June 19, 2025 • 32 mins
Artist Tony Brock joins the Arts Council Ladies to talk all about "Low-Brow" art?
www.ShelbyCountyArtsCouncil.com
Tony Brock is an artist known for his pop-culture themed images with a retro feel, often appealing to horror fans. He is based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. His work encompasses a variety of subjects, including:
Tony Brock's art has been exhibited in galleries and arts festivals in Alabama, including the annual Kentuck Festival of the Arts. He's also displayed his work in Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas. He's a Freelance Designer/Illustrator/Art Director with experience in design and illustration for various publications. He's also held positions like Art/Production Director and Quality Assurance Manager.
Conversations With Creatives is produced for the Shelby County Arts Council by Video Visions Media Marketing and Your Podcast Now
www.shelbycountyartscouncil.com
Video Visions Media Marketing
Your Podcast Now
www.ShelbyCountyArtsCouncil.com
Tony Brock is an artist known for his pop-culture themed images with a retro feel, often appealing to horror fans. He is based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. His work encompasses a variety of subjects, including:
- Zombie bowlers
- Roller derby girls
- The Bride of Frankenstein and Frankenstein's monster
- Hot rods
- Blondie's Debbie Harry
- Song-inspired works like an interpretation of Warren Zevon's “Werewolves of London”
Tony Brock's art has been exhibited in galleries and arts festivals in Alabama, including the annual Kentuck Festival of the Arts. He's also displayed his work in Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas. He's a Freelance Designer/Illustrator/Art Director with experience in design and illustration for various publications. He's also held positions like Art/Production Director and Quality Assurance Manager.
Conversations With Creatives is produced for the Shelby County Arts Council by Video Visions Media Marketing and Your Podcast Now
www.shelbycountyartscouncil.com
Video Visions Media Marketing
Your Podcast Now
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, welcome to this episode of Conversations with Creatives with
the Arts Counsel.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Ladies, I'm Lindsay, I'm Leslie, and today we are here
with artist Tony Brock from Tuscaloosa, Alabama. We're going to
be having a conversation with Tony about our latest gallery
exhibit at the Shelby County Arts Council Return to the
b sides.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
So welcome Tony. Welcome Tony to our to our show.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
Thank you. Let be here.
Speaker 5 (00:30):
It's coming up.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
You don't want to miss it. Here we go, we're here.
You're gonna interview our guests today.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
I'm gonna We're gonna both interview our guests. Oh yeah,
so I'm the resident artist. Leslie's a resident musician, so yes,
she is along for the ride.
Speaker 5 (01:00):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
I'll ask some very interesting questions that most of you
would probably ask as well.
Speaker 5 (01:05):
So exactly.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
How are you all?
Speaker 5 (01:09):
We're good, welcome.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
How was a hell's Tuscalosa?
Speaker 4 (01:12):
These days? Lousa roll time all day every day.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yeah, I just don't enjoy driving over there.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
It's a lot of traffic.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
Traffic has gotten worse noticeably in the last few years too.
It's about like two eighty all the way through there.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Oh yeah, man, wow, well we're here today. We just
want to ask you a couple of questions about your
artistic journey through life and how you ended up meeting
us and knowing us. And I actually met Tony like
a long long time ago, but I don't think we
really remember meeting.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
They're at the old Arts Council building for the first
Pison really, yes, the first B Side. Yes, it was
just called many the.
Speaker 5 (01:53):
B Sides are there.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
That was years ago.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Yeah, it was a long time ago.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
Gosh, yeah, some of those same might still be in
this show. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (02:03):
So yeah, I think when I started working, was that
his work there?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
No, well he's you were in the Robin Dance Metz competition. Yep,
that's when you came back. And I was like, we
need to have Tony back in this gallery again because
I forgot about him. And I was like, I really
like Tony's work. I loved the original B Side show
because I love musicians and when I was a teenager I.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Painted a lot of musicians in high school.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
So did Jack White, Jerry Garcia, Kirk Cobain, and so
I was like, this is so cool.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
And he had a painting of David Bowie.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
And really I love it.
Speaker 5 (02:41):
I still love that cool.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
I wish that one was something that was that.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
Was a commission to somebody I used to work with
just loved David boy as well, and he's and he said, hey, man,
would love for you to pay him. So he had
the idea of the photo and earth anyone you want
to use for a reference, and uh knocked it out
on an old cabinet door from the house that we refurbished. Wow.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
I think in that first B Side show, didn't you
paint on a lot of like doors?
Speaker 4 (03:06):
And I did plywood doors, cabinet doors, I can't remember
there were there were a lot of things, some Mason
Knight and stuff and a few cavus. Is just something.
If if I found a piece of Mason Night or
something around, I grab it up and piston jefs I
want to and go to town later on. Sometimes I
hold on tim for ten years and never paint on them.
But yeah, that's great, got a shiffle of them.
Speaker 5 (03:27):
What's your favorite musician? Do you have a favorite painted?
Speaker 4 (03:31):
I haven't painted him, but my favorite musician of all
time that I will love till day I die, man,
And if he ever passes away, I need I'll need
some time out for a few days. Brice prestay.
Speaker 5 (03:42):
He will pass it away. One day. We'll be there
for you, Tony.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
I hope so I will call you guys. Totally not sing,
but no, hope listen. Hopefully he's with us for a
long long time.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
But I love I love dancing in the dark. That's
like my favorite song.
Speaker 5 (03:56):
And little snippet of dancing.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Man, you need to one day day, one day, the
people will hear Lindsay say, people.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Will hear me sing.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
But that's a Courtney Costs his favorite song too.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Though.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
But didn't she get hold up on stage to dance
with him?
Speaker 4 (04:09):
Yeah? Yeah really yeah in the video she.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Getting pulled up on stage to dance with him and
the four friends. Yeah, it was before she got it famous.
What she used to look at the mountain brook, Courtney.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
Cox, that's her.
Speaker 5 (04:22):
I think she's from Edinborough. Yeah, she's a home Alabama girl.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Maybe she'll let us interview her one day.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Okay, Courtney Cox, we're coming before you.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
You'd be warned.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Well, let's go back to the beginning. So you are
a graphic designer now, I.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
Am a graphic designer by by trade. Uh, that's how
I actually arem my living. I'm a free lancer as
of twenty twenty two, and I do infrographics and web
graphics and social media graphics for several businesses that are
tied to construction and trucking. And because that's my background
(05:00):
with the place I used to work, and I was
there for twenty two years, so I learned a lot
about that and so it kind of was a natural
progression to go into freinancing doing work for some of
those clients. And so that's what I do now, and
I paint when I have time, and.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
That's it awesome.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
So did you I mean, like, when you were a kid,
did you like, were you really into art or is
it something you got into later.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
No, when I was a kid, it's a long, long story,
but people said I sure about a book like somebody else?
We know, No, But tee you this way. When I
was about four or five years old, I was drawing
on grocery sacks and everything. And this is in the
early to mid seventies and choppers were popular, you know.
(05:44):
Easier Writer was released just a few years prior to that,
and everybody was into that, and I remember hearing them.
I remember seeing them the big fat wide tires on
the back and everything that we allowed, no helmets or anything,
and people were just dying left and right on those.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Things, and what is safety?
Speaker 4 (05:59):
Yes? Yeah, So I was just I would drawn and
I don't know what made me do that. Maybe I
was just in throw all by them or whatever. And
then people who knew my parents say say, hey, can
you get your get your kid to draw my chopper?
Speaker 2 (06:11):
You know.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
So I would draw some mass chopper and it's probably
god awful, but you know, for a five or six
year old, it's probably pretty good, you know. But I
remember doing that. And then I got into comic books,
and like everybody else did, and I remember the first
few that I ever had, I never read them. I
just looked at the pictures. Yeah, and then I just
drew whatever was was there and just got me going.
