Cheers! : A Conversation with Kyle Aronson and Ignacio Villanueva

Ignacio Villanueva and Kyle Aronson are not new to the world of art and creativity but both are at the dawn of their careers as professional artists. Ignacio, has designed products for both Etnies and Vans but is also drawing attention from the fine art. His latest collaboration with the Keep-A-Breast Foundation will be on exhibit October 9^th at Jet Studios in Long Beach. Kyle has worked designing and illustrating products for Toy Machine and Macbeth and will be the first featured guest artist on Ignacio’s South Bay Co-Op. Kyle is also involved with Via Injection–the first anarchal, post-satanic, pyschadellic art collective/record label in Orange County and hopefully not the last. But enough jibber-jabber here, learn about them through their own words.

I: What are the many things that you do?

K: By profession, I am a graphic designer [and] illustrator. If I can support my self by making things whether it’s business cards, illustrating a skateboard, painting a wall or doing a tattoo for someone, it is a better means of existence.

I: I really liked the Toy Machine Decks that you did.

K: Those were something I did while in school and it showed me you can make a living doing [things] you didn’t know you could make a living doing.

K: How did you start doing what you do?

I: During the late 90’s I worked for Sole Technologies in their promotions department but I spent a lot of my time skating to the art department to see what was going on there.

K: At this point, did you have any idea you wanted to be a graphic designer or illustrator?

I: No, I was just a skate punk. [Skating] completely surrounded and engulfed me. [Art] was something I witnessed from a distance—but not very far.  I remember meeting Yogi Proctor who ran the [Sole Tech] art department at the time…I was really just blown away by his stuff… I went over to Vans for a couple years. After that I was looking for something different. I thought graphic design was the direction I wanted to take—mainly for the years I was doing the skateboarding I also had my sketchbook with me. I started taking classes [for graphic design]. After I graduated with my Bachelor’s degree, I started painting—the painting came after the graphic design.

I: What got you into creativity?

K: It started off with [my] supportive mother that always fed me crayons as a little kid. In high school, I always spent more time in the art projects rather than anything else. And people eventually just started showing interest. At first, I didn’t take it seriously but after several people saying this is what you should do for a living you begin to see a market for your art work and you think this is going to be a more fun profession than answering telephones.

I: So basically, the feedback you got was your inspiration—people were digging your stuff and you were digging it too.

K: Yeah, I was into making music and all of my friends were into skating and through those things people needed art to put on their albums and skateboards. I ended up doing [these] things for people and not taking it seriously.

K: Tell us about the Co-op project you are working on right now.

I: It’s called South Bay Co-Op. It’s a project that me and some friends who went to school with me and friends I’ve skated with over the past twenty years. It’s us just being creative and has given us an outlet to make and create something that people will enjoy. We want to get some prints out there and some zines and also some T-shirts. Again, it’s an outlet for fun… And Kyle will be designing a T-shirt as our first guest artist!

K: Thanks, man! Aside from the graphic work you do, what inspires the content of your paintings?

I: Definitely my sketchbook…I’ve always had a sketchbook with me and it’s a record of quotes that I have read or heard and all of my other musings. Sometimes they all come together and I can put a piece together through that—or just going through my sketchbook will inspire another thought. My sketchbooks get the raw material and from there [I take] a more organic approach to the way a painting will come about.

K: It sounds like there are a couple of translations. You take things that are in the environment and then you transcribe it into your sketchbook abstractly. Then, when you feel it is right, you translate that onto canvas.

I: Exactly. I like how you said ‘feel it is right’. I’ve messed up so many paintings because they didn’t feel right. Because it’s me at the end that wants to have that certain relationship with my work where I feel comfortable with it.

K: I know what you mean. Sometimes, I when I am creating a painting, I feel like I’m finishing a puzzle and all it needs is that last piece but I have no idea what that piece looks like.

K: You are a cynical person but your paintings are often very positive, fun and silly. It is an interesting polarization of stuff you are into expressing. How would you describe that?

I: Y’know with the cynicism, I think it comes from realizing that in a society we are fed certain ways to do things. I feel that to be a load of crap. There’s no handbook for the way humans are supposed to be and we have that opportunity as artists to make the world as we see it.

K: It’s cool to be able to project a positive image in a different way. With my art even though there is darker imagery—I am definitely not trying to send a negative message. But I do like to challenge people and get them to think about everyday life. A lot of people are unhappy because they’re trying to fit the mold and they don’t question religion and systems of living they partake in. [I’m] not trying to make people think like me but I’m trying to make them question what they are doing because they aren’t questioning it.

I: What artists inspire you?

K: Probably the first was Ed Roth. When I was a little kid he painted one of my dad’s race-cars. [His art] was something I understood but I didn’t entirely understand it. Little kids, especially in Orange County, are shown this image of Mickey Mouse and are maybe overly familiar with it and when I saw Rat Fink I identified with him so much more than a happy mouse with a high screechy voice… Then when I got a little older I was exposed to other intense and bizarre things like video games, Magic cards and surrealist painters and certain renaissance painters like Caravaggio. Both Ed Roth and Caravaggio make really intense art but are completely different but both speak to me…I try to take all of those influences into my own art.

Check out Ignacio’s works at www.gammaray.tv and www.southbayco-op.com

and check out Kyle’s works at www.lifeismega.com and www.viainjection.com