We're here with the Edbot5000. First, thanks for coming out Ed!"Thank you!"
You want to fill us in on your real bio? The bio from DeviantArt didn't say anything about you except you were drinking coffee and listening to angry music."I'm not into the artist bios. Every time I do one it comes off sounding like I'm a pretentious ass, so I like to keep them short and funny. I keep it simple. I'm a big comic book fan, quasi-collector, quasi-musician, quasi-art historian."
Pringle's or Lay's?"The company Frito Lay?"
No, the crappy Lay's potato chips."Pringles, then. Definitely."
Where are you originally from? Are you the increasingly rare, 'Jacksonville native?'*laughs* "Well, I've been here most of my life, but I was actually born in a small town in Indiana called Bunker Hill."
Bunker Hill, really?"Yeah, it's like what Live Oak... well, maybe... no, definitely. It's what Live Oak would be to Jacksonville. One-street town in Indiana. I vaguely remember it, because it was like pre-school and kindergarten."
So the first five years?"Yeah, about that. According to my folks, we spent a year or two in Arkansas, but I can't remember that at all. I think I probably blocked it out of my mind completely."
I don't blame you."Yeah, lucky me, I can't remember anything about it. So, a couple years in Arkansas and then my dad got stationed here when I was about six or seven."
Where'd you go to school?"I'm actually surprised at how sane I turned out because there's a funny story about where I went to school. I actually, until eighth grade, went to St. Matthew's, which was a Catholic school."
I have scars on my knuckles from rulers at Catholic school."Yeah, I actually went there when the nuns were getting sued. I guess a nun slapped a kid in the face, so the parents weren't really down with that and sued the school. So I actually had a nun-less school my last year there. Pretty crazy. It was all like regular civilians there my last year. Nun-less."
I remember the order of escalations from Catholic school. There was like detention, then parent-teacher conference, then suspension, and then you went straight to hell."Yeah, exactly. Pretty much it. But I wasn't Catholic, so there was like me, and another group of kids that weren't Catholic either who hung out, kind of on the fringes. But we all went to Catholic school because our folks wanted us to go to private school, because it was a better school."
Was it?"Allegedly, not really. So it was me and a handful of other kids that would hang out because they wouldn't let us take part in communion, or confession, or whatever... because, you know, they made you do stuff like that. We would just kind of hang out, isolated from everyone else, while the Catholics were doing the confirmation thing."
Isolated?"Yeah, like gingers or something."
Were you already doing art in school there?"I doodled a lot because my dad got me into comic books and stuff when I was really little. He'd always get like the ten for a dollar or the back-issues... then pre-screen them, of course, and then, you know. Give them to me. So I always doodled and was really into comics, but I didn't have any, you know 'formal' training until post-high-school. Because, actually, the second part of my weird school story is that for high school, I went to Trinity Christian Academy. So I went from Catholic School, to Fundamental Baptist... talk about a HUGE difference! So at Trinity art was like,
Wait, really? So you went from Catholic School to Fundamentalist Christian school and you were neither Catholic nor Fundamentalist Christian?"Yeah, I know... anyway, at Trinity, art was like... banned, because it was the devil."
So you've already done your time in hell?"Yeah, exactly! I pretty much went to where rich bad kids got sent my whole life."
Were you a rich bad kid?"Nope, I was neither rich, nor bad. But people left me alone because I wore a trench coat one day to school and from then on everyone thought I was a Satanist."
For wearing a raincoat?"Yeah, totally. And this was before the Colorado incident with the trench coat mafia, but they left me alone."
I can see the connection. Rain gear definitely equals Satanist."Absolutely. I wore the trench coat actually, because... do you remember the show back then? Parker Lewis can't lose? I wore it because of that sidekick guy. He would always pull all that stuff out of his trench coat and I thought it was cool with all his gadgets. It was kind of a TV rip off of Ferris Bueller. So everyone left me alone because I listened to metal and wore a trench coat. Never mind I wore it because I liked a stupid show."
Did you have long hair?"No, they didn't allow it. It wasn't like a uniform like Catholic school where you had to wear the same thing every day, but it was a collared shirt, no facial hair, no hair past your collar, nice pants, and you know. So, not like a uniform, but still, you had to wear your hair a certain way."