(06:32):
And I never thought it was anything important or anything
that would lead to anything. I just had fun doing it.
Some kids were out there, you know, you know, throwing
baseball and everything, and I was just coming through a
comic book and just you know, rendering what I saw.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Yeah, and that I mean that has influenced a lot
of your work today, right, because a lot of your
paintings are like Captain America or Haulkeye or who's your
favorite comic book hero?
Speaker 4 (06:55):
Oh Man, Captain American? Yeah, yeah, because it's it's never
necessarily that him as a character. It's more of who
drew him, I guess. And Jack Kirby, uh was. It
was a huge influence on a lot of artists, and
a lot of people watching this probably know who Jack
Kirby is a drop of the hat, but he, he
and stan Lee pretty much created Marvel, you know, and
(07:17):
the ex Man, the Avengers, Captain America and did co
helped create Spider Man, of course. But but Kirby established
the Marvel house style house style in the in the sixties.
And we won't get into how Kirby was done and
how he left Marvel or everything, but basically, everybody loves
everything that Kirby did, and he's called a genius. And
(07:37):
and I didn't realize at the time, you know, when
I was little, you know that this guy was a
mad I didn't know who drew the comicoss. I just
I kept gravitating towards Kirby's stuff, though without realizing I
was gravitating toward towards this stuff. Yeah, but uh, he
anything he did I liked, and he really did a
great job on Captain America. So that's so these days
(07:57):
in my fifties, I'm kind of revisiting those times. That's
and that's when I started those that series of of
of comic recreations and everything, because I did just sort
of fun of it, and I'm not trying to sell
them or everything. I'm just it's just so fun to do,
and I was trying of trying to recapture that enthusiasm
that I had as a kid. Now, you know, there's
no pressure. Just do it. You know, you like this
(08:18):
panel from from this comic, just draw it and paint
it and see what happens.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Just have fun.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
Had a blast doing it too.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Yeah, well they look really cool and they're amazing.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Yeah, there's a couple of them in the Return to
the B Sides exhibits. So right, so the Return to
the B Sides show. So this is actually kind of
like a part two of a show you curated a
long time ago.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
Actually, this and this may be one tether. This may
be part four actually, because the first one was in
Tuscal Lousa and long story short Mark Cobb a friend
of mine and editor at the Teens and Tuscal LUSA,
you know, and now we're talking and you know, we're
I get the clarience to go ahead and do a
(09:00):
show at the Cultural Art Center. And it wasn't called
that at the time. I don't I don't think I
can't remember what it's called back now. But anyway, downtown
touch Losa. I recruited Jeff bertrand Tony Brittina and another
artist last name was Bells and Rock. So I was
(09:22):
talking to Mark Coyle and I said, you know, I
got there's four of us. We want to do a
show and everything. Mark actually suggested, you know, like well
tyd try to tie in the last names, all last
names for be Then I came up with the you
know what, and our art isn't like mainstream Mark, It's
not stuff you see your hanging over somebody's couch. It's
kind of stuff on the on the on the flip
side of that.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
So like the B side of the side, I wondered
what the beast I was gonna ask, But I didn't
about the B side of.
Speaker 5 (09:48):
The big question. Hey, I could be in that ship.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
It could be a b side. She's belts.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
There you go, falt, there you go. Why not?
Speaker 5 (09:55):
Yeah, my art would be great, It would be so good.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
But we did the show and I curated, and it
was it was a job. You know, I just hurting
the cats and everything, and.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
You know, and I'm familiar with that. So again I'm
familiar with that.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
Yeah, I'm sure you are. And and uh not a
lot of time of pertaining too. But he'll he'll be
the first one to tell you his painting, his oil
paintings were still a wet when they brought him in
to hang up to do. But uh no, it's a
great show. Everybody had a lot of fun and it's
a good vibe and it's just fun just meeting everybody.
It wasn't back then. It wasn't really about selling. It
was just about getting the artwork out there, getting people
(10:33):
aware of it, and just meeting people. And yeah, we
had we had fun. And then we had so much
fun that a year or two later there was we
had another opening that that I was clear to do,
and I asked about it and I said, yeah, go ahead,
do what you want to do. So that's pretty cool
too though, because the first one was so successful, they said,
(10:54):
when I'm gonna question, just go ahead and do it.
Here's your here's your here's your time. A lotment. So
on this one, if I remember right, we recruited about
fourteen artists and we had art and Jeff Bertrand from
at the time was from Nashville, and uh, he recruited
some of his artist friends from Nashville, and he's really
big and than arts in there, and he is definitely
a B side artist and uh and really prolific to
(11:18):
but he he got a couple of artists and one
one of his one of his artists sent down, uh
to test the looser from Nashville paintings with nails driven
into him, wrapped and rusty barbed bar so wonderful.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Ready, yes, I was.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
Really curataying that, but uh that that show was really
good too, and it got a lot of people out
there to view it, and it was just good for everybody.
When when when and I think several artists Souliman stuff
and and a lot of artists h earned some some fans.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
And was that also in tuscalo.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
And then Rys Andrews, a friend of mine of course
everybody knows Bruce and uh he reached out to me
for that first show and Columbiana at.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
The at the Old Arts Council. Yeah, so we want.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
To do it again, I said, just do it again, man,
So we did, and I think this time it was
just my stuff that when I didn't now and so
no Morman. Then, uh, this week is the second one, yes,
in this part of the country.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Yes, so it features Tony Brock and Andrew Costs. And
can you just talk a little bit about Andrews just
to kind of explain.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
Met Andrew I think at the Monabella Arts Festival, I
believe Darkne Park twenty eleven, I think, and we were
just he came to my booth and talked for a
long time that I went to his booth and saw
his work. You know, our work compliments is because his
brighton colorful. My works is brighton colorful as well. And
(12:44):
we just had so much to talk about and so
we became miser friends that day and we sat in
touch all this time. And uh, in fact, there was
a picture of my wife made Evandre and I at
that first meeting where we're just standing over to shooting
a bull and I didn't get my booth set up
in time because Andrew and I were talking, so so
that was good. But I love I love Andrew, and
(13:06):
I've been trying to get him to show with me
for a long time. He's so busy, yeah, doing other
shows and every thing. I reached out to him about
this when I said, you know, I would love to
show with it. You know, you don't know if you
are going to do another show or not. Just life happens,
and uh so fortunately I was able to talk him
into it, and then he was happy to do it,
of course, you know, but even he said, finally, you know,
we're showing on work together.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Yes, yeah, I think it does compliment each other a lot.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
And I actually have a piece of Andrews art in
my office and I've had a couple of the things
because he still live in Monavelos so and I think
his wife used to be the mayor of Mona She was, yeah,
I was the professor at Monaveelo, so that's kind of
how I met them.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
And he always liked his work, so I was like, yeah,
he does.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
A lot of like musicians, and it does kind of
pop kind of work, pop art, pop art.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
So what it's called would you categorize your artwork? Is
pop art?
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (13:59):
Mark Mark Cobb said it's pop surrealism, okay, which works
for me because that that is that's the same thing
as B side or flip side whatever. It is a
counterculture art, low brow art, which is it sounds less unflattering,
but it is a term low brow art. And and
(14:19):
it's not brow art, yeah it's not. It's still good.
The skill sets are still there. It's just a different
subject and everything brighter, more garish colors.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
It's not like a more elevated right.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
Yeah, it's not an ocean scene or which and those
are great, you know, but uh but yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
That's yea, it's like not for everybody.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
It's more of like a more refined taste, but not
really not especially refined, but just a specific taste, okay.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
And it is And and the the followers of lowbrow
or or the follow that the followers that I have
that people who buy my heart on on a regular basis.
