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Name: Brett Hess
Place of birth: Michigan City, Indiana
Brett Hess: This is something I ask myself on a daily basis….hmm…I am a visual joymaker, a painter of mischievous mayhem, and quite the madcap.
B.H.: Picked up pencil at age 3 and started drawing, this is still ongoing, so I guess that is background and foreground. I took every art class I could throughout high school which made it almost tolerable. In 1992 I attended The American Academy of Art in Chicago. It was a totally old school way of teaching which is what I needed to define what I already knew. Basically I needed to learn all of the rules before I could start breaking them.I have been painting professionally since 1995.
B.C.: Can you tell us about your art work? Which medium do you use? ..and which technique?
B.H.: My paintings now are the perfect storm of everything I’ve learned in the last 15 years. I began my career using airbrush almost 100% which taught me about the immediacy of painting, the spontaneous throw down of paint, and mostly control. These days I can draw with an airbrush if I needed to. I only use the airbrush now for certain techniques that nothing else can come close to, usually something to do with atmosphere or the perfect shadow. I’ve always used acrylics mostly due to lack of patience. I’ve dabbled in oils, but there are too many headaches for me there. My paintings are layers and layers of paint, started with medium brushes and eventually using many a detail brush. I also use sponges and other techniques for texture. I’m a texture and detail freak!
B.C.: What about your sources of inspirations?
B.H.: Comic books, Cartoons, Salvador Dali, Rene Magritte, Horror Movies, J.D. Salinger, H.R. Giger, Pieter Bruegel, Hieronymus Bosch, Porn, UFO’s, Kurt Vonnegutt, Shogun Warriors, Micronauts, Many Musicians and Songwriters, Good Graffiti, High Renaissance Art, Ivan Albright, Max Ernst, Girls, Star Wars, My Family, Three’s Company, Jean Michel Basquiat, Hunter S. Thompson, and I’m sure many other Hooligans that aren’t coming to mind right now.
B.C.: Are you a pop-surrealist? How can you define your style?
B.H.: I’ve been called a pop-surrealist, neo-surrealist, abstract-surrealist, lowbrow artist, and probably a couple others, that’s why I just like to say I’m a painter of surrealism.
B.C.: How do you face an empty canvas? Do you have a preconceived idea of what you're going to do, or do the ideas come as you paint?
B.H.: Early career, I sketched out on paper, and then freehand sketched with the airbrush. Mid-Career, I did would start with a spontaneous abstract painting and find objects and faces within. These days, I’m back to sketching things out and coming up with nice compositions. I still do a lot of spontaneous work within the paintings when it comes to details and textures.
B.C.: Which of your paintings give you the most satisfaction?
B.H.: Any painting that makes it to the finish line gives me satisfaction.
B.C.: How important are the titles in your work?
B.H.: Nothing bothers me more than “Untitled” work. I always try to make my titles as interesting as the painting itself. At the very least, I try to give the viewer a starting point to figuring out what the painting is saying. My painting titles used to be quite long, and quite poetic, nowadays they can be anywhere from one word to a couple of sentences depending what I see. The titles all come to me during the painting process.
B.C.: I like very much your painting “Iconoclast”… Can you describe the concept and the process behind this art work?
B.H.: I love doing portraits of women; a woman’s face is one of the greatest visuals on earth. Some of my most popular paintings like “Iconoclast” are woman’s portraits. I never try to make it look like anyone in particular so the face develops as I paint. With this painting, I started with a basic sketch of what I wanted, with her wearing a crazy headdress which wound up turning into pterodactyl heads of some sort. After getting the sketch on the board (usually a Birchwood panel), I start layering in paint and adding airbrushed shadows and highlights. Then I add more layers with detail brushes, pushing things back and pulling things forward, until things look the way I originally saw them in my head. I’m glad you like it.
B.C.: Where we can see your art? …and which are your projects for the future?
B.H.: Right now the best way to see my work is really on Facebook. I have all of my latest paintings there for everyone to check out. I’m working on getting another website up and running. The person running my website last time failed to keep everything updated for me and it got quite frustrating. On Facebook, I can get my art out there the instant I’m finished with. But eventually I’m going to need a place for people to go to other than Facebook. So keep a lookout! Also, Distinction Gallery has one of my favorite paintings, “The Queen-Mother of Cellular Regeneration” on permanent display.
Right now I’m working on a commissioned piece, it’s a cool dragon painting I’m doing for one of my biggest collectors. I’ll also be doing illustrations and cover art for a new up and coming writer who is quite morbid, so it should be fun. (Especially because they’re talking about turning it into a movie)
Other than that I’m always coming up with tattoo designs, and working on paintings for upcoming shows.
B.C.: Thank Brett for your attention, good luck for your work!
B.H.: Thanks so much for letting me babble awhile.
Contact and links: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1406855129110.2054745.1164375952&type=3#!/profile.php?id=1164375952
xLegion Gallery: Brett Hess
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