Artist Interview: Aaron Axelrod

“With works that speak across a wide range of concepts that vary as much as the mediums he chooses to work in, artist Aaron Axelrod has established a place in the world of art uniquely his. With success in the world of fine art and the world of commercial art Aaron has proven that a strong message and a unique, dedicated approach to the visualization of that message are all that is needed to appeal to any audience and situation.”

Interview by Josh Gooch

From sculpture to paint to reinterpreting a whole building, your work takes many forms. What  medium do you feel most comfortable in? Do you feel as if one medium over the other allows you to express your message better?

If I ever feel too comfortable working in a certain medium, I know its time to switch it up.  I love trying new things and experimenting with new materials and techniques. Although each piece always informs the next, Its important to allow myself to constantly experiment and let myself grow organically. Trying out new materials all the time, also allows me to have access a huge library of knowledge of materials, this helps tremendously when thinking of ideas and then the best ways to execute it. I love going to an art supply store, going through the isles, and finding a material I’ve never seen before, don’t know how its used, or how it will react to other materials. I get super excited, go home and start experimenting. This always leads to those happy mistakes, and that’s how a lot of my ideas get spawned.  Being a mad scientist and playing around with weird chemicals and pigments.. when I find my self saying “whoooa… coool”. I know I’m onto something.

Do you see L.A. and west coast culture reflected in your work? What ways do you think your work has been shaped from this culture?

Having been born and raised out here, its hard not to have that influence my work. With all the ads and the presence of “Hollywood”, the aesthetic I grew up with is definitely, a very glossy one with a big attention to perceived beauty.  Many outside people view it as a fakeness, and to a certain extent they can be right, but I have come to view it as the pinnacle of what “beauty can be” and the longing for “perfection” in an imperfect world. In the end, no matter what message I am trying to convey, it still needs to be pretty, and I’m constantly trying to perfect that craft.  The weather also plays a big role in my work. I probably take it for granted most of the time, but being able to go anywhere and do anything without the weather limiting you is so essential. You can go as big as you can out here, all year round. To some however this can be to there dismay, it’s easy to get lazy out here. I mean when its 73 and sunny, the weed is good and legal, and the women are gorgeous, who wouldn’t want to kick back and chill out all day with an iced tea. You definitely need to be self-motivated out here; the city is constantly playing to your vices.  That’s where growing up here has played to my advantage, I’m desensitized to most of it by now, so its easier to block out, and stay on a hustle mode, where a lot of transplants easily get caught up in that glam and glitz lifestyle and forget why they are really here.

Do you feel as if your commercial work has opened the door for more personal work or do you feel your personal work opened the door for more commercial work? 

Its weird…I first started making art because I enjoyed it and I liked having cool looking things surrounding me in my room.. I then realized other people thought it was cool as well.. So they started asking me to do things for them.. then one project led to another, another led to another, and so on. All the while I kept working on my own work, trying to keep pushing myself, and going bigger and bigger. Sometimes my ideas were so vast and expensive to achieve, that they could have only been executed at that time with the help of an outside source. I have learned to use those sources to my advantage.  It’s like being backed by a bank or machine of sorts; they help to realize some of my artistic visions.  I feel there is constant play between the two worlds, and they both constantly feed each other, and open doors for each other all time. 

Do you approach your personal work with a different way of thinking in comparison to your commercial work? How different is that approach?

When I create any art, I think of it as like solving a problem. I get an idea of what I want something to look like, or what I want it to do.  Then, I get into a really intense think mode, I pace around the studio for hours sometimes days and listen to music, as I try to break down the idea in my head, and actually “make” the piece in my mind step by step, anticipating things that might go wrong, or the order of the process, the composition, materials etc.. I think about past projects where I have done similar things, and remember what I learned, and how I accomplished certain aspects, and most importantly learning from mistakes I’ve made. I seem to have come up with a unique procedure, which I am constantly perfecting when I am making work. Whether it’s for personal or a commission of sorts, I go about it in the same way. 

Do you want your works to speak their message clearly or be more interpretative?

Different pieces have different intents.. when the message is clear and obvious, a viewer will take in nothing but a quick glace, and then just as quick forget about it. But when the message is not so obvious, the viewer takes it in a little longer, but stays with them for a while, and maybe only gets it a week later, while they’re in the shower getting ready for work, or even better, never gets it completely, and for the rest of their days try to understand it, that to me is more exciting. Making something that keeps a brain hanging on and asking questions.

KCRW let you “hijack” their guest dj project and perform “Melting Rainbows” at their masquerade ball how did participation with that project come about?

Participating in the Guest Dj Project was a lot fun.  Although, that was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do.  Pick 5 songs that inspire my art making practice.. At first it seemed straight forward and simple, but as I started making my list, it easily went from 5, to 10, to 30, to 50!! Being so into music, and being exposed to so many forms of it throughout my life, so many songs have inspired me for different reasons. It was very hard to narrow it down, but I’m pleased with the choices. It ranged from the grittiness of Wu-tang, to the soft sensual sounds of Peggy Lee. However, that list probably could change day to day.  I originally met Rachel Reynolds from KCRW at a TOMS launch event in Santa Monica, where I was painting a mural live to music. We started talking about art and music, and how I’m am a huge fan of the station, and how a lot of the new music I get exposed to is thanks to KCRW. I think later I mentioned a new piece I was working on called “Melting Rainbows” originally for the Vortex Immersion Dome.  It had a lot to do with music, projections and performance seemed to be pretty fitting for them, so I guess when they asked if I’d be interested in performing that piece live at Masquerade, it was a no brainer.

At the end of your KCRW guest dj project you invite others to send in their video responses, a QR code was even seen included in “Greatness Doesn’t ask Permission”. How interactive do you see all your artwork and do you want your works to take interaction in a direction that other artists have not?

