Artist of the Week: Max Kauffman

Chicago native, living in Denver, Max Kauffman creates a world that is complex and beautiful. His work could be called mixed media, he typically uses acrylic, watercolor, ink, sepia, pen, gouache, and paint markers in some combination. Mystical birds and other creature fill his work with vibrant colors and a near darkness that walks the line between humorous and unsettling. Forgoing the formality of a website, Max a blog, flickr, and myspace to connect with like-minded artists and fans. He has a series of shirts produced by Robot Co, and has found other ways to distribute his inventive creations.

Recently, Max was kind enough to answer a few of my questions.

Orange Alert (OA): How would you describe your work?
Max Kauffman (MK): A return to earlier times, a post apocalyptic d.i.y. culture, where structures and life itself are cobbled out of anything at hand. Up until recently, the animals and cites with my work were at odds with each other. But as their culture (like ours) continues to slide downhill, they have set aside their differences,and are ready to make it work.

OA: You have made a lot of quality connections through flickr. How do you feel flickr has affected you as an artist? How important is the feedback you receive?
MK: Flickr has been an amazing way to showcase my work while waiting on a website to be built. I've definitely met some great artists that I relate to via the site. Feedback is nice, but I prefer honest critiques. Flickr is a bit sugarcoated in that sense, for the most part.

OA: I love the way you fill every inch of inch of your pieces with really inventive images. Where do this images come from? Is this your internal world?
MK: The imagery is out of the ol noggin for the most part. I've been trying to come up with a series of glyphs to accompany this world, to give it its own language. Formerly working in clay, I loved coating the surface of sculpture with additional data, sort of a canvas within a canvas. This idea continues in my painting style.

OA: You have a t-shirt design coming out soon. Tell us about the shirt and how that came to be?
MK: The shirt is put out by Robot Co, a relaunched(formerly of the midwest) venture that is a pseudo real skate company/creative umbrella.

I'm hoping to put a new one out monthly, in small editions of 25, and to bring in other artists and introduce their work to others. This one features a cloud metroid, and can be purchased @ kauffmanartistry.etsy.com.

OA: There are some artists that as a rule rarely travel with their work. Do you make it to a any of the openings, and where is the most unusual place you have visited?
MK: I personally love to travel and wander, so will try and attend openings to the best of my ability. I imagine my work is a lot to take in, so being on hand to discuss it is a big help. Not sure of the most unusual place visited, but for art, I did a tour a few years ago. Akin to the way bands travel- one night shows for 2 weeks straight. Definitely unusual locales, but the most fun I've ever had on the road.

OA: What's next for Max Kauffman?
MK: Up next is plotting out next year, and striving to go larger. Hopefully a show out of country, as I've yet to explore Europe and the surrounding area.

Bonus Questions:
OA: If you could sit down to coffee with anyone (alive or dead) who would it be?
MK: The Good Doctor, and the coffee would be interlaced with Stranahans.

OA: What type of music do you enjoy and who are a few of you favorites?
MK: I enjoy a wide variety of music, depends on the day/mood. Current favs are Umphrey's McGee(go team middle!), Minus the Bear, Dr Dog, Cool Calm Pete, Wilco, New Pornographers and WEEN.

For more information on Max Kauffman please visit his website.