Wesley Burt Interview

[Diego]

Hi, last night while browsing the web i found this Interview.
INTERVIEW (http://www.fecalface.com/blogs/art_show_demimonde/archives/2005/06/wesley_burt.html)

[nacho]

it has art! go check it out..
cool interview, too. thanks diego.

[corky13]

OMG ! WES IS A EMO ! *lol*
Sorry couldn`t resist ^^ im very sorry for my uncontrollable babbling ... fingers...


this is a very nice interview and it shows some very good artworks to (as expected of course ^^). Thank you Diego ;)

[PHATandy]

* IS EMO... not *IS 'A' EMO

Anyways.. cool interview, always liked is works and he defintly sounds like a cool guy. Nice find.

[obid619]

great find, man :wink:

[Main Loop]

ever so humble... a true artiste...

i wondered how come no one ever bothered to post up anything about that "day in the life of a painting" show... come on, watching coro wes shawn barber and marko all working on something was worth talking about, no?

[Diego]

Yes, it's a good reading. Awesome artist. really good interview.

[Denart]

yeap, fascinating interview :)
thanks wes for the insights

i wondered how come no one ever bothered to post up anything about that "day in the life of a painting" show... come on, watching coro wes shawn barber and marko all working on something was worth talking about, no?
look deeper
and here it is! (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=44239&highlight=day+life+painting+marko+wes)

[Main Loop]

ah.. musta missed it.. to whoever asked that question, he did use reference for that painting.. a black and white photo of the face, and a night scene of something i dont remember as a color key..

[MuffinMan]

edit by jason manley: muffin if you make another attacking comment on these boards I will flat out ban you. Thanks for the time. -jm



and on to the nice things muffin has to say.................

anyways, his art is excellent, kinda makes me want to get better...

[jetpack42]

Thanks for the link.

Wes is the man. Anybody who thinks otherwise can fistfight me.

[silverslash]

after fistfighting jetpack i can whole heartedly concur that wes is indeed the man...emo or not.

-jose

[clogik]

very insightfull, i enjoyed it very much.

[Tigermilk]

Wonderful interview, indeed. Wish there where things like "Sumner Academy" at my high school too.. but there aren't.. anyway, I'm actually a small part of that interview, I'm the guy that originally wrote this line :: "My favorite artists at the moment are concept artists like Wesley Burt..." Haha, man am I ashamed. :bashful:

Great interview, more of those please!

[davi]

me and wes shared a straw once.

[nacho]

i once chatted with davi, the guy who once shared a straw with wes.

[USER777]

i once read a post in a thread here on conceptart written by a guy who called himself nacho. he claimed that he once chatted with davi, the guy who once shared a straw with wes.

[cotron]

one time wes winked at me and it gave me butterflies in my tummy and my pants didn't fit right for a few minutes...

-cool link though, thanks for postin it

[John]

I live in the same country as the guy who once chatted with davi who once shared a straw with wes.

The interview is dope, and Wesley's art speaks for itself. Anyone who thinks or says otherwise first has to fistfight Jetpack and then beat my Snake 2 Highscore on my Nokia cellphone. Which is broken. That or beat me in a beer drinking contest. (I'm german, remember what they say about our beer? And our beer drinking ability? All true.)
Wes is still a emo, but that's ok, because i say so.

[Balooga]

Great interview. Without a doubt his rendering skills are amazing, but am I the only one who's noticed that he's not very good at drawing hands?

[cotron]

but am I the only one who's noticed that he's not very good at drawing hands?

????!

[Red_Rook]

heh, very cool interview


and balooga

????!

cody took the words out of my mouth

[arghmisfit]

good interview..

i think that wes concentrates more on faces and other elements his sketchs and leaves the hands unfinished lots (which looks good imo) but when he actually does fully work hands they're outstanding

keep it up wes.. looking forward to the next update!

