Stats: Age: 25 (Sagittarius) Gender: I'm just a person. Same as you. Location: San Francisco, CA Hometown: I come from a nomadic tribe of Kawala Bear hunters. So I've moved around a lot. They're hard to find in North America.

-Q & A-

Childhood Influences: As a kid I really liked Dr. Seuss and Michael Jackson. I liked super heroes and comic books when I was a little bit older than that. And now that I'm all grown up and mature I'd say they're all still pretty influential, even Michael Jackson, cuz baby I can dance.

Current Influences: Artists (dead)-- Klimt, Schiele, Bacon. Artists (alive)-- Dave McKean, David Christiana, Kent Williams, Kim Weinberg. Genres-- Any genre that's hard to classify, non-genre will always be the most influential to me. Movements-- Art that influences me most is art that doesn't happen within a particular classifiable movement. Political-- Not really. Any political movement, individual, organization that is consistently predictable in its rhetoric ceases to be open-minded about an opposing viewpoint, and therefore will always serve its own interests, and tends to forget the authentic causes from which it started. But, I will say, I'm amazed at what the political organization moveon.org has accomplished from a grassroots level and am continually sympathetic to its cause. Social influences .....everyone has them. I guess sometimes it's just hard to point and say "that one." I try not to be influenced by trends. But I love that I can go out at any given time and spot other local artists whom I've shown with or just know through others and feel like I'm in the middle of something and we can feed off each other. I don't know what that something is. But it feels like I'm in the right place. I guess that kind of makes San Francisco what it is to me. Which makes San Francisco a huge influence.

Favorite thing that tastes like chicken: My evil grandmother once cooked for me the brain of a pig. Not kidding. But it was good. Even with all the evil in it. It tasted nothing like chicken. But nothing else does, which renders your question irrelevant, and therefore I can answer it however I like.

Current Creative Occupations: You may have heard I'm an artist. Every rumor starts with an element of truth.

Current Projects: My current project is a comics anthology I'm putting together with three other artists: James Kei (SF), Matt Dicke (NY), and David Hollenbach (NY). It's a 32 page black and white comic we're publishing under the name Hard Left Press and will be available in April. It doesn't have a title yet, but my 8 page story is called "All Movements Submerged" and involves an orgy scene amidst a group of violinists in a small town near the Mississippi River during the flood of 93 and 94.
I continue to work on my painted novel "Float" in my free time. It's full color, 104 pages, and currently seeking out publication. Also the next issue of Ornithopter, an art magazine published by 8 Eye Press, will be released sometime around March 10. I created a four page black and white sequential piece for the magazine. Will be at fine bookstores and comic shops.

Current and Upcoming Shows or Events: I'm in The Museum of Contemporary Art at the Luther Burbank Center Presents "Contemporary Perspectives" show featuring the work of over 100 artists up until to May 30th 2004.

Mediums: Oil and digital mostly.

Specialize in: I feel like I specialize in telling stories with art. But I'm not sure.

Dream Career which makes you hate your current job: Well, I have a "dream life" you might say. Lately I feel further and further away from being able to reconcile how that fits in with a career, not that I'm opposed to making a career with my art, obviously. It doesn't make me hate my current day job as much as just motivates me to get to the point where I don't need to work it anymore. I actually love hanging out with my friends and co-workers at the frame shop. But my dream life would involve making paintings and writing/creating painted novels full time. I eventually want to start my own publishing company, which, in a way, I guess that's what we're doing now in a smaller sense. So I guess I'm just excited that things are progressing. In the meantime, I'll just continue working on art constantly when I'm not working my day job. It doesn't really bother me like it did only a few months ago. It's just life now.

Print Publications: Sure. I'm not sure if any are current that would be worth mentioning here. I'd say just keep a look out, especially in comic shops, for Ornithopter out now and a Hard Left Press anthology, out April 1st, 2004.

Other Web sites: www.JoshHagler.com www.AltPick.com www.EyeOn.Org www.GalleryCulture.com

All work on this page is © Copyright of Josh Hagler 2004.