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Kunst Speak With Brask - Wes Lang · Kunst Speak With Brask

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Speaker 1: Dear friends the art lovers. A new podcast has seen
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Speaker 1: the light of the day. Speak with Brass is a
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Speaker 1: new podcast I talk to artist collectors, all kinds of
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Speaker 1: art lovers about art. I hope you will enjoy and
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Speaker 1: listen to Speak with Brass. Keep me noted, send me
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Speaker 1: a DM email whatever. The first episode, I'm in Los
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Speaker 1: Angeles speaking to my old friend Whist laying Wes. Thank
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Speaker 1: you for taking your time.
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Speaker 2: Of course, we are you.
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Speaker 1: We are in your studio Los Angeles downtown.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, you're doing in Boyle Heights.
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Speaker 1: In your massive studio with whistlaying history of art of
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Speaker 1: thirty years everywhere.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, go back to like mid nineties. Yeah. So yeah,
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Speaker 2: it's a lot.
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Speaker 1: And you, of course as an artist working on different works,
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Speaker 1: sitting everywhere. But on top of all the works you
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Speaker 1: have so many, I would call them souvenias wist laying
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Speaker 1: history of different works from like we say, from mid
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Speaker 1: nineties and up to now everywhere.
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Speaker 2: Yeah.
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Speaker 3: Like I learned a very important lesson many years ago.
1:17
Speaker 3: I was an art handler at Tony Shafrazi in the
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Speaker 3: nineties and I was sent over to Crosby Street to
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Speaker 3: Donald Bachelor's apartment to install a painting and it was
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Speaker 3: one of Donald's paintings, an older one, and he was like, oh, yeah.
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Speaker 2: I just bought this back from auction.
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Speaker 3: And you know, I was young. I never this is
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Speaker 3: the nineties. You didn't have access to things like you
1:47
Speaker 3: do now. You didn't, I don't know, it was just
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Speaker 3: a different time. And I was like, why'd you buy
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Speaker 3: your own painting back?
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Speaker 2: You know?
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Speaker 3: And he was just like, you know, I needed to
2:00
Speaker 3: sell everything to survive, and this one came back and
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Speaker 3: I was able to afford to buy it. And he's
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Speaker 3: just said, do yourself a favor and keep as much
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Speaker 3: of your own work as you possibly can. And I
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Speaker 3: really like listen to him, and I've been very good
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Speaker 3: about that. So I do have, you know, my own
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Speaker 3: retrospective of my works, you know, and occasionally I buy
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Speaker 3: works back from auction, almost everything that comes up at auction,
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Speaker 3: because it's so rare that not everything, but if a
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Speaker 3: nice drawing comes up or something that I had to
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Speaker 3: sell at the time and I grab it back. So yeah,
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Speaker 3: this place is it's like a museum of my life almost,
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Speaker 3: you know.
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Speaker 2: And it's I think having the old work.
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Speaker 3: In with what I'm working on at the same time,
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Speaker 3: just keeps the conversation I'm having with myself going, you know.
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Speaker 2: And it's not like.
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Speaker 3: I can learn from what I was doing in my
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Speaker 3: twenties in my fifties, you know. And that's I'm lucky
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Speaker 3: to have a space to be able to do that,
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Speaker 3: you know.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, because I don't know how many hundred words they're
3:15
Speaker 1: sitting everywhere, but there's a lot. And I guess you
3:18
Speaker 1: also look at the old works when you're doing new
3:21
Speaker 1: stuff and maybe take things.
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Speaker 2: Out all the time all the time.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I can, really, you know, when you start as
3:30
Speaker 3: an artist, you learn from other artists that you admire,
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Speaker 3: and I still do. You know, there's it changes over time,
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Speaker 3: like who I'm inspired by and whatever. In these days,
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Speaker 3: it's markedly different people than it was when I was
3:46
Speaker 3: in my twenties and thirties and whatever. But now I
3:51
Speaker 3: have developed years and years and years of my own language,
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Speaker 3: so I can learn from myself.
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Speaker 2: It's a very cool thing to be able to do.
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Speaker 1: Probably the best, absolutely.
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Speaker 3: Because I can just keep distilling down all the knowledge
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Speaker 3: I learned from.
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Speaker 2: Bosquaocht and.
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Speaker 3: Francis Bacon and Franz Klein and you know, the guys
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Speaker 3: that were like in twombly, like the guys that I
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Speaker 3: was really into when I was younger and really made
4:23
Speaker 3: me understand how to make art.