[Balooga]

Well, sorry to say this, but even great artists are not beyond criticism. His hands (and feet as well, actually) are definitely not up to par with the amazing quality of the rest of his art. Like arghmisfit said, Wes concentrates too much on faces, and looking through his sketchbook, I definitely get the feeling that he tries his best to avoid drawing hands and feet.

I'd just like to say that I'm a big Wes fan, so please don't hate me people! lol

[wes9000]

emo? what, cause i havent had a haircut in a few months? you dont know me.

wish i could have read what themuffinman had to say.


say what you will balooga, but know that the people on this forum only see maybe 5% of the stuff i do. and for the most part its just random sketchbook stuff. i dont always feel the need to render out everything in my sketchbook.

thanks for the comments guys, was suprised to see this show up

[Jason Manley]

muffin was simply being abrasive. There are people here that understood how lucky they are that artists of your skill participate on these boards.

If other people do not start being respectful of each other here on the boards i am going to let marko and andrew begin the big banning purge they have been itching to do. for now the war dogs are leashed. :)

that was a great interview wes. I am sure a lot of people will enjoy it.


Jason

[arghmisfit]

who doesn't concentrate on faces once and a while.?

[bRyaN]

Dope!

[silverslash]

who doesn't concentrate on faces once and a while.?

jackson pollock.

[John]

Haha, most people i know like to randomly label ppl as emo. It's kind of an inside joke here, i guess maybe it's different in america.

i am going to let marko and andrew begin the big banning purge they have been itching to do. Uh Oh.

As for the hands, ????!
Fistfight + beerdrinking contest?

[Dan.v.D.]

i heared wes shared a straw with that emo freak davi once.
i hope the scars won´t last forever

[Red_Rook]

jackson pollock.
that made me laugh out loud >_>

[Profil]

Nice interview and artwork.
Wes is a really nice guy what I experienced. It´s very little though.
Keep up the good work, I gotta figure out how you do those "many-faces-in-one" :P

[loomer]

Great interview...I wish it was longer. I could look at his drawings all day.
And there is NO way he is emo..he listens to Prefuse 73 - and that is the furthest thing from that emo shit - and shows he has awesome taste in music.

- I can't wait to see what wes does when he's in his 40's --- if he's creating such kick ass work now...man.

cheers to you bro

[Marko Djurdjevic]

Well, sorry to say this, but even great artists are not beyond criticism. His hands (and feet as well, actually) are definitely not up to par with the amazing quality of the rest of his art. Like arghmisfit said, Wes concentrates too much on faces, and looking through his sketchbook, I definitely get the feeling that he tries his best to avoid drawing hands and feet.

I'd just like to say that I'm a big Wes fan, so please don't hate me people! lol


What? Wes sucks at drawing hands? Where the fuck did that come from? I see his work on a daily basis, and if there is someone who can pull off hands with ease, it is Wes. It's pretty ignorant to judge an artist by the small body of work that he is allowed to post.

Anyway, great interview Wes. Thanks for some of the great work you create.

Your favorite social desaster
M

[HugeHarHar]

I have CA on my favorite's list.

I have Wes's sketchbook on the list.

And now I have the gallery on the interview on my favorites.

On the very first picture on the first page of his sketchbook is an example that he has no trouble drawing hands.

Well that's just me. I quite enjoyed the interview as well.

AH! THE HAND! THE HAND!
http://www.wesleyburt.com/imagefiles/wrinkle.jpg

[Balooga]

What? Wes sucks at drawing hands? Where the fuck did that come from? I see his work on a daily basis, and if there is someone who can pull off hands with ease, it is Wes. It's pretty ignorant to judge an artist by the small body of work that he is allowed to post.




No need to insult me by calling me ignorant. I can only go by what I've seen of his work here, and I would imagine nine pages of his art in his sketchbook would be pretty representational of his skills.

[kim]

Good Job Wes!

