Mike Leavitt
Mike Leavitt…de ontwerper van de female attractions serie van Broken is zo’n toffe dude….!Een serie boards ontwerpen met iemand als hem is niet eens als werk te beschouwen. Tis een baas die extreem creatief is en naast de wat mainstream kunst als tekenen en schilderen ook poppen, kartonnen replica’s van sneakers en theepotten van dictators maakt. Tijd voor een interview om wat meer van deze dude te weten te komen…
Naam : Micheal Leavitt
Leeftijd : 33
Woonplaats : Seattle
Website: http://intuitionkitchenproductions.com
J: How did you get in to doing art ?
M: I never “got into” doing art. I can’t remember a time I wasn’t “into” doing art. I was always making things as a little kid. I made vehicles for my G.I. Joe’s. I made wooden boats to float and race. I drew Spiderman and Superman constantly. I considered different careers around age 18. I was also in art school at the time. The only other careers I considered were graphic design and art education. I felt like both were too much of a compromise at the time. It only took a small leap of faith in my truer, deeper ambitions to realize that I should make art for a living.
J: You are very diverse in what you do …vinyl dolls, action figures, painting, cardbox shoes…. How did you learn all that and what inspires you to do all these different things!
M: The inspiration for all my different projects comes from everywhere. I’m too inspired by too many different things to get pigeon-holed into one project. I’m deeply inspired by nature, the woods, mountains, islands, the ocean. Seattle is great for all of that. I’m also passionately inspired by politics. This motivates my interest in history, iconography, anthropology, and pop culture. I’m also highly competitive, which draws me towards sports, controversy, and social tension. I’ve only had bits and pieces of formal art training. About 80% of what I’ve learn is self-taught. I learned substantial color theory, design, and figurative representation in art school. Nearly all of my sculpture training has been learned on the spot. I spent many years doing carpentry. I learned more working on houses than I did in art school.
kartonreplica van een Nike dunk
J: Is there a favorite piece of art or project that you did? Please tell us.
M: In 1998 I made a large installation that was ‘blind’. “Grandpa’s Forest”-
It was a huge room that was completely blacked out. I taped up all cracks of light from the windows and doors. I filled the room with a kind of obstacle course. I hung pieces of plastic, fake fur, clothing, paper, metal and all kinds of other material. I built waist-height bars that people had to climb under. I added ramps and slants to the floor. All of this put everyone in a constant state of tension. You could not see beyond the end of your nose. It was REALLY dark. No light at all. Some people freaked out. We had to hold hands so people didn’t get lost in there. It was, by far, the most visceral piece of visual art I’ve ever made. And you couldn’t see anything.
J: What’s the story behind the teapots with the heads of Charles Manson (serial Killer), Kim Jong Ill (Dictator North Korea) Achmed Amadinijad (president of Iran) on them? That stuff is crazy!!!
M: “Pitchfork Pals” are a series of ceramic collaborations with my friend and colleague also from Seattle, Charles Krafft. Charlie is the most unsung genius on Earth. It’s been an honor to work with him. He’s been working with alternative ceramic objects for many years now. Our “Pitchfork Pals” are a natural extension of both our works. I sculpted the prototypes for the busts. So I sculpted the faces of Kim Jong Il, Amy Winehouse, etc. So far the series is composed of 6 characters. After engineering molds for reproductions, Charlie then reproduces hand-cast multiples of the characters in the form of a teapot, mug, piggy bank, or other such kitsch nick-nacks. Each piece is an original sculpture. Each piece is also fully functional to use. It’s quite a tea party to serve from an Ahmadinejad teapot! We’re redefining the term “conversation piece”.
J: You did a jason lee doll and a mark gonzales doll, right? How did that come about?
M: I sculpted both the Jason Lee and Mark Gonzales Art Army figures in 2006. Both live in L.A. now. The Gonz figure was a custom commission I did for a client in Southern California, along with a custom cake topper for the top of his wedding cake. The Jason Lee figure is owned by the parent company of his clothing apparel line, WESC. They have a business hub in Los Angeles.
J: How did a fine indiviual like yourself end up doing boardgraphics for a dutch skateboardcompany ? I Mean…we know we hunted you down and stalked you for ages…but try and make it sound cool and not make us look like chumps.
M: I’ve always wanted to do skate decks. I love the idea of doing art that will get destroyed in such beautiful ways. Sliding tricks across ramps and rails will only add to my Broken designs over time. How cool is that?! So when the opportunity presented itself to work with Broken, I hardly hesitated. I’d been waiting for something like that for a long time. I’d much rather have my art slide off the bottom of a crunchy skate deck than be isolated in a lonely, sterile, temperature-controlled, white-walled art gallery.
J : Did you like the final result ? What did you do when the boards arrived at your house?
M: When I first saw these things, I nearly cried. I was overwhelmed with joy at the results. I just love making freaky things. These are the weirdest skate decks I’ve ever seen. I dare anyone to go find skate decks stranger than the Broken/Leavitt “Female Attraction” series. Good luck with that.
Big Mike and his time tunnel
J: Ever done some skating yourself?
M: I’ve only skated as a means of transportation. I’m still a major novice. I never tackled it as a kid. So I’m piecing it together as an adult. At one point in college I was skating back and forth from home to campus. Once I was flying downhill in the middle of the street on a deck holding a full cup of coffee in the morning. I slammed straight into a parked car. Nearly busted my head open. Sprayed an entire $3 latte all over a freshly-waxed black BMW. That put a little dent in my skate schooling, though not in the car. I need another jolt of confidence to get back on.
J: So what are you up to at the moment? An artshow in nyc? Tell us…..
M: I just got through with the biggest show of my life in New York City. It was an overwhelming success. The show hasn’t closed yet and we’ve nearly sold out every piece. It was the best “Art Army” editions yet. We got some major press. I’m still pinching myself. Is this all a dream? Will it all end when I wake up tomorrow? It’s so easy to wish your way out of a bad trip. It’s a lot harder to wish a good trip will never end.
J: Any future plans for Mr. Leavitt, besides becoming a regular model for Broken?
M: I’m working on world dominance. I’m trying to re-create a Warhol phenomenon; how to cross over from the art world to pop culture. No one’s done it in decades. How boring. I’m working on publishing my first book and about to release my first vinyl edition (all “Art Army” figures to this point have been hand-sculpted one-off’s from scratch, NOT vinyl or plastic) with Jailbreak Toys out of Brooklyn. Next stops on this wild ride: Tokyo and Japan.
Thanks for the crazy artworks and for being a allround nice dude, Mike!!
