AFQ - Geoff Mcfetridge
In this episode of AFQ I fire a few questions to artist and designer Geoff Mcfetridge. Geoff is one busy dude, especially this year. He’s been involved in various solo and group shows as well as lending his signature drawing style to various companies for use on t-shirts and other products. This year Geoff also co-launched a skateboard line called Solitary Arts as well as a wall paper line called Pottok Prints. Damn he’s busy.
On a side note did you notice Geoff put up a site? It’s a first for him and it only went up today. Here’s what he said: “…for the first time I have a site that catalogs some of my studio champion graphics’ work and also my artwork”
Enjoy.
1) I noticed you were racing cyclocross and placing really well. How long have you been racing cyclocross and what drew you to it?
I only started racing cyclocross this year. I have been cycling pretty seriously for years. I bought a cyclocross frame at a bike swap meet last year. When I built it up for cyclocross the mechanic asked if I planned to race it. I said “no” but within a couple of weeks I was racing every other weekend. It is super fun, and I was doing well. I started winning races by the end of the season. I moved up to cat 3 after that and stopped winning but got 2nd and 4th in my last 2 races. It is surprising how slow some really fast guys are, and how fast the slowest looking guys are! it is one of the great things about cyclocross. Wow, I never thought I would turn into such a jock!
2) This year you seem to be really busy. You have a wallpaper project, Solitary Arts, Patagonia Ts and various art shows. What triggered this prolific burst of creativity?
This was a big year. I am not sure why. I was pretty mellow in the past few years, although a lot of what was going on this year has been brewing for awhile. I also got an assistant and a new much larger studio.
Mainly this was the year of “yes”. I took a lot on and was ready to make some things happen. I had not done a show in a long time, a serious show. So that was a big thing. So I did the Red Cat show, and then the really large installation at the Seattle Art Museum and then a small show of prints and drawings at Mollusk. A zine, a book, Pottok, Solitary Arts, Animation projects, it was really piling on for awhile there…
All of this came out years of developing different types of work, work i really enjoy doing. So the arsenal of fun sort of builds and builds over the years. And so these ways of working create their own type of momentum for me in the studio. This was a high production year, but the work was coming to me easier and easier
3) Have you ever experienced a moment where your life flashed before your eyes? Kind of like a near death experience…care to elaborate?
Hmm not really. I have knocked myself out before skateboarding. Funny question.
4) What has been a great inspiration for you lately or what’s been getting you stoked in terms of design and art?
My influences are generally pretty random. My wife started buying old childrens books for our daughter. She is 5 now, so she has quite a few at this point. She would buy them without knowing the artists or authors. The work was interesting, but what was stunning was how much great art is just cast away over the years. The art of working American artists over the years that are just tucked into these books or anthologies. Work that is of a quality that would be hard to match today. So the work itself was not really inspiring directly, but the perspective it gave me changed something in me. I also read a book on Maxfield Parrish where he described his process, of painting layers of transparent paint on glass, and how he would build wooden models to paint from. Something about the intensity of his process, and his persuit of an image really clicked something in me, something about the methodical approach and focus on craft and materials. His seeking control of what is possible to control you can have in the creative process. Even though my work is nothing like what he does.
5) If there was one bit of advice you would give to a budding designer or artist what would that be?
Do not underestimate opportunity, try to know it when you see it, which is a difficult thing to do.
