Mini Greatness: Nathan Ezra Trimm

Nathan Ezra Trimm is participating in this weekend's Oak Cliff Visual Speed Bump Art Tour 2009, Saturday from 12 - 6 PM. He sat down with us for some hard-hitting questions for this week's mini-greatness...

Richardson Heights: What is your current studio set up like? (location, lighting, material, extent of mess)

Nathan Ezra Trimm: I have a studio set up in my house. It's pretty centrally located in my house so I try to keep it pretty tidy, especially since I have two cats that like to use my brushes as toys. Probably the most important thing to me in the studio is my grandparents' dining table from the 60's. It's this awesome white formica table with turquoise bucket chairs. I actually started painting at that table when I was a kid, so it's kinda nice to still be using it after all these years. It kinda ties me back to my childhood which is a big influence in my work.

RH: In your artwork, do you employ any particularly unique techniques that you've developed on your own? (Why wood panels?)

NET: I don't really have any unique techniques that I can think of. I mainly paint with acrylics on plywood or found wood. I started painting on plywood because I liked the idea of painting this synthetic world that is based on universal human experiences on a natural material that is actually heavily processed by man.
I manipulate emotion, societal themes, sexuality, religion into this odd child-like synthetic world just like the the natural organic wood has been manipulated into something synthetic.

RH: Who/what/where is your most unknown and/or non-obvious influence?

NET: I have a ton of different influences... I'm influenced by Japanese pop culture, anime and manga, American consumer culture, religion, astrology, sexuality... artists such as Takashi Murakami and other members of his Kaikai Kiki Collective, Tokidoki, pop artists like Warhol, Surrealists like Dali & Max Ernst, as well as Tole Painting and Saturday morning cartoons. I've always been interested in pop culture and societal trends and how these elements affect our collective subconsciousness as a society. I kinda grew up kinda as a social outsider... my sister and i were kidnapped at a young age by my mother from my grandparents and we lived touring in the Renaissance Fair circuit for about a year. During this time we lived out of a car, in tents in a national park and finally ended up in housing projects in the mid-west. Then, I was brought back to the upper-middle class life of my grandparents where I attended a private Christian school. Also, growing up gay in a small town in south east Texas had a huge influence on how I see and interpret the world around me. I take all of these experiences and observations on how society interprets various philosophical and visual ideas and use them to tell my story. The imagery I use is easily identifiable, but the context and meaning I assign to these images is deeply personal and serves as a small glimpse into my subconsciousness. WOW... that got really deep! Actually, I just like painting cute animals & meat balloons. Sorry for keeping the answers short and sweet!

See Mr. Trimm and others at the Oak Cliff Visual Speed Bump Art Tour 2009 this Saturday from 12 - 6 PM. You can see more of his artwork at desperateforfriends.net

****

Not exactly exhaustive, these are my picks for the weekend:

Weekend Event

CityArts Festival
Friday 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Saturday 11:00 AM - 10:00 PM
Sunday 11:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Dallas Art District, Dallas, TX 75201

FRIDAY

Becoming Human by Billy Keen
American Modernist by Everett Spruce
Valley House Gallery & Sculpture Garden
6616 Spring Valley Road, Dallas, Tx 75254
Friday, 6:00 PM - 8:30 PM

Geometry In Dallas : Work From Local Artists
Lane Banks, Shirley Bode, Joseph Chimbel, J. Brough Miller, Rich Morgan, Stewart Reuter, Sandi Stein, Gisela-Heidi Strunck, Juergen Strunck, and Michael Tichansky
The Museum of Geometric and MADI Art
3109 Carlisle, Dallas, Tx 75204
Friday, 6:30 PM - 7:30 PM

More about MADI.

SATURDAY

Why not give 'em a chance?
Grand Opening
E Gallery Studio
1330 Motor Circle, Dallas, Tx 75207
Saturday, 10:00 AM - 9:00 PM

All Dallas artists at Craighead Green this weekend:
The Secret Life of Flowers by Carolyn Brown
Directions For A New World by Norman Kary
Recent Work by Kendall Stallings
Craighead Green Gallery
1011 Dragon Street, Dallas, Tx 75207
Saturday, 5:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Mostly not-Dallas artists at Holly Johnson:
femme fatale
Virginia Fleck, Sharon Louden, Kim Cadmus Owens, Kim Squaglia, and Sarah Walker
Holly Johnson Gallery
1411 Dragon Street, Dallas, Tx 75207
Saturday, 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

I like me them serene landscapes a lot:
Recent Paintings
by Darlene Wall
PanAmerican ArtProjects
1615 Dragon Street, Dallas. Tx 75207
Saturday, 5:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Image courtesy of Nathan Ezra Trimm