-KC

www.kimcogan.com

[patternagainst]

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I'm not sure what to think. I think everyone plays favorites. For some reason I have a real trouble working evenly around the human anatomy. I'll start gesturing the chest and larger forms, then make my way to the neck and head and just sit on the head for a good couple hours. It's pretty annoying, and I hear about it a lot, so I try not to.

What I think... I think if someone gives you a critique they are hardly off, really. If someone says your eyes look funny, well... they probably do. If someone says you just can't make it look right, you probably can't. In my opinion a critique is always constructive, but the asshole who made it may not be. One thing I always hated about art was the fact that a lot of people don't really know how to accept critiques, they always give excuses or explanations. And excuses and explanations are fine, maybe I just didn't feel like putting the work into the hands, but it's a critique and you have to accept it.

I think both sides of the argument are valid. Aside from the attitudes and biases. But this is a discussion about the interview, and I thought it was really good and eye opening. I had the priviledge to meet the guy, he was great. Pretty shy and all, but really I just don't think he gives a fuck about certain things like everybody else does. If you don't like his work it really wouldn't bother him. (Those are all assumptions too...) That was one thing he said that always stuck for some reason, and one reason that I've always kept following him. "Once I learned that you can't impress everybody..." I don't know what he had said afterward, but that always sat on my sleeve.

Wes basically keeps me drawing. I told any teacher I really was into, the public school system, and The Cleveland Institute of Art to fuck off with a smoking 5 ft cigarette that I had built to interrupt an Art Spiegelman presentation he was conducting at the CIA Cinematique for personal reasons... and therefore decided to go to the local community college. I don't know what I want to do, but when I look at this kid's work, wether it be a napkin sketch or a full fledged oil, it just gets me going. The only bone I have to pick with this dude is that I wish he'd put some more work up and keep it recent... but then again not a soul on this board has probably seen anything I've ever done. I'm the same way.

The kids insane and he is the only reason I still keep a pencil in my hand now that I'm graduated, and that's all that ever mattered to me.

[JAIR428]

wes Nice stuff iam really happy for you!

i agree wes is a very nice guy and highly inspirational!

patternagainst- dang man! thats an earfull! ...or a readfull... whatever man!

------peace

[SamBrown36]

Congrats wes, always an inspiration to see your work. Um, and you can sketch hands like no other, hehe.

[Pilgrim1099]

Good to see Wes' interview online..I've met him in person in Cleveland and he's a very creative and inspiring kid with great talent and drive. It's always interesting to see his work come up.

And as for the hands remark, well, I've seen artists draw almost in an 'incomplete' way but rather for aesthetic reasons to focus on certain parts of the illustration. Look at Da Vinci..he does it sometimes with anatomical studies. Or rather, say, Egon Schiele, sometimes, if I'm not mistaken?

I find hands to be a challenge, but still it's not impossible to do it as long as you practice and think of hands as several constructive pieces in cylindrical shapes and blocks.

Keep it up, Wes!

-Adam

[patternagainst]

He's also got to be the fastest drawer I've ever seen. Dude digs his face into that page and there's no stopping him.

[|NTeRN]

congrats Wes!!! i actaully saw this a few weeks ago but wasnt sure if i could post cause it said a fecalface exclusive and didnt want to get anyone in trouble or anything.. plus im lazy


anyways i dont get why anyone is attacking any part of Wes's artwork. i often check your stuff out to see how you handle a hand or awkward angle of something.

anyways congrats Wes, you earned it :D

[Tigermilk]

I do not know how many times I'v been checking wes' skeches out for inspiration, I do not know how many times I'v sat like glue to the screen and studying the guys drawings. Like Pattern so well said, for some reason he makes me going, when I see his sketches I just want to grab the nearest pencil and draw, draw, draw.. Hopefully I'll be something like him in some years from now.

'bout the hands.. The hands that wes creates are maby the most simplified yet incredibly strong and expressive hands I'v seen anyone draw. And no, I'm not sucking up now, he can really inspire, I just wish he had more tíme for the boards..

