DEREK GORES

Derek Gores was born in New York in 1971. He's best known for ripped paper collage portraits, made using recycled magazine pages and other found parts. He's had a hot year to date, with several shows and pieces selling for five figures. In addition to his fine art, Derek has worked as a commercial illustrator and designer for 15 years, with clients including Lenny Kravitz, U2, Van Halen, Kings of Leon, Madonna, Lucasfilm, ESPN, the National Football League, Harley Davidson, Adidas as well as many others. In January, Derek was honored to be featured at the Manifest Hope DC exhibit in Washington, prior to President Obama's Inauguration. The exhibit was juried by Spike Lee and fellow artist Shepard Fairey, among others. Currently, he has a large solo exhibition and a group show that is open through September 25, 2009.

Derek lives in Melbourne, Florida with his wife Jamie and their three daughters.


website: http://www.derekgores.com

CURRENT SHOWS:

TORN: solo exhibition of large scale collages - 321 Agency in
Melbourne, FL. Through September 25. http://www.321agency.com/gallery

MEMENTO MORI: group show at the Parlor Gallery, Asbury Park, NJ -
opens Saturday August 22. http://www.parlor-gallery.com



When did you first decide to become a graphic designer/ illustrator? Was there a pivotal moment?

I've just always drawn. Really really make a conscious career move? Probably the summer after college when it was time to turn it into a job, my first was making art for the Grateful Dead. Great experience, since we made hundreds of tees for the band, and yet they didn't want photos of the band in any of the designs. Started me digging deep into visual metaphors and weird imagery. Tried to expand the idea of the band, not just illustrate what already existed.




Who or what inspires you?

Subject-wise, I love the figure. The living body. The pulsing, moving, living being and all the space around it. And I contrast that with study of man made things. Engines, schematics, things that aren't supposed to be art. Process-wise, I make these collages for the feeling of having my brain and senses surprised and confused while searching for the image. Here's the deepest thing I've ever said about it: I try to make an experience, instead of just a picture of an experience. The history each viewer brings to the art affect the perceptions, of course. The inside of your head is the real canvas. See? Deep, right?




Where does your training come from? Self-taught? College/Art School?

Gotta start with Dad, drawing the Brewster Grist Mill on Cape Cod. Star Wars had me inventing worlds on my own. Peers had me doing tag team doodles which I still love. Exposure to local bad-asses, guys who wanted to make their own luck instead of waiting to be invited into galleries. I did go to art school at RISD. Faves there included the mystical life force searching of Victor Lara, the noble craftsmanship of Tom Sgouros, the swashbuckling of painter Dean Richardson. Toss in a little David Macaulay communication, some Mahler Ryder bluntness and one great speaking engagement with Brad Holland, who would only show up if it was student-organized. I was fortunate too to attend RISD at the same time as Shawn Kenney, Scott Conary and Robert Moody. I call him Bob. Then I jumped in with a huuuuuge company, art directing, developing the vision thing and the leadership thing. I consider all that part of my training for now. Current teaching comes from a spider web of compatriots here in Florida. Artists Cliffton Chandler, Ryan Speer, David Burton, Cynic, SLOW, Casey Decotis and many art-support folks who together make stuff happen.





How do you keep "fresh" within your industry?

Just by living and doing new things. Parenting. Combining the senses, drawing, trying music. Collaborating. Actually the collage stuff is the latest in a long line of deliberate moves toward staying out of my own control, channeling randomness. When I was 18 I was on the path to precision. Boris would have liked me.






What are some of your current projects?

Just finished a commission for the health care reform campaign- a 24" x 24" collage all in blues, made of words and phrases from the President's speeches and ideas. On the lighter side, some tour tees for Kings of Leon and Depeche Mode. Just had my first solo show opening- TORN, produced by 321 Agency in Melbourne, FL. http://www.321agency.com/torn It includes my largest works yet, some of the collages are six feet tall. Next up is a group show at the Parlor Gallery in Asbury Park, NJ. Opens August 22. Hoping Springsteen pops in.





Which of your projects are you the most proud of? And why?

My kid self is excited I did the artwork for Alex Van Halen's drums (and several of the tees) on the last Van Halen tour! In terms of big time honor, gotta go with being selected as 2 of the 15 pieces chosen for the Manifest Hope DC exhibit prior to the inauguration in Washington. Shep Fairey, Yosi Sargent, -- I think Arnold Schwarzenegger stopped in. I even have the President's autograph on one of my prints. Wow. More personally, the latest collage works are going so well. Huge engines, samurais, beauties emerging from shadow... I just had the longest period of sustained adrenaline I've ever felt. And ready to apply to new stuff asap! But the real real real juice comes from the viewer, the collector's reaction. I sometimes see it in their eyes, cheeks, throats even...





Are there any areas, techniques, mediums, projects in your field that you have yet to try?

