PAUL NUDD

The Land of Forty Lungs
Acrylic & collage on canvas
72 x 96"
2008

Paul Nudd seems to have his fingers in everything an artistically inclined person could finger, maybe sans being a critic. You’ve heard of the term D.I.Y., that pretty much sums up Paul. Last time I saw Paul he got drunk and passionately explained how much he loves his wife as we stumbled along through the south side.



untitled slug drawing #136
2003-05
ink, watercolor, gouache and colored pencil on paper
7 1/4 x 9



Filth
2000/2006
Hi8 transferred to DVD
5:11

Tell us a bit about your background Paul?

I immigrated to the United States as a small child. I’m 32 years old right now. My family is from the UK. I’ve pretty much spent my entire adolescent and adult life in Illinois. I went to the university of Illinois in Urbana Champaign for my undergraduate studies and the University of Illinois in Chicago for grad school. I didn't grow up in a particularly creative household, though I was free to pursue any endeavor. No one got me into art. I found art on my own.



Black Sub-Dung Slugs
Acrylic & collage on canvas
72 x 108"
2008



Dog Dream's
18 x 20"
mixed media collage on raw canvas
2006-07

I was really fortunate as an undergrad to have a slew of really kick-ass teachers. Teaching art is such an unnatural act - it’s hard to truly muster up any substantial respect for anyone who really believes in it. I’ve been teaching art in some capacity for twelve years, everything from head start to nursing home art hour, truly. The one thing I’ve learned is that, most of the time, I feel like a total knob. It’s incredible when you reach someone and are able to see some kind of result, but most of the time you don't. Teaching is just so weird, and I’ll leave it at that. Anyway, the teachers I had were really helpful and aggressive and were fantastic resources. They were mostly all relatively young, too, which is huge. Buzz Specter, Michael McCaffrey and Laurie Hogin were the teachers I loved the best.
What you truly need is brains and balls, but it’s also what you do with them, too. I mean, if you're going to be the type that is going to drag your balls all over an academic department, you'd better cut a wide enough swath for everyone to flourish deep within the newly formed canyon walls. I really lucked out, being enrolled at UIC just at the right time.



Swamp Swamp
1999
Hi8 transfered to DVD
16:42

So, beginning with the drawings, you've made how many of these? What got you started on these? Will they ever stop?

I stopped counting the worm/slug/pest drawings some time ago. I made most of them between 2003 and 2005 and I occasionally revisit the project from time to time.
I would say that there are nearly 700 of them out there. The worms appeared as a result of a drastic reduction in my pictorial vocabulary. I stopped trying to squeeze my mushy forms into landscape-type scenarios or object-based compositions. Consolidating all the forms I had been working with into one elongated dick/turd shape made a lot of sense at the time. The essence and beauty of the slug-worm is delivered to the viewer in a nice, tidy morsel. The entire project reads as an endless way of working, a taxonomy that is forever open and fairly arbitrary. It’s a nice metaphor for drawing. I’ve pretty much stripped everything away except for the color and patterns and a few other formal traits. The most desirable worms, I’ve noticed, are the ones with the most awkward markings, or the most outrageous color combinations. The worms with the most unnamable knobs and protuberances, the ones that are discreet slabs of immaculate filth are the ones that the thirsty masses flock to before all others.



untitled slug drawing #456
2003-05
ink, watercolor, gouache and colored pencil on paper
7 1/4 x 9



Dog Dream's
18 x 20"
mixed media collage on raw canvas
2006-07

You have definitely embraced the "nasty" here throughout your body of work thus far. But it is still attractive. Kind of midway between French shit smear artists and the hordes of neon colored triangle-painting kids. How do you find a middle ground like this?

Well, formlessness is just a total waste of time. It may be fun and self-gratifying, but ultimately it gets you nowhere. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to establish a recognizable structure that can hold many horrid sorts of forms and not completely implode.
If anyone is truly interested in experimentation, it should probably be done in private. I want everything I make to be beautiful. I’ve already surpassed the mere repulsiveness of some of the forms I work with. I mean, I truly enjoy the smell of elephant shit at the zoo. Its so life affirming and real, so earthy and beautiful. Same thing with the farm. Have you ever changed diapers for several years in a row? Whew! Worms and slugs are beautiful, fat is also beautiful. Most things that are ugly possess an unreal and unbelievable amount of beauty. It’s not really about redemption, either. I mean, it's not really about changing perceptions or anything like that. Filth is the center of everything, the mother of art. The only way I can convey this is through elegant, floaty compositions coupled with the inherent sadness of abject materials.
Smoothing a slab of green paint out almost into a thin mist and shifting a hulking slab of black crust across a nine foot canvas, rattling off another hundred slugs, picking out snot and my friend's snot and gluing it to a canvas in a though-balloon made out of dried glue and twine... I’m like Chagall if he ever saw c.h.u.d., man!



