Interview with Ben Brown

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Interview with Ben Brown

The work of illustrator and artist Ben Brown is loaded with pop culture iconography that has been given a trademark BB makeover. Be it Jack White with a flesh-eating disease, a zombified Elvis or Kelly Slater as Beelzebub complete with horns and tail, it is obvious Ben is having fun with what he does. This light-hearted humour that Ben applies to his work has not only been commissioned by every cool rock band to come to town in the last 20 years but it has also been a big part of the visual history of the surf and skate industry.

As Ben claims, “My work never has any underlying message.” So no matter how hard you study his deft pen and ink illustrations, they claim no deep hidden meanings, no references to secret texts, underground religions or satanic cults. You’ll have to look to Disney for that.

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Interview with Kelly Sullivan

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Interview with Kelly Sullivan

Kelly was born in Melbourne and studied Graphic Arts in the 80s, when light boxes and squeaker textas ruled! She moved to Sydney in the 90s whilst attaining an Arts Degree at the National Art School in Darlinghurst. Her work is largely based on circumstances that surrounded her when she was young, as she was born to a family of great iconic imagery and pop culture of the 20th Century. Hence, Kelly's work is fundamentally grounded in graphic pop culture, that she was, and still is encircled by. She now resides in Byron Bay and when she isn't crafting and painting, she works seasonally on the 'Splendour In The Grass' music and arts festival.

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Interview with Jason Bryant

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Interview with Jason Bryant

Born in 1976 in Wilson, NC, Jason Bryant now lives and works in New York, City. Bryant graduated from East Carolina University with a BFA and went on to the Maryland Institute College of Art for his MFA in painting.  Bryant moved to New York City soon after and began work with such notable artists as Kehinde Wiley and Bjarne Melgaard. Heavily influenced by classic film, Bryant begins each painting by researching images from cinematic moments or magazine images of interest to fit various themes exploring loneliness, vulnerability and frailty. Bryant renders each image, at first as a pencil sketch on canvas without the use of projection and then by transforming the image through oil paint into a photo-realistically and beautifully rendered film still. Bryant then incorporates his signature skateboard graphics, a skateboarder himself, or paints in pixilated areas often cropping the eyes or other notable features of each character.

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