Interview with Dame Darcy

Q)So, can you tell me a little about yourself? Full name, age, some background info, etc?

A)I'm 97 years old and originally from Idaho Falls, Idaho. I majored in film at the San Francisco Art Institute where I studied animation. Then I got published by Fantagraphics and started working as a freelance illustrator and animator in NY. I had a premonition that NY would get bombed. I moved to Los Angeles in 2001. I started getting my novels published while in LA.

Q)How did you get started making art?

A)I always drew sequential stories and images as a kid; comics, fairy tales, ghost stories.

Q)How would you describe your art?

A)I'm officially in the genre of "dark fantasy", which is a lot like my real life.

Q)Where do you get the inspiration for your art?

A)Dadaism, Surrealism, Victorian fashion and architecture, Pre-Raphaelite imagery and also growing up in a really cold, dark, desolate place with beautiful nature.

Q)What are you working on now?

A)Right now we're booking a tour for the Halloween season posted in the event section of http://damedarcy.com. Also I'm promoting my latest graphic novel JANE EYRE, published by Putnam Penguin. I'm performing in both the US east and west coasts with my darkwave band DEATH BY DOLL with Aaron Detroit and Christopher Hydinger. I'm also promoting DOLLERIUM, a book and DVD produced by Presspop based in Tokyo.

Q)Are there some web sites that you would like to recommend? Artists, art communities, xxx,...!?

A)I really love http://livedigital.com, http://postpunkjunk.com, http://davidlynch.com, and http://postsecret.blogspot.com

Q)What's your favorite medium to work in, and why?

A)Animation because it's alchemy, you can make anything come to life.

Q)What advice would you give to younger up and coming artists?

A)Don't wait to get exactly what you want, do what you can with what's around you and build up to what you ultimately really want.

Q)What is your personal definition of life and art and everything else in between?

A)Life is art. Love is freedom. The man is the devil.

Q)If your persona were immortalized as a cartoon character, who would it be?

A)Richard Dirt from Meatcake! Duh!

Q)What are your artistic influences?

A)Gibson girls, everything out of the Sears Roebuck catalogue from 1899, silent films, Jan Svankmajer, Art Noveau, Erte, Edward Gorey, and King Ludwig of Bavaria.

Q)How are the reactions on your work in general?

A)Most people who get in touch with me really like it, but if people don't like it I never really know. I don't get hate mail or bad reviews anything, as far as I know.

Q)What are you doing when you are not creating art?

A)Running my business, marketing it, hanging out with cute girls, and surfing.

Q)Tell us about a recent dream you had.

A)Here's a recent one: My friend who just died and I were doing a cabaret show and our mutual friends were there looking all embarrassed because she was rifling through all the costumes and props and she looked like herself but she was clearly dead. She didn't know she was dead or that her skin was gray and that she looked frightening. In life she had a tattoo which covered her entire back which was a demon with a skull splitting open and more demons spilling out but in the dream it was a different tattoo of craggy black mountains and a river that looked like the Styx river. I said, "You changed your tattoo". She said, "Yeah I tattooed over that old thing, this is a picture of the afterlife." But I thought there really was no difference.

Q)What is freedom to you as an artist?

A)To be respected and have the business end running smoothly and organized enough that there's money coming in and that I don't have to do anything besides be an artist, which, by the way, I haven't reached that place. However things are much easier now.

Q)Are there any particular works you've done that stand out as your favorites?

A)I really like Frightful Fairytales and my new Jane Eyre book. I love Meatcake #5 a lot for some reason. I like my painting THE DARK KISS a lot, too and my animation GOLDEN SHOES.

Q)Last Books you read?

A)Anne Sexton's TRANSFORMATIONS

Q)Last records you bought?

A)The Skidoo soundtrack, Walter Carlos' adaptations of Bach, and Glass Candy.


Q)Who are your favourite artists & Your favourite galleries?

A)Artists: Camille Rose Garcia, Liz McGrath, Rita Ackerman, Clayton Bros., and Matthew Barney. Galleries: Wacko in LA, Milk in NYC, Deitch in NYC, Copro Nason in LA and Track 16 in LA.

Q)Which do you think make good art good? originality, or style? And, why?

A)I think whether someone's trained or not, if the soul comes through, it's really great. I love classically trained artists like Klimt and Dali but I really love folk and naïve art too. The best naïve art I ever saw was this quilt made by a black slave woman from the South. It was all black, with crucifixes and burning scenes. The best goth stuff ever, but she clearly wasn't a trained artist.

Q)Your contacts..E-mail.Links

A) http://Damedarcy.com ! For all your Dame Darcy needs!