This was an interview I did a few years ago with “encil Club” I posted once but only for a very short time and I need to put something else in my journal so here it is.


PC, After going through your gallery, studying each portrait, painting individually, I must say you never do the same thing twice. The stereotypical question about inspiration is something that blows my mind when I look at your work; what inspires you?

AM, Inspiration comes from so many avenues, from the music of my favorite bands such as, Metallica, Jethro Tull, Seether, Tool, BAP and so many more. It’s the way the music is constructed, the energy and craftsmanship of these band and sometimes the lyrics. I rarely get influenced by visual art these days but as a younger person I certainly did, especially Durer, Da Vinci and some local mentors, especially Larry Butcher and Russell Thayer. I must say some of the work on DA that’s completely different than what I do is also an inspiration.


PC, Without giving away any of your secrets, what is your usual technique to make your drawings take on a life of their own?

AM,Understanding and developing the observational process, learning to see and deconstruct my vision to simplify and then rebuild it with my own artistic language. Also staying away from “classic” photo-realism and trappings of intellectual realism that often deadens the final work. I concentrate on the natural aspects of what I am reacting to and then recreating the image through my eyes.


PC, Did you study with professionals when your first started out, or is most of your talent cultivated by yourself?

AM,Yes I did go to art school and had a few good teachers the best of them shared the secret that you can only really teach yourself how to draw. Most of what I know I figured out or invented for myself.


PC, Which piece of yours took the longest and which one is close to you emotionally?

AM,As far as pure working time involved “Occasional Angel” and “In the Name of the Father” took a long time, so did “Forty-nine Trips Around the Sun”. Emotionally a drawing called Transplant is the closest to who I am.


PC, Photo-realism, or Naturalism, is something today's artists lack (including myself) with the digital art and anime crazes, do you work from photos? Your imagination?

AM,I work from both, the concept and sketches are from my imagination, to get the natural look I am seeking I commission a model and work from life and take my own photos. The series, Neo-Fossil and Gate, is just out of accidental processes that inspire the imagination and then I run with it.


PC, How do you deal with people who accuse you of using digital means instead of drawing by hand?

AM,I don’t deal with them at all, if they want to play games I don’t have the time to give them. I have told them to go to a gallery that sells my work and check it out, if that’s not enough screw em!! They are of the same ilk that think aliens built the pyramids, like human don’t have it in them to create greatness. Saying that though I have seen fakes here at DA, and my opinion it’s just laughable to think someone would do something so moronic and useless, but that’s their affair. I don’t sweat the small stuff.


PC, For some artists, they need certain things to gain inspiration (for there to be no distractions, or a big bowl of Oreos next to your HB pencil) what things do you need to relax to make your art a success?

AM,Depends on my mood, a morning beer buzz is quite nice (but not all the time) music, books on tape, and the history channel, that’s about it. I have two, three hundred disk turntables set on shuffle, and it does the trick.


PC, If you could meet any artist, living or dead, who would it be and why?

AM,I have met him several times, he actually owns one of my paintings and we have had dinner together a few times as well, Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull. Other then him Paul McCartney, Leonardo Da Vinci and Vincent Van Gogh.


PC, I was once told, to become a better artist, you need an ego. You have to think you're the best. Do you know that you are the best?

AM,I always believed art can’t be measured as far as “best” is concerned, not like a sport where the clock or number of goals shot make you unarguably the best. And yes I do have an ego, and I know, God willing I could be amongst the best drawers, but the best? It’s just too arbitrary to think in those terms.


PC,Any words of wisdom you would like to tell the younger artists out there?

AM,Don’t make money your main goal, don’t be into art trends, don’t make yourself the art, (very cliché, passion helps, talent is a farce, don’t let your ego stop you from learning, look around you, look at the world, embrace humanity, draw, draw some more, draw all the time. And then if the stars align, the Gods smile on you and you live long enough you will have a fighting chance at making it, what ever that means….but enjoy the trip, I am.

Armin Mersmann