DESIGN
(^34) | APRIL 2016
above (from left)
Broad City Animation artwork
Oozing Sandwich of Time
Collaboration with Andy Byers
24 x 8 x 8”
How long has this been going on?
It’s probably been a year or two. Sometimes I want to
change my palette, just because you get so used to using
colors that you like, and you wonder if it’s becoming too
easy. Fluorescent pink is a great color and has its own
power, so then I wonder if it’s a crutch or something. I try to
mix it up, but it makes me happy, so who cares? I tell myself
to just chill out and use the pink.
Do you think it’s the happiest color?
For myself, I think the happiest color is a really beautiful,
sun-kissed yellow color.
Someone recently told us yellow represents anxiety, but
yellow is usually a happy color.
It’s so impossible to have any idea of what other people are
grasping from—that complex truth about color and the way
everyone sees it differently is crazy. I feel pretty comfortable
with my use of color as a concept, but I know that some
people are colorblind and don’t register all of the values
because they see a different spectrum.
It would be interesting to ask a lineup of people to look at
your work and compare how they see the colors.
But then what would you do with that information?
The mystery is often better than the facts.
Big time.
Are there any recurring elements in your work?
I’ve been drawing that starburst asshole shape for a long
time. It always feels very satisfying. I’ve introduced the daisy
flower shape into my work, and I take such great pleasure in
drawing fields of grass with flowers. I also like the rainbow
shape without the colors, just the lines.
You once said you like silence in your artwork, which
was surprising because it sometimes feels loud and
busy (in a good way).
You say that, and I’m sitting here staring at this painting, and
it’s utter fucking chaos. Did I really say that? I spent a bunch
of time making these spacey watercolors, and I called them
little universes or starscapes. I always thought those were
quiet, but maybe they only feel calm to me because I get to
look at them and feel a sense of accomplishment. It could
be my own personal point of view.
One of my favorite things to do is to stack things in drawings,
so there’s like a fictional gravity. It feels like when you put
a house of cards together—you suddenly get really quiet
because anything you do could knock it over. Maybe it’s
something like that.
mikeperry.com