It's a small group, but they're really dedicated and they're
really encouraging everything. And I feed off of that encouragement
because you know, when I'm still painting something, I think well,
someone said, will like this one a lot, you know,
(15:09):
but you try not to go that route because you
want to do what you want to do and have
fun doing it, and then if you build it, that
will kind kind of thing, and so you're trying to
think about that, but at the same time you can't help.
But you know that somebody will. You know, someone said,
will lot this pace a lot?
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
I mean it's a fine line to walk where you're
trying to like do things that you want to do
that you're passionate about, but you also want to do
things that are marketable, marketable, and you want to sell
them or something exactly. It's hard not to.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
It is hard.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
You're always right about what you think you'll sell. Are
you surprised?
Speaker 4 (15:42):
I'm always surprised, But so do what.
Speaker 5 (15:45):
You want to do and you might sell it right.
Speaker 4 (15:47):
Sure. There's one example of that. A doctor in touch.
He bought probably six of my works, and the first
one he bought, and I was a rookie and I
wasn't used to being in serenus on work and everything.
He picked out a painting that I thought it meant
something to me, but it wasn't well as acute did it,
but it had a good point to it. It wasn't
(16:10):
like a portrait or of somebody. It was an old
yellow car with with a man driving a car and
a woman reading a map, two kids hitting in the backseat,
and there's a superhero sitting in the middle of it,
the green lantern. And you can't you can't see the people's
you can't see his his uh. The man driving a car,
his arm is really tans hanging with the car. And
there's a reason why I'm saying all this to you.
(16:30):
And and you can't see the woman's face because she
gets a sunglass on that she's reading a map, and
there's a there's a pack of a cart and a
cigarettes and on a dash, and the two kids in
her back reading comic books. And green Lander said, it's
kind of washing over her kids, you know. So, so
this this guy and I didn't know, I didn't know
who he was. I call him doctor Jeff. He's a
good friend of mine. Now. He came over to, hey,
I know this is not for sale, but this is
(16:52):
That wasn't the B side show. It was another gallery show.
And he said, I know this is not for sale,
but can you give him a story about this. So
I explained to him with just what I was telling him,
telling y'all just now, and he said, why the green
lantern fare. I said, well, that's that's that's the Christ figure.
He is actually watching over those kids in the back
seat and those people. The man driving a car is
my stepfather. He died of lung cancer from the cigarettes.
(17:16):
And then my mother was always reading the maps. And
you had those big old giant sunglasses on from the seventies.
That's my little sister. And that's me right there reading
Avengers one sixty from nineteen seventy seven. So in nineteen
seventy to seven, we're really reading you know, Green Night
or anything. So I was selling him that story, and
we both kind of had a moment, you know, and
I thought, man, this is this is, this is what
it's about, you know, because I got chills just talking
(17:38):
about just now and then talking to him about it.
You know, I almost got missed the eye because nobody's
really asked, you know. And he asked, and he wanted
to know the story behind it, and so he offered
to buy it. And he said he missed card and
I saw who he was and I said, all right,
I think about it, you know, So I decided to
sell it because the point is if you reach somebody
and you connect with somebody on that emotional level, it's
(18:01):
a connection that few people can make, because when you
have conversations, you can kind of connect sometimes, but we're
also busy, we're not really connect with folks. But that
painting is from my first experience connecting with with another
human being, you know, with with that person's soul, you know.
And I thought it was really cool. So I met
him the next day, sold on the pain and uh,
but here, here's where kind of what you're saying I
(18:23):
want to go. I didn't understand. I was still thinking
about the technical aspect of it too, And I said
something like I was not sure, really, I'm not really
sure why you wanted this one or not. I'm not
another one whatever, And he kind of looked at me
and said, well, why would you say that. Then then
I realized it's not for me to decide if somebody
(18:43):
else lost my work or not. It is up to
the person viewing it. And and that is true of art.
And and the last thing you want to do is
try to you know, if I got something I don't like,
but somebody else likes it, that's that's good enough. I
don't need to worry about why or anything, you know,
if you know, me accomplished and and so so that
that was. That was a nice start of a long friendship.
(19:06):
And I learned a lot from that discussion. And then
since then this mother shows and uh Nashville and I
met the I can't go into it now because just
you know, politics to a long but uh, A man
just came back from Afghanistan and he is there with
this family at this festival and they're all walking by
and everything, and he just stopped his family's and just
(19:28):
started looking at my work, you know, and he came
over there and we talked forever and and we just
he was going on on and eventually I just gave him.
I gave him a print for free, you know, just
a camera sprint that I wrapped myself of one he
was looking at, you know, and he said, he said,
just he said, keep doing this, he said, because I'm
over there and there over there, I gotta go back.
I got I'm over there. Then what I'm doing so
(19:48):
that you can do what you're doing over here, and
you know that just game me chills as well. And
so this moment's like that that kind of make you realize,
you know, this is this is for them, it's not
really really from me. So and that and that painting
that he had his eye on was another one of
those paintings where I just kind of came up with it,
you know, as a zombie bowler, you know. Just it's
(20:09):
called dead Wood or something like that, and uh, it's
really goody painting. But it's a fun painting.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
So that's what it's about, is making emotional connections with art. Huh,
make an emotional connection they want to buy.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
It rightly, yea, So great, there you go.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
And it's I mean it's kind of cool, like the
people you can meet at art shows and something like that,
and the connections you can make, Like I've made friends
that way that I'm still friends with. Just they came
up to my booth and started talking to me and so.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Well, you know what I love about this show too,
is you sell your prints too, some smaller prints. So
you know, some people can't afford a three hundred, four
hundred dollars giant wall painting, but that's trust. Anybody can
afford one of your prints that's true. So I love that.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
I really like that. Yeah, they're really cool.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
So let's like talk about some of the other artworks
in your show because they're just so fun. Like I
love that painting of kiss carrying the flag and the.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
Revolution Spirit of seventy six.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Yes, that's painting is so great and it's just so beautiful,
like it like your stuff. Do you paint with acrylic
or oil?
Speaker 4 (21:16):
Acrylics a crillic?
Speaker 2 (21:17):
I mean that's incredible because it does look like oils
because of just like the the richness of the paint
and everything.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
It almost looks like it's airbrushed on. Oh okay, yeah,
it's just it's just so beautiful and clean.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
It doesn't even look real until you like really get
up there and you look at the brushstrokes.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Painted, But that one is really fun painting because it
isn't it it's based off of another painting.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
I can't I can't remember the artist. I'm embarrassed. I
don't remember artist, but it's it's fun. The Spirit of
seventy six painting. Yeah, that some artists. Dude, I can't
remember his name, but it was, you know, during a
revolutionary war and everything had a drummer.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
And somebody playing the flute. Yeah, and then yeah, then
somebody's carrying the flag.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
But in this version it's kiss.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
I love it, And it's so cool because they're all
in their outfits and everything.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
It's pretty great disposition of a classic painting or scene
or whatever. It's part of pop culture. And then now
just to kind of add that to it. And I'm
not necessarily a huge fan of kids from anything, you know,
but I love the fact that they are. It's out
there themselves, you know, they they You appreciate their showmanship,
(22:26):
I guess, you know, And I think that's one of
they had the longevity because this may be so religious,
but honestly, I'm not really crazy about their music, but
I love what they do though, and I appreciate the showmanship.
It's almost like a sideshow, right.