Wes :: It would be so cool if you maby sometime could show us some of your stuff created in the earliest days of your career. It would be ridicously cool to see how you've developed. :)

Keep it up, don't give up your sketch thred!

[el coro]

wes has very soft, delicate hands. when they touch me its like being caressed by butterfly wings made of eyelashes. oh and did i mention that i love him too? mmmmm bertcakes.-c36

[Marko Djurdjevic]

Lololol

[duddlebug]

Cool interview.

I hadn't looked at Wes's sketchbook stuff for a while and it's great to be reminded just how good a draughtsman he is. Outstanding stuff.

And i had absolutely no idea how big his paintings were.

[Aly Fell]

I hadn't looked at Wes's sketchbook stuff for a while and it's great to be reminded just how good a draughtsman he is. Outstanding stuff.

Yeah... deffo! Lovely stuff... makes me feel very lickle...

BTW duddlebug... I'm stalking you.... ;)

[Interceptor]

And only a year older than me. I feel so usless, heheh... no... I can't even laugh this one off :(

[Blahm]

wes cant draw puppies.

[fell]

wes has very soft, delicate hands. when they touch me its like being caressed by butterfly wings made of eyelashes. oh and did i mention that i love him too? mmmmm bertcakes.-c36

tee hee ^__________________________________^;;;;;;; let's share photos!

[one2hit]

I really enjoy wes' work. I not only enjoy it as an artist, but as someone who can appreciate good art. I'm glad he posts here and all I can say is that I wish we could see more from him.

[dubpsychosis]

Wes rocks!!!!
his stuff makes me wanna practice. thank you soooo much!!!!

[modern]

i think ca.org is awesome cause of everyones opinion....i thought the interview was pretty good. btw wes...i drove by CIA on my way to coventry because the crazy circle got me confused...and was like hey wes went to CIA.

-garrett

[Barts]

Bump!

[Taj]

Why? Your an idiot Barts. I was hoping this was a new interview too.

[Denart]

Why? Your an idiot Barts

funniest comment ever! \w/ \w/ \w/

[Interceptor]

"Some Days I Cry Alone But I Know Im Not the Only One"
No, THIS is the funniest quote.

[Barts]

lollol

[bizarre]

it's like people are having a food fight, but like, online. heh.

/me throws a hot dog, then a donut... smiles about the poetry of it all.

[Pixeldragoon]

=[ I was hoping Wes posted...

[demented]

Sorry to bump this thread nya, was just wondering whether anyone has the interview? The link doesn't seems to work anymore and I can't find the interview on the site.

If anyone has saved it or it can be reposted, muchappreciated - I'd love to read it!

ciao!

- d.

[Mr Man]

The link doesnt send me to it :(

[nacho]

The pictures are missing, but the interview is still there.. google cache or whatever you call it.

here it is:
clickity click (http://72.14.221.104/search?q=cache:srhvUwC9nMIJ:www.fecalface.com/blogs/art_show_demimonde/archives/2005/06/wesley_burt.html+wesley+burt+interview&hl=de&gl=de&ct=clnk&cd=3)

[Atlantis]

*Many* thanks, Nacho. I've been wanting to read this for ages.

[demented]

nacho! You! Are the man! Well, you and Wes anyways. Thanx a buncho mate, muchappreciated.

thanx!

- d.

[Mikhael]

Dam I'm so bloody late! Does anyone have the interview, or a site which still has it? I fell so cheated and stupid right now.. I've got a finals art project which starts this month till august and part of it is a report on an Artist which aspires you, so it will be a great, great help if anyone could get back to me on this, my email is false_cler(at)hotmail.com replace the (at) with a @.

[k-tea]

Being a huge fan of Wesley's work, I did some poking when I saw this thread and the full text of the interview can still be seen over on the Internet Wayback Machine (http://web.archive.org/web/20051223091536/http://www.fecalface.com/blogs/art_show_demimonde/archives/2005/06/wesley_burt.html). It's a great interview—it's just a shame that the pics are missing.

