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INTERVIEW: Babel-ing with Jim Houser

Jim Houser is a self taught Philadelphia-based painter and installation artist, well known for his cartoon-like images on small canvases juxtaposed with painted and appropriated objects. Others may also know Jim Houser for his designs for Toy Machine skateboards. BABEL, a thick image-rich tome of his work and musings, was published in 2005.

Jim got his start at Space 1026 back in 1998. His canvases have graced the walls, floors, and corners of galleries from coast to coast, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art!

My attention is held by his unexpected, yet tranquil color palettes and anthropomorphic forms that appear obvious at first glance, but become quite enigmatic as you enter the visual maze of the overall piece.

A Figure on a Map - 60″ x 40″, 2007

Check out what Jim had to say to Art in the Age’s Ben Woodward…

Ben Woodward: What is a typical day like for you?

Jim Houser: I wake up around ten, go upstairs and paint until 2 or 3, then do errands. Around 4 or 5 I take a nap. Then eat dinner and hang out for a bit. Later, I go to work again, painting until 1 or 2 in the morning.

BW: What kinds of paint/brushes you use?

JH: I had to check the names. Loew Cornell flat brushes and Golden acrylic paint and gouache. Everything is mixed with Pebeo gesso or another super opaque kind. I also use Newport brand cigarettes and Melita half-caffeine coffee.

BW: Do you work out how a painting is going to look before you start, or do you just put paint to canvas?

JH: They all look the same, so I basically know. I mean, it’s not like sometimes when I am done I go, “Oh hey - a landscape! ” But on a scale of 1 to 10, the amount of planning is probably a 3. It changes while I work.

BW: I know you work on a lot of stuff at once. How do you keep things straight? Do a lot of things end up on different paintings because you work on so much at the same time?

JH: That’s just a function of working fast. I work on one, and that is wet. So as it dries, I start something else. Then while that is wet, I go back to the first or start a third. They are all kind of connected anyway, with colors or ideas, so I don’t ever get confused. If my table gets super messy, I have to stop then. If I am looking at too many paintings, tools, and cups in my field of view, it’s hard to keep things straight in my head.

Installation from asobviousasaskull - Jonathan Levine Gallery October 2007

BW: Color is an important part of how you work. Do your palettes come from any things or places…or just from your head?

JH: Lately I have pared everything down to blues and reds and brown for black. Just varieties of those three hues from lightest to darkest.

BW: Lately you have been doing a lot of design on the computer. How is that different from how you work on your paintings?

JH: The biggest way it is different is because it’s for money. I would never sit down at a computer and make stuff just to make it, like I would a painting . So it’s more of a product. It’s a reference to the art, in a way.

BW: Is there anything you’d like to say as a parting note?

JH: Brian Lynch is the secret weapon.
For more on Jim Houser, see Annette’s write-up of his solo show at Painted Bride Art Center last spring.

And rejoice soon - a Jim Houser video is on the way!!!