LA is the place to be this weekend to catch back-to-back events featuring Jim Mahfood aka Food One. His first solo show Visual Funk at Hero Complex Gallery opens this Friday, November 15 from 7-10 pm. On Saturday, November 16 the artist will be speaking and signing copies of Visual Funk at the Last Book Store starting at 3pm. The artist speaks to Installation and reflects on his process and his extensive body of work.
This became the main promo image for my Visual Funk Art Show, and in a way it became the “voice” of the show. I was messing around with watercolor paper one day, and I just started pouring water and paint on top of the paper, letting it run, drip and then it got weird. All these shapes and patterns started to emerge and I started to draw the skulls and the girl with the spray cans. This piece is one of those happy accident kind of pieces, which usually comes out the best in the end.
I was lucky enough to get a chance to draw the legendary Tank Girl comic book and it was published last year. The original series co-creator/writer Alan Martin wrote the awesome script and asked me to draw it in my style. The book is called Everybody Loves Tank Girl, the hardcover collection is available. I created this piece for the sketchbook section of the book. Tank Girl is very open to interpretation visually so it’s always fun to draw her, the whole work has that DIY punk sensibility that I’m into.
I took the back of a sketchbook pad, it’s sort of a cardboard type material and I started drawing this straight in ink. Usually my best work comes when I sit down and go straight to ink, I draw directly from my subconscious and impulses. It sounds like arty bullshit, but it’s true. The more I over think, the more controlled and boring the piece comes out to be so I try and keep it loose.
I really enjoy drawing characters, funny and unique characters. Most of my work is character based and centered around figurative type subject matter. This was just a bizarre, twisted, psychedelic superhero group gone wrong or something like it.
My friend Jane Dope and I do this cool little podcast called The Beat Bee Sessions. We basically play really good music from my archives, we have fun. I created this Beat Bee character to represent the show. There are hundreds, probably thousands, of different Beat Bees across the universe, their mission is to bring good music to people, the real shit!
I like that juxtaposition of having things that are sensual and attractive mixed with slightly dark and evil themes. Beautiful girls mixed with ugly creatures, stuff like that. You’ll find a lot of that in my art. This piece I created with super mixed media, basically everything I could get my hands on thrown onto the canvas. Sometimes I like the layered sloppy dirty look.
Bubble Gum Gangsters girls are a sort of weird street gang that exists in my universe of characters. I was probably listening to some 60’s acid rock when I did this; fun psychedelic visuals, big teeth, soft of Sgt. Pepper-esque.
This is another dirty mixed media badass girl piece. I added some blue tape to the paper tore, which I think goes along with the piece quite nicely. Sometimes I don’t have to finish drawing the figure, I like for the viewer can fill in the blanks there.
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All images ©Jim Manfood