The Death of Talking Dogs (c.1313)
Acrylic & collage on canvas
72 x 108"
2008



dogbroth (satanicsalve)
ink, pencil and acrylic on paper
18 x 18"
2007



untitled slug drawing #452
2003-05
ink, watercolor, gouache and colored pencil on paper
7 1/4 x 9

You are a very d.i.y. kind of guy (more so than anyone else I know). You paint, draw, sculpt, publish, make videos and prints, teach, curate, brew a mean o stout and breed. How do you juggle all of this around? Because it's all substantial, not like you are experimenting, but you seem to really know what the hell you are doing all the way across the board.

I usually have two to three major meltdowns per year. I’m talking horrible tantrums that last hours. Juggling so many things is not the best idea, but it’s really the only way I know how to work. When you're super young, ideas come to you so fast that its impossible to get even a fraction of what you envision finished. Eventually you need to learn to focus; I suppose it just happens.
A lot of my work is about making things, about being autonomous and also about regurgitating ideas, materials, forms, etc. Everything exists in this cyclonic netherworld of muck and doom: the epicenter of the universe is a vibrating ball of quivering black sludge. We are passing through an already perverted landscape and our tenderness towards each other is fleeting, but necessary.
I want to be the cold gluey lump in the throat of art, I suppose because art is really the only reason why I’m hanging around. Painting proves itself to be pathology over and over again, and the fact that fecal matter adheres to most surfaces is the reason why I get up in the morning. I go to my studio every day, without exception. Even if I just scribble some absurd crap that no one will ever see, a day not going to the studio for me is crazy. I also spend lots of time making lists and organizing what I need to do. Even if I make the same list three times in a day, I need to constantly be fixated on organizing the way I make these things.
As far as my insatiable thirst for ale goes, the last batch of home brew I made was nearly a year ago! At our peak, my brother and I were brewing about 20 gallons a month. It’s a special moment the first time you get ripped to the tits on something you've fermented yourself...



slugchutney
ink, pencil and acrylic on paper
18 x 18"
2007



Soft Explosion #3
2003
Hi8 transfered to DVD
2:00

On a bit of envious side note, what was studying with Kerry James Marshall like?

Having a critique or a studio visit with Kerry Marshall was like taking a very cold shower. I think he was most interested in stripping away all sorts of bullshit that tends to stick to grad-school art quite easily. I think in his eyes, grad students are like smarmy gnats buzzing around a morsel of cake. Kerry Marshall was probably the only teacher I had who knew and openly acknowledged that the whole art school thing was a racket, at least upper-level art school. Kerry was very aggressive about trying to decipher the whole point of the art school process. He understands that there are a lot of bottom-feeders out there, and very few elite, i.e. respectable artists. For him, a life on the margins was no life at all, just a big disappointment. Pretty hardcore shit. I mean, to him, winning the Oscar was the goal, not being some half-baked, half-crazed moviemaker wallowing in self-absorption and pointless ideas. Maybe he had a weak stomach for intuition, but I know many artists are interested in making things we can argue about. Nobody argues about large, gorgeously painted scenes of urban magical realism, so he was certainly a dissident.
I learned a lot from Kerry James Marshall, like ignoring content almost completely and learning to focus on the organization and presentation of forms in my paintings. Failing big, allowing your personal interests to naturally seep into your work, and putting every conceivable amount of energy into making good paintings were all part of his mantra. I think he was looking for surprising combinations of basic formal elements. Elements that have been beaten to death and exhausted, but still hold tremendous power, regardless. He was really interested in fundamentals and came across as being an old school, no-bullshit sort of guy. His conservative approach to making pictures is truly radical.



Funk Funk
2000
Hi8 transfered to DVD
9:18



dirtystreamsdirtcream
ink, pencil and acrylic on paper
18 x 18"
2007



Dog Dream's
18 x 20"
mixed media collage on raw canvas
2006-07

Back to you, could you talk a little but about the video work and the zines?

There are very few reasons not to like my videos. In fact, all art originates from my videos. Even cave paintings. If you don't believe me, watch the entire series in one sitting like I have. I provide high quality television for people who enjoy shapes, color, texture and movement. There is also climax, suspense, catharsis and endless spasms of primal funk. I make my videos in my basement over the summer months. I do very little editing and they are made very cheaply. I usually arrange the cuts chronologically in the order I made them, so they are arbitrarily assembled, to a certain degree. My slop and gunk videos are essentially one long piece. Each episode is recognizably different. Some conjure up reminiscences of weird alien landscapes culled from cheap-o monster movies, while others ape surgical documentation and the splatter gore genre. I’ve pretty much been utilizing the extreme close-up shot for nearly ten years now, so the cinematic sensibility comes directly from porn. Think of some of the more vulgar shots as abstract porn: ambiguous orifices, a creepy unnamable setting, catchall fluids and juices, never ending, non-narrative, etc. Email me and I’ll send you a free sampler and I guarantee you'll be back for more!