I'm hinting at 3d stuff. Did my first laser-cut plastic piece this year. 7 layers. I think the collages need to be 3d at some point. Project wise it is funny that I've worked for tons of private collectors, big campaign commissions, lots of product merch, music packaging, but very little in the area that most interested me while in collage- magazines. Maybe this year I'll go looking. The collage stuff translates so well in print.





Any advice to the novice designer/ illustrator?

Explore, explore, draw, draw, read, read. I like Marshall Arisman's advice that your focus ought to be the 5 things you know the most about. I know the body, machines, intimate spaces, nightlife feels, pop stuff. So I feel no need to do the business man with briefcase ascending the bar graph staircase. Don't be generic, figure you out and be aggressive with it. Figure YOU out in the art, the promo, the networking, the living. Art isn't just rectangles on a wall. The whole
life is the art project, as a friend of mine likes to say.

On the subject of school, I've seen artists with big time educations who never got out from under the weight of their training, never found the personal purpose. Had the how, but no why. And I've seen self taught people really break new ground. So, key is to own your own education, however you get it.





What makes a designed piece or illustration successful?

If it takes the viewer's mind to the right place to receive the accompanying text, story, show, message. Doesn't have to be literal. Actually I'm wary of symbols, because they rely on intellectual memory to tell you what you are supposed to be feeling. I'd much rather see a piece that achieves a feeling, an actual felt response- even if the particulars might be hard to discern. Brad Holland was first to show me it is possible in the illustration/design world.





What do you do to keep yourself motivated and avoid burn-out?

Fresh stimulus. Weird art tools all around. I tend to do the art in waves- a wave of thinking, researching, discovering, uncovering, then finally a new rush of work. I despise doing work that has the idea at the beginning and then the rest of the time is laborious execution. I like surprises along the way. I've gotten very good at harnessing all that for a client too.





Finish this sentence. "If I weren't a designer/illustrator I would have been a..."

No idea. Can you get paid to walk the Appalachian Trail? I haven't done it yet, but I'm into it if pay is good and there are benefits.





And finally, what is the best thing on prime-time TV right now?

The less TV the better. But you can catch me watching those HD live concerts on Sundays.

GEORGE COGHILL

I am a freelance humorous illustrator/cartoonist who specializes in custom mascot character creation for logos. Wait—can you call it freelance when you do it full-time? I'm not really a "cartoonist" in that I don't create cartoons per se, rather cartoon-style illustration. But now I am starting to sound over-analytical…



http://coghillcartooning.com
http://georgecoghill.com/blog
http://twitter.com/gcoghill
http://flic.kr/coghillcartooning


When did you first decide to become a graphic designer/ illustrator? Was there a pivotal moment?

I can't recall a time in my life when I didn't want to be an illustrator. As a very young kid, I was always drawing and getting "how-to" books out from the library so I could draw skeletons and monsters. As I got a bit older, I was blown away by all the artists in MAD Magazine—Mort Drucker, Sergio Aragones, Don Martin, Jack Davis. Just about all the MAD artists inspired me in some way.

I used to love to draw the "Asia" album cover by Roger Dean (the ocean dragon chasing the pearl). I would tape together two pieces of notebook paper so I had enough room to work! I continued to draw monsters and creatures as well as plain fun cartoon characters. At one point in time I thought there was an actual "job" of "heavy metal album cover artist" and that was what I wanted to do—draw monsters and get paid!




Who or what inspires you?

Although inspired by many different forms of art—commercial, illustration, fine art, film—my true inspiration has always been anything with clean line art. There is just something about the language of line art/graphic art that has always and continues to fascinate me.

As mentioned above, I was hugely inspired by the artists in MAD Magazine as I was growing up. And as a monster/creature and monster/horror movie fan (duly subscribed to Fangoria of course!) I recall the special effects in John Carpenter's "The Thing" as a big "wow" moment for me in regards to creativity and out-of-the-box thinking. That film just blew my mind and continues to top my list of fave films of all time. There's always been a latent urge in me to become a special effects makeup artist.

As far as artists, Robert Williams has always been a big fave. I'm also a big fan of visionary artist Alex Grey. Stephen Blickenstaff's art as well. And B.K. Taylor's "Odd Rods". Sebastian Kruger, Coop. I'm probably forgetting a bunch of others right now.



Where does your training come from? Self-taught? College/Art School?

I would say I was primarily self-taught, although I did take art classes in high school and graduated college with a fine arts degree. I started out in the graphic design program as it was the avenue to pursue an illustration degree, but as I went through the program I realized they were grooming students to become graphic designers, not illustrators. And on top of that, the university did not see the coming boom of computers transforming the industry, which I saw coming miles away. Not wanting to switch schools, I became a fine arts major and finished my degree focusing on painting and drawing. And bought my first Mac with student loan money right before graduating.

