shapes and things. But it was always like very limited by what I thought was difficult to draw. I like to do animals a lot. Just because animals are fun. I like to draw musicians that I like, a lot of the stuff is music based. I'm very into music and music was kind of my like, first obsession or like my biggest obsession really in like high school, I was very in music, and I still am. I started playing guitar and I played guitar obsessively for a long time. And so I draw like a lot of jazz and funk and like rock influenced musicians and stuff. And then I also do I've done like, you know, just objects like a Drew and iPod and things like that. Yeah, but I like to do puns too, because I find that people really react to things that are funny. And that can at least give me some attention. So I did one pretend that you're like looking at all my artwork, there's one called taking care of business, which is like a wizard in front of a bunch of stuff. And one of the more recent ones I did was the GWA kness monster it's like a lot this monster and a thing of guacamole. So one of my one of my it's not like a pun, but one of my funnier ones was after I was at a wedding in December at my friend's wedding. I felt just I always feel like even if it's people I know like I was it's always awkward at certain things and so I drew one that's an awkward at parties and it's this guy says I'm fitting in right and like all these other things and so I like to just draw stuff that kind of feels relatable. My one that's probably the one of my more well known drawings is my Shrek one that says don't swamp believe in.
Ben Orr 33:32
Hey, everyone during the episode, we did not get a chance to read the audio description of this piece live like we intended to so we recorded it after the fact I'm going to have at least read it now and then we're going to hop right back into the conversation piece is
Elise 33:45
This piece is titled Don't Swamp Believing Sharpie with digital edits. In this colorful illustration we see a central figure squatting down on a skateboard. The figure appears to be Shrek a large green ogre with funnel shaped ears that stick out from the sides of his head. He's wearing a rainbow baseball cap backwards, triangle shaped black sunglasses, a blue t shirt with small black dots and rainbow details on the shoulders. blue pants with colorful patches and pink and purple checkered shoes is squatting on a blue and green skateboard that is tilted up so we can see the rainbow wheels underneath. Shrek a grips the edge of the skateboard with his right hand and holds up a hang loose sign with the other hand. Hovering over his hand is a rainbow bowed between two white clouds. Blocky text along the bottom of the illustration and colorful letters reads don't swamp believing
Doug 34:36
That just was inspired by I'm a big fan of Shrek as anyone you know of my generation should be especially with like internet culture. And I was literally like just thinking what can I write under him like he's going to be on a skateboard and like, that's what it'll look like but what's what should it say? And so I went through like, well, maybe it could be something with the word Shrek or or it could be something with the word doggy or something I eventually landed on swamp and I did don't swamp believe in and I really, like as much as I love it. I don't like the band Journey at all. I really don't like that song Don't Stop Believin and so it's kind of a shame that I had well from that, but it was worth it in the long run, I guess. So I call my art like my art name that I picked for myself is lava lamp, Bebop. It's really a mouthful. I like lava lamps a lot. I have one. And that to me kind of represents the colorful aesthetic that I use and like some of the more like, I guess psychedelic leanings of things that I like to draw. And the Bebop is kind of a music influenced me. Bebop, for those of you who don't know, was a movement of jazz. That happened in the 1940s starting in the 1940s, which was like more complex musicians music they called it because it wasn't like dancing music. It wasn't like swing music, or, like Frank Sinatra like lyrical kind of stuff. And I picked that because I think it's a funny word. And I liked I do like jazz a lot. But bebop is not my favorite type of jazz, but like the other types of jazz or like, like swing or hard bop, which is like a derivative of the word bebop or fusion and like lava lamp fusion lava lamp swing, just like wasn't cutting it. And so I was like, bebop, that's good word. I always thought there's like a popular animated series called Cowboy Bebop. And I always thought it was just like a cool juxtaposition of words. And so I kind of, you know, harken back to that I've, I've always been into lots of different types of music, at least since I really started digging into music and like 10th grade, and my dad was always a big jazz fan. So I kind of got into it. And when I was little, I didn't like it. He's like, one day, you'll like it, you just and you'll get into it someday. And so now I kind of I do like it a lot. And it's, uh, it's, you know, it's good music. I also draw a lot of Beach Boys stuff because I'm very into the Beach Boys. And I'm actually named after one of the guys from the Beach Boys. His name was Brian Wilson, but his middle name was Douglas Doug. And I would have been Brian, but I already had a cousin named Brian. So it couldn't be we couldn't have to Brian's in the family. That'd be obnoxious. The Shrek thing is like, kind of the one character that I've drawn like from like an actual franchise. I tend not to want to lean on those kinds of things too much not like because I think I'm gonna get a cease and desist letter more just because like, I want to make my own things. I guess. I did draw Godzilla at one point, because Godzilla is kind of cool. And so that one is called God and then in parentheses, dammit, that hurt Zilla. And it's Godzilla like stubbing his toe on a building because I was I was watching the original Godzilla with a friend. I was like, He's so big, I bet. I bet he like stubs on buildings. But besides my, my drawing, I do a little bit of felt work. I've done a few failed pieces, I'd like to get back to it where it just happened to have all this fell in my house. And I would just cut it up into like little rectangles and squares and layered on top of each other. And I like that just because it's very texture based. And it's very different than you know, than drawing and use a lot of glue, obviously, and a lot of scissors. But it's fun. It's fun to try other stuff. I've done a little bit stuff with like postgame markers. But those are a little tricky for me. Because they're, you know, they're paints and I don't do much with paint, I'd certainly would like to at some point, but I kind of tend to stick to what I know. And I just do the same things a lot, but it works out sometimes.
