Artist Interview (Gates)

J. Scott

-Questions-
1. What sparked you interest in art?

2. When did you start experimenting with art?

3. What type of artist would you call yourself?

4. Do you have any training?

5. How do you create your art?

6. Who is your favorite artist?

7. What is your favorite movement/style/kind of art?

8. What influences your artwork?

9. Do you experiment with different forms of art?

10. What is your favorite piece of art?

11. Would you work with any material outside the norm?
If so what would it be?

12. Would you construct a mural?
If so of who or what?
- Answers-
1. The calmness of art sparked an interest for me. I find peace of mind in doing art.

2. I started experimenting with art when I was about 3 or 4 years old. I would visit with my father and draw when I was around him.

3. I would call myself a cartoonist. Although I have a bit of a range in art, I was always a cartoonist at heart.

4. I do have some training. I had 2 years of commercial art in high school. Nothing beyond that.

5. Sometimes I create art by request. Most times I have an idea and start sketching a basic pencil outline.

6. My favorite artist. Wow. I have a few. Without thinking about it, Charles Schultz. Jim Davis is another. And me.

7. I like anything with color. But sometimes black and white is just enough. I love graffiti. It speaks out loud. There are so many styles from basic "tagging" to pieces that are so entwined and colorful that you would need the person who created it to figure out what it says and means.

8. Humor influences my artwork. Truth also influences my artwork. So do other artists work.

9. Every now and then I do a portrait. They're really time consuming. No painting. Not in a long time. Most of the stuff I've been doing lately has all been touched up on a computer. I would like to do some artwork with wood. My 6th grade art teacher showed us how to make wooden portraits. We used different textured staining to add effect. Mr. Graves class. He was awesome.

10. My favorite piece of art is whatever I'm working on at the time.

11. I would like to do some paper mache stuff. Maybe fool around with some stained glass art. That would be hot.

12. If I constructed a mural it would be adults of all races and working classes holding hands with proud looks on there faces. I hate the racial barriers that continue to go on in this world. The reason the people would be adults in the mural is because children learn from their parents who are most of the time adults. It's an image that should be shown and taught to all children. Unity of all races. We are one.