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AoM: Jay Rivers

Wow…it’s August. Does anyone else feel that the months of May-September fly by like nothing but the months of January-March crraawwll by? Here at BitB it has been hot, steamy, and busy. We are gearing up for our inaugural appearance at Intervention Con in September which we can hardly wait for. In the meantime, we are pleased to have Jay Rivers as our Artist of the Month for August.

We quickly decided that Jay was cool in our books when we discovered that he is a huge fan of Adventure Time and The Regular Show, just like we are…possibly even a bigger fan? Nah, that could never happen! Jay is a digital artist from Georgia. After five years in a retail job, he decided to quit and put all of his talents and energy into his true passion-digital art. With hopes of having his art featured one day featured in television, games, or movies, his art blends Eastern and Western influences.

Many thanks to Jay for his creative designs for the month of August here at BitB. Be sure to read the full interview to learn more about Jay and while you are at it, make sure you cruise his links on his page at BitB to see more of his work.

Bored in the Basement (BitB): Hello and tell us about yourself:

Jay: Born and raised in Bruswick, Ga. Lived here pretty much all my life. I have been drawing since I came out my mother. I never really knew what I wanted to do with my talent when I was younger; I just kept it as a hobby of mine. It was not until my 5th year of working at Wal-Mart that I wanted to do more and the doors of that place were slowly closing in. Now free from that job finally, I am now devoting myself to building an art business of my own.

BitB: So when it comes to shopping Walmart, Target, or don't shop?

Jay: Walmart for food, Target for gadgets and figurines

BitB: Describe your art style and inspirations.

Jay: I try to blend western and eastern styles together. I want to do more realistic drawings, but the anime style is too alluring to give it up yet. 

BitB: What caused your interest in anime so much? Also are you a fan of Chocobots!?

Jay: The fluid of the animation, the ideas that go into every flick, the boldness to put a little suggestive content in cartoons..something that shook our Western-ish ideas about what age group cartoons are made for. When I first saw Vampire Hunter D and Robot Carnival almost 20 years ago, I was SOLD. I don’t know about Chocobots..but I want a Chocobo..are they the same thing??

BitB: How long have you been doing this work and how did you get started?

Jay: I have been doing digital work for over 11 years now. I saw a tutorial Long Vo made about digital airbrushing and it was a wrap :-)

BitB: This stuff is above my head... So I divert to a different question…Clubber Lang, Mr. T, and B. A. Baracus... Kill One, Marry One ,F*ck One... Go!

Jay: WHAT!? NOOO SIR!! lol! Well…I guess you gotta marry Clubber...he will protect you from Mr. T after you had that one nighter...and you gotta kill B.A before he kills you…or after he kills off Clubber and Mr. T to win your affection…yanno?

BitB:Is art your main career or would you like it to be?

Jay: I am working on making it my main career. I don’t think I can be happy if it is not.

BitB: Well would you be happy with 2 Million dollars? But it’s just to hold...no keeps.

Jay:  You know what, that temporary feeling of not worrying about bills would be nice. I would be happy for a minute.

BitB: What were your inspirations for your Artist of the Month t-shirt designs?

Jay: Something cool, slick and new. Wanted to dazzle and show people what I can do.

BitB: I'm rarely "dazzled" however big fan of the Be-dazzler... thoughts?

Jay:  I would be a fan of Be-Dazzker too if I was either a grade school girl.

BitB: What is your most and least favorite mediums to use?

Jay: I love pencil and pen. Oh and I.LOVE.PHOTOSHOP. My least favorite is paint I can’t stand the mess.

BitB: Well.... now we have an issue... see there is an old saying going around that says if it can't be done with paint then it ain't worth doing. It's just a fact. Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, even most of Vincent Van Gogh's work was done with paint. I do a workshop on paint every other Tuesday of the month. However it just occured to me as Lenard just pointed out you may be actually talking about paint paint not Microsoft Paint... which for your sake better be the case... or else...

Jay: I'm a big Microsoft Paint fan... BIG…lol. I am talking about paint paint. I just never really have been a solid hand painter.
BitB: Where do you see your artwork leading you?

Jay: Hopefully, I could showcase my ideas in television, movies and games.

BitB: What kind of games would you like to see your artwork in?

Jay: Open world adventure and flight simulators.

BitB: What is the first random fact about yourself that comes to mind that you are not afraid of being shared on the internet?

Jay: I am a shameless procrastinator.

BitB: And the second and possibly fifth random facts?

Jay: I am a hopeless romantic, dreamer, nerd and a geek <<I use these natures to prey on women unsuspecting of my deviant nature :-)

BitB: In your opinion-most influential ninja turtle, food, and Simpsons character and why?