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Speaker 2: You know. These days more I look at.
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Speaker 3: Monette and Mike Kelly and it's but it's different now,
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Speaker 3: like the conversations I have with them.
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Speaker 2: I don't even have to look at their work. It's
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Speaker 2: just in my head, you know.
4:44
Speaker 1: You know, your art history.
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Speaker 3: So yeah, because I didn't go to college and I
4:47
Speaker 3: didn't like, you know, I didn't, I learned. I learned
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Speaker 3: art history on my own, you know, and if I
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Speaker 3: got into an artist, I took it super seriously. When
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Speaker 3: I was really poor growing up, uh doing this, I
5:02
Speaker 3: would just go to the Strand on Broadway and spend
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Speaker 3: the whole day just reading books and learning.
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Speaker 2: And you know, I didn't have any way to.
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Speaker 3: Take pictures of anything, you know, so it was like
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Speaker 3: all just in my brain, you know. And for my
5:20
Speaker 3: birthday every year, like my mom would like buy me
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Speaker 3: one really nice art book or something, and then at Schaffrasie.
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Speaker 3: I guess it's long enough since I've done it. Like
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Speaker 3: I used to steal books from Schaffrosie all the time
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Speaker 3: and then take them to the Strand and sell them
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Speaker 3: to buy other books because they would make like they
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Speaker 3: made this really cool bosk yot book back then that
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Speaker 3: I actually, you know, helped deal with photographing a bunch
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Speaker 3: of those works. Went one night to Herbert Newman's house
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Speaker 3: uptown and photographed this really early one that he had
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Speaker 3: bought from I think he had bought from Mary Boone.
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Speaker 3: And it was like locky like in this storage area
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Speaker 3: and we got to take it out. And the blue
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Speaker 3: one whether we shot that one and another one a
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Speaker 3: really early one and the blue one with the chain, Yeah,
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Speaker 3: the photograph in that book I hung the painting or
6:20
Speaker 3: like I was there for that, uh. And that's like
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Speaker 3: one of the master works of all master works by him.
6:26
Speaker 3: And what a cool experience going to that guy's house.
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Speaker 3: I mean that talk about a museum.
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Speaker 2: It's like unbelievable. It's probably the best museum I've ever
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Speaker 2: been to.
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Speaker 3: Is his house, for sure, just because of the you know,
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Speaker 3: it's I don't have that you've been there. I can't
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Speaker 3: ex you know, that was a once in a lifetime
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Speaker 3: opportunity for me, and I learned.
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Speaker 2: So much that night.
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Speaker 3: And this was in like nineteen ninety six or nineteen
6:55
Speaker 3: ninety seven. I think something that was a long time
6:57
Speaker 3: ago and I still think about that day, like being
7:02
Speaker 3: at his house. I think we were there till like
7:03
Speaker 3: two thirty in the morning, shooting and talking and whatever.
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Speaker 2: It was wonderful.
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Speaker 1: But with small than you an artist father have a
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Speaker 1: really good friend and a lot of her stuff. You
7:14
Speaker 1: also collect yourself in your house. You have a beautiful
7:17
Speaker 1: collection of that.
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Speaker 2: Yeah. I love collecting art.
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Speaker 3: A big fan of uh, Danny Fox, who I own
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Speaker 3: a large number with, Mike Kelly, Damien, Damien Hurst, who's
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Speaker 3: been a real.
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Speaker 2: Inspiration to me, a mentor.
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Speaker 3: Just I could spend all day talking about what a
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Speaker 3: nice guy he is and what he's done for my
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Speaker 3: work and the encouragement he's shown me and the support
7:52
Speaker 3: he's shown me going through four Uh. I have a
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Speaker 3: lot of cool shit, a very cool early Dacoon on paper,
8:01
Speaker 3: Like I don't know, I've all kinds of things. Yeah,
8:04
Speaker 3: I'm not as psychotic as you with collecting. But and
8:08
Speaker 3: of course I have like two hundred Eddie's Eddie Martinez works,
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Speaker 3: just because we were like, you know, if you hung out,
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Speaker 3: if you hung out with Eddie in the early two
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Speaker 3: thousands and you didn't walk away with a piece of art,
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Speaker 3: you were doing something wrong exactly. He just it was
8:24
Speaker 3: just working so much everywhere we would go to dinner,
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Speaker 3: lunch drawing, so just always drawing and then just like
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Speaker 3: walking away from the table and leaving it.
