Greg Gossel

Who are you?
Greg Gossel
streetvalue-design.com

What do you do?
Create things, destroy them, then re-create...















Inspirations?
Rauschenberg, Basquiat, Twombly, Lichtenstein, Matisse... vintage comics and pulp magazines... the city, graffiti, decay, alleys, old hand-painted billboards, abandon buildings... hip hop, jazz, and just a ton of other music, too much to name...










Please describe your creative process, or highlight a specific process used for a recent project.
i always have a big mess of images laying around my studio... i start by exposing some screens, and cutting stencils... then i go to work remixing and layering images... painting over things, pasting paper, dripping paint, screen printing, spraying, drawing, scribbling... constantly creating and destroying images... building up the piece until i feel satisfied with it...













Please describe your average workday.
4 days a week, i work 8-5 in a small design shop downtown (minneapolis)... come home... have some dinner, hang out for an hour or two... then go to work in my studio for the night, and try to be to bed by 2am. Wednesdays i'm in my studio for about 12-14 hrs. I also try and take a night off here and there to chill out a bit...













What are things that you would like to do in the future that you haven't done already?
I'd like to do some really large scale installations... collaborate more with other artists... and just get my work out to as many people as possible.

Mike Perry

Who are you?
Michael Perry
midwestisbest.com



What do you do?
Make things - Books, Magazines, Drawings, Tee Shirts, Alphabets…

Inspirations
I find a lot of my inspiration from friends. I love talking with friends about what they are working on and thinking about. I have started to listening to this radio show titled Radiolab. I find it massively inspiring.


Please describe your creative process, or highlight a specific process used for a recent project.
My process is pretty simple. I just sit down and start making. When I hit a wall I often go for a walk. One of my favorite ways of working is sitting on the couch front of the television. I make lots of messes and piles.


Please describe your average workday.
7:30 am - Wake Up
7:31 am - Read emails in bed.
7:35 am - Make coffee.
7:40 am - Sit at my desk and start making things for the rest of the day.
7:00 pm - Hopefully call it a day.


What are things that you would like to do in the future that you haven't done already?
Show my work again.
Travel more.
Finish all the typefaces that I have started.

Keegan Wenkman

Who are you?Wenkman, Keegan
www.onefootinfront.com

What do you do?
Draw, paint, and print

Inspirations?
Turn of the century phone books, bonds, and hand made type mostly found in the special collections of your local library. Painters like Rembrandt, Goya, Odd Nerdrum, Joe Sorren. Illustrators like Gorey, Horkey, J. Ryan, Diana Sudyka, Autobahn, Chris Ware, and Posada. Printmakers like W. Winship, Aesthetic Apparatus, and all things Japanese.














Please describe your creative process, or highlight a specific process used for a recent project.
Everything (being pretty or not so pretty pictures) is researched for days ahead of any ink or paint laid down….to form a general concept….so research fuels my concepts, backwards, I agree. Next in the process is a set of visceral decisions on the placement of (researched) subject/s. Followed by a flurry of pigment…a break…finishing touches to achieve some asymmetricality.

Please describe your average workday.
Coffee then food by noon followed by research. Break at 5-7pm for a beer. Around dusk I begin drawing until exhaustion. Somewhere in there is a goodly attempt to court clients and usually a trip to the post office.














What are things that you would like to do in the future that you haven't done already?
Move to France; publish books, and reinvigorating the beauty of things hand-made to future generations. Maybe own a house and live in the car port.

Karolina Karlic

Who are you?
I am a observer and a visual analyzer. As a child I emigrated from Poland and then raised in Detroit. I become very aware of the cultural differences that occur in the US as I contributed to those differences. Through out my time spent in Detroit I witnessed that auto industries flux. I became interested in how people arrived in "Motor City" and how they were effected by the economical circumstances occurring. I have always been interested in the unseen or unspoken of, being brought to light. My last project " The Dee" is a collection of images that expose the reality of forgotten and the people exist within.

www.karolinakarlic.com















What do you do?
I am a photographer residing in Minneapolis. Currently I am working on a new project that again deals with Americas sub-cultures and it's human traits.














Inspirations?
My inspiration comes from the desire to understand myself within the world but also the necessity to be able to share and teach others about my experiences. Many times I am inspired by what we as people are able to create in a larger sense but also as personal as a piece of writing, a beautifully designed magazine, or an amazing painting.

