Gothamist: Alexis Rockman, Painter

Sat, 18 Sep 2004 18:39:11 -0500

**2**

Marisa

Fri, 16 Jul 2004 14:03:43 -0500

Come to think of it, he never asked me to. The man is remiss!

AppleFlyWanger

Fri, 16 Jul 2004 03:47:12 -0500

Thanks marisa, are you sucking his cock?

Marisa

Thu, 15 Jul 2004 19:44:22 -0500

Ooops, I meant "artist," not "interest."

Marisa

Thu, 15 Jul 2004 19:43:30 -0500

Don't be hatin'. He is not an asshole. He's very blunt, sometimes to a fault, but he is one of the most honest, down-to-earth, loyal people in the art world (though perhaps that's not saying much). It's also very rare to encounter an interest so committed to both important content and accessible form.

Phil

Wed, 14 Jul 2004 20:56:10 -0500

He even looks like a fucking asshole.

marsh

Wed, 14 Jul 2004 20:02:01 -0500

A few years back I did some freelance for Mr Rockman. I remember being amazed by his painting and really wanted to meet him in person. Then, after speaking with Mr Rockman on the phone, I realized what a fucking asshole the guy really was. I do have to admit he's got talent, but not much in terms of personality. Don't think I want to hear much about him these days. That's all

al-run

Wed, 14 Jul 2004 17:27:56 -0500

That should be "fern stem"...not "firm stem." Right.

al-run

Wed, 14 Jul 2004 17:25:56 -0500

K. Thor, Thanks for directing me to Rockman's site. What I find fascinating is that he uses seemingly mundane, organic materials from Tasmania to do his paintings for the Tasmania book � things like pulverized rotting (at what point does it become "rotten"?) wood, kelp, soil, fern matter (great name for a punk band), and decayed firm stem. Now that's original. Seriously, it's brilliant stuff. You should link that site in the interview so more people can check out his work.

edith

Wed, 14 Jul 2004 17:22:58 -0500

A usable interview format does not equal "stale and unobjectionable". I read this at work, where I'm usually supposed to be doing something else, so big block paragraphs of text void of context or structure are unappealing. The whole idea of blog as content management tool - be it the news or the interview - is to provide information in an easy to read and digestable format. Why that means the content therefore becomes stale and unobjectionable is beyond me.

al-run

Wed, 14 Jul 2004 17:14:52 -0500

Hey will, We're all nobodies...'till someone gets to know us. ;)

K. Thor Jensen

Wed, 14 Jul 2004 15:41:27 -0500

Thanks for talking about the content, Alex. Alexis is an amazing painter - for images from his Tasmania book, go here and scroll down: http://www.gblgallery.com/exhibitions/03_rockman.html - they're very different from his other work and amazingly beautiful.

al-run

Wed, 14 Jul 2004 15:27:25 -0500

Just to clarify, there is only one pejorative comment on this board about the current format. My comment is about Alexis Rockman's theory that "we are primates like other primates." The current format is growing on me.

Jackson West

Wed, 14 Jul 2004 14:50:42 -0500

Lay off, people. He's a great guy, a great writer and a great illustrator and he's doing something just a little different. If you don't like the format, wait until Monday. I'm sure everyone's angry comments will cow the next poor sod into doing something completely stale and unobjectionable. By the way, not to pick on dave, but if the NYT book review were written in all caps it probably wouldn't be considered the critical heavyweight that it is. And Thor, you could always email the complete interviews to your detractors to shut them up. Cheers, Jackson

format_supporter

Wed, 14 Jul 2004 13:55:02 -0500

I actually like this format for the reason stated earlier: you focus on the person being interviewed. it's not about silly transient hipster wit, but about getting a sense of someone. krucoff's format was fine, but many of the interviewees focused on the format, i.e. they tried to be profound or ironic about the questions, but rarely would you get a sense of them as people. this format changes that. for those having trouble reading a paragraph, go back to that copy of the post you have dangling next to your computer. maybe buy a coloring book or play around some more with that moronic bullet options on your copy of MS Word. everyone's time will be better spent that way.

al-run

Wed, 14 Jul 2004 13:28:54 -0500

I think humans are different than other primates. One example: we can type faster.

dave

Wed, 14 Jul 2004 13:24:39 -0500

I DON'T LIKE THIS NEW FORMAT READING IS HARD MAKE READING LESS HARD PLZ