This week’s artist’s spotlight is on @garfieldfrommemory

1. Tell me a little about yourself.

“About myself: I’m 39 and a woman – I feel like that’s gonna weed out a big segment of the internet but so it goes. I live a somewhat reclusive life with my dog Finnegan in Washington DC, and work a day job to pay the rent. I went to art school, did an MFA, and then life threw a few curves at me and here I am, drawing Garfield from memory every day.”

2. What made you want to draw Garfield in various forms? What was the inspiration behind it?

“The project itself is pretty self-explanatory: every day I draw Garfield from memory and post it. By every day I mean like 5 on one day and none for a day or two but I’m pretty sure it averages out.

Anyway, the reason I started drawing Garfield is a little dark, so fair warning to readers:

I’ve dealt with depression for most of my life, despite a wonderful family and the relative affluence of the 80’s and 90’s in the USA. In the summer of 2018, during a personal and mental health crisis, I attempted suicide. I was out of the hospital in a few days, but a part of me still felt dead inside. I stopped painting, I stopped drawing, I slept all the time I wasn’t at work. It was pretty bleak. But every time I’d absentmindedly draw some doodle I felt a little better. I was hanging out on the regular at a sausage shop – Meats and Foods – run by two rad individuals and Garfield true believers. There’s fantastically curated Garfield swag everywhere, and you can get a chilito, which is amazing, and a can of beer. I sit there and draw a little when it’s not busy. I started drawing Garfield since he was EVERYWHERE, and as I kept drawing him I remembered the feeling of being able to draw certain things from memory as a kid.

You know, you trade your chips for a drawing of snoopy or something. Anyway, something kinda coalesced around that idea, and I started drawing Garfield on the bus in the morning and posting them on IG. Someone suggested I do it for a year, and I thought that’s a low enough bar that I could maybe do it. That was in February, and it just kinda snowballed after that.”

 

3. What was your favorite Garfield interpretation you have drawn and why?

“My favorite Garf? It’s like picking a favorite child.

Maybe the Garf Bat, which I got tattooed by the fantastic@fork_spit at @ecstattoos. Or the Leatherface Garf. I love them all so much.  There have been a few commissions a little too weird for the Instagram that I adore.

4.What is your favorite episode of Garfield and friends and/or favorite Jim Davis comic strip and why?
“As far as my favorite Garfield comic goes, here’s the thing: I was never a big Garfield person until I started doing this project. Growing up we were not a Garfield household – my mom (hi mom!) intensely disliked Garfield – so I’ve really only started exploring the canon, if you will, pretty recently. I love the idea of Garfield, and I especially love the community of Garfield fans on Instagram – there are a ton of creative people out there making wild Garf stuff. To me, Garfield is my readymade, like Duchamp’s urinal, and he is infinitely mutable, and can stretch to fit any concept. On the web there’s a spectrum of Garfield, from the ridiculous to the sublime to the terrifying. I get to play around with all of that, and get feedback from followers all over the world.  It’s a kind of freedom and playfulness I haven’t found in my art in a long time.”

5.  Do you have any exciting news or events that you would like to share?

“Exciting news? I’m just livin that Garf life and I’m grateful for this project every day. I can’t draw Garfield forever, obviously, but it has given me a part of myself back that I thought was gone for good, and I thank Jim Davis, and now Viacom, for not suing me in the meantime. I would love to work with the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline or a similar charity on a fundraiser – I received a lot of help from a lot of people in the past year and a half, and I’d like to find a way to give back, or at least pass it on.”

If you would like more info on her art. This is her IG page:

@garfieldfrommemory

Thak you for the interview Kate!

Until Next time!

There is no secret that I love to read! I would totally pull an all nighter book binge. If a certain book made me want to turn every one of it’s pages then time becomes non-existent.

So during the winter months it is prime time for me to curl up with a good book or two…..or twenty.

I made up a list of five reads that I am planning to read this winter season. Or if you still have an avid reader to shop for and you are still on the search to get them that special gift (ahem like ME!). I will provide links on where to buy!

Chase Darkness with Me: How One True-Crime Writer Started Solving Murders by @BillyJensen I first heard about this book when it was first released in August. Author Billy Jensen decided to take matters into his hand decides to solve an unsolvable murder that even the police gave up on.