Please describe your creative process, or highlight a specific process
used for a recent project.
My creative process is very research heavy. As a photographer with a large camera, I really have to put myself out there and be out in the world working. There is no hiding. The exchange that occurs between a subject and I is what allows for the photograph to really capture a moment. During the photographing process I interview my subjects about their stories and record the event of making the image.














Please describe your average workday.
An average workday consists of many emails, scheduling, communicating, loading film, packing gear, photographing ( all that entails) and then all it all over again.

What are things that you would like to do in the future that you haven't done already?
In the future my goals are to publish photo books. I also have a couple ideas for installations that would consist of collaboration with other artists and the subjects I choose depict.

Jeremy Fish

Who are you?
Mr. Jeremy Dan Fish of San Francisco.
www.sillypinkbunnies.com

What do you do?
Draw pictures.


Inspirations?
Dr Suess, 80's skateboard graphics, old playboy mags from the 60's, hannah barbara cartoons from the 60's and 70's. jazz from the 30's and 40's, and hip hop from the 80's and early 90's, and my grandfather.














Please describe your creative process, or highlight a specific process used for a recent project.
Think of some ideas. do some drawing. use this drawn idea for a painting, or t-shirt, or other. repeat frequently.

Please describe your average workday.
12-14 hours a day in my studio. I sleep around 6-8 hours with a fluctuating 3-4 hours a day of "free" personal time (mainly eating, and chasing pussy).














What are things that you would like to do in the future that you haven't done already?
Animation would be nice. Bronze scultpture is also on that list. Make more people happy is also on there.

www.superfishalsf.com
www.umbrellamarket.com

Eric Inkala

Who are you?
THE BIG INK.
ericink.com

What do you do?
I would consider myself mostly a painter but I get into some photography, drawing, graffiti, and large scale outdoor murals. I paint canvases with really obsessive line work and bright, saturated color schemes. My subject matter is a combination of characters often involving some text, carried out in a heavily layered manner. I have also been working on random design projects but I haven’t had the patience to learn photoshop, so my projects in that regard are usually collaborations with a graphic designer.

Inspirations?
My inspirations come from all over the place. I am extremely inspired by traveling and the new experiences it brings. Music, graffiti, photography and other artists are a strong source of inspiration. I am very inspired by the people I create and collaborate with locally. Specifically speaking though, the experience of traveling inspires me the most I think. It allows me to take a break from painting, do new things and see lots of crazy shit. Also during this time I document with my camera and draw a lot. When I return to work on paintings this experience translates to what I am working on at home. It is also nice to take a step back sometimes and really think critically about what you have been doing with your creative process and kind of update it and move forward with a whole new palette of ideas.

Please describe your creative process, or highlight a specific process used for a recent project.
My creative process is kind of frantic. I go through periods where I draw a lot and I work on similar themed characters so when I go to paint them they come out naturally. When I am painting I tend to work on a lot of different pieces at the same time. To get myself warmed up to the paintings I usually start with big blocks of overlapping colors, a lot of the time using a combination of brushes, printmaking brayers and pencil. When I feel like there is enough space covered I freestyle some rough outlines either in pencil or black paint to get a feel for what the piece is going to be.

From there I start to fill in the character forms and start to refine the background, all the while doing this back and forth from painting to painting, working on anywhere from 4-10 pieces at a time, working on whatever piece that pulls my concentration the most. Because I use all acrylic paint, I am able to paint over areas that I am not happy with very quickly. As a result the final painting ends up showing multiple layers and ideas when the pieces are done. I usually put them aside while I finish the others so I have a little bit of time to figure out if a painting is finished or if it needs more work.

Please describe your average workday.
Right now my average work day is interesting because I don’t have a job. My time is split between working on my own personal work, mural projects and weird design stuff to pay the bills, all the while constantly looking for new projects and opportunity’s to keep me going. This point in my life is the first time I have been doing just art and nothing else, so it takes a lot of self motivation to keep going and to stay creative on different levels, but I love it. Sometimes it is really easy to get distracted, but I just try to keep my head up and move forward.

What are things that you would like to do in the future that you haven't done already?
What I am trying to concentrate on right now is finding ways to afford to travel with my work and get myself out to a larger audience. Like I mentioned before, traveling is a huge inspiration for me, especially if I’m traveling to do art related things. I would also like to be able to afford the time to work on some very large-scale work on canvas and on walls. I find that a lot of what I do on larger canvas is harder to sell and more time consuming so I usually concentrate on medium sized paintings. I recently got into doing some larger outdoor murals and would like to explore that a lot more. Each wall bigger than the last, eventually I would like to paint a 20 story building. I also want to get back into some serious photography stuff and start to mesh that into what I do on canvas.