Elise 38:42
And you said primarily Sharpie, right?
Doug 38:44
Yeah, I would like to, ideally, I would like myself to use other markers, but I just got used to Sharpies. And honestly, it's tough because sharpies do not Sharpie does not sell colors individually. They sell black individually. They sell blue individually, and they sell red individually. And then, at some stores like Blick or like Michaels, you can get a handful of the other colors individually. But I use like the same 12 or 14 colors over and over again. So I run out of the same ones. And I was buying this big pack of like, I think it was like 60 sharpies or something at Costco, and they had it for a good price. I think it was like 35. And if you don't buy it from Costco, which they stopped selling them, apparently, which is very sad. It's like $60 I don't want to spend $60 on all those markers all the time. So I might be forced to try other markers we'll see.
Elise 39:38
So like reach out to the Sharpie company and like I need you to make Doug's pack or something like that.
Doug 39:44
I've looked online so much of like buying certain ones and there's like so I use basically like rainbow I have like an I usually do an eight color rainbow. If I'm doing a regular rainbow I'll do red, orange, yellow, green. in light blue, darker blue, purple, and pink, and then I could do a nine with my other lighter pink. I don't include rainbow stuff in my drawings as much anymore. But I used to always include the rainbow colors just because they're very appealing colors like pattern to the eye. And I liked that. But I haven't been doing as much with those things. And then I'll use like, there's like a turquoise and a light green. And yeah, I use these very specific colors that just are very bright and happy. And they're the ones that I'm used to using. So I draw with the sharpies until like they're on their last breath. And they're like, Stop, like, you're gonna kill me. And I was like, you know, that the risk you have to take.
Elise 40:40
I was gonna say with the the rate at which and how much artwork it seems like you make, What is the lifespan of a single Sharpie.
Doug 40:48
The black ones go quick, because the black is pretty much what is used the most for the for all the border stuff. Depends if it's a bigger drawing, it could take like one and a half drawings until it won't necessarily be dead. But if it's not, like crisp enough, I'll probably just go to the next one. Yet, it kind of depends on what I'm drawing and certain times like I have to switch up my color palette based on what I have available to me, like I kind of ran out of this color. So I can't use that. And I'll use these other ones. I do like you know, softer color palette sometimes, but I choose to express myself, like lots of brightness. I like to draw happy things just because I've had you know, my share of mental health issues. And I certainly respect people who draw like, you know, sad or darker subjects. You know, that's as much art expression as anything else. But I just like to try to remind myself of like happy fun things. So that's kind of just the way I tend to do it as well as just what I was exposed to a lot as a kid like, that's what we had around the house. So that's what I like to look at.
Elise 41:52
Well, Doug, if people want to find your artwork or find you online, where can they find you?
Doug 41:56
So my my Instagram is like mostly where I post the things and that is at Lava Lamp bebop, no spaces. It's like one word Lava Lamp Bebop? Well, it's realistically it's two words, but the Instagram thing is one word. And then I have an Etsy store where I have some of my stuff, I really need to be better about like uploading stuff there because I kind of just leave it there for a long time. It's It's like etsy.com/shop/level. And bebop will probably take you there something close to that. If not, you can see it on my Instagram. And then I also have have a T Publix store right now, which is one of those on demand printing things, I have mixed opinions on that sometimes it's good. Sometimes it's not so good. But I have some my designs there if you want to like get shirts of them or certain things. And then I have some stuff at the RP cafe and a mass. Just if you'd like to see it, I have a few of my things there. And then I will be in Philadelphia on June 15 at 16 at the punk rock flea market, it will be my second time doing this I did in April. And it was a really fun event. It'll be my like, I've ended a few smaller events. But this is like pretty big event. So this will be my second time doing that. I'm very excited going into it. I just made a bunch more prints and stickers. And I'm considering maybe doing patches or was the other thing he changed or something like that I'd love to do on Naml pins, but it's going to that's going to be too much work and time for the amount of or for the amount of time that I have left. But yes, so that's in Philadelphia. I don't know exactly what the location is. But I have it somewhere. It's called the punk rock flea market in Philadelphia, July 15 and 16th. Saturday and Sunday.
Elise 43:41
Hey, very cool. Well, thank you so much.
Doug 43:44
Yeah, thanks for really just letting me rat like ramble by myself. But you probably had like four questions. I just talked for 40 minutes straight.
Elise 43:52
That's what it's all about. We're here to hear about you and about your artwork. So thank you so much.
Ben Orr 43:58
Thank you so much for listening. This episode marks the finale of season three of the Lehigh Valley arts podcast. We'll be back soon with a whole new set of episodes for season four. Keep your eyes out for announcements on social media. We'll be back soon
Transcribed by https://otter.ai