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Speaker 2: And I would just be like take that, you know.
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Speaker 1: But you also trade with a lot.
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Speaker 3: I traded a lot with Eddie, traded a lot with
8:43
Speaker 3: But whenever I've had the opportunity to buy something, I do.
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Speaker 3: I own some cool things, like probably not everyday names,
8:53
Speaker 3: but you know I've I've.
8:56
Speaker 1: Jeremy as well.
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Speaker 3: Jeremy Shockley. Yeah, he's somebody I met very early and like,
9:01
Speaker 3: don't I don't think he'd really started showing yet. And
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Speaker 3: I met him at the Chateau Marmont. Tom Sachs had
9:09
Speaker 3: a room or a bungalow at the chateau and was
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Speaker 3: living there and doing stuff, and Jeremy was there and
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Speaker 3: introduced Tom introduced us, and we got along famously and
9:23
Speaker 3: just started hanging out and bought some of his paintings.
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Speaker 3: And then I remember we did show in Copenhagen with
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Speaker 3: him and Nava in twenty nineteen. And now Jeremy's you know,
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Speaker 3: full time artist and killing it.
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Speaker 2: Beautiful, really good artist, really good.
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Speaker 3: Artist and absolutely amazing human being.
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Speaker 2: He's just stupendous.
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Speaker 1: He also, when you moved in twenty and twelve from
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Speaker 1: New York to Los Angeles, you stayed a month at
9:58
Speaker 1: the show sow isn't that right?
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Speaker 3: Almost was before I lived there twenty eleven, I stayed
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Speaker 3: for a month and did a drawing every day on
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Speaker 3: the stationary. In twenty twelve, when I moved here, I
10:11
Speaker 3: lived at the Chateau for like three and a half
10:13
Speaker 3: months until I found a house and me and Andrea
10:19
Speaker 3: Saravia did a one night show in Bungalow four and
10:24
Speaker 3: I sold all my works And the next day a
10:28
Speaker 3: friend called me and told me about a house that
10:30
Speaker 3: was up for rent, and I went and looked at
10:33
Speaker 3: it and I took it, and so I you know,
10:36
Speaker 3: then I lived in that house for a long time.
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Speaker 3: And yeah, I came to LA at a really great time.
10:41
Speaker 3: It was like it was a different time. I don't know,
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Speaker 3: a lot of people hadn't started moving. There was like
10:48
Speaker 3: a wave of people that started moving here not long
10:51
Speaker 3: after I did.
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Speaker 2: But I just, I don't know.
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Speaker 3: I got a glimpse of LA's changes all the time.
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Speaker 3: New York changes all the time. Copenhagen changes all the time. Right,
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Speaker 3: Like first time I went to Copenhagen, I couldn't eat anything.
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Speaker 2: But raw meat on a plate.
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Speaker 3: And now it's like the epicenter of cuisine, you know,
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Speaker 3: like everything changes. I embrace and love that change of things,
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Speaker 3: you know. But LA is home. Yeah, I love it here.
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Speaker 3: It's a wonderful place. Living at the Chateau was a
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Speaker 3: great experience. It cemented my existence here.
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Speaker 2: You know. I met a lot of interesting people.
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Speaker 3: I got some cool opportunities that led to other opportunities
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Speaker 3: that led to other you know, and this town. If
11:37
Speaker 3: you let Los Angeles guide you, it will, and it
11:43
Speaker 3: did for me. I came here with an open mind
11:45
Speaker 3: and an open no agenda, just wanted to work hard
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Speaker 3: and keep my head down and do things on my
11:54
Speaker 3: own terms. And this is a place that you get
11:57
Speaker 3: to do that, or is what I found, you know.
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Speaker 1: We also yesterday was talked about We had dinner and
12:04
Speaker 1: talked about that when you've moved here and the way
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Speaker 1: that you started to work fourteen years ago, there is
12:11
Speaker 1: another way. And people are like, what are you doing
12:13
Speaker 1: when I'm working like that?
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Speaker 3: Like bring people, just like doing things on my own
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Speaker 3: exactly in the studio, and.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know. It was kind of you know,
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Speaker 2: I was living in New York. It was like all
12:25
Speaker 2: this It was in.
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Speaker 3: The buildings with everybody, and everybody's studio was on top
12:31
Speaker 3: of everybody else's, and everybody wanted to do a show
12:34
Speaker 3: here and do this and do that, and do this
12:37
Speaker 3: and do that, and it was all just frankly very
12:41
Speaker 3: boring to me. Like I didn't find anything exciting about
12:44
Speaker 3: the aspirations that my friends had. To be honest with you,
12:47
Speaker 3: I just didn't really like want any of those things.