Kind of inter mixing stories from what Ive seen through a camera and putting that into what I paint about it.

Jake Keeler

Who are you?
Jake Keeler
www.jakekeeler.com

What do you do?
Live as best as one can.

Inspirations?
In general, nature, or nature as we define it individually. How we define "Nature" varies to be sure, so my version is not necessarily your version......I think my definition/inspiration, is what many would regard as verging on a religious doctrine of sorts, very extreme and personalized. It guides my life though and through. More specifically I'm drawn to the compassion and violence that is present in all life. The relationships of animals for example, predator and prey to be specific. Life consumes life, this is law......you can't live without killing, or "destroying" lets say. Decay, growth, and the reclamation of raw organic material drive my life and work as well. These are factors that shape everyone really. The shifts in seasons, the shifts is one's behavior, and the flow of energy in everything connect us all.

I hunt and fish equal to my artistic output...the two components inform each other. Watching a Bald eagle hunt Loon chicks, Loons hunting fish, Pike hunting Sunfish, Sunfish eating worms, me catching Sunfish with worm.....you get the idea. We are predators. I don't think we should all kill, practice violence. But we must at least except that we are part of a cycle that runs best on equal amounts of compassion and violence (violence not based on hatred, but survival).....we are so out of touch. Wars...fucking-bullshit-misguided ego, ignorance, and fear. Hunting a deer, gutting and dressing your prey, consuming it's flesh and using the energy and wisdom you gain to help others, helping other animals...this is a proper use of our abilities and instincts. We have moved passed original models of survival that allowed our species to survive and evolve, but we must get in touch with the impulses that brought us here in a constructive way.

When I die, I will look back on my life at some point before moving on, and I'm fairly certain (at least as I type this) that I will see that I wasted no time when I was loving, creating, and killing (truly interacting with the "natural" world....living as nature, not with nature). Art is part of my investigation of what life is....why do we live 80 or so years instead of one, like a fly? One day would cut down on the bullshit....we'd all build in the moment, make babies, wreck some serious shit....and call it a day.

Please describe your creative process, or highlight a specific process used for a recent project.
Recently, I have found a good rhythm in my work. I was messing around in the arena of conceptual and performance work for a while...what a nightmare...not my strong suit. I did some projects that hinted at potential, but ultimately failed in my eyes. I did a performance at the Walker during this time......fucking dreadful. I never felt right about it, and it never felt like challenge , which it most definitely should have. But I came away learning something, which is that I'm a firm believer in practice, and working shit out for years and years and years before you present it as something definitive. So the performance and conceptual work is in my head, on paper, but far from manifesting it's self anymore.

Right now I draw to meditate on my ideas, and I build sculptures to physically express the ideas.
They complement each other. Drawing creates a lexicon, and sculpture acts as a voice. Very simple actually, and it feels dangerous and infinitely generous to me........right where I should be at the moment.

I have also started learning to fly fish. Of course I have fished my whole life, but never picked up the art of fly fishing until about a year ago. It is consuming me...very intense.
I have plans of returning to archery as well. Firearms serve their function, but I feel I must return to archery as a means to harvest deer. This will involve a great deal of practice and patience...it has been a while, and I think I will give traditional tackle a try. This intimidates me, yet I feel ready for the challenge.

Both my artistic practices, and outdoors activities reflect the idea of returning to more basic forms. I'm trying to shed the bullshit from my life in general. It's all natural growth and the logical progression of survival really.

Along with these activities, I have been occasionally spending time on my family's land in Princeton MN, making work, hunting, and thinking. I'm hoping to plan some retreats with like-minded creative types for 2-3 day workshops on the land. My sessions there have produced some good works and minor breakthroughs. It's space, time, and freedom which cannot be achieved in the everyday.

Please describe your average workday.
Sundays though Thursday - wake up at 6:30am, breakfast, floss n' shit, go to work..Northern Brewer..we sell home brewing equipment....great job, they get me and I get them. Done around 4 ish. Get home, chill with the wife...usually go for a walk, dinner, then it's time to draw, read, call loved ones, and maybe get on the computer.
At least one or up to three of those days I will go fishing after work (Spring and Summer).
Friday and Saturday- family/close friends, art, hunting and fishing......maybe go out to a show or opening, but most of that shit is wack. I have little time and patience for casual encounters and "hanging out". Usually, once a week I'll try to square away a whole day to just make work, buy supplies, document work, and update the website.

