Right on. You’ve exhibited quite a bit: Giant Robot shows, both in New York and in San Francisco, and a Cartoon Network show in LA? What was that all about?

Well, you know, that was interesting. It was a show just like, in the, um… the lobby of the Cartoon Network. I just drove all my artwork down there and they hung it up, and then they were made an announcement like, “Art show, happening in the lobby.” And then, all of a sudden, hundreds of people showed up, like the cartoon directors and stuff like that, and we ordered pizza and wine and beer and stuff, and hung out for like a couple hours, and then everyone dispersed. It was kind of weird. But still fun.

Did they contact you? Did you submit?

No. They just have running shows there. I have a mutual friend who actually works at Cartoon Network, and she helped me get the show. It was weird. It looks good on paper, you know. It wasn’t really a great show or anything, but little kids, like my little cousin Zach, would come up to me and be like, “I heard you had a show at Cartoon Network.” He was more psyched about it than me. So for him it must be cool to have a cousin that has had art at the Cartoon Network.

Yeah. And your illustrations are very... My take is that they’re these sort of nightmarish stuffed animals or these sort of ghoulish cartoon characters? Or even one of them looks like the dragon. What is it? Falcor From Neverending Story?

Falcor is my homeboy. It’s fun to imagine a flying doglike dragon that can fly you around and grant you wishes. I’ve always liked drawing monsters and characters and shit. I like to put all these made up characters in situations where they interact with each other and tell a story that you [the viewer] can make up.

Yeah, definitely. I guess a lot of it comes from when I was living back in Ohio, I would spend the winter, pretty much every day after school, at home watching, like, some cartoon program like Chip and Dale’s Rescue Rangers and other stuff on TV. Every day.

You know, and I was really into weird movies like The Neverending Story and stuff like that. I don’t know. It was kind of weird. For some reason, I just liked them and I spent a lot of time drawing, cartoons, drawing from video game instruction booklets, and comic books, and stuff like that. I used to draw, you know, the Terminator and stuff like that. I just kind of never stopped doing that.

Sure. And did you study illustration in school?

I went to, like, a liberal arts school. I guess it’s relatively well-rounded. I majored in fine arts with a concentration in painting and figure drawing. I took sculpture classes, philosophy classes, economics, black family studies, and love and sexuality, and stuff like that. I drew illustrations from a fine arts approach. Like, rooted in art history, and some of the fundamentals of oil painting through history. I’m really big into Surrealism--Hieronymus Bosch, Bruegel….

It’s more of a fine arts approach versus an illustration approach, I guess. But, um, I guess I’ve found I’m naturally inclined to do more illustrative-type stuff.

But you’re not painting, you’re making illustrations. How is an illustration the best for a visual narrative?

Well I guess, when I moved out to San Francisco, I didn’t have a lot of space. I had a lot of roommates, so I just pretty much had my room. And I started picture framing. I worked for my day job for a picture framer, and I used to draw pictures on little pieces of mat board, scrap mat board. And I’d just draw on these little pieces of mat board during work, just to kind of sneak around and kind of use my brain a little bit. And I’d bring the pieces of mat board home and just color them in with colored pencils. And I did that for a couple of years, and it’s just kind of grown. Like, I used to just do 3'x3' drawings, and they kind of grew into, like, 8x10s. It just got bigger and bigger. And I kind of like the control, and, well, you don’t have to, like, clean up paint or anything like that. It’s just easier for me to use pen and pencil, colored pencils.

Are there people that you’re really digging these days? I mean, are you still drawing your inspiration from these sort of Chip and Dale cartoons, or is other shit sort of seeping in?

Yeah. It’s hard to say. It just kind of it comes from, like, watching The Discovery Channel or Animal Planet. I watch a lot of animal shows. And I think that with the violent nature of all things and the random nature of all things, I’m just kind of using characters to represent those various forms. I draw this one monster that’s biting the head off of a frog. And I guess it kind of has to do with just being aware of some kind of imbalance, where life kind of exists by destroying other life. That kind of darwinist big fish/little fish thing. I don’t know, I really don’t think about it too much. I just start to draw, and, it just happens.

The art group Paper Rad and Fort Thunder artists like Mat Brinkman are a huge influence too. I found out about these guys years ago through the internet and they have influenced the way I create characters and use lots of colors.

And you’re still working at the frame shop?

I’m down to three days a week now, so I’m pretty stoked about that. Four days a week to work on art.

Well, that’s pretty good.

Yeah. I mean, was there like a moment where maybe early on, or maybe in school or something, where you were kind of like, “Yeah, this is, this is what I’m gonna, gonna focus on… this is what I’m gonna… you know, I’m gonna draw, I’m gonna create these…these images." Or maybe it’s… maybe that’s thinking too much about it.

Yeah, I don’t know. I’ve always been inclined to draw, um, to draw characters. You know, I used to collect these M.U.S.C.L.E.s. You know M.U.S.C.L.E.? They were these little, tiny toys. I think they were originally from Japan, or something. And they just had, like, hundreds of different variations, and all these little…

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah!

And um, I just recently visited back home and found my old collection. I’m going to build a big display stand for them. I collect toys and stuff like that. And I used to, before I went back to picture framing, work in the children’s department of a thrift store.

