"When someone gives me a space and one of the interesting things about that is that i let the space dictate what to do. It sort of reveals itself to me when i'm there."
Again this is Way with another dope artist[and yes that is an entire room in the pic above]. If you know of a dope artist that creates art in any medium hit me up, my email is in the contacts section illRoots.com: First off thanks for the time out of your day.
Mark: No problem.
illRoots.com: Who is Mark Dean Veca?
Mark: Oh thats me. More specific?
illRoots.com: Yea, how do you define yourself as an artist?
Mark: Thats kind of a tough one, well, I'm a painter. I studied fine art at Otis Parsons Private Art School. Well it used to be that now its just Otis Private Art School in LA. I started painting and drawing as a kid and it was something that I loved to do and that I spent my time doing. I always wanted to be an artist. All through high school i would do art and take art classes and went to art school. Ever since then I just been doing it and finally I'm able to make a living at it?
illRoots.com: One piece that you feel is one of your better pieces?
Mark: There's a couple of big installations pieces that i did that i was really happy with. One of those was at PS One Contemporary Art Center here in New York. That was a big installation called Boogey Fervor. I was really happy with that one. Another one was in London at a place called Bloomberg Space, that was another big installation that after it was done i was kind of blown away by it.
illroots.com: Your art kind of reminds me of Dr. Seuss in weird kind of way. What's inpiration when someone gives you a space and says do your thing?
Mark: When someone gives me a space and one of the interesting things about that is that i let the space dictate what to do. It sort of reveals itself to me when i'm there. I just sort of see what i want to do and i'll go there and look at it and take pictures, take diagrams, and measurements. Then go back to the studio and respond to the space in some way which is a lot of different then if you were responding to a piece of paper its very generic. So when i do installations i look at the architecture and let it speak to me in some way. It also might have something in someway to a piece that I'm working on in the studio. You know the beauty of doing site specific installations is that it all relates to architecture.
illRoots.com: Going back to installations I noticed Pulsation with NIKE. How did that come about maybe a little back story on that?
Mark: Well, you know Mark Parker, who is now CEO over at NIKE is an art collector. I met him through Stash, and Stash's daughter is going to pre-school with my son Luca. But we barely even knew each other and I showed him some of my work and he said "Parker would love this stuff". So he showed my stuff to Mark and then, actually Stash and Mark were in London and they saw the show and Mark bought one of my paintings. He basically just said "Well we've got this space, 255 Elizabeth ST. space in New York, would you like to do an installation and do some product designs, some laser etching and stuff?". I was basically like "Wow" I'd love to do that. It was just a really great experience to work with them because they just let me do whatever I wanted and provided me with all the support that I needed. We came up with a really nice catalogue. They only made like 8 pairs of the sneakers.
illRoots.com: The jackets are ill.
Mark: I have some other stuff coming out with NIKE, snowboarding gear. They are launching these new snowboarding boots that are based on the Air Force 1's. So they just sort of launched those in Vegas a few weeks ago.
illRoots.com: Oh okay.
Mark: I just saw a couple of pics of them. Yeah, but I did a pattern for them that they are going to use for the Women's snowboarding jackets and boots and I'm not sure what. Stash did one and i'm not sure who else. So those will be out around Summer or Fall.
illRoots.com: Oh yea and that project you did with KAWS was crazy maybe give us a little story on that?Mark: Yea the Chum and the new t-shirt. KAWS is a neighbor of mine. I'm looking out the window and the lights are on, he's always up there working, But we became friends a couple years ago and I have done one other shirt with him and he sort of had the idea. He basically just gave me a photograph of that one chum piece and so i took that. imagery that i have been using. Actually if you see in the Boogey Fervor piece there are these big faces. I called them the boogie man. So he said why don't you combine that into this chum figure. He didn't have any idea what I was going to do and neither did I. So basically I started out with that basic composition silhouette of that figure and i just started improvising with ink on paper. I took a piece of 22x30 paper and I went in with my ink and brush and just started making stuff up. Starting top to bottom and just started working on making these weird faces and mouths and eyes. Its really popular and I've got several great responses from that.
illRoots.com: So What were you doing before this turned into a something you did for a living?
Mark: I always tried to focus on making sure I had enough time to work in the studio as well as a place to work. That was always important to me. Not to have any excuses. I started out after art school as an installer, moving art around. Working for art galleries. When I moved to New York in 1991 I worked as a guard at the Googenheim Museum for a couple years. I had my own candle making business. I sort of was able to do that for a couple years, started out selling them on the street. Then i ended up have them at Barney's and Urban Outfitters and then that fizzled out. Then yea, actually things picked up and I was able to go full-time in the studio.
illRoots.com: That has to be amazing. Being able to do what you love for a living.
Mark: It is, i feel pretty luck. Regardless of whatever skill you have it takes alot of luck to do that. They say like 1 out of 100 that go to Art School are able to make a living out of that.
illRoots.com: So what other ventures do you see yourself going into?
Mark: I don't know. Right now I'm just focusing on the shows that I have. I have a show coming up in Switzerland actually in a couple weeks, a show in New Orleans, L.A. in the fall. I don't know I want to keep it open. I'd like to do more of the stuff with NIKE and Kaws its very interesting. Yet right now I'm focusing on the painting.
illRoots.com: Thanks for everything and for those who want more on Mark check out www.markdeanveca.com.
