Archived Interview from
Double Negative, issue 14, 1997 (?)
This was published when I was first starting out as an illustrator. Many thanks to Jeff Wiesner for printing my sketchbook paintings! At the time, he was an Emerson student, bike messenger, writer, and the man behind the cool zine
Double Negative. I got hired by Burton Snowboards because their art directors saw
DN, and when Jeff moved to Philadelphia to open the amazing Space 1026 galleries/ artist studios with his friends, he gave me my own 145-piece solo show in the Fall of 1999. I owe him a lot. Check out what Jeff's doing these days at
http://www.abacusstudios.comand
http://www.space1026.cominterview with Mark Reusch
by
Double Negative publisher Jeff Wiesner
"Mark bought
Double Negative in a store and recognized some of his friends' work. When he sent in some of his own drawings, I saw the return address and realized that he lived in my neighborhood! We talked for a bit, he gave me some more drawings and even agreed to draw the cover for the last issue. I admire Mark for his dedication to his work and I feel that he deserves every bit of his success. I figured it would be appropriate to find out what goes on underneath this kid's monster mask..."
How did you first get hooked up with the Boston Phoenix?The Phoenix is like this weekly alternative newspaper with a big arts section, all the band listings for shows and stuff. It has swear words in it which impressed me in high school. I started sending them little black and white postcards of my sketchbook paintings in my senior year at Mass {College of} Art. You're supposed to make follow up calls to places you've sent samples to--The Phoenix art director is the first and last call I've ever made. The art director was like, "Look, if I like your stuff I'll call you! I'm busy." I felt pretty lame, but I just kept sending them stuff for seven more months and then they started giving me jobs regularly. I've been in it almost every week for two years now, which is cool.
How would you rate/ describe your experience at Mass Art? What classes did you take?It was good and bad. It was the only school I applied to, and I learned a lot from the other kids and the stuff that influenced them; I had some really good teachers who exposed me to new stuff---I actually got this huge package in the mail today from one of my old teachers (she's actually not old). She sent me this cool book about the Day of the Dead festivals in Mexico and a design magazine with an interview with Art Chantry who does all those great Estrus 7" covers and band posters. I took tons of life drawing and printmaking and illustration classes. The facilities at Mass Art are amazing compared to other schools I've seen, but sometimes I'd get really depressed about the city. Lots of people shooting guns, tons of sirens all night. A friend of mine got mugged right outside school by six thugs, they stabbed him in the back with a screwdriver. He dropped out and moved away. I hate shit like that, I hate it that I walk around at night with this pissed-off face so I don't get hassled. I'd get so jealous visiting friends' colleges, isolated out in the woods away from everybody. That seems kinda like hiding from the real world though; it seems like wherever you go there's always going to be bad people trying to do bad things to you.
What other work do you do besides illustrations in the Phoenix?I've done monthly stuff for
The Boston Book Review and a local zine called
Lollipop for a couple years; a cover and some inside stuff for
Punk Planet, pictures for my friends' zines
Commodity and
Outlet, Stuff Magazine. I just did a bulldog for some Reebok newsletter thingy. I make tons of show posters for good local bands, too.
What are some bands you've done flyers/ 7 inches for?Cherry 2000, Galveston, Shiva Speedway, Chevy Heston, the Kabooms. The 7 inches for Cherry 2000 and Galveston came out in September. Some of these bands make me feel 10 feet tall, they're so good! Last year I just approached them after shows and volunteered to make stuff for them, and then other bands started approaching me. Most of them have no money but I get in free to all the shows, they give me lotsa copies of my posters and singles, they buy me beer. Everyone seems pretty happy.
What is the most satisfying aspect of your job?I'm doing exactly what I want to do, it's so fulfilling---making pictures is the best. I've come across so many really great books and films and songs and artwork, stuff that makes me want to hop around, it's so good. I get this awesome feeling from it all. I think if I could make something that'd make people feel like that, I could get creamed by a big bus tomorrow and it all would have been worth it. It's cool seeing my posters up all over town, it's cool knowing half a million people pick up the
Phoenix every week. I like it that this little piece of me is in all these people's homes and they'll never know what I even look like, I'm invisible. I'd be taking away people's dirty plates at my old restaurant job while they sat there looking at my stuff in the paper---I never said anything, I loved it. I felt like a secet agent! Busboy by day, crimefighter by night.
How long do you see yourself working primarily as an illustrator? Do you have projects in mind that you intend to pursue?I see myself doing illustrations forever, it's so much fun. There's some other stuff I'm working on, though. I've got a kids' book about Halloween time and also a graphic novel thing going, I'm writing both and making the pictures. I used to write all the time and then I kind of stopped and now I'm trying to get back into it. I've been making big huge papier-mache masks for years now, too. By the time I'm old I'd like to have this army of giant heads that'd totally fill up my house. I like to put them on to answer my front door when I know someone's coming over. Freaks them out.
What were some early influences on your work?Cartoons and comic books and horror movies all the way! I've got boxes and boxes of drawings of Batman and Darth Vader and Dracula, the robots from "Force Five", Godzilla, Star Blazers, all from when I was teeny. I'd watch "Creature Double Feature" on Channel 56 every Saturday in total awe. I used to draw KISS in their makeup all the time, I didn't even really know what they sounded like. I just thought they looked cool. I had a thing for Batgirl, too, she's a cutie.
Once I got to middle school I discovered all those Iron Maiden posters of Eddie and the stuff Pushead was doing for the Misfits and Metallica and Zorlac skateboards. It's funny, all these scary pictures intrigued me enough to buy all the records and then I totally became corrupted by this devil music! heehee. I still have this big soft spot for Slayer.
Describe your first year or two after graduating college.It was a super low point in my life, really frustrating. I had no money so I moved back home with my parents and worked a variety of mindless shit jobs for a year. My parents are so cool, but I missed my friends in Boston. My girlfriend at the time was still living there, and things totally went downhill with her. Amd my dog died. We'd had him since I was little, he still wanted to run around and play but his back legs didn't work too well anymore so we'd just carry him around. We had to put him to sleep and I was really crushed. I went through like 6 big sketchbooks that year trying to get all this bad heavy stuff out of my system, it was like going to therapy but better because I didn't have to pay anyone to listen to me and I got a lot of artwork out of being unhappy. It's weird, I can be really down and I'll paint and I get it all out of me. And afterwards I can look at it and be totally detached from it, like that was all some other kid's problems. This whole time I was trying to get illustration jobs and after a while they started coming. Eventually I was able to move back into Boston with some friends.
How does it feel to be supporting yourself entirely on your illustrations?Exciting, but kinda scary sometimes. Some weeks I'll get no assignments at all, so I keep busy working on stuff for me, making new postcards to send out to magazines or whatever. Other weeks I'll get a zillion jobs at once and not be able to go to bed for days. So many jobs I get are super-last-minute, and I've gotten better at handling those. I used to stress out trying to make a picture come out right overnight; 2 weeks ago I had to do 15 small paintings overnight, last week I did 8 paintings overnight. You just learn to do it and not freak out. They come out so much better if you just have fun with them.
Do you think anyone truly creates original work? To what extent do you see imitating other artists' styles as playing a role in one's art?I think it's hard if not impossible to make something totally original. There's so much neato stuff out there you absorb whether you realize it or not. I think it's a conscious decision you've got to make, if people can totally tell what your influences are by looking at your stuff, are you happy with that? Your work's going to be compared to other people's stuff no mater what, whether you draw or write or make music. I try pretty hard to keep my pictures my own. I don't want to be a clone of somebody I admire. I don't know how successful am, but I try.