Was it co-ed?"Yeah, totally."
You get down with some fundy chicks? You know, since you were such a bad boy?"I didn't do a lot of dating in high school."
They were all saving themselves for non-Satanist guys wearing Member's Only jackets or something?"Kind of, but I was really fat and pimply in high school too, so that negated any 'bad boy' attraction that I could've had. I'm still fat, but my skin cleared up nice."
So I'm guessing from your body language and voice inflection that high school and primary school, not really the best times of your life."I don't remember them fondly. Not at all. When I got out of high school, I didn't even want to do the ceremony. I just wanted out, I didn't want to do the commencement, I just wanted out. Like, just mail me my diploma and let me get on with my life. I had some really good friends there, because I could kind of float between the cliques, but it definitely wasn't fun. It was, you know... like most high schools, run by the jocks and rich kids. Except with not as many drugs or shootings at Trinity... although there was a like, rumble in the parking lot, with like 40 kids from Trinity and then some from the public school. No one really got hurt..."
A rumble? Or like a ruckus?"Definitely a rumble, but not like, you know, 'Warriors... come out and play!' or anything. Like a big brawl, but only like one guy from our school was the one that got beat up, no one really got hurt, just mostly pushing and shoving, but this one guy got beat, like took the brunt of all the beatings."
Did he deserve it?"No, he was an okay guy, a decent guy... you know, well, he probably didn't deserve it. He was alright for a jock. No, I guess he deserved it. Yeah, he totally deserved it."
Alright, so what about the time after the 'bad time.' College? Any formal training in college? Where did you go?"I did the FCCJ thing, I went to JU for a couple of semesters. My dad worked there, so I didn't have to pay the full-on private school tuition, but then when he left, I had to go to FCCJ. I was kind of directionless, like most people in school. Just took a bunch of art classes, went to UNF afterwards. Finally got out of UNF with my graphic design degree. Tried doing that for a year and hated it. After taking all the fine art classes and traditional art classes, working within those parameters was just, you know... I like design and I liked studying it, but you know, it was very rigid. Very structured. I worked doing freelance stuff for City Hall. I had a really bad experience right out of high school, when I got out, it was when multimedia was becoming the hot thing, so I just finished up this print-based degree and the very next year everyone was wanting multimedia guys. So, part of it was bad timing. They implemented the program the year after I left, so I was definitely on the 'blunt edge' of the graphic design program, you know? But I did do some freelance work, and I still do some freelance stuff now."
Well, you're definitely print-based now. I mean, it doesn't get more fine art than painting."Yeah, definitely."
What medium do you work in most often?"Right now, just due to my lack of studio space, I work in acrylics, because it's not as messy. You don't have to have toxic chemicals hanging around the place like working with oils."
Do you prefer oils then?"I actually like acrylics because I'm so impatient, but oils definitely have richer colors. More vibrant. But they take forever to dry. I just want to paint something and be done with it and move on to something else. So I'm definitely going to be sticking with acrylics for a while."
I like that some oil-based paints have arsenic in them."Yeah, if you're a angst-filled oil artist you can just off yourself in the studio when you're done with your masterpiece."
Nice. So, you canvas or board or what? I saw that you did an acoustic ceiling tile for Universe of Super Heroes."Yeah, a ceiling tile, that was Frankenstein. It was kind of like painting on canvas. It went better than I thought it would. It soaked up a lot of the paint like painting on canvas over wood. It had a nice texture and held the paint really well. I should be dropping that off this weekend."
Some quick work-related questions for you. Ready?"Shoot."
Was Astaroth the head or belly?"Pretty sure he was the head. I think the belly was like an independent, like mindless minion or something. The new stuff I'm doing, I like to do new stuff every month. Like the show I did last month was called 8-Bit Evil. Just trying to draw the bad guys from the old video games."
I loved the one from Contra. That definitely resonates with me. You know, everyone knew that boss."Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, Select, Start."
Were the Contra guys gay?"Yeah, totally gay. Lance and Bill? They wore matching outfits that didn't include shirts. Completely gay. It's funny though because all the stuff that was so macho-manly in the 80's and early 90's is so gay now. Like Magnum PI with his bristly mustache, Hawaiian shirt, and his short-shorts. Back then he was the epitome of manly heterosexuality, now... so he'd be so gay."