12:51
Speaker 3: And I was watching the younger guys who were getting
12:54
Speaker 3: into like the bigger galleries, like they were just doing
12:58
Speaker 3: it too young and comprom their work and compromising themselves.
13:03
Speaker 3: And I was like I had always, you know, I
13:07
Speaker 3: study history, and you know, I would read books about
13:11
Speaker 3: the artists that I love and the guys who are
13:14
Speaker 3: really minus like Bosquiot, who is just such a fucking
13:19
Speaker 3: freak of nature. But like you know, you read about
13:23
Speaker 3: you know, the Abex guys and stuff who are you know,
13:27
Speaker 3: they didn't bacon too like these guys, they didn't find
13:31
Speaker 3: their true voice and the work that we know of
13:36
Speaker 3: them until they were older men you know, and or
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Speaker 3: women you know. And so I went in about a
13:46
Speaker 3: great with great purpose to just sit and work hard
13:49
Speaker 3: and not chase things and not feel that if I
13:55
Speaker 3: had a show at X Y or Z Gallery that
13:58
Speaker 3: that defined who I was. Who I was was my
14:02
Speaker 3: work ethic and my willingness to believe in myself. And
14:08
Speaker 3: you know, it's it's, uh, it just has all just
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Speaker 3: kind of naturally happened. I didn't go like, fuck everything,
14:16
Speaker 3: I'm not going to do this because to be contrary
14:19
Speaker 3: or anything. I just I just in my guts knew
14:21
Speaker 3: that that wasn't the route that I wanted to take.
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Speaker 3: And you know, it's it's worked out for me. My life,
14:31
Speaker 3: my world that I've created is great. For somebody else,
14:34
Speaker 3: it might not be what they want. They don't get
14:36
Speaker 3: the pats on the back that they need to feel
14:39
Speaker 3: good about themselves by X Y and Z people or whatever,
14:42
Speaker 3: like maybe I don't get those, but.
14:44
Speaker 2: I don't fucking care.
14:46
Speaker 3: So it's like, you know, as long as my wife
14:49
Speaker 3: is happy with me, and my kids are happy, and
14:52
Speaker 3: my friends take my phone calls.
14:54
Speaker 2: Then I'm you know, I'm good. I'm happy. And there's
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Speaker 2: a vast world of people out there that.
15:03
Speaker 3: Believe in what I do and support it and copy
15:07
Speaker 3: it or inspired by it, steal it all.
15:10
Speaker 2: You know, it's and I love that. You know it's great.
15:14
Speaker 1: And you have doing done collapse with like bands, clothes, watches,
15:18
Speaker 1: kind of everything.
15:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, very selectively over the years, I've done things with
15:24
Speaker 3: like you know. I did one really impactful one was
15:27
Speaker 3: with The Grateful Dead in twenty twelve.
15:31
Speaker 2: Then the next year I met I got.
15:33
Speaker 3: A phone call one day from Kanye West and he
15:37
Speaker 3: asked me to do his tour merch and that was
15:40
Speaker 3: a really cool experience and opened a different audience up
15:47
Speaker 3: to me and Mike Emery. It's a fashion designer here
15:51
Speaker 3: in LA He's a very close friend and confidante and
15:55
Speaker 3: somebody who I really believe in. And so we did
15:58
Speaker 3: a big we did a season together of close all
16:04
Speaker 3: kinds of things I've done, but it's I've done. I
16:07
Speaker 3: haven't done that many. It's just the way that I've
16:10
Speaker 3: done them. I've made good decisions, I've trusted my gut
16:15
Speaker 3: and they've made a lot of impact. And instead of
16:18
Speaker 3: doing ten collabse a year, I'll do one every two
16:22
Speaker 3: three years. That really is gets you know, it resonates. Well,
16:28
Speaker 3: I love doing that shit. It's really fun.
16:31
Speaker 1: So, like you said, it's really important to take the
16:34
Speaker 1: right choices instead of just chasing things and doing a
16:37
Speaker 1: lot of stupid things because you can't do.
16:39
Speaker 2: It for money. You can't do those things for money.