[Dile_]

Thanks a lot K-tea!

[Justin.]

under most circumstances I would be furious about this necropost, but I guess it's legit if it's for an art thing..

[Björn]

WHERE THE HELL IS THE INTERVIEW ?? *going mad*

~B

[seth1]

Being a huge fan of Wesley's work, I did some poking when I saw this thread and the full text of the interview can still be seen over on the Internet Wayback Machine (http://web.archive.org/web/20051223091536/http://www.fecalface.com/blogs/art_show_demimonde/archives/2005/06/wesley_burt.html). It's a great interview—it's just a shame that the pics are missing.


All the pictures that are missing can be viewed on his site..

[Marko Djurdjevic]

Wesley Burt,



...who is he?

He's so mysterious....


....like an enigma....

Wes Burt...


:D

[Darktwin]

WHERE THE HELL IS THE INTERVIEW ?? *going mad*

~B

the horror.........the horror

I'm curious to know also

[Carnifex]

the horror.........the horror

I'm curious to know also
some people should read more before they post...
the full text of the interview can still be seen over on the Internet Wayback Machine (http://web.archive.org/web/20051223091536/http://www.fecalface.com/blogs/art_show_demimonde/archives/2005/06/wesley_burt.html)
it is a nice interview,but still...i have the feeling resurrections are getting more frequent lately..:rolleyes:

oh,and marko,i think i saw the back of wes burt's head once. there was a single little black and pink bowtie in it. what could that mean? :)

[Dile_]

Sorry for this, I take it away if its to much to quote the whole thing...however, now its here, no matter what links are dead or not..

:: Wesley Burt ::

I met Wesley Burt about a month ago at a unique event called A Day in the Life of a Painting at The Shooting Gallery. He was one of about 16 local artists who spent the day in the gallery creating a painting. All of the work in that show was awesome, but Eric Joyner told me that Wes "has one of the coolest jobs ever" and that I should interview him for my column. It only took a little online stalking to discover that Wes is ridiculously talented and already successful in a lot of ways - his painting at Day in the Life sold that day, he has fans (Google him and you'll see "My biggest influences are Wesley Burt..." "My favorite artists at the moment are concept artists like Wesley Burt..."), and he does, in fact, have a really cool job. I wanted to know how someone so young could be so accomplished, so I threw pebbles at his window until he agreed to this interview.

Wes' website [www.wesleyburt.com] displays several of his paintings and some drawings, but he put together an exclusive gallery of recent drawings just for the Fecal ======>

Check out his art and read up—this kid is amazing.

1. How long have you been drawing, when did it become your main focus?

A friend and mentor of mine, Ralph Woehrman, likes to say that I was probably drawing before I even started speaking. I guess that's probably not too far from the truth. I've been drawing for as long as I can remember... starting out with scribbles and drawing Star Wars characters and action figures and epic G.I. Joe battles in kindergarten and stuff like that. Growing up in Kansas City, my dad worked in the illustration and graphic design field and my mom did as well for some time before switching to a job as a middle school art teacher, so art was always around and it was never really discouraged or anything like that. I guess it really became a main focus though once I was in high school and started working at it more seriously and began getting things together to get into a good art school.


2. You've had a fairly unique academic experience, can you tell us about that?

I went to a high school in Kansas City, called Sumner Academy, that was set up sort of like a magnet school program, all high level academic classes and you had to have high test scores to attend the school. The art program was small, but the art teachers were really great and knew all about developing portfolios to send off to art schools and what was needed to get the big scholarships. By the time I was a senior, I had my schedule worked out so that I had 5 periods out of 8 that were just independent study art classes.