A bear."Yeah, exactly. Look at his mustache."
Speaking of facial hair, I notice your beard is pretty tame."Yeah, it's pretty low-key. My mom is from Taiwan originally and I had a chance to go there last year in April, so before I got on an international flight, I definitely didn't want to have a foot-long black beard in the airport with my complexion. It was definitely more paranoia than anything, but I'm sure it was a good idea. I mean, I never really noticed how big it was, but I look at pictures now and I‘m shocked at how big it was."
It was huge."Yeah, it was getting ridiculous. I mean, I guess I made the statement I was trying to make with the beard, but it's time for a change. Just moving on. It was ridiculous. I mean, I had to tuck my beard into my shirt to eat soup, or anything like that. I look at pictures and I'm like, 'That was so huge.'"
It was easily as big as your head. It was massive. It had its own gravity."You never notice it when you look in the mirror. But it was definitely getting out of hand, and once something interferes with my eating... sorry, got to go."
If you can't eat E-street beer-cheese soup, what do you really have, right?"Yeah, definitely had to go."
Frankenstein's Monster... where are the bolts?"I was definitely trying to do my interpretation of the monster. And I was scared to death of making it look like the Hulk. It's a big muscular green dude in my style, so it would definitely look like the Hulk so I changed my style for the painting. I thought about the bolts, but when I had finished the painting without them..."
It looks complete the way it is."I think so too. If I had added the bolts, they would have looked 'added,' and kind of cluttered it up."
It's creepy as hell, Ed."Thanks. I like it. I was happy with how it looked, so I didn't want to go back. I was more concerned about making the body look stitched together."
You can see the musculature under the skin."Exactly, I definitely wanted to make it look more horror than comic-book. Very sketchy. That's how I made him look, you know... NOT like the Hulk. I had never done a Frankenstein monster before, and my friend Nick did Bride of Frankenstein to hang up on the ceiling at Universe, so I wanted to, you know... complete the set."
Are you ready for a pretentiously artsy-fartsy question?"Oooh, definitely yeah."
So, they say that eyes are the windows of the soul, and I notice your Frankenstein's monster has eyes completely shadowed and invisible. Are you saying that the monster has no soul? Or did you even think that far ahead to a hypothetical interview where you'd be asked this question?*laughs* "I actually thought far enough ahead in that vein to think, 'I don't want to paint eyeballs because they're hard to do right' That's about how far ahead I thought, but I wanted to make sure that all my darker stuff, especially characters with the big brow, I usually end up putting their eyes in shadow because it looks right. Just maybe putting a highlight in there, but with the Frankenstein’s monster I didn't want to do that because I didn't want it to look like the Terminator."
Did you ever come up with a back story for your toons? Shyloh, Crabcakes, Claws, all those? And the Doom Floater... which incidentally, sounds like the toilet after Taco Bell."I get that a lot. I'm used to the jokes about floaters. I kind of have a story. It's about a dystopian future, you know, where reality TV has taken the place of just about everything. Shyloh is basically a bounty hunter, but the first female one, so there's a whole new dynamic taking place as she's filmed catching criminals or whatnot. It's like, the police have to not just catch the guys, but make it entertaining because they get paid by ratings. My problem is that writing isn't really a strong suit of mine, so I like putting the characters together, so I ended up with a storyline like a cross between the Running Man and Robocop. Everything's corrupt, corporations own everything, everything is about entertainment, instead of actually enforcing the law. But mostly, I like putting characters together, so I don't think much of the story and I just kind of left it there. When I was first starting to paint, it was darker stuff."
You keep mentioning 'dark stuff,' and I have to tell you, 'Shadowbot?' I want that hanging in my foyer like you wouldn't believe. It's freaking awesome."Really?"
Oh yeah, definitely. I love that stuff. The way you sketched it, the menace was like a punch in the gut. So, is that what you're talking about, or darker than that?"I was doing more figurative stuff before. I don't have that kind of stuff online because I like to keep stuff current, but its definitely more expressionist stuff. Like German expressionist. Very dark. But then I took a break, working a lot more, and when I came back my style had completely changed. I hadn't picked up a paintbrush in years when I started getting back into it, around 2006."