Interaction is very important to me. As I feel that art is for the people, the public, the community, not just for elite top 1% of people that actually go to museums and galleries. When someone feels they are part of it, it makes the work that more relevant to the society its in art is a universal language, and should be shared universally I’ts great when you can show 100 people the same thing, and you will get 100 different interpretations.

With so much of your commercial work seemingly tied into a musical connection, how do you feel it ties into your workflow and your work?

Music has always been a big part of my life.  Even growing up as a child, the sounds of Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Al Green and Sade could be heard emanating throughout the house.  I feel as though music and visual art are so interconnected in my life, that I don’t think I would have the same art practice, or any art practice for that matter without music.  When I’m in the process of creating something, I dance a lot, and even paint to the beat of the song, when someone is there watching me, or when im alone, I am in a sense performing the art. I think that energy comes out in my work as well. I want it to look like it was fun to make. Sometimes I feel some artists forget why they even started making art in the first place cause its fun! for me at least before the money or notoriety, I made it because it was when I was happiest, I have a great time creating and listening to music enhances and triggers those happy moments. Music is just as important as the paint or a brush. I use it as a tool, whether I need to make something elegant or soft, or energetic and rough, I choose a song accordingly to give me that correct energy.  This is why I feel I’ve collaborated and done so many projects that involve music and the music industry. Whether it was doing art for Radiohead, Madonna or Ghostface Killah for the Coachella Festival, or the Music Stage designs for the Tonight Show w/ Jay Leno, or to live performance art for KCRW, they all give me so much creative control, which is so important, it allows me to completely delve in to the music, without any guidelines, and give my visual interpretation to their sonic language.  I’ve recently been listening to a lot of Animal Collective, I can’t help but not to make art when I hear them, the sounds are so colorful and uplifting, it’s a jolt to my creative soul.

A lot of your work and artists statements seem to be a reflection of what you believe the media portrays of a “life” to the masses and what pop culture portrays of the world. How do you think pop culture shaped your life and artwork?

Aw man… pop culture is vastly influential to my life and art practice to this day when I see great TV commercials like the ones selling a Mercedes, or milk or an apple product I get goosebumps. Some of my best ideas have come from the seconds after I have just seen a great movie, or listening to an amazing music performance. I get a rush of endorphins and a unique drive to go and create right after I see movies like, “True Romance”, “Edward Scissorhands”, “Pulp Fiction”, “Gummo”, or most recently “Enter the Void” to name a few. There is so much there in these films that can be used as a muse in a certain way, the dialogue, the score, the costumes, the props, to how the opening credits are played these all in some way influence how I view the world, and in return how I create art for that world.. I have been really into the aesthetic of 8bit recently, and I can guarantee that, that interest came from the hours of playing “Duck Hunt” and “Super Mario Bros” on Nintendo when I was a boy. Even certain colors im into, like hot pinks, fluorescent yellows and cheetah prints, stem from the TV show “Saved By The Bell”, and girls in my life will always be judged and rated to Kelly Kapowski. Its weird growing older, and noticing what has stayed with you and withstood the test of time, spontaneously showing up in my art. Its cool to see things come up randomly, and being able to identify it with an exact place and time in your life where you first remember it occurring.

Some of your work has an undertone of anti-authority. How do you think this feeling has helped you establish your name in the art world? Do you think the art establishment (and take the term establishment as whatever it means to you) has accepted you and do you embrace that or fight it?

Growing up I always got into a lot of trouble.  Getting kicked out of classes for trying to get cheap laughs, getting benched at recess for not playing kickball by the rules, or almost getting kicked out of CalArts for drawing all over the walls. I have always tried to push how far I can go before getting into trouble.  I always felt the need to question everything that was told to me, so many people blindly accept things that are said to them, without question. I never understood that, how can someone think for themselves or have a unique perspective on the world if they always agree and take what is being said to them by an “authority figure” as written in stone or a complete truth.  Those themes of anti-authority definitely occur through out my work.  “Freedom of the Press” for example, is all about questioning what you are being told everyday by the skewed and corrupt mass media system, they can say anything they want, however they want to, and the majority of people will blindly take it as fact. Its kinda scary how much power the media has over people’s minds, I just try to point that out, not necessarily trying to prove certain facts wrong.  Its funny what the art world chooses to embrace at any given time. I’m not sure if anyone including myself will ever be completely accepted by an entire establishment, their will always be people that cant relate or don’t like my work. I have become content with that, anytime someone’s given a platform to speak their mind, there will be people who agree and disagree, that’s just part of the deal.  I used to try to please everyone, I soon realized that is an impossibility, so now I just try to be true to myself, and do what I think is cool.

You have been called a street artist. Your works have obviously been seen in the street, “Greatness Does Not Ask Permission” was a whole building, but do you see yourself as a street artist? Do you identify with that art culture?

So many of the great artists of our time, worked in so many ways. Picasso for instance created countless paintings, and countless sculptures, but one of his most famous works was “Guernica”, which according to today’s standards would be considered street art. What category would he then fall into? A street artist? A Painter? A Sculptor? I don’t believe in putting labels on artists.  An artist to me is an artist.. All those labels are really just tools an artist has to convey an idea using the street or using paint or using clay, those are all just things that an artist has in his/her arsenal to get a message across the best way possible.  I don’t consider myself a street artist.. some of the pieces I’ve done are in public places, on buildings, and some pieces I’ve done are in private spaces on canvases. If an idea is best on a building, it should be on a building, if its best to put it on a giraffe’s ass, put it on a giraffe’s ass. Once, someone puts limits on or labels themselves as a certain type of artist, it becomes almost impossible to grow and evolve, and what’s fun about that?