Between my junior and senior years of high school I was accepted to the Marie Walsh Sharpe summer program in Colorado and that was where things really cemented for me. I got my first taste of what art school would be like, being around other kids the same age as me working all day long and all night drawing and painting. I also made the bulk of my portfolio during that period which I sent off to 6 or 7 of the big art schools throughout the country. It paid off and I ended up attending The Cleveland Institute of Art in Ohio, thanks in part to a presidential scholarship I was awarded. The school is the only 5-year program art school in the country, which really allows the students to try out alot of different things and experiment more and not feel rushed if they choose to go abroad for a semester or do an intership while there. You don't even enter your major until the beginning of the third year. I majored in Drawing with a minor in Painting and had a handful of really great instructors and made many many great friends. I graduated just about one year ago and bounced around a while before ending up out here in San Francisco last December.
Artist Wesley Burt
wes burt

3. What can you say about your hush-hush employment with Massive Black?

Massive Black started out as a collective of artists working in the video game and film industries who came together to create their own company and assemble an artists "A-Team" of sorts. We do concept art and development and also have a 3d wing doing modeling/texturing and cinematic work for a variety of big video game and entertainment companies... Sony, Activision, Nike, iD Software, Neversoft, etc. ... lots of next generation video game console (xbox360, playstation 3) type stuff.

Basically, other companies come to us to make their games and designs look good. Sounds important, but really I just sit around in a big room with a handful of other artists and draw and paint cowboys and monsters and stuff all day. As a concept artist, I pretty much just "draw what stuff is supposed to look like"; based off written descriptions and ideas the clients have developed.

For me, it's generally a lot of creating characters (unique faces, with a variety of emotions, overall anatomy, hairstyles, etc.) or creatures or costumes. Clients usually like scars and other "cool" stuff like that. Being the video game industry, it usually involves a whole lot of cliché-ridden nonsense and I end up drawing quite a few dumb monsters and big macho dudes who shoot stuff. Some projects are pretty fun though. It's too bad though that most of the art directors at other companies aren't really into letting the concept artists go wild and create something new and unique. There ends up being a lot of rehashing of things that have already been done.

One cool thing though is that I've been able to subvert it a little and work some of my friends into games as characters. I even sort of made myself a main character in one game. So that's pretty much what I do on the Monday-Friday basis to support myself. I'm signed away on non-disclosure agreements so I don't think I can really say too much more.
A few pages from Wes' sketchbooks
wes' drawings

4. What part of drawing and/or painting do you like better, the process or the result and why?

Probably the process. I like that the process is limitless, there are always new things to try out and finding new ways to approach something. I draw pretty much every day, and usually for many hours... at work and then when I go home to do my own personal stuff. I work directly from my head a lot without using references; coming up with faces or people or poses on the page from what I see in my head. I really enjoy working from life though too; drawing the figure and working from models or friends. I do like having a finished result, but for me the result really is just me thinking about what I might try to do next or what I can work on in the future. Half the time, I usually don't even want to look at a piece I did six months ago.


5. What are some of your goals with regard to your art? What direction do you see it going?

I'm interested in representational and figurative art and realism, but I do like to incorporate elements of the abstract and the imaginary as well. I'm constantly thinking about ways to take observational or representational work and give it a little bit of a twist or some sort of uniqueness. I've been trying to figure out the best way to take to a larger scale some of the smaller abstract/layered imagery pencil drawings that I usually work up in my sketchbook or on loose sheets of paper. I want to work those up several feet larger than I have and most likely in color.

I'm also hoping to meet more people around the city so that I can do more portraiture work and involve different settings. I've been taking lots of photos out and about the city... it's such a unique landscape and I could see that echoing over into future direction.

Some friends of mine back in Cleveland are putting together a show right now that I'm doing something for. They sent out sets of 10 press-on fingernails to different artists/designers/celebrities to custom paint or do whatever they want to them. That goes up at Spaces Gallery in Cleveland later this month.