Was it like riding a bike?"I wish, but no. My style had totally changed. My drawings and paintings definitely have a more uniform feeling now. Before, when I would sketch, it would be comic book stuff and when I'd paint, it was a loose, kind of flowing abstract expressionism, but now, my sketching and painting are definitely more similar than different."
Tell me about the Mega-Girls."With the Mega-Girls, which are basically the bosses from Mega-Man, just gender-swapped. I had this image of the Metal Man as a girl and it ended up looking like one of the Mortal Kombat girls, which was pretty cool. I did that one and I got a huge response. I had always known that when you're doing online social network stuff, like DeviantArt, the response you get is always pretty fast. But whereas before when I was doing my own stuff, I'd always get some response, but when I did something that people knew, the response was instantaneous. It sucks that it took me this long to figure out, but as soon as I put a twist on something that people already knew, I got so much more response that it definitely shaped the next few pieces."
So it resonated with more people?"Definitely. I read something that people in our age group, it's all about nostalgia. They want to see stuff that they've seen before. Something that reminds them of the stuff they were into when they were kids, you know?"
I'm just flattered you think I'm in your age group."I'm not too far behind you! But looking back, you know it's a big part of how people around our age look at the world. Nostalgia is a huge part of why I do this. Once I started doing Mega Girl, people came out saying, 'Do this! Do that! Are you going to do the rest of them!' and I got more hits on that one piece than on everything I had ever done before then. Now I don't even necessarily have to search for ideas. All the work's already been done, the characters, the Mega Girls, have already been designed, now I'm just putting my little twist on something that's already out there that people like. So I did all the bosses from Mega-Man 1 and 2, and I'll start on 3 as soon as I'm not sick of doing them anymore."
What do you mean?"I was getting to the point where I would knock out three or four a day. I'm taking a break for now, although I'll get back to it soon. I think the reason they resonate with me as an artist is because that simple design, with the simple colors is so riveting. It helps to already have the design out there. I'm just making the Mega Man men into women. I'm not even the first person to do something like this, but I have to say that it's fun and I'm getting good response, so I'll keep doing it. I want to keep it simple, 8-bit character design. It helps me as well, with my characters. You know, you don't have to get so technical about it. You can make a very simple design that catches the eye and pulls the viewer in, you know? When you get complicated and very technical, you get wrapped up in fine details."
You're a musician too, so I know that you're familiar with the extremely simple hooks in music. It's the same thing then?"Definitely. You get onstage, play something that's extremely difficult to learn, impossible to master, that's complex and subtle, and you play your heart out, look around and there's nothing but crickets. You play a three-chord song with a catchy hook and people fight each other to get on the dance floor. Four on the floor, three chords and you're done. Same thing."
MAre you trying to become a more commercial artist? Obviously you sell your work, so is that what you envision yourself doing?"I'm not sure what my goal is, but I'm trying to get into certain markets for sure. I'm a huge retro-gamer, and I'm trying to get into collecting them. I have all the emulators, so I can play all the games I couldn't afford as a kid, so it's pretty awesome. It's awesome that there's the technology that lets me be a retro gamer in 2011."
Just throwing it out there, if you ever get a chance to draw the wasps from Yar's Revenge or Q-Bert's pyramids, let me know."Definitely. I've been looking at Atari stuff as a new focus. I definitely want to paint some Q-Berts."
It's very phallic."So much phallus, yeah."
Which brings me to 'Drill Robot Drill.' That could definitely go a couple of different ways... because where his drill is...
"Some people pointed that out. I tried to keep it subtle, really to just complete the shape. It was either going to be some sort of propulsion system or the drill, and people pointed out that it looked phallic. It wasn't gratuitous, so it wasn't bad. It's not like Ashley Wood where there's hydraulic pumps just hammering away in the groin area."
Over Your Shoulder, you described this a kind of dark self-portrait. Really? Where do you get you out of that? What were you thinking when you did that? Were you at a low point in your life or what?"He's kind of wearing glasses. He's skinnier than I am. But definitely, without revealing too much, it was a pretty low point. When I was doing that stuff I was frustrated with a lot of things in my life. And you know, when I say, 'darker stuff' it means, like the characters. Just the concepts and stuff. At that point I was in my, 'I want to be Derek Hess phase.' So I was doing a lot of sketchier, looser things. At that point, I was doing stuff in all digital. I was just doing things that I didn't have to worry about making a mess, I'd have it forever, just print it out and there you go. That's kind of where my mind was during that time. Of course, you always come back to painting. There's no real way to replicate it, no matter how good the technology gets, there's something about having actual paints on and actual piece of art that you can hold and touch that's special."
