When artists and musicians finally meet
Despite being close neighbors on the street of creativity, artists and musicians can live far apart from each other, never finding the time to get together for a barbecue.
But when it happens, it is glorious, with two sides of the same coin coming together to create something truly unique. I cherish any opportunity to learn more about art.
Getting the chance to converse with local artist Julius Eastman was truly enlightening. For those unfamiliar, his work has been featured in the Lancaster Museum of Art and History, the Metro Art Gallery, he painted live at the Kaleidoscope Festival and created a mural for the POW!WOW! art show.
Here are some excerpts from our recent conversation.
Jesse Davidson: How did you become an artist?
Julius Eastman: I moved out to California but never really lived anywhere too long prior to being here. We came out here through the Valley Oasis Shelter, believe it or not. And I was able to help raise money for them with a show that had taken place here some years ago. When I moved out here, the first thing that I had never seen anything like before, was graffiti in LA. That pivoted everything. I was already drawing at the time, but was thinking of art as portraits, landscapes, still-lifes, or anything like M.C. Esher. I saw graffiti
and everything got wild.
JD: One piece on your website stood out to me. It was a desert landscape with a Joshua tree in the forefront and pearly gates in the clouds. That one seems like a graffiti influence.
JE: Ohh yeah! That’s the piece that got me started out here. That piece was selected by the MOAH to be, I believe, the third-best in exhibition in the juries show. It was just an untitled piece I did for the show. My wife said I should do it and I said, “these people don’t want to see stuff like this.” I did it anyway and was so wrong about what people want to see.
JD: Do you have any specific place or people you draw inspiration from?
JE: Sometimes you get to know the artists who influence you and sometimes you don’t. You walk down the street in LA, step down a side alley with some friends and see just this little thing scrawled on a wall. I’ve also always loved impressionism. You know, there is one artist named Mear One. He became pretty popular after doing a Limp Bizkit album cover. He had his own thing going on.
JD: That’s interesting. In music, even just on a local level, it’s so easy to meet people who really inspire you.
JE: Well because they aren’t felons. When the MOAH brought the POW!WOW! art show to Lancaster, I thought, “Here’s something that used to be a felony that they are paying people to do. And people have opened up to it and love it.” I’m not sure where change in people took place.
JD: I think when other cities started to embrace street murals, people started to see the value in it.
JE: I learned a really valuable lesson when I started doing art as a profession. It’s hard to look at certain things and know what is a skill set. A really great way to understand it is to try it. You get better at what you do and its not going to stay exciting if you don’t try different things. You’d be surprised how much chops it takes to create a painting with nine lines that someone can look at and see something in it. It’s not as easy as it looks (laughs).
JD: Oh man (laughs). I can attest to that just from taking a middle school art class. That was challenging even at it’s most basic level. Not counting creating more abstract or complex works.
JE: Or something new. Nobody wants to make secondhand art. We all want to at least believe we are doing something new. Or at least, find our own signature.
JD: Exactly. Musicians and artists in that field are trying to do the same thing. Trying to develop you own sound with your chosen instrument.
JE: Oh man, I have a huge appreciation for music after trying it. In that regard, I’ve always been really open-minded when it comes to music. It’s sort of like my drug.
JD: Yep. Me too. And from a musician’s perspective, you are always seeking to improve upon what you do. I can’t imagine a situation where I’d ever stop playing music. I imagine it’s the same with being an artist.
JE: Absolutely it is. I changed professions again recently. Even still, I’ll be driving down the road and see something that inspires me to create. I think, “Wow, there it is.”