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An Interview with Artist Bill McRight: FANTASTIC LURKING (and Working)
Bill McRight is a ramblin’ printmaker from all up and down the Southern United States. His hand-cut, hand-printed arsenal of creepy and crazed creatures can be found at his web home, FANTASTIC LURKING. Now transplanted from The Dirty South to our own Philthadelphia, Art in the Age curator Ben Woodward managed to “set awhile” with Bill McRight in his studio while lurking (er, working). Stay tuned for an Art in the Age shirt design from McRight in the near future.
Ben Woodward: Tell us a little about yourself.
Age, Measurements, Turn-Ons?
Bill McRight: I am 29 years old, but will be 30 by February. I have lost a lot of weight recently, so I think that makes me 5’10” with a 32” waist.
Turn-Ons: The smell of ink and TV.
Turn-Offs: Hippies.
Ben: Where did you grow up and how did you end up in Philadelphia?
Bill: I grew up in The Dirty South - Georgia, Florida, South Carolina. A girl got me to move down to Philly after grad school in NY. The cheap rent and rad studio space keep me around…and the cheesesteaks.
Ben: When and how did you get into block cutting?
Bill: I tried it first in college in South Carolina, but I was not stoked on it until 2003. I started making little stamps and then saw my friend Dennis McNett of Howling Print Studio doing some crazy shit with linoleum. Although I found my own way to go about it, he helped get the ball rolling for me.
Savagery - Silkscreen, 21 colors, 29.5
Ben: Why is printmaking your primary medium?
Bill: I like printmaking because it affords me the opportunity to have multiples of one image. This way, I can keep my work inexpensive. I also feel really good about using a process that relies heavily on craftsmanship. I might work the wrong way, (in the traditional sense), but I also know the proper techniques.
Ben: Do you like to draw first or just work off the blocks?
Bill: I draw a lot, but my drawing does not really influence the blocks. I use shoe polish to create silhouettes and then let the chisels do the drawing. It’s really a pretty backwards method, but it suits me well. Working this way allows me to make changes as I go. Sometimes I draw on the black to get things right - Maybe the correct proportions, but I don’t think that I ever get those right!
I understand that you have to be really controlled in your process, or you’re going to really screw up. If you cut too much out, there’s no way to fix it. White-out doesn’t help.
Ben: Can you tell me a little about teaching printmaking at Arcadia University? Do you have any good stories from the proverbial Blackboard Jungle?
Bill: It’s awesome because it is a liberal arts school and not just a technical art school. I get stoked talking to people about what they are making. Getting the chance to show 10-12 kids how to do something that I love really gets me amped. I work 6 hours a week, and the rest of the time is mine to make my own work.
As far as stories…I have stories about bloodshed in the classroom. When you are first learning to carve, it is inevitable that you are going to gouge the shit out of your hand. Almost all of my students have shoved a chisel into their hand this semester. We are out of band-aids and are now using gauze pads and tape.
It’s awesome that I am not much older than some of the students. They laugh at the fact that I talk like them. I use words like “rad” and “gnarly” when talking to them about creating artwork.
If you are “stoked” on this interview, stay tuned! Coming soon is a stop-motion animation video by Ben of Bill in the studio cutting a linoleum block over the course of an entire day…
Written by admin on 12/18/2007 in AITA Original | Blog | Interview | Printmaking
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