1xRUN Thru Interview
Hold On To Your Butts by Michael Eugene Burdick
1xRun: Tell us a little bit about this piece. Was it created solely for this release or was there an original piece created?
Michael Eugene Burdick: I had wanted to create a large painting that was an homage to Jurassic Park and had a cluster of imagery of dinosaurs attacking cars and eating people and inside jokes from the movie. The portrait of Samuel L. Jackson’s character was my favorite, so I added some elements, scanned them and played around in Photoshop to create something for a print. The original was sold.
1xRun: Was this piece part of a recent theme, series or show that you had?
Michael Eugene Burdick: This piece was part of a collection of original paintings for the Red Bull House of Art that I was invited to participate in last fall. The theme ended up being a great excuse to make a long list of everything that I’ve wanted to illustrate into a painting, from motorcycles to drawings of London’s architecture. The final result looked like painted pages from my sketchbook.
Commercially, I think the goal of illustration is to just try and incorporate imagery you like into whatever idea you’re trying to convey and a lot of this concept crosses over into personal work where you just make shit you find funny or that you want to draw. However, I am maturing, I hope, and have started to create imagery that tackles political or social issues. There was a landscape painting of downtown Detroit that highlighted parking spots with brightly colored spots of paint and I started a comic about Detroit’s famous mayor, Hazen S. Pingree, reincarnated as a stray dog.
1xRUN: What materials were used to create this piece with?
Michael Eugene Burdick: Graphite, acrylic, ink, and finished digitally.
1xRun: When was the piece created?
Michael Eugene Burdick: The original was painted in 2013. I mocked-up the print last month.
1xRun: Anything immediate you would like us to highlight?
Michael Eugene Burdick: Samuel L. Jackson says that line twice.
1xRun: Tell us how the idea and execution came about?
Michael Eugene Burdick: There’s a crudely drawn meme of Robert Muldoon saying, “Clever girl”. I was inspired by how silly and stupid that was and I like those one-liners from movies, so I took a screenshot from a scene I liked, loosely sketched his portrait, transferred to wood and painted on top.
1xRun: How long did the piece take?
Michael Eugene Burdick: The original entire painting took 12-18 hours. The portrait only took two to three hours. Drawing the jacket and adding the type and finishing in Photoshop took another hour.
1xRun: What is unique about this piece?
Michael Eugene Burdick: Samuel L. Jackson makes a cameo.
1xRun: Why should people buy this print?
Michael Eugene Burdick: You may like Mr. Jackson or Jurassic Park. Personally, I have one on my apartment door. It’s a nice mantra before you step outside.
1xRun: Describe this piece in one gut reaction word.
Michael Eugene Burdick: Butts.
1xRun: When did you first start making art?
Michael Eugene Burdick: I was always drawing as a kid.
1xRun: What was your first piece?
Michael Eugene Burdick: I think I drew a duck.
1xRun: What artists inspired you early on?
Michael Eugene Burdick: My mother showed me a print of Picasso’s Guernica when I was about 10. I still think about that piece. And Bill Watterson’s Calvin & Hobbes. That dude is so punk.
1xRun: What artists inspire you now?
Michael Eugene Burdick: Those guys still inspire me. Picasso’s father was nationally recognized by the Spanish government, but quit painting when Pablo was a teenager because he felt that Pablo had surpassed him in skill. Then Pablo abandoned realism and just kept on experimenting his whole life. Bill Watterson never sold out. He didn’t want to do a television show because he didn’t want to know what Calvin sounded like. Then he quit the cartoon because he knew it would eventually get stale. Currently, Cleon Peterson’s work is so simple and dark and relevant. I also saw the exhibit Your Feast Has Ended at the Frye museum in Seattle back in June. Nicholas Galanin, Maikoyo Alley-Barnes, and Nep Sidhu’s work there made me have to sit down.
1xRun: Do you listen to music while you work? If so what?
Michael Eugene Burdick: I share a studio with my best friends. We listen to a lot of early Motown and blues and folk and hip-hop and reggae. When I work alone I really like listening to sludge metal and heavier stuff and have been into Protomartyr lately.
1xRun: If you could collaborate with any living artist who would it be and why?
Michael Eugene Burdick: I’d want to work with Bill Watterson to learn some more on inking and for conversations.
1xRun: If you could collaborate with any deceased artists who would it be and why?
Michael Eugene Burdick: I’d so a comic with Kurt Vonnegut for the conversations I’d hope we’d have.
1xRun: What was the first piece of art that you bought? Do you still have it? The last?
Michael Eugene Burdick: It was piece by my brilliant friend, James Noellert. The last was a piece my girlfriend and I bought a cloud painting by Davin Brainard.
1xRun: Any big shows or events coming up that you’d like to share?
Michael Eugene Burdick: James and I run a fake store in Eastern Market. Try and find it.
1xRun: Where else can people find you?
Michael Eugene Burdick: Website – Instagram @michaeleugene
-1xRUN