I'm also effected heavily by the seasons. In the summer I tend to get a good deal of drawing done (time in the AC) and fishing slows down a bit as the summer progresses. In the Fall, I'm lucky to get any art done because I'm always hunting in my free time. I try to go to openings, shows, etc a bit more and/or as much as I can stand and and be proactive about my "art" in that way. Winter is the workhorse time, I get a good deal of research and art making done for obvious reasons. Spring is the X factor, maybe make art, maybe go fishing....tough call. Hunting is a must for me, hard to resist the call. But fishing can be put off or overlooked if I'm in a good groove with my work.


What are things that you would like to do in the future that you haven't done already?
In general, just make the most of this existence. Keep learning, keep surviving.

Oh, kick the shit out of Ted Nugent.....dude is so right about certain ideas, but so so so fucking wrong about other shit...I believe that a small part of my time on earth is meant to correct his trajectory through a ruthless beatdown. C'mon Adam, make some calls dude...we could sell tickets!

Bryan Haker

Who are you?
Bryan Jon Haker

What do you do?
I've been told I'm a graphic designer. But, you know, fuck a title.

Inspirations?
I'm really inspired by people who do things that they are not "technically trained" to do. Like when illustrators design or designers make music etc.
For me the results are always fresh, for better or for worse.

Please describe your creative process, or highlight a specific process used for a recent project.
My process has evolved for me. I spend a lot more time in the sketching phase. I used to be one of those guys that would sketch on the computer. Yes, that is sometimes helpful, but I like the liberation of just rockin out in whatever land, giving that more time to stir and develop.

Please describe your average workday.
My average work day consists getting to Anomaly nice and early. Once I get in the office, I usually get crankin right away. I save the small talk for later, since I feel I'm most productive in the morning. Usually there is some kind of briefing and then a gathering of the creatives on the project.

The majority of the day is spent doing whatever I have to do to get inspired and creating things. I try to take some time out and walk around the hood. The studio is in SoHo so there is usually some interesting things, people, animals, buildings somewhere in the area. More importantly spending a good amount of time away from the fucking computer helps.

After all that I usually regroup with the other creatives and get input, constructive criticism and get back to it. Once things are in a good place on a team level at the end of the day, I get outta dodge.

What are things that you would like to do in the future that you haven't done already?
I would like to do a group show or project or something on the concept of "codes". Not in the sense of traditional codes but looking at it as a way of communication, like the graff game or how people speak slang, or even in the tech sense of "LOL" type shit. Its really broad, and I find it very fascinating, lots of room for executional interpretation also I'd like to do some kind of music project..I have no musical talent, so it should be interesting tryin that one out.

Thank you for doing WeAreDigginForFire.

Jennifer Davis

Who are you?
My name is Jennifer Davis.
jenniferdavisart.com

What do you do?
I like to paint and draw.

Inspirations?
I am inspired by so many things...I collect scraps and images torn from magazines, newspapers, books, patterns, etc. I use them in collages or juxtapoz them to invent new imagery, inspire drawings, etc. I am inspired by films, travel, music, books, other artists- the usual stuff. I look at a lot of art on the internet. Right now I am digging this: http://www.grantbarnhart.net/main.html, and this: http://www.knnth.com/, and this: http://www.tifennpython.com/, and this: http://matthewfeyld.blogspot.com/, and this: http://www.lorenholyoke.com/ ... I am also inspired by a zillion local (Mpls) artists.


Please describe your creative process, or highlight a specific process used for a recent project.
I don’'t really have much of creative process other than that I just sit down and start doodling, painting, and mixing colors until something sparks. Sometimes I start by gluing down found images. Specifically, most of my paintings are made with a combination of collage, pencil drawing, (acrylic) painting and sanding/scraping.

Please describe your average workday.
My average workday starts out with a really long walk. I love to walk...pounding my feet enables me to clear my head. For me, a long walk flips a switch to a more automatic, creative mindset. Then I like to spend a good chunk of time painting. I also spend a ridiculous amount of time working on the computer. I am a compulsive list maker and busy-body. Unless I am painting I can not sit still for more than 3 minutes. I like to keep busy from the time I wake up (at the crack of dawn) until I crash at night. I love what I do so I adore my routine. Monday is my Friday.

What are things that you would like to do in the future that you haven't done already?
I want to travel a lot. I am just starting to show my work outside of Minnesota more. It is really fun to get a taste of the art scene in other cities. Someday I would like to get some grant money.

AyeJay!