So where do you see the fine arts going? Not necessarily asking for global trends, but like, here, in Jacksonville? We're sitting in Café 331 right now, surrounded by fine art, there's Art Walks all over the place with thousands of attendees, even the airport has a little gallery, are we in a fine art revival here in Jacksonville."The Art Walks, I can only really talk about the one here downtown, but they're always a blast. I have some pieces hung in the Art Center on Adams Street and I'm definitely the odd one out there. The other people are more traditional fine artists, my stuff is definitely the odd one out. There's a lot of good stuff everywhere now. There are a couple thousand people coming in there and it's great, after being in this for so long to see stuff like this bloom and then wither away, it's nice to see it coming back and getting some recognition."
There was a mini-revival in the early to mid-90's here, and now it seems like art is almost taken for granted in Jacksonville."Well, that's kind of cool. That there's enough artists out there working that you can take it for granted. I don't know if I see any real focus, it's mostly just chaos. Jacksonville is this huge place with all these different parts of the city where people don't really leave. Like people at the beach aren't going to cross the ditch. People in Mandarin aren't going to go to Orange Park. It's a strange town because people are stuck in their comfort zone, in their area, so they don't go anywhere. If you've got something going on, you have to get the people in that immediate area and then start getting people from slightly outside and then expand from there. I mean, if you grew up here, you'd know that you have to drive for 30 minutes to get anywhere in the city, but still people don't want to do it. People who think nothing of making an hour commute during the day to go to work, won't drive anywhere at night. It's weird that everything is so scattered. There's not any unified mentality to Jacksonville, there's just these little pockets of stuff going on, but each person's Jacksonville is right around their house and everywhere else is too far."
I live in Orange Park and there's people who won't go north of the highway for anything."I remember working at the Orange Park George's Music and people from Mandarin would call and say, 'God, I don't want to cross the Buckman to get there.' but really, it's like what? Four miles? I think it's more an aversion to bridges. If there's a bridge involved, forget it."
City full of vampires."Can't cross running water?"
Right."It's cool though, since it seems like there's more opportunity for people now. The library has a ton of stuff going on every month. There's some guys converting warehouses into music and art venues. It's a good time and lots of cool things going on, but you have to know where to look for them."
Okay... so let's say that you, beyond the wildest of wildest dreams, become the next big thing. Your characters, like Shyloh or Sickle or something gets a series or someone wants to make a comic book with them. How do you react to something like that? Are you actively pursuing success?"That's interesting to talk to someone without using the phrase, 'selling out.' It's weird, because if you had asked me this before, you know, when I was younger and a lot more idealistic, I wouldn't do it at all. Now though? I'm ready. Let's do this. I'm tired of having no money. But, I don't know if I could ever just outright sell my characters off, you know? Like if I were approached and they would own the rights to my characters... unless it was some ridiculously huge amount of money that I just couldn't turn away. If someone wanted to take my characters and use them, it's tough, because there's always a part of me that used to look, like other artists, at their art as like, their children. They get so attached to them, you know? But at this point? If this is my career, I don't think I have the emotional attachment to my work where I couldn't let it go. I mean, there's definitely something there with each and every piece, but there's not enough of an attachment that I couldn't sell them. I had someone ask about the Astaroth piece, and they were like, 'Is that for sale?' and I said, 'Of course it's for sale. Everything I do is for sale!' Not even thinking like one of those artists that doesn't ever sell their work. There's artists out there that won't even SHOW their work because it's too private and personal part of themselves."
That's always annoyed me at gallery shows, 'NOT FOR SALE.' Why the fuck not?"Exactly. Why are you showing it in public at all then? Is it just saying, 'Look how good I am?' It's kind of weird, unless its a show where the pieces have already been bought and it's part of someone's collection and they're showing the piece just to, you know, round out the collection so there's enough to fill the gallery. I want to understand why someone would show a piece in a public setting like that without wanting any kind of compensation for it. I mean, words are great, yeah, but words don't pay bills or put food on the table. I'm at the point where I'm not as young as I was when I started, and I'm definitely not as idealistic as I was, so everything I do is for sale. Everyone has a price, and the term, 'selling out' doesn't mean as much to me as it did when I was younger."