16:41
Speaker 3: You gotta do it like I try to do it
16:43
Speaker 3: because it's something that I would want, or I already
16:49
Speaker 3: am a consumer of that band, of that brand, or
16:52
Speaker 3: I listen to that band. You know, I listened to
16:55
Speaker 3: the music of the band, and you know, they just
16:58
Speaker 3: serendipitously reach out to me, and like that's you know,
17:02
Speaker 3: that's how my things like that have come together. Yeah,
17:05
Speaker 3: they've been really just organic experiences.
17:09
Speaker 1: But he also did a really cool, cool app together
17:12
Speaker 1: with a watch company.
17:14
Speaker 2: Which one the roal Nex one. Oh well, they weren't roll.
17:18
Speaker 3: Exes, they were Rolexes, but it wasn't role X sanctioned.
17:21
Speaker 3: I did that one my really dear friend, George Bamford.
17:24
Speaker 3: We did some really cool watches and that was geez,
17:28
Speaker 3: such a long time ago. Now sixteen was twenty twelve, Wow,
17:35
Speaker 3: that long ago.
17:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, And.
17:39
Speaker 3: He took my artwork and worked with a like a
17:42
Speaker 3: master engraver, and he had it all engraved into the
17:45
Speaker 3: case and the bracelet and clasp and printed stuff on
17:49
Speaker 3: the dials, and.
17:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was really cool, really cool. I wish I
17:56
Speaker 2: had one of those. You don't even I don't know.
18:00
Speaker 3: I didn't afford it, you know, they were like fifty
18:02
Speaker 3: sixty thousand dollars.
18:04
Speaker 2: Like, didn't have the money.
18:06
Speaker 3: But I've made a living, survived without having to do
18:09
Speaker 3: anything else. For I made a conscious effort to never
18:14
Speaker 3: work again past my thirtieth birthday.
18:17
Speaker 2: So I've done that. I'm fifty three as we record
18:20
Speaker 2: this now, so you.
18:22
Speaker 3: Know, And in my mid twenties and late twenties, I
18:24
Speaker 3: worked as little as humanly possible. But I lived in
18:28
Speaker 3: an apartment that cost me two hundred bucks a month
18:30
Speaker 3: and you know whatever, So it was it was easy
18:34
Speaker 3: to not work too much.
18:36
Speaker 2: I just wanted to paint, you know.
18:38
Speaker 3: It's always just come down to wanting to paint since
18:41
Speaker 3: I was, you know, in elementary school. This is not
18:44
Speaker 3: like I decided in my twenties to be an artist.
18:47
Speaker 3: It's like I've known this is what I was going
18:49
Speaker 3: to do since I was my first thoughts are of
18:53
Speaker 3: that that I remember.
18:54
Speaker 1: You know, you didn't want to be a police office
18:57
Speaker 1: anything else.
18:58
Speaker 3: You've never had the delusions of being anything other than this.
19:03
Speaker 3: And I didn't. I didn't even know what that meant.
19:06
Speaker 3: And I didn't do it because I thought I was
19:09
Speaker 3: going to I didn't know what it meant to be
19:13
Speaker 3: a full time artist. My mom would bring me to
19:16
Speaker 3: art studios sometimes when I was a kid, and museums
19:20
Speaker 3: a lot, and she's an interior designer, and so I
19:26
Speaker 3: just remember went into a loft and soho with her
19:29
Speaker 3: in like the late seventies, to this artist that she
19:35
Speaker 3: worked with on some projects, had this huge space on Broadway,
19:43
Speaker 3: you know, just one dude in like a floor of
19:46
Speaker 3: a building, and I.
19:47
Speaker 2: Was like, this is what I would He knew what
19:52
Speaker 2: I want to do.
19:53
Speaker 3: You know, well, I already knew that I wanted to
19:55
Speaker 3: do it, But then I saw an artist in his space.
19:58
Speaker 2: Like and it. I'll never forget it.
20:01
Speaker 3: You know, that was a I could I saw first hand,
20:04
Speaker 3: like a guy doing that. And I was so little,
20:08
Speaker 3: and you know, you don't when you're that little, you
20:10
Speaker 3: don't look at something like that and be like, I
20:12
Speaker 3: can't do that.
20:13
Speaker 2: You know what I mean, you don't have any voice
20:16
Speaker 2: telling you not to do it. And so it was
20:18
Speaker 2: so ingrained in my own head that I was going
20:20
Speaker 2: to do it.
20:21
Speaker 3: But at that point that growing up, and everybody told
20:24
Speaker 3: me I was fucking crazy for wanting to do this
20:27
Speaker 3: as a living.
20:30
Speaker 2: Good luck.
