q)Something on you ..

a)My name is Nathan, I live in Amsterdam. I was born in the United States.
I don’t like to use capitals very often when I type.



q) When did you start to make art?

a)Art? Hm. Well I’ve been drawing since I was a kid. I guess I got more serious
about it as I got older, that might have been a bad thing though.

q)Explain your inspiration?

a)I like trying to render things in detail. I like Da Vinci’s sketches, those are
always inspiring. music, lots of music. Comic books, well when I was a kid,
and that stuck to me. War, which there is plenty of. chimps vs. bonobos, but
I’ve yet to get that on paper properly. 

q) In what way does your inspiration transform into ideas?

a)I usually just start drawing anything, or the same things, then they
transform as I drink coffee and work.

q) Could your ideas be portrayed in any other medium? If so which?

a)No I don’t think so, comic books, but thats still drawing.



q) What does being an artists mean to you?

a)Means being kinda lazy and getting high, college kids and such. Or asking the
government for money so you can complain about how bad the government is.
No. I guess more like a discipline in life, at least for me it is,
it’s a way to stay focused, and it gives a certain direction to my life.

q) When does your art become successful?

a)When it satisfies me. Which it often doesn’t.

q) Who prices your work? And how is the price decided upon?

a)At the moment someone else prices it, he comes up with this price by his
art-collecter thinking, I don’t know how that works, the prices are way too
high. but if he actually sold something, id see some money, november is when
this pricing concept gets put to the test.

q) What is your next; move,project,show etc?

a)I have some work in a show in november, the 6th, at the art fair in the Rai
here in Amsterdam. hopefully it brings in cash flow as I am broke and all the
painting I have been doing has been for that show, and id rather wouldve
spent my time travelling or drawing, actually both.

q) What are the pros and cons of the art market?

a)I have no idea. Oh, well a pro is there is usually free wine at art selling
events of any sort and free food. Cons, is there is usually self-absorbed
wankers from wall to wall.

q) Which pieces would you like to be remembered for?

a)Ones I haven’t made yet I think.

q) Who has been the biggest influence on you?

a)Da Vinci, his drawings, not the paintings, those are boring.

q)Other visual artists that  you like.

a)Lots. Dwarfbaby [Shane Ingersoll]. Boiled shit. Brh [Brandon Haney]. Mel
Kadel. See my links page, there’s a lot more. And there’s always more coming
out that I see and I get floored by, I think its all too much. Let me throw
in two more; Henry Darger, Schiele.



q) How much do you think hype affects the public perception of what good
art is?

a)I think the hype only affects arty-types. I don’t think it affects the public
at all, I don’t think they care, and thats for good reason, that’s why comics
are more popular than some conceptual wankery nonsense.

q) Last CD you downloaded ?

a)N.W.A.'s greatest hits. And the audiobook of 'I am America and so can you' by
stephen colbert. Both brilliant.

q) What makes you happy?

a)Coffee and certain people. Bonobos.

q) What makes you sad?

a)Lots of people. Human nature, well the chimp like part of it.

q) Last book you read?

a)Brothers Grimm fairy tales. Still working on it. Lots of little books in it.

q) What else do like other than art?

a)Computers. Linux. 



q) Final thoughts...

a)Hmmmm.......

q)Your contacts.

a)http://menglef.org
http://www.myspace.com/defty_e