Link to buy is below:

Chase Darkness With Me

Supreme Glamour by Mark Bego and Mary Wilson. Mary Wilson is the founding member of one of my favorite music girl groups: the Supremes. Along with their amazing vocal cords I also remember their amazing fashion, Mary Wilson and Mark Bego goes in to deep discussion of 32 ensembles from the singing group.

Link to buy is below:

Supreme Glamour

The Topeka School by Ben Lerner. From the description of this book kind of reminds of the show “My so called life” but in book form. It has all the hidden teenage august set in the 90’s era that I would to read about.

Link to buy is below:

The Topeka School

 

Dali. Tarot (Taschen) This is actually a book I gifted myself. Taschen is one of my favorite book companies because they make their books so exquisitely well. Every time I opened a Taschen book I get a eye full of beautiful photos and exciting words. So when I heard this set of tarot cards was coming out I knew it was something I had to get. There was a limited edition version of this deck that was published in 1984 which is extremely hard and expensive to come by. I thought the reissued version was worth getting.

 

Link to buy is below:

Dali. Tarot

All about Sergio Leone: The Definitive Anthology by Oreste De Fornari: I am a huge fan of Italian cinema. So when I heard that there was a book about Sergio Leone coming out soon on December 27th it was a pre-order must buy for me.

Link to buy is below:

All About Sergio Leone: The Definitive Anthology

 

What books are on your reading list this winter? Comment below!

Until next time!

 

This week’s Artist’s Spotlight is on @billylillyuniverse

 

1. Tell me a little about yourself.

“Here’s a little about me.

I like wearing overalls but I don’t like being called Mario. One time I built a pool in the woods for my Abbigail to swim in. Took 15 water hoses to fill it up. She’s swim naked in there at night with the frogs, like a big mama queen.

I got a real bad memory. Had to ask what year it was just yesterday. I try to document often to help with that. I keep a scrapbook full of screenshots from Instagram. Just anything interesting to me.

I make wood cutouts of my friends and family and keep them around too.

I’m making my own movie theater in my town’s old gym. Been whittling away at it for the past couple of years. I’m always thinking of new things to tack on.”

 

2. Where do you get your inspiration from?

“Well since I started the theater’s I’ve painted over a hundred pictures of movie stars and posters about movies. I like the ones from the 80’s and 90’s mostly. Stuff from my childhood. I make it a point to see a movie before I do a painting about one. I wrote a poem called Movies are my Friends.  It goes like this: “Movies are my friends, on them I can depend. When I’m lonesome to no end movies are my friends. If you’ve ever seen that silver screen then you know just what I mean. I can keep my VCR heads clean cuz movies are my friends.”

Lots of other things inspire me all the time too tho: My soulmate Abbigail Rose Lilly. (We met in the 5th grade if you can believe it.) She’s obsessed with Disney and that’s seeped into my work a lot lately.

Last summer, we went swimming one night and around 3 in the morning. we saw 3 fairies flyin real quick into the barn. I think about things like that when I’m feeling creative.”

3. What are 2 favorite pieces you created and why are they your favorite?

“I don’t pick favorites. I love all my babies.”

4. What artist dead or alive would you want to collaborate with and why?

“Well if I could remember who she is. I would know right away who I’d pick. There was this sweet, middle aged, Asian woman on Instagram who I absolutely adored. She was very cheerful in her videos and confident too. She’d say “I love my painting!” I wish I could find her. I suppose I took her uncommon magic for granted. That’s why I make my little books now so I can keep track of all my special people whom I admire.”

5. Do you have any up events or any exciting news that you would to share?

“No big news right now. Just chipping away on my movie theater. It’s called the Super True Love Theater, which is part of my bigger vision called Lilly Land U.S.A (located in Brandenburg, Kentucky)

Once my work is done it will be open and free to the public. I still have plenty of workin to do tho. My next big conquest is a handmade arcade. You can follow my progress over on @billylillyuniverse  on Instagram

 

Thank you for reading there here interview. It was a real pleasure. Have a happy day

Love,

Billy Lilly

 

Thank you for the interview. If you would like to buy their art their shop is below:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/billylillyuniverse/