Words with Friends | Mike Black

Mallory Johnson for Amy Parry Projects (APP) + Mike Black (MB)

Lively, creative energy permeates the studio of Atlanta artist Mike Black. We sat down to discuss some of the projects he’s working on, his background, his technique and much more. At the same time, following in their father’s footsteps, his kids used nontraditional materials to create their very own works of art. In this case, transforming sticks into samurai swords with painted designs.

Known for his happy colorful paintings which incorporate textured sculptural elements, these recognizable works hung side by side with stunning black pieces; a clear shift from his commission work.

His work underwent some changes this past year when he was able to devote more time to his art and as it reflected his disappointment at the state of racial injustices in our country.

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APP: We have loved following your practice over the years and have been dying to place your work. Wondering about your recent spackle technique; what inspired you to start doing that? 

MB: Ace Hardware is my art supply store you know, so basically, I would walk around and look at things and figure out how I could incorporate this or how I could use that or what it could do for the work. I’m really into textures and things of that nature so I thought drywall spackle - let’s see what I can do with that. I like to work in not-your-basic medium and to make work with materials we’re all familiar with. It was really just a trial-and-error thing. 80% of the work is trial and error. Nobody taught me how to take the drywall trowel and make all that nonsense. The same thing’s true with pouring resin on stuff and seeing what the resin’s gonna do. You take the stuff you learn in art school or wherever and use it as you will. You have to learn the rules to break the rules type of deal.
 

APP: Did you come from a blue-collar background, is that another reason you incorporate some of those kinds of non-traditional art materials into your work?

MB: My family growing up were all blue-collar; they were longshoremen in Seattle. It’s a very hands-on physical type of job and I guess that bled through into my art-making career. I steered towards making things with my hands, towards more tactile, structural, big things as opposed to fine paintings and whatnot. I was really more inclined to build stuff and I think that really came from the blue-collar upbringing I had.
 

APP: That was something that interested me in your art: the line between fine art and more graffiti inspired street art. Has that always been something you incorporated?

MB: I guess that’s where it all started. The street art graffiti type stuff has always caught my eye since I was a little kid, then I went to art school and learned “fine art” and I took what I could from that and then kind of steered away from it. I wouldn’t consider myself a fine artist whatever the hell that means. I like to make stuff. To me you can cross the two, the highbrow with the lowbrow graffiti and street stuff and to me it's all art; it’s all the same. 

In an ideal world, I would make pieces and just put them out there, paint a building or just put a sculpture out somewhere and just leave it, graffiti style. I have a project in mind for these big blue tubes where I would make the piece and just go put it out somewhere like it’s a tag that someone threw out in the middle of the night because I think that is how it should be done. You shouldn’t have to go to a gallery or have to go to a museum because lots of time people won't do that. Your common, everyday folk may not want to go to a gallery. Maybe they've never even been to a gallery. I just want people to see the work and feel it and if you like it then you like it if you don’t then you don’t, that's fine. Just as long as it’s out there for people to see, you know?

APP: One of my favorites is the one with that big, gilded frame. I’m really loving that idea of using such a traditional fine art element and then spray painting over top of it.

MB: Oh yeah, I’ve got plans! I got that frame from a friend and that’s a legit heavy frame so I’m gonna take a mold of it. I’ll take it apart and make a mold of one of the sections and then make 10 foot sticks of that out of foam so it’ll look just like that. Once I paint it gold, it will look legit but won’t weigh 5,000 pounds or be super expensive. I just like to have it here so I can stick pieces in it and see what it looks like. I like the street art vibe with the hoity toity frame. 

APP: That’s such a smart idea to use foam, because you’d never know but it still achieves the same effect.

MB: Yeah, you would never know and I’m also a big fan of treating things as what they are material-wise. At the end of the day, that’s just a piece of wood with some concrete, drywall spackle, tape and some spray paint. If something happens to it or I take it a step too far and I don’t like it as much anymore it’s like, “you know what? That’s just a piece of wood with some paint on it, it's not a big deal. It’s fine.” With the foam frame it’s like if I screw them up it’s just a piece of foam who cares. Or if my kids decide they want to spray paint something and it's the wrong thing to spray paint, then it’s no big deal.

APP: It seems like the Black Lives Matter movement has a real place within your work.

MB: It’s just important in life really. I feel really strongly about the racial issues in our country, and the way people are treated. I have a whole series of black pieces now because of what was happening this summer and not just what was happening this summer but what has been happening systemically since black people were brought to this country. I came home and all the paintings were these bright vibrant things that I made because they’re happy things and I could make these pieces with these colors in mind because it’s supposed to evoke these good feelings and I want people to be happy. Well, I came home from a little trip and shit was all going down this summer and I was sitting in the studio looking at my work and thinking I’m not happy right now, people aren’t happy, so I painted everything black. I took all my paintings and painted them all black.

If you look at this one (above), you can see what it was underneath. I didn’t feel all bright and happy and the world wasn’t all bright and happy, so I just said “fuck it” and painted all of my shit black. Black is beautiful, there are lots of different layers to it. I ended up with like every different type of black paint. I got that black pigment paint you can buy now that’s like the blackest of the blacks. I went to every spray paint supply place and got textured paint, flat, glossy, semi-gloss just any kind of black I could get my hands on. It was actually pretty fun, a whole new adventure in my art making practice.

APP: How has Covid had an effect on your work this past year?

MB: Covid has had a huge impact on my work in a positive way. I was off from my “real job” in the film industry. I'm constantly working on movies and stuff which totally takes away from this whole thing. Then the pandemic happened and for seven months straight I was just painting and painting and painting. I was able to just sit and be with the work; I actually had time to walk away and come back instead of working project to project. Over the pandemic, I just painted stuff to paint stuff for no other reason than to paint stuff and I got a lot of really good feedback from the public thanks to social media. I sold a bunch of paintings, made a bunch of new connections, and had some shows in New York. Some people I did a project with a few years back were putting together a show in Brooklyn regarding the pandemic and artists persevering through the pandemic. Due to all my social media posts and my constant output of artwork they asked me to be part of the show.  

APP: Do you have any other collaborations coming up?

MB: I actually have a couple of collaborations in the works with a few local artists. My favorite thing is to collaborate with people, because everyone has their own thing that they do, and we can all teach each other some things. I recently reached out to Emily Mann because I love her work and wanted to see if she was interested in working together. We’ve never even met in person; we’ve just been chit-chatting back and forth. One night I was in here and she posted something, and I was like “Jesus Christ, I love her work! Why don’t I just ask her if she wants to make something and she was like, ‘I love your work too!’”. So, we have no idea what we’re gonna make but we’re gonna make something big.

MJ: So looking forward to seeing what y'all come up with!

APP: Lastly, we were excited when we saw your digitally created mural, do you have something like that in the works for a real building?

MB: I was kind of just fishing with that. I put it out into the ether to see and a few people have hit me back up being interested in me doing that. It hasn’t officially been signed off as a project that’s gonna happen, but it looks like it will be in the near future. I’ve got a few different places that I’m in negotiations with that want me to do it.

APP: Can’t wait!