Skinner’s solo show “This Fear You May Know” opens on Saturday, August 14th at White Walls from 7 – 11 pm. If you’d like a sneak peak of Skinner’s work and to learn more about him, check out this exclusive interview!
This Fear You May Know opens on August 14, 2010 and runs through September 4, 2010. Blending variant sources of fantasy art accented with nuances of social commentary, Skinner’s works in this exhibit illustrate his observations of a growing obsession with destruction and conflict, and how fear guides the course of social action.
The artwork in This Fear You May Know will be comprised of 24 medium and large-scale acrylic and airbrushed paintings, sculptural pieces, and custom air-brushed masks. These pieces are based on the artist’s interests in mythology, the occult, cultural myths and folk tales, and modified by his nostalgic approach to comics and magazines.
1. How long do you spend on an average sized painting?
I can spend up to a week on an average size painting…If life goes easy on me for a week straight, I can get a considerable amount of work done…but things happen…design jobs to pay immediate bills, music, rabbits need to get neutered, fixing cars…business and meetings…if that stuff could stop then I would be getting paintings done at an exponential rate…which I have essentially tried to do for this show…
2. Your favorite comic book?
My favorite all time comic book would be the Hulk from growing up…But as a strange and very particular adult of bizarre tastes I would have to say Black Hole by Charles Burns…there are many strange zines out there right now as well!..Super Gods by Warren Ellis is amazing right now and The Walking Dead of course.
3. What does your studio usually look like?
You know right now its been pretty clean…Once I started freaking out about keeping these new paintings safe, I started cleaning it out…I took all my big sculptures and giant heads from previous show/ installations and went to the packing place I send my paintings from and they let me do a giant installation there that is permanent so I wouldn’t have to worry about it…Theres Giant severed heads hanging from the ceiling of this rad shipment center now.
4. Your biggest fear as a child?
As a child my fears were very dream based…and now that I examine them as an adult, they are very clearly psychology 101…my fears were all based on the needs and reactions of adults around me…what they wanted, how I should react and what emotional needs I could supply for them…If they would have just not used me and my sister as bargaining chips in their selfish emotional tug of war I would be chillin’…I cant stand people who have children to fulfill some kind of shallow self appreciating, pseudo cultural tradition of reproducing themselves…get over yourselves, do some personal/emotional development and earn the right to lovingly care for another person…Jesus Christ!
5. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
A really famous, narcissistic asshole who hates what he has become. Or a total fucking burnout.
6. Despite sex, race, and cultural differences, do you think there is something that connects all humans together?
Oh yeah…emotions…whether they are oppressed, damaged, open or distorted…we all have them and are all trying to be “okay”…The lucky ones have been fostered at an early age to accept their emotions..You cannot get away from them…it is best to learn to live with our feelings in a natural healthy way so we can be all happy and supportive of each other…and not punch each other out and road rage on folks…the problem is, we have unhealthy cultural/social conditioning that tries to mold the way we behave in our roles as feminine and masculine people…we are taught that it is best to act a certain way and then it leads to complete douchery and insensitivity. Magazines, ads, and media are there to reinforce it as well in case you ever forget that there are standards that you will never live up to.
7. Best childhood memory?
Anytime I was allowed to be….running around with other kids just wailing on some kickball or wrecking some water slides…I really really loved it when I could just ride my bike for hours behind my house alone.
8. What does your cosmic mayhem look like?
There is a formless and writhing mass in the center of the universe that is slowly pulling everything towards it…it is all colors shifting and folding unto itself and none you can comprehend…It is hideous, liquid, and horrible. It moves as a fleeting dream never to be waken from…It speaks in your mind with aching whispers and sickening memories that send you into a feverish illness not unlike dying…There are no rational laws your mind can abide, no emotional parallels your form can distinguish as a frail mortal body shatters at the absolute inability to understand. This cosmos is not for you and I…we are les than a ripple in the smallest puddle.
9. What does bliss look like for you?
Wrestling with some puppies! Oh…and camping by a river with Kristie and some friends…Go on a hike and take some mushrooms..AND! No deadlines!
10. Favorite thing to eat and drink?
I love vegan Thai food! Indian food! And I started going to this Ethiopian restaurant that rules! Queen of Sheba!!