20:31
Speaker 3: Like I'm strong willed guy anyway, but like I had
20:33
Speaker 3: already made a choice as a as a.
20:37
Speaker 2: A very small kid. So and here we are, Yeah,
20:43
Speaker 2: and I still feel like I'm that little kid, you know.
20:45
Speaker 1: It's like, yeah, we just before we're starting to record you,
20:51
Speaker 1: you were painting, and I guess I don't know how
20:53
Speaker 1: many hundreds hours I've seen you painting, and I still
20:57
Speaker 1: get high and get goosebump if it's I mean, just sit, stance,
21:02
Speaker 1: lie whatever, paint. I love. And also you've that lucky
21:05
Speaker 1: to be a gast in your studio and you're one
21:07
Speaker 1: of the few artists that actually paint when you're in
21:10
Speaker 1: the studio, and you know you can just sit down,
21:13
Speaker 1: take a boat of coffee, whatever, and hang out and
21:16
Speaker 1: see you painted. It's it's still I still love that
21:18
Speaker 1: feeling to see you paint. It's life.
21:20
Speaker 2: Thanks, man. I mean, you've been in all my studios.
21:23
Speaker 1: I remember when I visit you the first time in
21:27
Speaker 1: two thousand and six somewhere and push Wick. We went up.
21:31
Speaker 2: Green Point, green Point.
21:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was me, Copeland and Eddie and Russell Knockman
21:36
Speaker 3: in that building.
21:37
Speaker 1: Remember, like it was like kind of walked up of
21:40
Speaker 1: something ran.
21:41
Speaker 3: On the second floor because it was a wood shop,
21:43
Speaker 3: so they'd a ramp to run, you know, to be
21:45
Speaker 3: able to bring big things up and down to the
21:48
Speaker 3: second floor. And it was an old horse stable, that
21:52
Speaker 3: building it was.
21:53
Speaker 2: And so my room was the hayloft where I worked
21:56
Speaker 2: in that space was such a cool studio.
22:01
Speaker 1: It wasn't December two thousand and six, and it was so.
22:03
Speaker 2: Cold, yes, and you had a wood stove in there.
22:07
Speaker 1: Exactly when you eat. I had mouse of rats, like
22:09
Speaker 1: you said that they wasn't there when I came, but
22:12
Speaker 1: you said.
22:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's always rats. I mean, beggars can't be shoosers,
22:16
Speaker 3: you know.
22:17
Speaker 1: And then it's it's for me. Also, there's been such
22:21
Speaker 1: an inspiration to see you, like you said, started like
22:24
Speaker 1: at that small studio and look where we are now
22:27
Speaker 1: in this eleven thousand square feet studio in Los Angeles.
22:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's just like I just feels like I've been
22:35
Speaker 3: working in here for ten years and it still feels
22:38
Speaker 3: like a dream. Every time I walk in here, it's
22:40
Speaker 3: like excuse me. I see people come in and they're
22:43
Speaker 3: like whoa.
22:45
Speaker 2: But I drive in here every day and I'm like, whoa.
22:50
Speaker 3: You know, it's so cool, you know, because I get
22:54
Speaker 3: this room. It didn't matter how tiny my studio was,
22:59
Speaker 3: Like I get like I worked in those rooms because
23:01
Speaker 3: they felt the right.
23:02
Speaker 2: I got the right feeling when I walked into them.
23:05
Speaker 2: And this had that, you know.
23:07
Speaker 3: And this room was filled with boxes and garbage and
23:12
Speaker 3: all kinds of stuff when I came to look at it.
23:14
Speaker 2: But I walked in and I was like, I got
23:17
Speaker 2: this like feeling inside, like yep, this is the spot.
23:21
Speaker 2: It's worked out beautifully. I love it in here.
23:24
Speaker 1: So when you see a new studio, if you get
23:26
Speaker 1: the feeling, I can paint hill.
23:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like my home I live in. I bought that
23:31
Speaker 3: home my wife and I loved it. But like, there
23:35
Speaker 3: was a space that I walked into and I was like,
23:40
Speaker 3: oh wow, this actually this should this could be a studio.
23:43
Speaker 2: I could work here.
23:45
Speaker 3: And now I do you know, so I work I
23:48
Speaker 3: almost work at home more than I work in this
23:50
Speaker 3: place because I can just sit and have the kids
23:54
Speaker 3: around and my wife around and.
23:58
Speaker 2: No driving, and.