Funk Funk
2000
Hi8 transfered to DVD
9:18

I started making zines to accompany my shows pretty much from the beginning of my exhibition career. I usually hand them out or ask for a few dollars just to cover printing. Within them, I’ve been working with type and fonts and swirly, psychedelic lettering, but I’m also interested in pushing the limits of meaning and language, or at least trying to establish a process that exhausts a certain way of using words. Typical entries would be donkey sores, black pudding, green pig filth, liquid pig funk, spotty bottomed donkey, soggy cheese loaf, brown puddings, wet pastes, camel gas, etc. You get the point. It’s another seemingly endless project, or something that can beat itself into the ground rather quickly. I just chug along with these words in my head until I reach the next tangential avenue. Right now I’m numbering things in dubious ways: nine meats in runny black stews, or dog and pig tongues in two creams. Email me and I’ll send you a free sampler and I guarantee you'll be back for more!



golliwoggbogg
ink, pencil and acrylic on paper
18 x 18"
2007



Funk Funk
2000
Hi8 transfered to DVD
9:18

I always ask fellow Chicagoans, what are your thoughts on the current condition of Chicago’s arts scene?

Every time I think Chicago resembles a neutered animal, somebody with an enormous sack steps up to the plate and delivers in an astonishing way. I always underestimate the raw sack power of this city. Chicago is the city that runs on balls. Pure meaty balls. I enjoy calling people out and referring to many of my peers as a bunch of wimps; however, it’s so easy to slag Chicago and its artists - that's probably why you keep hearing the same people bitching and wailing endlessly. You may need to work your ass off to get your work out of this city, which is what everyone should be aiming for, but its a nice place to quietly get things done. Weird spaces and collectives keep popping up all over; there have always been so many great bare-bones places to show in Chicago. Most everyone is really accessible, too. I’ve always made an effort to include other people in what I do here. There is very little wank factor here in Chicago. Living here, you just need to remember to put those balls on ice every winter.



untitled slug drawing #146
2003-05
ink, watercolor, gouache and colored pencil on paper
7 1/4 x 9



Swamp Swamp
1999
Hi8 transfered to DVD
16:42

What are the main influential forces behind your work? Also what are you really into right now?

Man, there are so many people I draw inspiration from, way too many to rattle off. I would have to say, above anyone else, it would be Captain Beefheart. He’s number one. I can also say with great certainty that I have divided my life in two parts: before and after I saw Paul McCarthy. Not my life as an artist, but my life. I don't expect that anyone's artwork will resonate on as many levels and with such force as McCarthy’s. I think I was nineteen when I first encountered his installations and I instantly understood and knew where I belonged; that is to say somewhere on or near the dark, hairy, cold underbelly of the American Dream.

One of my favorite artists working today is Lilly Carre. She’s really a brilliant artist who seems to be weirdly expanding the comic’s form. She wrote this mini-comic called "the thing about Madeline" which has to be probably the best comic I’ve ever read. It’s a bloody masterpiece. I’ve returned to it so many times already. It’s so elegantly composed and beautifully written, really poetic but dark and perverse as well - the narrative becomes really horrifying and quite unbearable after a few readings. The quality of her lines is so amazingly good - she can draw circles around most others, especially people like me. Pretty confident stuff. Anyway, I just bought her debut graphic novel "the lagoon." It’s such a classic, already. It reminds me of Beckett, mostly, but also Flannery O’Connor and Shirley Jackson. I’m really starting to change my mind about the comics!

Aside from that I’m a big fan of John Bellows, a Chicago musician who specializes in passed-out twangy pig-fuck country. He also writes many incredibly moving songs, too. I wish more people listened to him. I’m a big fan of monster burgers, like the Baconator at Wendy’s and the monster thickburger at Hardee's. Truly wonderful shit. I’ve also been reading the Georges Simenon reissues that are being put out by New York review books pretty much as they come back out.



slopcrotch
ink, pencil and acrylic on paper
18 x 18"
2007



Swamp Swamp
1999
Hi8 transfered to DVD
16:42



Swamp Swamp
1999
Hi8 transfered to DVD
16:42

Upcoming projects, shows, zines? What can we expect from you in the near future?

I’ve just rounded up a series of 144 collaborative ink drawings that I made with the late Patrick W. Welch. It’s a really strong body of work, more than a little sick and hateful, but really funny and well made. They are pure pornographic mayhem and I can't wait to unleash them upon the world. I’m currently searching for a publisher with enough balls (and $$$) to put it out. Something tells me either Germany or Japan will show some interest. Just a hunch, of course.
I’m also working on a mess of prints and collaborative drawings with Onsmith, a cartoonist and illustrator from Chicago. We’re hoping for a printmaking residency and we're starting to experience deep feelings of entitlement. Collaboration is something I’ve never done before, so it’s really been an interesting way to work.
I’m setting up to make a few things with Keith Herzik, too. He’s a local graphic artist and screen printer, an amazing artist who's a major inspiration and an all around wonderful person. He’s kind of a cornerstone of the whole Chicago silk-screening/gig poster world.
My next show is in February in Chicago with local animatronics legend nick black. We’ll be showing a bunch of our own stuff and working on a few things together, too. In the fall of 2009 I’ll have a pretty major solo exhibition at Western Exhibitions in Chicago, too. That’s a lot, but its the way I like it, baby.



untitled slug drawing #119
2003-05
ink, watercolor, gouache and colored pencil on paper
7 1/4 x 9



brownmucklove
ink, pencil and acrylic on paper
18 x 18"
2007