Today we present a very inspirational treat, designer Nazanin Arandi’s interview with Cleon Peterson. Cleon has been making himself noticed in the art and design worlds simultaneously with his graphic (both in terms of subject matter and execution) paintings and a large Russian propaganda inspired promotional campaign for department store Saks Fifth Avenue. 

Naz Arandi- When did you realize that you wanted to be an artist?

Cleon Peterson– I actually don’t remember making a conscious decision to be an artist. My family was always interested in and practicing different forms of Art. Growing up my grandfather was a poet, my mother was a ballet dancer and my father played music. My parents were really young and my family was kind of bohemian and eccentric and we grew up hanging out with different artists. We lived in a large house in Seattle and theater groups, dance companies and musicians would stay with us when they were touring.

During those years I had a babysitter named Janice Findley that was an accomplished Seattle-based avant-garde filmmaker. We spend a lot of time together going to many second-run films. Janice introduced me to films like Mad Max, Das Boot and Blade Runner. When I was four or five, she made an amazing stylized stop-motion film called Beyond Kabuki and casted as a kabuki doll. That film was my first experience being involved in an imaginative and inspiring project. I think that film is in MOMA’s permanent collection now. Also, I was asthmatic as a child and always in and out of hospitals. I drew a lot while being sick and I think that was when I started making art and creating myself.

NA- Your paintings are elegantly violent. They can easily be a marriage of an old Italian horror film with Twin Peaks.  Were you influenced by something personal or the society to create this beautiful yet disturbing body of work? 

CP– I can see a relationship to both of those. My paintings have a sense of brutality and confusion that reflects the world that I’ve lived in and see around me. I feel a kinship with this type of narrative. On a personal level, in the past I was addicted to drugs. Anyone living in that world experiences the margins. A life of desperation, flexible moral codes, social stigmatization and doing whatever it takes on daily bases to survive. Everyone around you takes on primal animal characteristics and every day terrible experiences become ordinary. On a macro level, I see violence, oppression and absurdity taking place everyday. There’s a sense of powerlessness and desperation all around us, in politics, in the economy and even personally.

NA- Separate parts of this series feels like pages from a book with a cinematic sense of storytelling. How does your experience as an excellent book maker and designer informs this series? And are you still creating those gorgeous books?

CP– There is a graphic quality to the paintings and I do think that I am influenced by aesthetics that I carry over from design. I do feel that design has given me strong and conscious sense of composition and balance that influences my paintings. I am still designing books and just finished Working with Harmony Korine on a compilation of his zines published by Drag City.

NA- In your opinion, is print a dead medium?

CP– Ha! No, maybe I’m hanging on to the past and a conventional medium but I don’t think print is dead. Special books are objects that reflect our values and aspirations. Collecting books acts as a tangible metaphor of our own physical existence in this world. Books are the relics of individuals.

NA- How did Cranbrook inform your work? Did Cranbrook experience change the direction of your work philosophy?

CP– Cranbrook was a great experience and I was really lucky to have made the decision to go there. I went to an undergrad program that was really pushing modernism and submissive rational consumer-driven approach to design which often lead to boring and predictable work. At Cranbrook, I dropped that philosophy and methodology and worked in an unconventional and more emotional mode. I was making first and defining later. I also feel that I was empowered to have an individual voice and to not be timid about letting that come through in my work.

NA- You are one of a few artist and designers to have found a balance between personal and professional work while having a lovely family.  How do you manage this?

CP– I do different projects for my different needs in life. It’s hard to work at a for-profit design firm and feel fulfilled creatively at all times. Often, good projects don’t have much of a budge. So every year, with help outside of the Studio I do a few of these in my personal time. Right now I’m doing more and more painting in my personal time. Every day, I wake up with my kids, spend a few hours with them before work and put them to sleep at night. I usually get 5 or 6 hours of sleep a night. I guess I work a lot but it’s what I enjoy. I don’t feel the need to create a definition for either, I just spend time doing what I’m passionate about.

NA- Is exhibiting your work around the country as stressful or exciting as doing a Cranbrook crit or is it different for you? What part of public display of your work is most thrilling?

CP– Showing the work is stressful in different ways. In the classroom there’s always pressure to be innovative. In Grad school your exposed to skepticism and a real critical dialog. It was our job there to “ call the work into crisis”. That was great because you’d learn a lot from your peers and be able to respond to the criticisms and work through it in a safe environment. Showing is a little different, even though critiques are still going on but often times your not getting direct face-to-face responses. It’s really a totally different audience.

NA- Can you tell us about your experience as the Sr. Art Director at Studio Number One?

CP– It’s a great experience working at the Studio with Shepard. We’re always being challenged with diverse projects. We do a lot of branding, posters, clothing, magazines and books and get to work with a variety of different clients. The inspiring thing here is that there is a balance between client work and self initiated and non profit work. The Studio also has a distinct point of view that we’re able to express in client projects.

NA- Do you mentor any of the junior designers and art directors? What is your mentorship methodology?

CP– Ha, I don’t really think of myself as a mentor or try to play that role. I feel like the people I work with are all valuable and have different strengths. We all help each other out and work together on projects. I still learn a lot from them.

NA- As a designer do you feel responsible for the cultural impact that your campaigns have?

CP– I suppose so and Ideally we would never work for a company that represents anything dissonant to our own values.  But hell, we all got to live and after all I do have flexible moral values. The thing that bothers me more than anything else is wasting my own personal time.

NA- Recently, you’ve received a great deal of recognition for your Saks Fifth Avenue’s Want It! campaign. Can you talk to us about your design process during this project?

CP– Saks was a great client and pretty much gave me carte blanch with the project. I’m glad people liked and also hated it. It’s nice to get a strong response from commercial work and its not often that you get that.

NA- One of the most interesting things about this project is where marketing and propaganda come together in such powerful way. Was this considered during the decision making process?

CP– Call me cynical but I think marketing and propaganda are almost the same today. When we did Saks the economy and the country was in the shitter.  People were ready to have a change in government and they were concerned with spending money on what may be considered excess. So this kind of utilitarian propaganda design seemed to fit in that time and space perfectly. It expressed the look of political consciousness and rebellion and created a mood of proactivity even if in the end it was all just to buy an expensive handbag.

NA- What are your favorite places to see or show art in Los Angeles? How do you think LA art scene is different from the rest of the country?

CP– I think New Image Art where I show is a great gallery. There are a tone of good galleries Museums and spaces all over LA. Most of them I feel that I haven’t visited. I guess there’ll be more time for that in a few years when my kids get a little older.

NA- If you could go back to Cranbrook today, what would you do differently?

CP– I’d love to go back but I can’t say I would do anything differently. I learned a ton there and met a lot of really inspiring people. Nothing but good thoughts for Cranbrook.

You can find and explore Cleon’s artistic adventures in the virtual cloud:
http://cleonpeterson.com
http://www.newimageartshop.com/scripts/prodList.asp?idCategory=57
http://obeygiant.com/headlines/guest-artist-cleon-peterson