Flying Object: In this show of drawings there seems to be more narrative elements creeping in? Do you feel yourself connecting individual panels more and more? Is a longer ” comic book” form something you are interested in doing in the future? Joshua Vrysen: Everything is already connected, the web just keeps expanding, with certain areas getting more focus. I do have a set of drawings in progress that are in a specifically standard comic book format (a few of them are up at the show), with a sequence of events depicted in panels. It’s a project I started years ago, and I realized early on that to make it work the way I think it needs to be, I am not exactly ready yet, so it is creeping along. Eventually it will get done, could be years, but it’s working itself out.
FO : Who are some drawers or visual artists that you have been into lately?
JV: Ah! It is a hard question to not just rattle off 100 names, so I’ll keep it very short: Yuichi Yokoyama has been top dog for a while now. He is trying to draw time! It is a large source of inspiration. I was just recently introduced to Mark Manders drawings and those floored me pretty hard… still taking that in.
FO: How long does it take you to produce one of your drawings?
JV: Sometimes the answer is easy and it happens quickly, but sometimes the puzzle is complicated and it really struggles to get finished. hmmm… well, they take as much time as they take, and, I am a very slow drawer.
FO: In your ongoing zine/drawing book series, ” Wheel of Doom/ We Love Doom,” you change the format/ size of the book with each new installment, what is your reasoning behind this? Or, why serialize at all?
JV: The design of the books is formed from the drawings, and hopefully the design complements the drawings back. It is a way to create physicality – house – home base – for that which is just the representation of something physical. There is serialization because there is progression. Have to keep stuff organized!
FO: Is there special music that you draw to? Or, what have you been listening to lately?
JV: There isn’t anything special that I draw to, but I do almost always listen to something – so, here is what is next to my drawing table right now: Hecker: Speculative Solution, Chris Watson: El Tren Fantasma, Akio Suzuki: Na-Gi 1997, Mellowhype: BlackenedWhite, CoH: Patherns, Autechre: EP7, Yasunao Tone: MP3 Variations #6 & 7, a bunch of Pierre Henry. And away from my drawing table there has been a lot of Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Yo La Tengo, and the Swirlies.
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