Arun's article

Here's what I wanted to put up for discussion next week: http://www.sidebarnation.com/my_weblog/2010/05/the-original-trevor-von-eeden.html

It's an audio interview, about an hour and a half long. The first 8 minutes is mostly just the show intro, so you can skip to the 8:11 mark of the file and get straight into the interview. Most of my questions come from the first 45 minutes or so of the interview, but I'd highly recommend listening to the whole thing if you can.

Here are the questions I wrote based on this:

1. Trevor von Eeden said that he learned to develop his own style by studying his own doodles. What sort of things have you observed about your own practice that you've been able to more consciously apply to your own work? I did a drawing entitled "Must be 54" to Ride", that drawing and approached helped me to figure out what kind of style I am interested in working in, it also helped me to understand what it takes for me to sit still and make a dense and detailed drawing. 

2. "By making the extraordinary ordinary, it elevates your spirit." Is there an artist for you that you think exemplifies the sort of ideals von Eeden attributed to Neal Adams (similar to his analogy of what Bruce Lee would mean to a martial artist)? I don't know how to answer this question, there is very little that I find able to define as extraordinary or ordinary. 

3. Von Eeden's work in comics developed independent of fan reaction. Has viewer response had an influence on your work? How much? I am extremely interested in the viewers response but I don't think that it influences my work, or if it does, it is indirectly and in the next piece. 

4. What's more satisfying: the work? Or the piece that work produces? The work, always the work, there is satisfaction that comes in the final piece, but it is short lived. The work however is a continual satisfaction. 

5. Does my work tell you anything about me/my experiences? I think that you are an observer, I would love to see what happens with your work when you become more selective of what you put on paper and you are in a completely new environment. 

6. Do you think those experiences/personal biography is even relevant to what I produce? I don't see them in your work, they may be relevant to your motivation but motivation and concept are not related. 

7. "...I'll never stop seeing my mistakes." Does my constant self-criticism of my own work affect your opinion of a piece I've done? No, I think that we are all our hardest critics and when we stop being so that is when we will stop making.