24:00
Speaker 3: Go step out in the backyard and watch my son
24:03
Speaker 3: ride his bike and we can watch birds fly around
24:08
Speaker 3: and play for a few minutes, and then I can
24:10
Speaker 3: just walk step back in the door and be painting again.
24:13
Speaker 3: You know, Like that's great, you know, and I'm trying
24:16
Speaker 3: to cherish as many moments as humanly possible with my
24:21
Speaker 3: kids while they're young and want to hang out with me.
24:26
Speaker 2: That's the best. You know.
24:28
Speaker 3: I met my wife, the greatest person I've ever met,
24:32
Speaker 3: and then together we made two absolutely amazing little dudes,
24:39
Speaker 3: And you know that's all that's It used to be that,
24:43
Speaker 3: like work was always my number one thing and no
24:50
Speaker 3: matter what, like fuck what my girlfriend at the time thought,
24:53
Speaker 3: fuck what my friends thought, whatever, Like I'm working.
24:58
Speaker 2: And now it's like.
25:01
Speaker 3: I think this has to do with age and experiences.
25:04
Speaker 3: It's like I can walk into my studio and do
25:10
Speaker 3: four to five really solid hours in a day of
25:14
Speaker 3: just like sit down, don't fuck around.
25:18
Speaker 2: Just work, work, work, work, work, work, work.
25:20
Speaker 3: And get everything done and and and then be able
25:24
Speaker 3: to spend way more time with my family, which is
25:26
Speaker 3: the point of that is that they're they're more important
25:30
Speaker 3: than the painting, but they help each other, you know,
25:33
Speaker 3: Like I'm inspired by my family. I'm inspired to work
25:37
Speaker 3: hard by it because of having them and all that.
25:40
Speaker 1: You know, and work hard of course also give the
25:42
Speaker 1: freedom that you can see your family more. And we
25:46
Speaker 1: also talked about that since you started, so now I
25:50
Speaker 1: can also see how that you are way more faster
25:54
Speaker 1: when you paint compared to.
25:56
Speaker 3: Yeah, because I've spencticed how many hours I've painted, I
26:03
Speaker 3: don't know.
26:04
Speaker 2: I was never like the go to the openings, go
26:08
Speaker 2: to do this, go to that that guy.
26:10
Speaker 3: I you know, I when everybody was going to openings
26:15
Speaker 3: and this that other thing, I was in the studio,
26:19
Speaker 3: and I just I'm still that way. I've lived in
26:22
Speaker 3: Los Angeles for fourteen years and.
26:27
Speaker 2: I've maybe been to.
26:30
Speaker 3: Eight openings in those fourteen years.
26:36
Speaker 2: You know, and one of them was mine. Are two
26:40
Speaker 2: of them?
26:40
Speaker 3: Two of them so like a couple of Eddies.
26:44
Speaker 1: And Damien, I guess right, one of.
26:48
Speaker 3: Damien's Yeah, Like I just don't it's yeah, I'm an
26:52
Speaker 3: artist one hundred and ten percent. I like what I
26:56
Speaker 3: like exactly, you know, But I'm always happy and and
27:00
Speaker 3: I find artists that I like and new things. And
27:05
Speaker 3: there's an artist that I just found. My buddy, Sebastian
27:13
Speaker 3: has a place. Sebastian Gladstone has a gallery here and.
27:18
Speaker 1: And he got a new artist.
27:19
Speaker 2: He is an artist.
27:20
Speaker 3: A show of this artist named Dustin Hodges up in
27:22
Speaker 3: his gallery right now that I bought one of the
27:26
Speaker 3: paintings from. And he's a really good artist.
27:31
Speaker 1: A tale to think it could be interesting to talk about.
27:34
Speaker 1: You have done two Shoots museum shows, one at ols
27:38
Speaker 1: in Os and the one that Damien spot New Post
27:41
Speaker 1: Street Gatherer.
27:42
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, man, Wow, what an experience that was. Yeah, well,
27:47
Speaker 3: ros was twenty fourteen. I had met with them in
27:54
Speaker 3: Brooklyn when I still lived there, and.
28:00
Speaker 2: They had the idea of because my Brooklyn studio was
28:02
Speaker 2: very cool.
28:03
Speaker 3: You spent a lot of time there, it was a
28:04
Speaker 3: great space, so they kind of like recreated that footprint
28:08
Speaker 3: in the museum and then I moved in and worked
28:12
Speaker 3: and created art in the space and it was all
28:16
Speaker 3: messed up paint.