Jay: Michelangelo: free will, loved to have fun and the most gifted of all the turtles..but you can never tell because he goofs off too much.

Food: I love food...ALL kinds except liver..and orka..yucks. Why? Because it is food and I am  fat.

Simpsons? Maggie. She doesn’t say anything...but says a lot, lol.

BitB: Nuff Said.

BitB: Your favorite homemade remedy for the common cold (some of us here at BitB are sick this week).

Jay: Moonshine and honey.
BitB: You may have to send some of that Moonshine up here... You know for uhhh research.

Jay:  I do constant research. Oh yeah, 6th thing about me: I am a professional alcoholic.

BitB: Do you like the tv shows Adventure Time or the Regular Show?

Jay: !!!!....OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHH!!! YEAH-YUH! ..I’m sorry I just had to. Those are my FAVORITE shows.

BitB:OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHH!!!! YEAH-YUH!!! /--:QI -- FISTPUUUMMPP!!

BitB:Any other information about yourself that you would like shared?

Jay: Thank you for this opportunity to showcase my work. :-)

BitB:And where can we find you?

Jay:  deletionofthesoul.deviantart.com / emblem.redbubble.com
BitB: And let us end with you giving a shout out to your favorite Grape Flavored Beverage?

Jay: Splyuck! gimmie some orange juice..or a margarita :-)

This months Q&A was conducted by our very own A&E, we hope you all enjoy!

Have anothe great month and keep your eyes peeled for BitB's upcoming contests for August and September!

as always,

Love

Tom & Ant

BitB Crew

July AoM: Jini Manard.

Hello, Gentle Readers-- I'm baaaaack. I'm not going to ask if you missed me; I will just assume the answer is "Yes" and get this show on the road. Summertime is upon us! Summer is a funny season. Depending on where you live in the world, your winter-times can actually be pretty nice. Florida, for example, maintains a nice balmy climate while northern states are snowed in and huddling together naked for warmth. However, it seems that no matter where you live (well, unless it's the Southern Hemisphere and your summer is really your winter..), summer is pretty miserable. It's always at least 10 degrees hotter than what is comfortable and it is usually also humid. Sure, some areas are less humid than others but let's face it, being hot is bad enough without having to deal with your underwear sticking to your butt crack because your ass is so sweaty. 

I digress.

The coming of summer also means vacation! For school aged kids and teachers, at least. And also for college students, which is what this month's Featured Artist is. Jini Manard is a recent graduate from Old Dominion University in the great state of Virginia. When asked about her education she explained that her original intention was to earn a BA in Art Education. She eventually decided to turn it up that extra little bit to 11 and go the double major route, and graduated with both a BA in Art Studio and a BS in Psychology. (And a minor in Japanese, to boot! Color us impressed.) We inquired as to what her career goals are now that she's got all those fancy diplomas on her wall, and she told us that she STILL isn't finished with school! She is making preparations to take the GRE at some point this summer, and is also shopping around for a Master of Library Sciences program in which to enroll-- Good luck to her on that!

I have the pleasure of knowing Ms. Manard personally and got to follow her progression through her art coursework via her Twitter (which, coincidentally, is also how Bored in the Basement found her!), so when I heard that she was going to be July's Artist of the Month I was pretty excited to see what she would come up with. Her designs do not disappoint! She describes her style as varying between art nouveau and minimalist, depending on what type of art she is producing, and says that between her education and her extensive experience designing art for t-shirts really wasn't anything new to her, although it does require some attention to the amount of detail in the design (to ensure that it prints correctly and clearly on the shirt.) 

One burning question in my mind was "What's up with the buttstache?" I'm sure you can all relate. Jini says that the credit for this one goes to her boyfriend, who uses that term as a reference to tramp stamp tattoos-- You'll notice the super bitchin' totally hardcore kick ass tribal design incorporated into the 'stache. As for her other designs, she tells us that they're more or less just stuff she likes. And let's face it, octopi (octopuses, whatever) and tigers are pretty darn fantastic. Seemingly a little random, yes, but she also told us that the inspiration for her art generally comes from "all over" (that's a direct quote) so in that respect, I suppose it makes plenty of sense! 

As far as how she got into the whole art thing, Jini's response isn't too terribly different from what I find most of the artists tend to say. I don't think I've encountered one yet who has told me that they just randomly picked up art as a hobby in their twenties, discovered they were really good at it, and ran with it. Which isn't to say it doesn't happen! Just not all that often, it seems. She cites both of her parents as influences, saying that while her dad is very left brained with some technical artistic ability, her mom is very right brained. Seems to have resulted in an excellent combination! She tells us that once she got her hands on a decent computer as a teenager she began doing coding and web design, and from there developed her interest in art and graphic design. So, for the most part, it has been a life-long passion. 