Who are you?
My name is Aye Jay, i'm a 30 year old husband and father of two from beautiful Chico, California.
ayejay.com

What do you do?
From the age of two, i've drawn. It started with crayola markers and pictures of superheroes, and now it's fine ink pens and pictures of rap superheroes. In 2002 after coloring with my son Cohen i happened into making a coloring book with pictures of rappers in it. In turn this made me an "author" but lead to freelance work for music packaging, clothing, posters, skateboards, art shows, and whatever else i could find my way into.

Inspirations?
A huge amount of things, as i think we all are kind of a sum of our parts and inspirations. But some of them are R. Crumb, Frank Kozik, Jack Davis, Mort Drucker, Pushead, Don Martin, Keith Haring, Chris Ware, Warhol, Barry Mcgee, the Black Osprey Dead Arts Society, Ralph Steadman, Shepard Fairey, Stanley Kubrick, Mel Brooks, Errol Morris, the Cohen Brothers, Tom Waits, Public Enemy, Johnny Cash, Bob Marley, Sir Mix a Lot's Swass lp, Glen E. Freidman, Faydog, and Tacos Cortez, whos chicken chimichanga is nothing short of sublime.

Please describe your creative process, or highlight a specific process used for a recent project.
The creative process is totally dependant on the project or idea at hand. Given i work freelance, in the beginning i have to decide on a concept if one is not provided, then a style of drawing to work in, overview of how much time there is to work on it, etc. From there sometimes theres research into what i'll be drawing, depending, then a rough drawing to be scanned to sent out to be approved, then feedback is given, changes are made, and the drawing is done. Sometimes the work is scanned into the computer and layed out or colored, but again, projects tend to vary, so it really depends.

With the Corey Duffel skateboard for foundation, the company approached me with the idea of the cryptkeeper from tales from the crypt. Very straightforward, exept for the fact that after i had completed a detailed sketch in pencil it was decided that they wanted the company's logos involved into the design. Changes were then made, scanned and sent out. once all this was approved, i started inking the picture with fine point pens, spending more time than usual, knowing i wanted it to be very detailed. This part took well over a week, which was killing me!

Once the pen drawing was done, i scannned it in to the computer and cleaned it up a little in photoshop. I then realized that there was no way to color the picture in the cpu the way i wanted with a mouse, so this led to a whole sidebar of researching wacom pads and finding one in my area i could afford, once this was done and purchased, i went through the process of learing to use the pad as i colored the drawing. This may be frustrating to some, but i find that the best way of learning for me is doing.

Once the picture was colored, the lettering was then colored and sent to the lovley Nathan Bell at Foundation who was kind enough to do the technical stuff to finish everything and get it ready for printing. I submitted the invoice with the agreed upon charges, and got a check a few weeks later. The process then led me to splurge on expensive sushi and stick the rest in the black hole that is your bank account when you have a family.

Please describe your average workday.
The workday always varies on the project at hand, but being a stay at home dad, while my wife does the real work, the workday tends not to start untill after the kids go to bed. This makes the drawing time usually between nine pm and one am.

Growing up, i always used my dad records as lapboards, so i never got used to a real drawing table or anything like that, so my "studio" consists of me using one of my lps to draw on, sometimes picked out as inspiration for the project (the "vibe" without sounding too new- agey) but mostly at random. While sitting on the couch with mtv jams on in the backround or the ipod on blast, depending. Heres a sampling of the stuff i've found it best to draw to:

1. Lil Wayne-Carter 2 (regular and chopped versions)
2.Doom metal, usually Monarch or Asunder
3.Jack Spaar
4.Clipse-Hell hath no fury
5.most everything by R.Kelly
6.Boris-"pink" and "Heavy rock"
7.patton oswalt, mitch hedberg or dave chappelle stand up
8. the Dr.Dre Rodium mixtape series
9.Mannie Fresh-the mind of mannie fresh
10.Neutral Milk Hotel

What are things that you would like to do in the future that you haven't done already?
Up until a week ago,it was a screenprinted art print, but thanks to Burlesque design, i can cross that off of the list. The rest is kinds cliche art work stuff: a toy, artist series shoe, hopefully more prints, books, and shirts. I've been lucky enough to get to do most of the things i've really wanted to, and a lot of this is due to the help of a bunch of people, but specificly (shout outs time) Last Gasp press, ECW press, Todd Bratrud, Nathan and Todd at Foundation, BRLSQ, Chunklet, Generica and my wife and family who have been insanely supportive.