Teefury

EVERYONE, GREAT INTERIVEW, MUST READ!

How long have you been an artist?
 
Well, I have been drawing since i was a little thing, haha. I started doing it as a job on and off in about 2002, but started "for serious" freelance about three years ago.

When you were younger, did you ever feel different? And if so, when did you realize that you were different and become OK with it? (Not sure if every artist goes through this, but it seems most artists think differently than the normal boring folk out there.)

Yeah i did feel different. I interacted okay with other kids but I grew up a very sheltered, only child and was really ignorant of trends or how to dress...so that kind of singled me out. I said weird stuff and acted like a little boy..i was into horror movies, video games and herpetology so some kids were like "wtf". It took me a long time to be okay with it, there are still parts of me that think it would be easier if i just acted or looked "normal". But i actually tried that for a few years and it sucked.

What is your family like? I'm uncertain, but from cloud knowledge from twitter and elsewhere, it seems like you might come from a regular ole suburban family like me, but then you are all like totally eccentric Hollywood one in a million as far as your appearance and vibe with tattoos, colored hair and whatnot. Is the family picture like I imagine?

You are correct! My folks are both very conservative, Christian people and i was raised in a super normal, pleasant neighborhood. Went to religious private school and everything! The first time i dyed my hair, my mom freaked out pretty bad. Cried and everything. They really wanted me to turn out normal and i felt so bad because i just didn't want to look that way. I wasn't trying to make them angry or shock them, i just wasn't down with denim jackets, white jeans and frosted hair. My idol was Tank Girl so come on. The good news is, they  have finally figured out that dyed hair is just not that big of a deal...though i do hide my tattoos from them out of respect. I don't need to throw it all in their face. When i used to live closer to them and visited on sundays, i'd suffer in 95 degree Texas heat with long sleeves haha.

Are there any other artists in your family?

Not that i know of. I'm adopted so it's possible someone blood related to me is an artist though!

Is there someone who influenced you when you were young that maybe helped spur you into becoming an artist?

Hmmm, i guess my art teacher Mrs. Park. She was a really cool lady who didn't take anyone's crap and pushed me to do well. She taught at the private school i went to and stuck out just as much as i did...but she didn't care and i thought that was rad.

Do your friends call you missmonster?

 Ha, not really. At conventions friends might call me that, sort of half joking...

As an artist, do you go through stages of unproductivity or down time, or are you typically on most the time?

I'm pretty much on all the time. I'm so anxious about what i do, i feel like if i dare rest or not make stuff then i will fail or miss some opportunity or get yelled at by some customer. It's sort of unhealthy, really.  I'm working on allowing myself more down time now and just telling people they can WAIT.

What's been the most fun project you have worked on thus far... EVAR?

Ooohh man that's so hard!!! Well working on A Scanner Darkly was pretty amazing at first because i met all these awesome people and had fun joking around.Then it turned into a job and some people turned out to be NOT awesome, haha. Besides that, it's really hard to pick out one project. Any new project im working on for myself is the best one EVAR at that time. Then it gets replaced by the newest project, haha...

What's your favorite shirt to wear?

This is so boring but i really like my scoop neck shirts from Victoria's Secret, ahaha. Hmmm besides that maybe my Motorhead shirt? I hardly ever wear my own designs!

Anything you want to promote or say?

Um, i started making these crazy owl masks: http://missmonster.bigcartel.com/ and I'd like to promote my etsy store: http://www.etsy.com/shop/missmonster  I'd like to say THANK YOU for buying my shirts on teefury!!