Speaker 5 (22:40):
They're very recognizable, that's for sure. Yes, you look at
it and you know that to it is yes, or
it's Bruce Springs.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
Then you know he's he's humble. He gets up there
and things a song. You know, I might talk to
you a little bit, you know, but he's but he's
not wearing makeup, you know, like a KOBOOKI therapy or
something like that.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
I don't think I would recognize Bruce Springsteen on the street.
Ob yeah, her voice, that's right.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
I love I love that painting. And then another one
you didn't bring it. I think you have a print
of it. It's the kiss as the Dog's playing Poker. Yeah,
that was that was in the Old Beastie ohs. And
in the background, I think it's a painting on the
wall of the dogs, yes, poker.
Speaker 4 (23:16):
And with that, within that paint there's another painting and
I got where and that it's funny that painting is
one that actually literally, in all seriousness, run my eyes, yeah,
because that's small detail. And I had a manifying glass
and I wasn't wearing glass at the time. It's around
twenty fourteen when the painting that I was up close
and I was just doing this right here, and it
(23:36):
took about six months to do that. But that idea
originating from a discussion I had with a with my
coworker Amy and my old job, and you know, she
and I talked to heart and everything, and and she
would buy it, and you know, her mother would buy
some of my art as well. And we're having a
discussion I was thinking. I was saying something like, man,
I just kind of at a loss with what the
(23:58):
what the pain am or just some throwing ideas out.
One of the ideas she thinks, go about kiss playing poker.
Oh my gosh, that's a great So I sketched it
out and everything, I uh and and I thought, man,
this could be a good painting, you know. So uh,
I knocked it out. It took a long long time
to do and and literally that's when I everything started
kind of getting blurry and uh. But I did prints
(24:20):
of it, and I did a show and had his
burn Mississippi, and I could not keep prints of that,
and there were just I sold out within a couple
of hours. And people will come up, so I want,
I want to take kiss painting and kids pinning, And
I said, well, I'm all out of Prince, you know.
And so then some people got my contact info and
information and they call me at home and I mailed
(24:41):
it to them and uh, but yeah, that's that's one
of my most popular paintings and it still holds up.
So so I didn't bring it to the show because
every time I take an original, there's always a new
nick or a new scratch or something like that, and
people have come up and kind of trying to scratch
it to see what. Oh yeah, yeah, there's canvas behind them. Man,
(25:03):
So I don't want that made mess with.
Speaker 5 (25:04):
Now, did you need glasses after that?
Speaker 4 (25:06):
I did? I want to die doctor, and and uh
they said, they said, yeah, your your vision's got gotten
bad or anything. And so so I now wear tryfocals
and I've had to up the prescription want since then.
So wow, I guess it's going to happen sooner or later.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
I suppose, right, you're just gonna have to start painting
bigger yeah erals, that's right. Yes, So I like how
you do all the juxtaposition in your work, like American Gothic,
but with Danny and Sandy.
Speaker 5 (25:32):
That's great, that's quite my favorite.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Yeah, and even with like the other characters that you do,
like you have the the Rock'm talking robots in the Childhood, Yes,
and he's like in the Ring.
Speaker 4 (25:46):
At ken w forty Yes from the corner man. You know,
make sure he's and there's oil And one thing that
people like was about that, and he was there's oil
on the on the on the canvas of the ring.
You know that that was obviously knocked out of one
of their other robots, right, so that was fun to do. Yeah,
they're the corner man, I guess, and the and the
who's standing up behind the robot. I kind of mess
(26:08):
up his face a little bit, and I got a
little too concerned about that because I was trying to
make him the focal point for some reason. I don't
know why I did that. That's when you have to
kind of ruler yourself in. The focal point was the robot,
you know, so the corner man was less important. And
uh but anyway, if you kind of look, if you
look closely, there's a couple of blemishes on that one,
you know, but the robot himself is is I think,
pretty pretty okay.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
Yeah, yeah, it's really cool.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
So I like seeing all those like pop art kind
of reference or you know, pop culture kind of references,
or you know, things from your childhood that you really
love that show up in your Do you have a
favorite piece that's in this show?
Speaker 4 (26:44):
Oh my gosh, No, they're they're they're they're all. They're
all like each one is a time capsule. And when
I look at him, I remember, I remember what was
going on my life, I remember what's going on, my
son's life, on Wilt's life, and and and work and
things like that. So they all conjure up some sort
(27:06):
of memory, and each memory is just as important as
the other, I guess, if that makes any sense. But
it's as far as successful paintings go, you know. My favorite,
I guess be the kids playing playing poker in the
spirit of seventy six and are a couple of others. Uh,
Hank Williams playing Uh, I'm some loss of Michael cry
And on a guitar was really fun too. That's the
(27:26):
one that Robin nats. Yes, that one was a fun
one too, you know. And that's that's but yeah, I
guess that would be a favorite, but it's not. It's
not hamp at the show. But uh, but I remember
that one more for I was working on a back
porch on that one, you know, and dumb cat was
walking all over me trying to get in there getting
away and stuff, and you know, there's leaves and stuff
(27:48):
going on on it, and and and and cat hair
and stuff like that. So I was trying to pick
it out the wet paint as I was going, you know,
So so I remember all that, those minuscule things.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Yeah, So how would you categorize your art? Is it contemporary?
Speaker 3 (28:05):
I give some yeah, yeah, I don't know why.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
I want to call your art pop arts, good temporary
pop art, contemporary pop art?
Speaker 3 (28:14):
Why not?
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Actually that does lead me into something. So me and
Leslie have the sing where I'm going to ask her
definitions of different art terms or genres or something and
she has to define them. And then when we do
our music episodes, yeah, and when.
Speaker 5 (28:30):
I'll give your music. So my, oh boy, show my ignorance.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
It is actually pop art is the pop art is
the Yes, pop art is the art term that I
want you to define.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
I have to define it or can I describe it?
Speaker 2 (28:47):
And I have the official definition on the moment website.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
They have a lot of art terms.
Speaker 5 (28:53):
So I mean pop characters. I would think.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
What classifies as a pop character. Don't look at him,
don't look at him for help.
Speaker 5 (29:06):
I mean I would think like cartoony.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Characters or any kind of character that you make look
like a cartoon air.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
Thank Andy Warhol, Yeah, thank Andy Warhol.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
I'm honest, it's.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Not necessarily cartoon characters. Okay, well, okay, it's the moment.
It is a movement comp comprising initially British than American artists.
In the nineteen fifties and sixties, pop artists barred imagery
from popular culture popular culture pop culture from sources including television,
(29:42):
comic books, and print advertising, often to challenge conventional values
propagated by the mass media, from notions of femininity and
domestic domesticity. What's that domesticity to consumerism and patriotism?
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Wow, well, you know, when I was trying to think
of it in my head, I don't know, I was
thinking Marilyn Monroe, Yeah, he would be.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
And did Yeah, like Prince of Merco. So that is
a flop.
Speaker 5 (30:11):
It's kind of close to my head. I just didn't
say it well enough.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
He Andy Warhol's camel soup cans, that is, that's listed
as one of the or like Roy Liechtenstein.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
That lichten Shine like oh yeah, oh yeah book.
Speaker 4 (30:31):
Yeah, he lifted a lot of panels from the d
c's uh comments and there there's he's kind of a
controversial figure, but he's a he's a figure who's a
millionaire at the time. Yeah, But a famous interaction between
Russ Heath drew a lot of those comments back in
the sixties, and he lifted or actually used for inspiration
(30:53):
a couple of Russ Heath's panels and then playing like
as a jet fighter or something like that, and he
sort of for well over million dollars. I think, wow,
And Russ he said, you know, hey, I'm good at that.