I might be doing a split show with my good friend Coro sometime early 2006 at the soon to be opened White Walls Gallery. I really want to do something new and more than just hanging up whatever drawings and paintings I've been working on. So I guess we'll see what happens with that. I'm really hoping to keep creating enough work and generate enough interest so that I can move on towards just doing my own stuff as much as I can... not having to rely on as much commercial work for support.
Just a little peek at Wes' studio
wes drawings

6. What challenges do you face with your personal work?

I'm still feeling 'fresh out the gates of art school', so, creating interesting and relevant work is definitely an important factor. It can also be a challenge to work all day on commercial stuff and then come home at night and want to keep drawing or painting my own personal stuff at home. I'm really interested in how music and film can convey an emotion or an idea almost instantaneously. They have such a dynamic that 2-D work, drawing and painting, usually cannot fully replicate. Sometimes I wonder if that (mainly film/video) would be a more fitting avenue for some of the things I would like to do... it's definitely possible somewhere down the line. But I am interested in making artwork that tries to evoke the same sort of response. A lot of my work comes with quite a bit of influence from movies or particular music. I realy like to incorporate movement and layering to create new effects in a drawing or painting.


7. If you could live the part of any character in any movie, who would you choose to be and why?

Hmm, wow I'd love to live out the adventure the kids in The Goonies go through. I always wanted to be Mikey or Data when I was a kid and find a real treasure map. Or like in Time Bandits, the British kid, Kevin, goes on a crazy adventure through time with a band of thieving midgets and fights the embodiment of pure evil at the end. Those adventures and places they go to would be so awesome. Lando in the original Star Wars movies would be pretty awesome too. You know him and Han and Chewbacca went through some crazy shit. Or I might have to go with Patrick Swayze's character, Bodhi, in Point Break. Who wouldn't want to surf and jump out of airplanes all day and rob banks in tuxedos and then disappear into the ocean on the greatest wave ever.
Another peek around the studio
wes drawings

8. Marcel Duchamp got sick of painting when he was 31, and quit to play chess. What do you think you'd do if you got sick of making art?

See question 7. Hmm, I'm not really sure. I can't really imagine not drawing or creating something of some kind. I really like riding my bicycle. I suppose I could get really into that. I think I'd probably try to find a job that required lots of traveling. Maybe work on a train system in Europe and wander from city to city. Reviewing movies would be a pretty sweet job.


9. Name one artist (who you don't know) whose work you admire and why?

I've really been into Alex Kanevsky's work recently. I really enjoy the movement and subtleties of his paintings. He has a very interesting take on some pretty traditional subjects and really beautiful brushwork and color.

Some others I really admire and find influence in... Jerome Witkin, Gerhard Richter, Antonio Lopez Garcia, Jenny Saville, Ashley Wood, Banksy, Barry McGee, Matthew Barney, Nicolas Uribe. Jim Henson. The music of Prefuse 73. And some friends and people I do know whose work I really admire... Daniel Dove, Ralph Woehrman, Peter Reichardt, David Choong Lee, Coro, James Jean, Kim Cogan, Shawn Barber, The Grand Illusionists, and many more.
Wes and his painting "Smoke" at The Shooting Gallery
wes and smoke

10. I asked this same question of Shawn Barber, but since you also just moved here, what are some things you like about San Francisco?

The homeless and crazy people here are awesome. I think there are more per square mile than anywhere I've ever been. I like to think that all the crazies are from the future. I like that it doesn't get too hot here. I miss snow a bit though. I really love that it's so easy to get around here, walking, biking, public transportation, etc. I don't have a car and don't really need one here. I was just down in LA with work for the big E3 video game convention thing, and it seemed like we had to drive at least a half hour everytime we went to do something. That really sucks. So SF is awesome for getting around quickly, other than biking uphill... I'm still not a big fan of that.

I'm still getting to know the art scene here, seeing shows at new galleries every couple weeks or so. It's been pretty hard meeting people here though. I don't know if it's that I'm not in a school environment anymore or not living in the right part of the city, but I don't really know a whole lot of people yet. Hopefully that will start to change.
~Dile

[MattGamer]

thanks dile and k-tea ;]