I would just sort through toys every day and bring home little tiny toys that I’d like. I don’t know. I like the idea of making up my own mythology. I use a lot of recreated characters and things like that. I guess a lot of them just kind of represent something to me. But I can’t exactly put my finger on it, though.

I reference like, Skeletor, or… you know, that Falcor guy from Neverending Story, and I just incorporate that kind of thing just so that people can kind of get in on it. You know, everybody in my generation, like all the dorky guys that I hang out with a lot have that reference point for these kind of toys and stuff.

Did you ever have any, um... BattleBeasts?

Oh, hell yeah. Those are great!

Those are awesome, man, I miss that shit so much.

Yeah, they were cool. Those were great. Fire beats wood, wood beats water.

Yeah, fire, wood and water. And then, I feel like there might have been another one later on that sort of like trumped all of them.

Yeah, those things were great! And yeah. I think later they even came with riding beasts. There’s the little Battle Beasts but then there’s these larger, like, sharks and stuff that they could ride on top of.

Yeah, yeah. They were like chariots almost.

Yeah, exactly! I totally remember those.

Hell yeah. Would you ever be interested in making your own toys one day? I mean, if that’s sort of what you’re pulling from these days.

Yeah, I’d like to produce a bunch of work and just keep doing it and doing it. And if somebody ever wanted to get in touch with me to make toys, then I would do it, but I wouldn’t exactly seek it out.

I do a little bit. But it’s usually if people contact me. I was just recently in a couple of magazines. I just got a magazine today--The Oxford American Journal. They just used one of my drawings to illustrate an article about the old South versus the new South. And it was about creationism versus evolution, or something like that. And I’ve got an illustration in the upcoming Believer Magazine.

That’s great! Now are these illustrations that they’re commissioning from you, or was this work that you’ve already done?

Well, in both those cases, it’s work that I’ve already had.

Okay.

But I’ve done one commissioned work for Swindle Magazine.

Yeah, that’s a great magazine.

Yeah, I did one for their last issue. And that was a cool article. It was an article about a vertical garden. There was this architect who designed buildings to have plants growing out of the side of them. It was pretty cool.

So what other kind of stuff are you into? Besides drawing, and toys. Do you garden? Play video games?

Well, when I’m not working I hang out with my girlfriend a lot. We like to go out and see movies. I’m looking forward to The Simpsons Movie, I think that opens on Friday. That’s coming up.

I ride my bike around San Francisco. There’s a lot of great places to go on little day trips and adventures right outside the city. I don’t have a car or anything like that so I’m sort of landlocked here in San Francisco.

Is San Francisco a good city to get around without a car?

It is, actually. It’s actually a pretty small town. It’s only seven miles in any direction, so it’s pretty easy to get around on a bike. I also have a scooter that I drive around. So that’s a lot of fun. It’s a really beautiful city. There’s a lot of really great views and cool architecture. I’ve been here for six years now, and I’m still fascinated by it. Having a good time.

What kind of music are you into?

That’s a good question. Yeah, it’s hard for me to say right on the spot. I’ve been listening to a lot of Brian Eno lately. Let me just look on my CD rack here. Yeah, I’ve been into listening to some newer stuff. I like that band The Knife.

Yeah.

And I came across a band called Eyeball Skeleton. It’s this guy and his two kids, and they play music and the kids write the lyrics and the kids sing. They’re all about, like, you know… a smoking turtle, and skeletons on motorcycles and “bad guy stew”and stuff like that. Um…I’ve also been on kind of ‘90s kick lately. I’ve been listening to a lot of Smashing Pumpkins and Gin Blossoms and Stone Temple Pilots.

Sure. I’ll stand behind the album Core any day of the week. I think that shit is…

Yeah. It’s a fun album.

It’s timeless, man. You know, I don’t care about what anyone says about Stone Temple Pilots. That album is amazing.

Hell yeah. I like Pearl Jam's Verses, too.

Yeah, I don’t know. I spent enough time in Seattle and I pretty much heard enough Pearl Jam on the radio to not need to play it on my own.

Yeah.

Although I’ll still put on some Nirvana from time to time. So that didn’t burn me out on that.

Yeah. I’m going to go see Daniel Johnston next month. I’m really excited about seeing him. Oh. I’ve also been listening to Ariel Pink a lot. I think that guy is really talented.

Okay. Do you, do you do a lot of collaborations?

I’ve been collaborating with my girlfriend, Aiyana Udesen. She’s an artist and an illustrator here in the city. She does drawings of Freddy and the Predator with celebs like Britney and Lindsay with realistic animals too. We just did some collabs for the fecalface dot com anniversary show coming up as well as the “tree show 3” here at Giant Robot Sf.

Nice. How long have you been with your girlfriend?

It’ll be a year in August.

Oh.

Yeah. I’m fascinated by her.

How did you guys meet?

Actually, through a website. You know that website FecalFace.com?

Yeah, of course.

It’s a big art website and we actually met when she had artwork up at a fecalface art show. We'd been hanging out, started collaborating, and started dating and the rest is history.

Matt Furie

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