john, where are you from and how did you get into art?
the place where i was born and raised until the age of 12 was in a small town in iowa called grinnell. my first artistic experience was when i was with my grandfather at my mom’s restaurant. We were sitting side-by-side and he was encouraging me to draw like he was. my grandfather was an intense and amazing artist. i believe it was one of his sole passions. i drew a shark, and if i’m not mistaken that was the first thing I ever drew.

who or what are some of your influences?
some people and things that influence me are: music, the technological revolution, “social norms”, political affairs, government(s), natural disaster, war, alphonse mucha, diego rivera, frank lloyd wright, the industrial revolution, pop culture (as it continues to be manipulated today).

what have you been working on recently?
today i worked on a painting i am doing that includes an atomic bomb blast going off over a “fast paced” city and currently i have transferred my graffiti bombing ability to plywood or canvas. i have a stack of empty canvases in my studio awaiting to gather my ideas and release. the drive is still in me, luckily, because there are so many things happening. it would be impossible to not have inspiration in this chaotic world.

it would seem your work is influenced by street art, or “graffiti”; your words on this?
i feel i can confidently say that I have bridged the gap with graffiti and art with my work. that does not mean that you will see what you expect to be graffiti in my work, but what I know is graffiti is still in my work. there has been a trace of urban art in my work since i moved to chicago. being in iowa, it is essential to be able to utilize my spray paint, acrylic paint, and oil markers.

if you grew up painting in another city do you think that would have chanced your graffiti roots, such as growing up in iowa without that city lifestyle?

i think it would have influenced me earlier to practice graffiti if i had grown up in a city rather than grinnell, ia. this is mainly the exposure and knowledge of other graffiti artists that i would have been inspired by earlier. rather i saw and learned for the first time when I was 18 years old living in chicago for the first time.

how do you feel about graffiti today, such as the debate between vandalism or art?
without my aerosol i feel empty, but i don’t vandalize (much) anymore. to do graffiti for the sake of it is something beautiful, but to damage an expensive piece of property is another thing. instead of painting on expensive building walls, paint on trains. you’ll get more attention from getting up on trains anyway.

so not to say that you are looking for attention, but do you think train bombing is all about attention, or something more?
writing on trains is different for each writer. it can be used for practice or it can be used to kind of advertise a name.

do you feel as if graffiti is reaching the commercial market today, and how do you think that effects the culture?
it has definitely met the commercial/social market you can see it in everyday commercials and advertisements such as pepsi or mountain dew. yes it creates a social norm that is accepted. it also can help influence people that have less access to urban culture.

having a fine arts background, do you think that is important as an artist? meaning should fine arts be the fundamentals of every artist out there?
no, i don’t think that any artist needs to come from a fine arts facility/background because i have seen artists flourish that began on their own accord, with no collegiate artistic background.

do you think it helps though, for instance if one of the artists out there that flourished on their own accord, would it benefit them to go back?
it is a very helpful resource for artists to take advantage of. a fine arts background can be very helpful.

how do you approach your pieces conceptually?
first, i think of what makes me happy/sad/angry/aroused, basically i think of what provokes emotion and run with it. sometimes, i graph out what i am going to do if i know what the outcome will be, but many times I start with a blank canvas/surface and end with a piece of art.

so is there always some sort of depth or story behind each painting, or sometimes just draw the first thing that comes into your mind type deal?
i am a strong believer that some art does not have any concept. i actually did a report on non-concept while attending the school of the art institute of chicago, but it was hard to research and not the most understandable idea either. some works are only created because of an idea and those are usually the one’s that are remembered throughout time.

being a strong believer that some art does not have any concept, do you think art can be just as strong and effective without a concept then, or is it a completely different feel? for example, i’ve been interested in poloroids and lomography lately, something about capturing a spontaneous moment with that vintage effect truly is powerful at times in my opinion.
i think art without concept can be just as important as art that has concept. i think visually a piece can be as strong if not stronger without concept versus a something “ugly” that has concept and vice versa.

how has your work evolved since saic or even before?
my work has evolved in many ways since saic. overall the school was a good experience and i would recommend it to anyone planning on going to art school. being in Chicago itself was influence, it gave me knowledge i needed to grow as an artist. first I was a “fine artist”, now i consider myself a “pop artist”.

i remember you used to do live art, has that affected your workflow in any way?
i usually work pretty quickly but the added factor of people watching definitely affected my process and thought process. (i guess im trying to get at graffiti style on the run real fast where things are sort of freestyled and you let your creativity flow, or sketch, take time to prep, and work on a piece traditionally. maybe the way you plan out a painting or the speed in which you finish a piece)
-most definitely.

when you view other art, what makes it “good” to you?
there are three pillars in art to look for when looking for “good” work to me: line, color, and composition.

so do you believe art is far beyond just skill such as the idea, depth, lifestyle etc?
i believe you need to be in a personally comfortable environment when you are doing art. it takes skill, knowledge, and wisdom to create good artwork.

what are your thoughts on “jack of all trades” artists. going around touching on some fine art, design, photography and trying out different things compared to artists that focus on mastering that “one style” and technique they are known for?
it is important to expand on your knowledge of the different mediums. this is important so that it is possible to try and harness a true forte.

so when we going to collab?
if you can come to iowa we will collaborate. thats a promise bro.