I'm happy with it. I was doing to ask work
for hire for DC comments. I don't own on the
artwork anyway. But the this you can do is send
me a bottle of wine. That's all he asked for a.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
Bottom of wine and a few hundred dollars.
Speaker 4 (31:14):
Big build.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Well, we're super happy to have you today, happy to
be here, excited for people to see the show and
come check us out in Columbiana. If you haven't been
to our building, you will be pleasantly surprised at the
beautiful building they've created.
Speaker 5 (31:30):
And then the art gallery.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
It's just state of the art and free. We don't
charge you anything to come see all this incredible art,
low brow as it is.
Speaker 5 (31:39):
Whatever, low Papa.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
All right, Well, thanks for joining us today. Thanks you, Tony.
Speaker 5 (31:45):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (31:46):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Yeah, it's been fun and we'll see you next time
with the ladies of the Arts Council, something.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
Like Arts Council ladies.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
That's what I'm intast PTSD product stating in the st
Hey, welcome to this episode of Conversations with Creatives with
the Arts Counsel.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Ladies, I'm Lindsay, I'm Leslie, and today we are here
with artist Tony Brock from Tuscaloosa, Alabama. We're going to
be having a conversation with Tony about our latest gallery
exhibit at the Shelby County Arts Council Return to the
b sides.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
So welcome Tony. Welcome Tony to our to our show.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
Thank you. Let be here.
Speaker 5 (00:30):
It's coming up.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
You don't want to miss it. Here we go, we're here.
You're gonna interview our guests today.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
I'm gonna We're gonna both interview our guests. Oh yeah,
so I'm the resident artist. Leslie's a resident musician, so yes,
she is along for the ride.
Speaker 5 (01:00):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
I'll ask some very interesting questions that most of you
would probably ask as well.
Speaker 5 (01:05):
So exactly.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
How are you all?
Speaker 5 (01:09):
We're good, welcome.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
How was a hell's Tuscalosa?
Speaker 4 (01:12):
These days? Lousa roll time all day every day.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yeah, I just don't enjoy driving over there.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
It's a lot of traffic.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
Traffic has gotten worse noticeably in the last few years too.
It's about like two eighty all the way through there.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Oh yeah, man, wow, well we're here today. We just
want to ask you a couple of questions about your
artistic journey through life and how you ended up meeting
us and knowing us. And I actually met Tony like
a long long time ago, but I don't think we
really remember meeting.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
They're at the old Arts Council building for the first
Pison really, yes, the first B Side. Yes, it was
just called many the.
Speaker 5 (01:53):
B Sides are there.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
That was years ago.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Yeah, it was a long time ago.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
Gosh, yeah, some of those same might still be in
this show. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (02:03):
So yeah, I think when I started working, was that
his work there?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
No, well he's you were in the Robin Dance Metz competition. Yep,
that's when you came back. And I was like, we
need to have Tony back in this gallery again because
I forgot about him. And I was like, I really
like Tony's work. I loved the original B Side show
because I love musicians and when I was a teenager I.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Painted a lot of musicians in high school.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
So did Jack White, Jerry Garcia, Kirk Cobain, and so
I was like, this is so cool.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
And he had a painting of David Bowie.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
And really I love it.
Speaker 5 (02:41):
I still love that cool.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
I wish that one was something that was that.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
Was a commission to somebody I used to work with
just loved David boy as well, and he's and he said, hey, man,
would love for you to pay him. So he had
the idea of the photo and earth anyone you want
to use for a reference, and uh knocked it out
on an old cabinet door from the house that we refurbished. Wow.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
I think in that first B Side show, didn't you
paint on a lot of like doors?
Speaker 4 (03:06):
And I did plywood doors, cabinet doors, I can't remember
there were there were a lot of things, some Mason
Knight and stuff and a few cavus. Is just something.
If if I found a piece of Mason Night or
something around, I grab it up and piston jefs I
want to and go to town later on. Sometimes I
hold on tim for ten years and never paint on them.
But yeah, that's great, got a shiffle of them.
Speaker 5 (03:27):
What's your favorite musician? Do you have a favorite painted?
Speaker 4 (03:31):
I haven't painted him, but my favorite musician of all
time that I will love till day I die, man,
And if he ever passes away, I need I'll need
some time out for a few days. Brice prestay.
Speaker 5 (03:42):
He will pass it away. One day. We'll be there
for you, Tony.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
I hope so I will call you guys. Totally not sing,
but no, hope listen. Hopefully he's with us for a
long long time.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
But I love I love dancing in the dark. That's
like my favorite song.
Speaker 5 (03:56):
And little snippet of dancing.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Man, you need to one day day, one day, the
people will hear Lindsay say, people.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Will hear me sing.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
But that's a Courtney Costs his favorite song too.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Though.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
But didn't she get hold up on stage to dance
with him?
Speaker 4 (04:09):
Yeah? Yeah really yeah in the video she.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Getting pulled up on stage to dance with him and
the four friends. Yeah, it was before she got it famous.
What she used to look at the mountain brook, Courtney.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
Cox, that's her.
Speaker 5 (04:22):
I think she's from Edinborough. Yeah, she's a home Alabama girl.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Maybe she'll let us interview her one day.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Okay, Courtney Cox, we're coming before you.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
You'd be warned.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Well, let's go back to the beginning. So you are
a graphic designer now, I.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
Am a graphic designer by by trade. Uh, that's how
I actually arem my living. I'm a free lancer as
of twenty twenty two, and I do infrographics and web
graphics and social media graphics for several businesses that are
tied to construction and trucking. And because that's my background
(05:00):
with the place I used to work, and I was
there for twenty two years, so I learned a lot
about that and so it kind of was a natural
progression to go into freinancing doing work for some of
those clients. And so that's what I do now, and
I paint when I have time, and.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
That's it awesome.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
So did you I mean, like, when you were a kid,
did you like, were you really into art or is
it something you got into later.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
No, when I was a kid, it's a long, long story,
but people said I sure about a book like somebody else?
We know, No, But tee you this way. When I
was about four or five years old, I was drawing
on grocery sacks and everything. And this is in the
early to mid seventies and choppers were popular, you know.
(05:44):
Easier Writer was released just a few years prior to that,
and everybody was into that, and I remember hearing them.
I remember seeing them the big fat wide tires on
the back and everything that we allowed, no helmets or anything,
and people were just dying left and right on those.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Things, and what is safety?
Speaker 4 (05:59):
Yes? Yeah, So I was just I would drawn and
I don't know what made me do that. Maybe I
was just in throw all by them or whatever. And
then people who knew my parents say say, hey, can
you get your get your kid to draw my chopper?
Speaker 2 (06:11):
You know.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
So I would draw some mass chopper and it's probably
god awful, but you know, for a five or six
year old, it's probably pretty good, you know. But I
remember doing that. And then I got into comic books,
and like everybody else did, and I remember the first
few that I ever had, I never read them. I
just looked at the pictures. Yeah, and then I just
drew whatever was was there and just got me going.
(06:32):
And I never thought it was anything important or anything
that would lead to anything. I just had fun doing it.
Some kids were out there, you know, you know, throwing
baseball and everything, and I was just coming through a
comic book and just you know, rendering what I saw.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Yeah, and that I mean that has influenced a lot
of your work today, right, because a lot of your
paintings are like Captain America or Haulkeye or who's your
favorite comic book hero?
Speaker 4 (06:55):
Oh Man, Captain American? Yeah, yeah, because it's it's never
necessarily that him as a character. It's more of who
drew him, I guess. And Jack Kirby, uh was. It
was a huge influence on a lot of artists, and
a lot of people watching this probably know who Jack
Kirby is a drop of the hat, but he, he
and stan Lee pretty much created Marvel, you know, and
(07:17):
the ex Man, the Avengers, Captain America and did co
helped create Spider Man, of course. But but Kirby established
the Marvel house style house style in the in the sixties.