When asked what her idea career would be-- art, psychology, or both-- Jini says that her career plans as they are right now more or less fulfill that ideal for her. She plans to obtain a Master of Library Sciences degree and begin work in creating educational media and/or preservation, the best of both worlds if you will. However.. if she had to pick a dream job it would be one that involved "an average desk in an average office where I can just sit and make clip art all day." Well, Jini.. whether the former or the latter is what comes true for you, we wish you luck either way, and thank you once again for being July's Artist of the Month here at Bored in the Basement! 

- R. Riot.

AoM: Anthony Kinney

They say time flies when you're having fun. I say it flies when some a-hole from history decides to knock a whole 4 days off of a month. Alas, February, I hardly knew ye.. and now ye're gone. Which isn't to say that it wasn't fun! But.. well, whatever. My point is, March is all up on us! Spring time will be here soon (hopefully, at least), I think there's some sort of sporting event where grown men run around for hours at a time attempting to toss a ball into a small basket that has been suspended from a pole (madness, indeed!) and last but most certainly not least, it's time for a new Artist of the Month here at Bored in the Basement! And we've manged to steer away from the freaky tattooed types, going instead for the geeky super-nerd type. Birds of a feather, and whatnot.

Our very own Tom Velure met this month's artist Tony Kinney sometime last year during a convention at which other geeky super-nerd types had gathered. When approached with the possibility of designing some shirts for BitB, Tony says he jumped on the opportunity. Ok so really he says he jumped AT it, but let's not split hairs here. Other than designs he has created with the intention of submitting them to another t-shirt site that shall remain unnamed here, Mr. Kinney says he's never designed art for clothing. We consider ourselves lucky to be the first ever to actually get to print his work on t-shirts. As Tony pointed out, an added bonus of Bored in the Basement is that once we pick an artist, they're it for the month! There is no voting or screening process that the art goes through to decide which submissions get accepted.. the artist basically gets to simply say "Dude, you know what would make a bad-ass shirt?!" and then.. we make a shirt out of it. But, I digress. It's understandable that Tony hasn't ever really designed art for clothing before, being that the bulk of his experience and work is in HTML/CSS, but he says he enjoys the challenge of using Photoshop and Illustrator to create.

Of course, we didn't always have things like fancy computers and picture drawin' programs and the interwebs and the like. (Not until Al Gore invented it, at least. The interwebs, that is.) Why, back in my day we had to chisel our art into stone walls, and color it with crushed berries and buffalo blood. And we LIKED IT. I didn't get around to asking if Tony had ever had to kill a wild animal in order to create any of his art, but he did say that he got into it as a child-- getting started with Ed Emberley books, later graduating to copying the art from comic books, on and on and so forth. He did at some point take actual art classes, including some digital design courses to help hone his Photoshop skills. He says that he'd like to do more commissioned art as opposed to just hobbying around with it, but that he really doesn't have the time between working, drinking beer, and playing Minecraft-- All admirable pursuits, in my opinion.

And because there are the requisite ridiculous and completely (well, only slightly so this time) irrelevant questions in every interview, I figure this time I'll give you the words straight from the horse's mouth. After all, who better to hear it from?

What one person, alive or dead, would it be your dream to do a commissioned piece for? And let's pretend they basically say 'Here is a wad of cash, I just want you to make something awesome for me.' What would you make? And why, for that person?

I think it would be cool if Chuck Palahniuk, Cory Doctorow or Douglas Coupland (two of my favorite authors) commissioned me for their new book jacket design.

Do you have a favorite quote pertaining to art? What is it, and why?

There's a long ass quote by Jim Jarmusch that begins "Nothing is original." So many critics decry literature, music, films for being derivative of something else, but that's the point! We're constantly building new and greater things based on the work of our predecessors.

Favorite movie of all time, and why?

Star Wars Episode 4, A New Hope is my favorite. Well, I love the original trilogy can quote the entire film.

And last, but certainly not least.. You're on your deathbed. You have the presence of mind to say something coherent at your final moments on this earth. Famous last words?  

"I shoulda fucked old what's-her-name" c. George Carlin.

Tony currently works part time in a bookstore and does some independent work for a web design company, in addition to the aforementioned beer and Minecraft related activities. In addition to his offerings as March's Artist of the Month, he can also be found on the aforementioned interwebs at his portfolio site: http://sotd.us/anthonykinney/

We'd like to thank Mr. Kinney for taking time out of his busy beering-gaming-working schedule to create some kick ass art for this month's shirts, and we leave you with his own personal tag-line: "I'm a full-time nerd, part-time geek and volunteer weirdo."