Well, the phrase 'selling out' is really overused. If you're still doing what you want and no one is telling you what to paint, then you're really just 'selling art,' not selling out. Having art with commercial appeal doesn't mean your art is shallow or 'not art.'"Take the Nintendo stuff, the video game stuff. That's easily my best-selling work. I've sold almost a dozen pieces of the small pieces. The stuff that sells for me are the small ones. I sold some stuff to a gallery down south called Bird & Bear Gallery, it's part of Tate Comics. It's huge and really supports local artists. Those guys know everyone. Check it out. It's like a 6000 square foot comic book store. A lot of the artists, like lowbrow guys... artists that you'd see in like Juxtaposed, they're friends with them down there. The artists do like fixtures and sculptures for the store. It's awesome. If you're a comic book fan, they've got it. Everything."
Awesome. I'll check it out."Bird and Bear, amazing stuff."
I have two more questions about your work."Okay."
So, how close are Sickle and her Friend? Are they like BFF's or what? She clearly has both hands full of sickle... is she steering with her thighs or what?"I'd like to think it's a telepathic bond or something. I'll go with that. Keep it kid-safe. I drew that because I was thinking about video games and how all these bosses are just floating giant heads. It didn't really make sense, so I wanted to show who's driving the giant floating head. I want to get some stickers made of that, which is why it's just 2 color. The video game stuff has been very well received, so I'm going to try to get my original stuff out there in the same vein."
I noticed you're doing a lot of stuff for bands, like flyers and so on."Yeah, definitely. That's one way to get it out there. That's how Derek Hess got big. With band flyers. It has to be simple too, because no matter how good the art is, you need to know who's playing. Also, I've been really wanting to get into the rock band poster thing as well, since it seems like it's coming back. When I get some studio space I definitely want to get a screen printing machine so I can make some t-shirts and stickers and whatnot. That's something I'd really like to get into. I haven't done it yet, but it's definitely something I want to try. I want to get my stuff out there in as many different formats as possible, just cover the world with stickers and t-shirts and flyers. I mean, that's the way to self-promote, 'Here's a free sticker with my art on it' and it cost me a tenth of a penny and I just made a lasting impression on someone who is going to talk me up to their friends or buy something themselves. I want to make some sticker business cards as well. There's so much I want to do and it's a matter now of just getting it done."
Last question, how high is the Cyborg Barbarian Chick?
*laughs* "It's probably after-effects of the drugs from getting that mace put on her arm and caffeine. She's definitely a fun one to draw."
I'd like to see more of her. That goofy grin and her wild eyes standing in a circle of the heads of her enemies or something."You know, actually, that one, for an original character, got a ton of response. A guy, like some stranger I didn't know on DeviantArt, sent me a message and asked to draw her. That was really cool. I've never had anyone fan-art me before. That was really nice, it definitely gave me some validation that something I imagined struck a chord with someone to the point that he wanted to emulate it. I've been watching a lot of Thundar the Barbarian cartoons, and before it got goofy, that used to be one of the most amazing cartoons before they added all the silly animals and stuff. They had these hand-painted backgrounds that looked like a whole team of genius artists worked on the background for weeks."
I remember those. Then they had a six-year-old draw the actual cartoon on."Yeah, exactly. I want to do something like that with Cyborg Barbarian Chick. Just put her in front of those amazing backgrounds so she really pops out at you. Some kind of apocalyptic thing like that, just something goofy that could go anywhere."
So, you do commissioned artwork, right?"Yeah, definitely."
So if people want to get in touch with you, how would they do it?"You can email me directly at
edbot5000@yahoo.com or go to my DeviantArt site at
www.edbot5000.deviantart.com. You can always catch me on Facebook as well, Ed Dansart, or go to my Blogspot at
www.edbot5000.blogspot.com. If you forget all of those, just Google search EdBot5000 and there I am."
Thanks a lot, Ed. Any final words?"Umm..."
I don't mean 'final words' like, I'm not going to kill you or anything.ED - *laughs* Thanks for clearing that up.
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