28:17
Speaker 2: All over the walls, blah blah blah, bah.
28:19
Speaker 3: Blah, looked and felt like my Brooklyn studio.
28:23
Speaker 1: Five oh five. Johnson Avenue.
28:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, so that was an unreal experience that city. You know,
28:29
Speaker 3: I have a strong connection to Denmark because of my friends,
28:32
Speaker 3: and I've done a.
28:33
Speaker 2: Lot of work there and made.
28:35
Speaker 3: So many had so many fun times there, and so
28:39
Speaker 3: that show was really truly meaningful to me. And I
28:44
Speaker 3: had met had been introduced to Damien as I was preparing.
28:48
Speaker 2: For that show, and.
28:51
Speaker 3: I showed him the works I was making for the
28:55
Speaker 3: museum show, and that was the works that he first
29:00
Speaker 3: got of mine, and I met him for the first
29:03
Speaker 3: time at Ros.
29:07
Speaker 2: Face to face. There's a great picture I have of
29:10
Speaker 2: the three of us together.
29:11
Speaker 3: There and then yeah, he's just then over the years
29:18
Speaker 3: we just kept talking and he was opening Newport and
29:24
Speaker 3: we had worked on doing one thing there and timing
29:29
Speaker 3: just for everything just wasn't right. And then I worked
29:33
Speaker 3: on I had started this series and really just touched
29:38
Speaker 3: on this series, and I think it was twenty twenty three,
29:47
Speaker 3: and I showed the couple of the works of Damien
29:50
Speaker 3: and he was really excited about them and came. Happened
29:54
Speaker 3: to come to la and came to the studio and
29:56
Speaker 3: we talked and he h gave me a lot of
30:00
Speaker 3: guidance and told me to take the few that I
30:07
Speaker 3: had done and make like.
30:09
Speaker 2: A really big, big, big series out of it, so
30:12
Speaker 2: that I made ninety six.
30:17
Speaker 3: Paintings on canvas and then ninety six paintings on paper. Yeah,
30:23
Speaker 3: that was an insane thing to do. And I did
30:26
Speaker 3: all that work in like fourteen months, and so yeah,
30:32
Speaker 3: I just did it. Those the ninety six works on
30:36
Speaker 3: paper I made in three weeks. Wow, and they're fucking good.
30:40
Speaker 3: I'm not like patting myself on the back, like I
30:42
Speaker 3: wouldn't have shown them if I wasn't proud of.
30:44
Speaker 2: No, No, I know that they're like.
30:48
Speaker 3: Because I just had that. I think that was a
30:50
Speaker 3: testament to like, if you can stay and you can work,
30:53
Speaker 3: and you work, and you work and you work, there's
30:55
Speaker 3: like absolutely no thing that you can't pull off in
31:00
Speaker 3: a matter of amount of time that you have in
31:01
Speaker 3: front of you to do it. Like, I'm going to
31:04
Speaker 3: do something else even crazier over the next year. Yeah,
31:10
Speaker 3: I mean I we could do a five day podcast
31:15
Speaker 3: of me thanking Damien Hurst. You know, like he's just
31:19
Speaker 3: in every way imaginable. He has helped me every single way.
31:25
Speaker 3: You know, that man like change the game in so
31:31
Speaker 3: many ways and he couldn't be more down to earth
31:36
Speaker 3: and cool and humble, and you know, thanks Damien, that's
31:42
Speaker 3: all I can say.
31:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, but that's that's really really nice of you, and
31:46
Speaker 1: I think with that, let closest and say again the
31:51
Speaker 1: things so much for taking up time to see you,
31:55
Speaker 1: hang with you and see all the new works and
31:58
Speaker 1: of course all the wild works. And as always I'm
32:02
Speaker 1: looking forward to see what's next in the west Lang
32:06
Speaker 1: history that is still not written finished yet. There's plenty
32:10
Speaker 1: of years yet, you still have a lot of good
32:13
Speaker 1: years at a lot.
32:15
Speaker 2: Of things to say. So I hope I get to stay.
32:17
Speaker 3: For a lot longer because I've got a lot of
32:19
Speaker 3: stuff in my head that is just pounding its way
32:23
Speaker 3: out of out, you know. And yeah, but one one
32:28
Speaker 3: canvas at a time, exactly, you know.
32:31
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, ye ye, thank you so much
32:35
Speaker 1: for listening to Kunst Speak with Bresk. Our first guest
32:40
Speaker 1: was Westlang. Thank you so much to West. Thank you
32:43
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