Damn. Wish I'd thought of that one..

Until next time,
-RR

Bored in Wisconsin

Well, it's a new month and a new year. What better way to bring it in with an ode to Wisconsin! The Rose Bowl and Beer. That's the way it's done!

Bored in the Basement proudly presents Jeff R. as January’s featured artist.  We are grateful to Jeff, as he has played a very important role in helping Bored in the Basement develop as a company. After much anticipation, here is Jeff’s interview:

BitB: Tell us about your background, most importantly your art background and your love for the state of Wisconsin.
Jeff: I grew up coloring and drawing a lot. When I was younger, I wanted to be a “commercial artist”. That job evolved into a Graphic Designer in the real world. I studied Graphic Design in college. I have never regretted my decision to pursue art as a career.

Wisconsin…I have lived in several major areas of Wisconsin. I have also lived in Illinois, Minnesota, and Iowa. I have never felt more at home and more friendship than in Wisconsin…how can you not love this place?!?

BitB: When did you decide art was something you wanted to pursue, or more appropriately when did you start in the trade?

Jeff: I won a coloring contest at the local Super America when I was in 2^nd grade. I won a $20 gift certificate. That was my first payoff from my art skills.

BitB: Very interesting! Where do you get most of your inspiration?

Jeff: Pop culture. I continue to be amazed with the things people find amazing. Andy Warhol has been a huge inspiration to me since I first saw his work in 3^rd grade.

BitB: How about other inspirations such as music, photography, monkeys with coconuts, etc.?

Jeff: I am heavy into music, but visual art and music go hand-in-hand, in my opinion. Movies like 2001, Fight Club and others which make you think, inspire me.

BitB: How would you describe your style?

Jeff: An aftershock of the Warhol Effect on the globalization of techno America…2.0.

BitB: I understand that you went to school at UW-Whitewater. Did you plan on going to school for graphic design?

Jeff: It was always the plan. Although making the transition to web design only came on in my final semester, as web design was just merging as an offshoot of Graphic Design. I designed my first web page in Netscape Composer.

BitB: Pick an animal-which one would you like to be and why?

Jeff: A badger…that is the correct answer, right?

BitB: We are featuring many Wisconsin themed designs for your featured month. What is your inspiration behind these designs-a love for Wisconsin or to help promote your site, or both?

Jeff: Both, but my site promotes Wisconsin, it is a cyclical thing.

BitB: Tell us about your site, AsSeenInWisconsin.com.

Jeff: The site is dedicated to hyper-local news and sightings in Wisconsin. The idea of the site came from a neighbor who had “fixed” their broken basketball rim by replacing it with a five gallon bucket. I thought this is what many of my fellow Wisconsinites see everyday. This is something others can relate to. From this, As Seen In Wisconsin was born.

BitB: Given the chance to be a super hero or a folk hero, which would you choose?

Jeff: Super hero…like Batman.

BitB: Aside from your work with the As Seen In Wisconsin crew, you also do web design and site creation. Tell us about some of your other projects.

Jeff: I have worked on branding and identity for major national organizations and websites which help people get their businesses jump-started.

BitB: You have had a very important part in the creation of BitB. Without your knowledge and skill, BitB would have not had a functioning site until this past November. Do you plan on sticking around and being a continued support and help through design, art submission, and general tom-foolery?

Jeff: Definitely. I really respect what the BitB guys are doing. They are super cool and fun to hang out with. Hoping I’ll be adopted into the family sometime soon!... as long as they stop trying to stab me...

BitB: This is Wisconsin, so you obviously need to answer a drinking question. You have been selected to go on an all expense paid drinking binge for three days with three people-a historical figure, an artist, a writer, and one free choice. Who are your drinking buddies and what are you going to do?

Jeff: Andy Warhol, Stephen King, and Walt Disney. We will crush a cup and discuss the internet, guilty pleasure movies, and takeout.

BitB: How do you bridge between the business side of designing and your artistic side?

Jeff: It is really about realizing who you are working for. You have to remain true to yourself, but also realize you are working for a client. At some point, you need to bend. If it is work what is coming directly from me and straight to the masses, then everything is fair game.

BitB: Favorite curse word?

Jeff: Farve.

BitB: What have you stolen/learned from another artist lately?

Jeff: Copy>Paste behind>Stroke

ON WISCONSIN!

We hope everyone enjoys the new year and the new designs,

as always,

Love,

Tom and Ant

BitB Crew