While I had many great professors and learned a great deal about traditional arts, my art at the time started to focus on what I thought was the expected route at the school—contemporary abstract painting. I kind of lost my childhood focus of illustration for some years. I never really wanted to be a "fine art" artist, although things were starting to head in that direction.

Just after graduation I was fortunate enough to connect with a local entrepreneur who was re-starting his cartoon character licensing company. He needed and artist/cartoonist/designer. This was a very laid-back "job" and as my Dad put it, kind of like a graduate school for me. I had the freedom to rekindle my love of drawing cartoon characters, hone design skills and most importantly, self-teach myself Illustrator and Photoshop, which proved to open a whole new door of creativity for me.

With Adobe Illustrator, I was finally able to create artwork I had envisioned for years in my mind's eye. I was limited in the past due to the lack of training in traditional media illustration: ink and brush techniques and all the years of practice it takes to master that art. I really lacked on the technical side of art—which ironically is exactly what I wanted to be taught in my art classes. Unfortunately I chose poorly at the time and picked a school that had a dichotomy
between graphic design and contemporary fine art. Nowhere could one learn techniques and practices for the kind of illustration work I wanted to learn, both on the skill side as well as the technical/production side.

That probably explains why I devoured Adobe Illustrator and continue to do so. I think I was so starved for this kind of infomation growing up that when I finally had an avenue to pursue it, it just took over!

Some people express a disdain for digital art creation tools, but I see them as just that—tools. No different than a pencil or a brush. Graphic art software will not create the art for you; it's just a really fancy pencil. I apply the same level of self-discipline when creating artwork with vectors and pixels as I would with any other medium.




How do you keep "fresh" within your industry?

Personally, I only stay "fresh" in regards to my software tools. I do try to keep a pulse on admired artits via RSS feeds of artist and art portal blogs, and keeping in contact with other illustrators via Twitter and Flickr.

As far as the work I create, I have always been on a certain path that is kind of a "I'll know it when I see it" kind of thing for my own artwork. In recent years I feel I have finally found that wave, and I stay fresh by constantly finessing the style of work I create.





What are some of your current projects?

At the moment I am working on a series of illustrated avatar portraits for the Cleveland, OH visitor and travelers bureau, as well as illustrations for their current destination guide magazine including the cover. I also have a typical slew of mascot/logo projects for businesses around the globe. Some of these include dog mascot cartoon characters for an upcoming dog toy retail chain, alien characters for an alternative coffeeshop/bar in Texas, and cartoon-style shoe designs for toddlers, a monkey in a fez, and a sexy business woman.




Which of your projects are you the most proud of? And why?

To be honest, I am proud of almost all my work. One of my "techniques" for creating client art is to take on the mindset that I am creating something that I would love as if I were creating it for myself. I make a point to want to show off all the work I do, and to be proud of it all.

If I did have to pick some, I'd say my "Girl in the Moon" pinup is a personal fave right now.

Jeep Creep" and some other hot rod monsters I have created were also some illustrations I really enjoyed when they were finalized. My cartoon U.S. coin series also are some illustrations I think came out well.




Are there any areas, techniques, mediums, projects in your field that you have yet to try?

As mentioned above, there's always been an itch to work as a special effects makeup artist for Hollywood films. And who knows, maybe even as a concept artist for one of the FX studios developing monsters and creatures? More immediately, I want to start developing more personal artwork—created digitally and then transferred and finalized as physical, unique works of art where I can have a gallery show.

I feel as if I am finally at a point technically, skill-wise and experience-wise where I can combine the talents I have cultivated in the commercial world and extend them into a more non-commercial setting. I'm looking forward to expanding everything I have learned and combining all of the experience from the different fields I have worked in throughout my life.



Any advice to the novice designer/ illustrator?

Draw, draw, draw, draw, draw. And take some business/marketing classes.



What makes a designed piece or illustration successful?

It's all about balance. Whether the line art, the color, the overall design, everything needs to work together as a whole. Pay attention to all the details, those are where the illustration transcends into "wow".




What do you do to keep yourself motivated and avoid burn-out?

I guess I am lucky in that I don't need to keep myself motivated. I am stoked on a daily basis that I get to realize my lifelong dream of creating artwork for a living, and that in itself motivates me more than anything.

Burn-out I avoid by reminding myself that I am doing what I love for a living. Sometimes one can get caught up and see it all as "work", but by reminding myself what kind of work it is, I usually recharge the batteries. Of course, a trip to the Florida Keys or a round of disc golf doesn't hurt either. And if that doesn't work, I pick up my guitar and write some songs. Sometimes another form of creativity can be a very helpful release.




Finish this sentence. "If I weren't a designer/illustrator I would have been a..."

…cryptozoologist.




And finally, what is the best thing on prime-time TV right now?

Prime-time TV only? Have to say I am a 'Lost' junkie.