And we won't get into how Kirby was done and
how he left Marvel or everything, but basically, everybody loves
everything that Kirby did, and he's called a genius. And
(07:37):
and I didn't realize at the time, you know, when
I was little, you know that this guy was a
mad I didn't know who drew the comicoss. I just
I kept gravitating towards Kirby's stuff, though without realizing I
was gravitating toward towards this stuff. Yeah, but uh, he
anything he did I liked, and he really did a
great job on Captain America. So that's so these days
(07:57):
in my fifties, I'm kind of revisiting those times. That's
and that's when I started those that series of of
of comic recreations and everything, because I did just sort
of fun of it, and I'm not trying to sell
them or everything. I'm just it's just so fun to do,
and I was trying of trying to recapture that enthusiasm
that I had as a kid. Now, you know, there's
no pressure. Just do it. You know, you like this
(08:18):
panel from from this comic, just draw it and paint
it and see what happens.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Just have fun.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
Had a blast doing it too.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Yeah, well they look really cool and they're amazing.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Yeah, there's a couple of them in the Return to
the B Sides exhibits. So right, so the Return to
the B Sides show. So this is actually kind of
like a part two of a show you curated a
long time ago.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
Actually, this and this may be one tether. This may
be part four actually, because the first one was in
Tuscal Lousa and long story short Mark Cobb a friend
of mine and editor at the Teens and Tuscal LUSA,
you know, and now we're talking and you know, we're
I get the clarience to go ahead and do a
(09:00):
show at the Cultural Art Center. And it wasn't called
that at the time. I don't I don't think I
can't remember what it's called back now. But anyway, downtown
touch Losa. I recruited Jeff bertrand Tony Brittina and another
artist last name was Bells and Rock. So I was
(09:22):
talking to Mark Coyle and I said, you know, I
got there's four of us. We want to do a
show and everything. Mark actually suggested, you know, like well
tyd try to tie in the last names, all last
names for be Then I came up with the you
know what, and our art isn't like mainstream Mark, It's
not stuff you see your hanging over somebody's couch. It's
kind of stuff on the on the on the flip
side of that.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
So like the B side of the side, I wondered
what the beast I was gonna ask, But I didn't
about the B side of.
Speaker 5 (09:48):
The big question. Hey, I could be in that ship.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
It could be a b side. She's belts.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
There you go, falt, there you go. Why not?
Speaker 5 (09:55):
Yeah, my art would be great, It would be so good.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
But we did the show and I curated, and it
was it was a job. You know, I just hurting
the cats and everything, and.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
You know, and I'm familiar with that. So again I'm
familiar with that.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
Yeah, I'm sure you are. And and uh not a
lot of time of pertaining too. But he'll he'll be
the first one to tell you his painting, his oil
paintings were still a wet when they brought him in
to hang up to do. But uh no, it's a
great show. Everybody had a lot of fun and it's
a good vibe and it's just fun just meeting everybody.
It wasn't back then. It wasn't really about selling. It
was just about getting the artwork out there, getting people
(10:33):
aware of it, and just meeting people. And yeah, we
had we had fun. And then we had so much
fun that a year or two later there was we
had another opening that that I was clear to do,
and I asked about it and I said, yeah, go ahead,
do what you want to do. So that's pretty cool
too though, because the first one was so successful, they said,
(10:54):
when I'm gonna question, just go ahead and do it.
Here's your here's your here's your time. A lotment. So
on this one, if I remember right, we recruited about
fourteen artists and we had art and Jeff Bertrand from
at the time was from Nashville, and uh, he recruited
some of his artist friends from Nashville, and he's really
big and than arts in there, and he is definitely
a B side artist and uh and really prolific to
(11:18):
but he he got a couple of artists and one
one of his one of his artists sent down, uh
to test the looser from Nashville paintings with nails driven
into him, wrapped and rusty barbed bar so wonderful.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Ready, yes, I was.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
Really curataying that, but uh that that show was really
good too, and it got a lot of people out
there to view it, and it was just good for everybody.
When when when and I think several artists Souliman stuff
and and a lot of artists h earned some some fans.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
And was that also in tuscalo.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
And then Rys Andrews, a friend of mine of course
everybody knows Bruce and uh he reached out to me
for that first show and Columbiana at.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
The at the Old Arts Council. Yeah, so we want.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
To do it again, I said, just do it again, man,
So we did, and I think this time it was
just my stuff that when I didn't now and so
no Morman. Then, uh, this week is the second one, yes,
in this part of the country.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Yes, so it features Tony Brock and Andrew Costs. And
can you just talk a little bit about Andrews just
to kind of explain.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
Met Andrew I think at the Monabella Arts Festival, I
believe Darkne Park twenty eleven, I think, and we were
just he came to my booth and talked for a
long time that I went to his booth and saw
his work. You know, our work compliments is because his
brighton colorful. My works is brighton colorful as well. And
(12:44):
we just had so much to talk about and so
we became miser friends that day and we sat in
touch all this time. And uh, in fact, there was
a picture of my wife made Evandre and I at
that first meeting where we're just standing over to shooting
a bull and I didn't get my booth set up
in time because Andrew and I were talking, so so
that was good. But I love I love Andrew, and
(13:06):
I've been trying to get him to show with me
for a long time. He's so busy, yeah, doing other
shows and every thing. I reached out to him about
this when I said, you know, I would love to
show with it. You know, you don't know if you
are going to do another show or not. Just life happens,
and uh so fortunately I was able to talk him
into it, and then he was happy to do it,
of course, you know, but even he said, finally, you know,
we're showing on work together.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Yes, yeah, I think it does compliment each other a lot.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
And I actually have a piece of Andrews art in
my office and I've had a couple of the things
because he still live in Monavelos so and I think
his wife used to be the mayor of Mona She was, yeah,
I was the professor at Monaveelo, so that's kind of
how I met them.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
And he always liked his work, so I was like, yeah,
he does.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
A lot of like musicians, and it does kind of
pop kind of work, pop art, pop art.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
So what it's called would you categorize your artwork? Is
pop art?
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (13:59):
Mark Mark Cobb said it's pop surrealism, okay, which works
for me because that that is that's the same thing
as B side or flip side whatever. It is a
counterculture art, low brow art, which is it sounds less unflattering,
but it is a term low brow art. And and
(14:19):
it's not brow art, yeah it's not. It's still good.
The skill sets are still there. It's just a different
subject and everything brighter, more garish colors.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
It's not like a more elevated right.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
Yeah, it's not an ocean scene or which and those
are great, you know, but uh but yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
That's yea, it's like not for everybody.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
It's more of like a more refined taste, but not
really not especially refined, but just a specific taste, okay.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
And it is And and the the followers of lowbrow
or or the follow that the followers that I have
that people who buy my heart on on a regular basis.
It's a small group, but they're really dedicated and they're
really encouraging everything. And I feed off of that encouragement
because you know, when I'm still painting something, I think well,
someone said, will like this one a lot, you know,
(15:09):
but you try not to go that route because you
want to do what you want to do and have
fun doing it, and then if you build it, that
will kind kind of thing, and so you're trying to
think about that, but at the same time you can't help.
But you know that somebody will. You know, someone said,
will lot this pace a lot?
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
I mean it's a fine line to walk where you're
trying to like do things that you want to do
that you're passionate about, but you also want to do
things that are marketable, marketable, and you want to sell
them or something exactly. It's hard not to.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
It is hard.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
You're always right about what you think you'll sell. Are
you surprised?