check out more of lannom’s work at his website lannomart.com

beautiful trailer for dead island which reminded me a lot like irreversible directed by gaspar noé. in my opinion it’s one of those powerful “short films” in a way which shows you the tragic outcome and you watch the entire time knowing what happens to her future. although this is played backwards in slow motion compared to a cut up scene by scene reverse order of irreversible (if that made any sense), i still feel like it has some of those elements. i think obviously the little girl and the music has a lot to do with it as well. ign offers a cut up version which plays the trailer in order at regular speed and it just doesn’t feel the same to me, nor would it have the same effect first time watching. ign does have a really cool review where they break down the entire video and look at the details of how the game might be like but from my take on the cg, it looks a bit out of date on the graphics but hopefully has a great storyline by the time it launches. check out the rewind trailer from ign below where they review scene by scene.

i would bet that one of the developers sat down and reviewed it with one of the guys from ign because that is alot of damn speculation from one trailer.

hmm, haven’t you said that before? i would assume yes, multiple times actually, but at least i keep trying. sample illustration i started some time back and plan to finish it in the upcoming weeks along with many other pieces.

sample shirt with old art and limited, please contact us to inquire if interested.

lomography is an actual company in austria inspired by an optics company with the similar name of lomo plc. following the style of poloroids, lomography has become a term in style and technique for everyday photos. the photos usually come out over saturated, candid, blurry, and even cross processed, but these imperfections are what make the style unique. supporting the quick point and shoot philosophy capturing a part of everyday life in a raw format, lomography has become popular in pop culture.

lomography has built low end cameras on purpose that have specific effects such as fisheye, vignettes, or light leaks. these low fidelity cameras are relatively cheap at places such as urban outfitters and work well for what they are cheaply constructed for. it is good to see stores such as walgreens still process film for pretty cheap in my opinion. in the midst of all these facebook and flick albums, its nice to take a break from digital technology and truly experiment with film and create an authentic photo album with an artistic touch. just a heads up, i recently went to walgreens and in the clearance aisle, they had packs of black and white film for as low as 3 dollars, and even 99 cents for certain iso films. it much easier in my opinion to snap a few photos and roll up the film and have a shop take care of the rest.

i have this nostalgia for the days where you didn’t know what to expect until you received your little packet of photos and you were so excited to go pick them up to see how they all turned out. i believe it’s that effect that make the photos that much more special. with a digital camera, you seem to preview them and constantly retake shots and end up with redundant photos and there doesn’t seem to be any special memory about the photo; there are not enough imperfections to even keep the memories intact, if that makes any sense. photoshop and all that can bring out some great effects to mimic a toy cam effect and even fix your photos, but that defeats the purpose doesn’t it? i’m one of those believers that think that you cannot mimic true black and white photography digitally, and lomography will always be that special feeling for me.

anyways, as great as technology is, i hope things such as film cameras, vinyl records, and printed comics never become obsolete, it would just kill the history and life of those particular items.

damn do you remember that shit? we couldn’t wait to get out of class or do whatever we were doing to get in front of that tv to play super mario brothers or duck hunt. now obviously super nintendo wasn’t the first video gaming system release, i mean there was atari and whatnot, but super mario brothers, now that was a game. i honestly must have been too damn young to understand the point of the game but who cares, the mechanics were simple and it was damn fun just to play the two beginning historical levels over and over for some reason. in my opinion, this started the new wave of video games with those simple mechanics for running and jumping.

i think these days i have a nostalgia for the old school nintendo games. it’s the whole idea of simplicity and just raw mechanics of the game that make it so perfect. if you have seen the present wave of mario games, nintendo tried some interesting things with galaxy, and water, and 3d, but when it comes down to it, you just can’t beat that new super mario bros wii. they brought it back to the old school with a modern feel and now with 4 player co op, and after all these years its still fucking amazing. (yes i noticed the run on sentences) it could just be that nostalgia kicking in that makes it so epic but then why do i play with marija’s niece that has no idea what a super nintendo was and still have a blast? i believe it’s that foundation of simple game mechanics.

if you try to do too much with graphics and flash, but don’t polish up the mechanics and feel of the game, the excitement dies young. take limbo for instance, right off the bad they don’t have a nifty tutorial or help screen, your thrown right into the darkness and wake up confused. you become that character, with the graphics but not too overwhelming. everything from the shadows and the slight blur on the edges and the silence fits the mood. i had a whole group of people waiting and watching in awe as i controlled the character across the screen. you soon figure out really all you can do is jump and grab things yet we have this urge to see the little kid die creep up on us. these little addicting arcade games are suddenly making a come back with the playstation network and open source stuff going on all over the place and eventually i think the industry with cycle itself. we will get bored of the simple button mashing games and yearn for intense cg driven video games with that explosive flash.

eventually you just won’t know what you want to play anymore

if you take a look at when tv’s were first introduced in black and white, people were so amazed at how far technology has gotten, then soon after color was introduced. nowadays in the midst of all the bright technicolored commercials we have, every so often a black and white clip will appear with a modern touch and it will catch our attention more than the rest. it’s that fucking nostalgia from the past, or what people aren’t used to im telling you! now we have pop culture bringing back old school stuff and we are just getting into a mess of old school meets the modern day type shit and some works, some doesn’t but ultimately it will be a matter of time before history recycles itself in a new way.

perhaps i’ll take a few examples and begin a nostalgia post every week. most images were taken from google image search and piccsy.