Speaker 4 (15:42):
I'm always surprised, But so do what.
Speaker 5 (15:45):
You want to do and you might sell it right.
Speaker 4 (15:47):
Sure. There's one example of that. A doctor in touch.
He bought probably six of my works, and the first
one he bought, and I was a rookie and I
wasn't used to being in serenus on work and everything.
He picked out a painting that I thought it meant
something to me, but it wasn't well as acute did it,
but it had a good point to it. It wasn't
(16:10):
like a portrait or of somebody. It was an old
yellow car with with a man driving a car and
a woman reading a map, two kids hitting in the backseat,
and there's a superhero sitting in the middle of it,
the green lantern. And you can't you can't see the people's
you can't see his his uh. The man driving a car,
his arm is really tans hanging with the car. And
there's a reason why I'm saying all this to you.
(16:30):
And and you can't see the woman's face because she
gets a sunglass on that she's reading a map, and
there's a there's a pack of a cart and a
cigarettes and on a dash, and the two kids in
her back reading comic books. And green Lander said, it's
kind of washing over her kids, you know. So, so
this this guy and I didn't know, I didn't know
who he was. I call him doctor Jeff. He's a
good friend of mine. Now. He came over to, hey,
I know this is not for sale, but this is
(16:52):
That wasn't the B side show. It was another gallery show.
And he said, I know this is not for sale,
but can you give him a story about this. So
I explained to him with just what I was telling him,
telling y'all just now, and he said, why the green
lantern fare. I said, well, that's that's that's the Christ figure.
He is actually watching over those kids in the back
seat and those people. The man driving a car is
my stepfather. He died of lung cancer from the cigarettes.
(17:16):
And then my mother was always reading the maps. And
you had those big old giant sunglasses on from the seventies.
That's my little sister. And that's me right there reading
Avengers one sixty from nineteen seventy seven. So in nineteen
seventy to seven, we're really reading you know, Green Night
or anything. So I was selling him that story, and
we both kind of had a moment, you know, and
I thought, man, this is this is, this is what
it's about, you know, because I got chills just talking
(17:38):
about just now and then talking to him about it.
You know, I almost got missed the eye because nobody's
really asked, you know. And he asked, and he wanted
to know the story behind it, and so he offered
to buy it. And he said he missed card and
I saw who he was and I said, all right,
I think about it, you know, So I decided to
sell it because the point is if you reach somebody
and you connect with somebody on that emotional level, it's
(18:01):
a connection that few people can make, because when you
have conversations, you can kind of connect sometimes, but we're
also busy, we're not really connect with folks. But that
painting is from my first experience connecting with with another
human being, you know, with with that person's soul, you know.
And I thought it was really cool. So I met
him the next day, sold on the pain and uh,
but here, here's where kind of what you're saying I
(18:23):
want to go. I didn't understand. I was still thinking
about the technical aspect of it too, And I said
something like I was not sure, really, I'm not really
sure why you wanted this one or not. I'm not
another one whatever, And he kind of looked at me
and said, well, why would you say that. Then then
I realized it's not for me to decide if somebody
(18:43):
else lost my work or not. It is up to
the person viewing it. And and that is true of art.
And and the last thing you want to do is
try to you know, if I got something I don't like,
but somebody else likes it, that's that's good enough. I
don't need to worry about why or anything, you know,
if you know, me accomplished and and so so that
that was. That was a nice start of a long friendship.
(19:06):
And I learned a lot from that discussion. And then
since then this mother shows and uh Nashville and I
met the I can't go into it now because just
you know, politics to a long but uh, A man
just came back from Afghanistan and he is there with
this family at this festival and they're all walking by
and everything, and he just stopped his family's and just
(19:28):
started looking at my work, you know, and he came
over there and we talked forever and and we just
he was going on on and eventually I just gave him.
I gave him a print for free, you know, just
a camera sprint that I wrapped myself of one he
was looking at, you know, and he said, he said,
just he said, keep doing this, he said, because I'm
over there and there over there, I gotta go back.
I got I'm over there. Then what I'm doing so
(19:48):
that you can do what you're doing over here, and
you know that just game me chills as well. And
so this moment's like that that kind of make you realize,
you know, this is this is for them, it's not
really really from me. So and that and that painting
that he had his eye on was another one of
those paintings where I just kind of came up with it,
you know, as a zombie bowler, you know. Just it's
(20:09):
called dead Wood or something like that, and uh, it's
really goody painting. But it's a fun painting.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
So that's what it's about, is making emotional connections with art. Huh,
make an emotional connection they want to buy.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
It rightly, yea, So great, there you go.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
And it's I mean it's kind of cool, like the
people you can meet at art shows and something like that,
and the connections you can make, Like I've made friends
that way that I'm still friends with. Just they came
up to my booth and started talking to me and so.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Well, you know what I love about this show too,
is you sell your prints too, some smaller prints. So
you know, some people can't afford a three hundred, four
hundred dollars giant wall painting, but that's trust. Anybody can
afford one of your prints that's true. So I love that.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
I really like that. Yeah, they're really cool.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
So let's like talk about some of the other artworks
in your show because they're just so fun. Like I
love that painting of kiss carrying the flag and the.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
Revolution Spirit of seventy six.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Yes, that's painting is so great and it's just so beautiful,
like it like your stuff. Do you paint with acrylic
or oil?
Speaker 4 (21:16):
Acrylics a crillic?
Speaker 2 (21:17):
I mean that's incredible because it does look like oils
because of just like the the richness of the paint
and everything.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
It almost looks like it's airbrushed on. Oh okay, yeah,
it's just it's just so beautiful and clean.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
It doesn't even look real until you like really get
up there and you look at the brushstrokes.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Painted, But that one is really fun painting because it
isn't it it's based off of another painting.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
I can't I can't remember the artist. I'm embarrassed. I
don't remember artist, but it's it's fun. The Spirit of
seventy six painting. Yeah, that some artists. Dude, I can't
remember his name, but it was, you know, during a
revolutionary war and everything had a drummer.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
And somebody playing the flute. Yeah, and then yeah, then
somebody's carrying the flag.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
But in this version it's kiss.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
I love it, And it's so cool because they're all
in their outfits and everything.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
It's pretty great disposition of a classic painting or scene
or whatever. It's part of pop culture. And then now
just to kind of add that to it. And I'm
not necessarily a huge fan of kids from anything, you know,
but I love the fact that they are. It's out
there themselves, you know, they they You appreciate their showmanship,
(22:26):
I guess, you know, And I think that's one of
they had the longevity because this may be so religious,
but honestly, I'm not really crazy about their music, but
I love what they do though, and I appreciate the showmanship.
It's almost like a sideshow, right.
Speaker 5 (22:40):
They're very recognizable, that's for sure. Yes, you look at
it and you know that to it is yes, or
it's Bruce Springs.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
Then you know he's he's humble. He gets up there
and things a song. You know, I might talk to
you a little bit, you know, but he's but he's
not wearing makeup, you know, like a KOBOOKI therapy or
something like that.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
I don't think I would recognize Bruce Springsteen on the street.
Ob yeah, her voice, that's right.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
I love I love that painting. And then another one
you didn't bring it. I think you have a print
of it. It's the kiss as the Dog's playing Poker. Yeah,
that was that was in the Old Beastie ohs. And
in the background, I think it's a painting on the
wall of the dogs, yes, poker.
Speaker 4 (23:16):
And with that, within that paint there's another painting and
I got where and that it's funny that painting is
one that actually literally, in all seriousness, run my eyes, yeah,
because that's small detail. And I had a manifying glass
and I wasn't wearing glass at the time. It's around
twenty fourteen when the painting that I was up close
and I was just doing this right here, and it
(23:36):
took about six months to do that. But that idea
originating from a discussion I had with a with my
coworker Amy and my old job, and you know, she
and I talked to heart and everything, and and she
would buy it, and you know, her mother would buy
some of my art as well. And we're having a
discussion I was thinking. I was saying something like, man,
I just kind of at a loss with what the
(23:58):
what the pain am or just some throwing ideas out.
One of the ideas she thinks, go about kiss playing poker.
Oh my gosh, that's a great So I sketched it
out and everything, I uh and and I thought, man,
this could be a good painting, you know. So uh,
I knocked it out. It took a long long time
to do and and literally that's when I everything started
kind of getting blurry and uh. But I did prints
(24:20):
of it, and I did a show and had his
burn Mississippi, and I could not keep prints of that,
and there were just I sold out within a couple
of hours. And people will come up, so I want,
I want to take kiss painting and kids pinning, And
I said, well, I'm all out of Prince, you know.
And so then some people got my contact info and
information and they call me at home and I mailed
(24:41):
it to them and uh, but yeah, that's that's one
of my most popular paintings and it still holds up.
So so I didn't bring it to the show because
every time I take an original, there's always a new
nick or a new scratch or something like that, and
people have come up and kind of trying to scratch
it to see what. Oh yeah, yeah, there's canvas behind them. Man,
(25:03):
So I don't want that made mess with.
Speaker 5 (25:04):
Now, did you need glasses after that?
Speaker 4 (25:06):
I did? I want to die doctor, and and uh
they said, they said, yeah, your your vision's got gotten
bad or anything. And so so I now wear tryfocals
and I've had to up the prescription want since then.
So wow, I guess it's going to happen sooner or later.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
I suppose, right, you're just gonna have to start painting
bigger yeah erals, that's right. Yes, So I like how
you do all the juxtaposition in your work, like American Gothic,
but with Danny and Sandy.
Speaker 5 (25:32):
That's great, that's quite my favorite.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Yeah, and even with like the other characters that you do,
like you have the the Rock'm talking robots in the Childhood, Yes,
and he's like in the Ring.
Speaker 4 (25:46):
At ken w forty Yes from the corner man. You know,
make sure he's and there's oil And one thing that
people like was about that, and he was there's oil
on the on the on the canvas of the ring.
You know that that was obviously knocked out of one
of their other robots, right, so that was fun to do. Yeah,
they're the corner man, I guess, and the and the
who's standing up behind the robot. I kind of mess
(26:08):
up his face a little bit, and I got a
little too concerned about that because I was trying to
make him the focal point for some reason. I don't
know why I did that. That's when you have to
kind of ruler yourself in. The focal point was the robot,
you know, so the corner man was less important. And
uh but anyway, if you kind of look, if you
look closely, there's a couple of blemishes on that one,
you know, but the robot himself is is I think,
pretty pretty okay.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
Yeah, yeah, it's really cool.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
So I like seeing all those like pop art kind
of reference or you know, pop culture kind of references,
or you know, things from your childhood that you really
love that show up in your Do you have a
favorite piece that's in this show?
Speaker 4 (26:44):
Oh my gosh, No, they're they're they're they're all. They're
all like each one is a time capsule. And when
I look at him, I remember, I remember what was
going on my life, I remember what's going on, my
son's life, on Wilt's life, and and and work and
things like that. So they all conjure up some sort
(27:06):
of memory, and each memory is just as important as
the other, I guess, if that makes any sense. But
it's as far as successful paintings go, you know. My favorite,
I guess be the kids playing playing poker in the
spirit of seventy six and are a couple of others. Uh,
Hank Williams playing Uh, I'm some loss of Michael cry
And on a guitar was really fun too. That's the
(27:26):
one that Robin nats. Yes, that one was a fun
one too, you know. And that's that's but yeah, I
guess that would be a favorite, but it's not. It's
not hamp at the show. But uh, but I remember
that one more for I was working on a back
porch on that one, you know, and dumb cat was
walking all over me trying to get in there getting
away and stuff, and you know, there's leaves and stuff
(27:48):
going on on it, and and and and cat hair
and stuff like that. So I was trying to pick
it out the wet paint as I was going, you know,
So so I remember all that, those minuscule things.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Yeah, So how would you categorize your art? Is it contemporary?
Speaker 3 (28:05):
I give some yeah, yeah, I don't know why.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
I want to call your art pop arts, good temporary
pop art, contemporary pop art?
Speaker 3 (28:14):
Why not?
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Actually that does lead me into something. So me and
Leslie have the sing where I'm going to ask her
definitions of different art terms or genres or something and
she has to define them. And then when we do
our music episodes, yeah, and when.
Speaker 5 (28:30):
I'll give your music. So my, oh boy, show my ignorance.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
It is actually pop art is the pop art is
the Yes, pop art is the art term that I
want you to define.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
I have to define it or can I describe it?
Speaker 2 (28:47):
And I have the official definition on the moment website.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
They have a lot of art terms.
Speaker 5 (28:53):
So I mean pop characters. I would think.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
What classifies as a pop character. Don't look at him,
don't look at him for help.
Speaker 5 (29:06):
I mean I would think like cartoony.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Characters or any kind of character that you make look
like a cartoon air.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
Thank Andy Warhol, Yeah, thank Andy Warhol.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
I'm honest, it's.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Not necessarily cartoon characters. Okay, well, okay, it's the moment.
It is a movement comp comprising initially British than American artists.
In the nineteen fifties and sixties, pop artists barred imagery
from popular culture popular culture pop culture from sources including television,
(29:42):
comic books, and print advertising, often to challenge conventional values
propagated by the mass media, from notions of femininity and
domestic domesticity. What's that domesticity to consumerism and patriotism?
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Wow, well, you know, when I was trying to think
of it in my head, I don't know, I was
thinking Marilyn Monroe, Yeah, he would be.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
And did Yeah, like Prince of Merco. So that is
a flop.
Speaker 5 (30:11):
It's kind of close to my head. I just didn't
say it well enough.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
He Andy Warhol's camel soup cans, that is, that's listed
as one of the or like Roy Liechtenstein.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
That lichten Shine like oh yeah, oh yeah book.
Speaker 4 (30:31):
Yeah, he lifted a lot of panels from the d
c's uh comments and there there's he's kind of a
controversial figure, but he's a he's a figure who's a
millionaire at the time. Yeah, But a famous interaction between
Russ Heath drew a lot of those comments back in
the sixties, and he lifted or actually used for inspiration
(30:53):
a couple of Russ Heath's panels and then playing like
as a jet fighter or something like that, and he
sort of for well over million dollars. I think, wow,
And Russ he said, you know, hey, I'm good at that.
I'm happy with it. I was doing to ask work
for hire for DC comments. I don't own on the
artwork anyway. But the this you can do is send
me a bottle of wine. That's all he asked for a.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
Bottom of wine and a few hundred dollars.
Speaker 4 (31:14):
Big build.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Well, we're super happy to have you today, happy to
be here, excited for people to see the show and
come check us out in Columbiana. If you haven't been
to our building, you will be pleasantly surprised at the
beautiful building they've created.
Speaker 5 (31:30):
And then the art gallery.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
It's just state of the art and free. We don't
charge you anything to come see all this incredible art,
low brow as it is.
Speaker 5 (31:39):
Whatever, low Papa.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
All right, Well, thanks for joining us today. Thanks you, Tony.
Speaker 5 (31:45):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (31:46):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Yeah, it's been fun and we'll see you next time
with the ladies of the Arts Council, something.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
Like Arts Council ladies.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
That's what I'm intast PTSD product stating in the st
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