Interview with Keith Wigdor
q) Introduce yourself first please?
a)My name is Keith Wigdor. I am a Surrealist, Artist, Gallery Manager and Owner of SURREALISM NOW! http://www.surrealismnow.com
q) Where do you live and work?
a)I live and work in New York City, USA.
q) How did you started? How have you realized you wanted to become an artist?
a)I started creating art in early 1998, so by next year, it will be a steady ten years. Though I did create a very small number of collages back in 1989, but they are somewhere, I don’t know what happened to them. It was Digital Art that I was interested in back in 1998, getting discovered by Jac Depyzck, who was the first to put me on the Internet. I lost interest in Digital Art, and then started into Photomontages around 2000, which seemed natural to fit my dreams, visions, and hallucinations, etc. I did a lot of ink drawings and abstract oil paintings, too, like Don Van Vliet, and that lot. It’s the Photomontage art that I love and still do. I am now wrapped up with my website SURREALISM NOW! It’s a lot of work.
I always have been an artist, I was just too damn lazy during the 1980’s to kick myself in the ass to get on the ball to purely focus on art. I was too preoccupied with my various dayjobs and work, school, responsibilities, etc. I did write a large amount of poetry in the 1980’s and did a ton of video work, filming various local hard-rock, punk and blues bands too. However, its art that always fascinated me, particularly Surrealism.
q) What materials do you use and why?
a)I use boxcutters that I still have from ODD-JOB Dept. Stores, a closeout retail store that went out of business. I worked there as a Warehouse Manager and they had a load of the best boxcutters, so I loaded up. They are the best to use when cutting. Also, stamp tongs, tweezers, razors, and scissors, and glue. Also plastic and glass to cover the finished work, too lay it flat. Then I scan it, then I bring the image into Adobe Photoshop for final tweaking and fixing. However, its really all cutouts and glue, I just need to make them look in order and Photoshop can really clean up bad cuts and obvious lines, etc, that the eye can see in the finished piece.
q) Who is your biggest influence, both art and non-art related
a)HANNAH HOCH is really my biggest influence in Art. As for my biggest influences in Surrealism, its both ANDRE BRETON and his nemesis AVIDA DOLLARS, the great SALVADOR DALI! Then there is my ultimate favourite, RICHARD M.POWERS, who I adore. Also various writers and poets, like Artaud, Poe, Rimbaud, Chomsky, Marx, Hegel and Sigmund Freud. Also, I love GODZILLA, THE KING OF THE MONSTERS! HE RULES!!!
q) How do you dream up with your wacky ideas? What is your creation process?
a)My ideas are pure Automatism, right off the top of my head, a few are pre-determined. I use Hysteria for my creative process, no drugs, no alcohol, mostly pure rage, a lot of the time.
q) What haven’t you done yet that you definitely want to try someday?
a)I want to paint like Brigid Marlin, Prof.Philip Rubinov Jacobson, and Robert Venosa in the Mische Technique and the Techniques of the Old Masters.
q) Are there any contemporary artists that you love?
a)Besides you, Claudio, there is: CARRIE ANN BAADE, VINCENT CASTIGLIA, the great PAUL BOOTH, DAVID ANTHONY MAGITIS, my idol in Collage PETER LEWIS from WARP ART, who you should definitely meet! SHAHLA ROSA, who just amazes me, ROBERT VENOSA and his wife MARTINA HOFFMAN, BRIGID MARLIN, HR GIGER, and Everyone from THE SOCIETY FOR THE ART OF THE IMAGINATION.
a)My name is Keith Wigdor. I am a Surrealist, Artist, Gallery Manager and Owner of SURREALISM NOW! http://www.surrealismnow.com
q) Where do you live and work?
a)I live and work in New York City, USA.
q) How did you started? How have you realized you wanted to become an artist?
a)I started creating art in early 1998, so by next year, it will be a steady ten years. Though I did create a very small number of collages back in 1989, but they are somewhere, I don’t know what happened to them. It was Digital Art that I was interested in back in 1998, getting discovered by Jac Depyzck, who was the first to put me on the Internet. I lost interest in Digital Art, and then started into Photomontages around 2000, which seemed natural to fit my dreams, visions, and hallucinations, etc. I did a lot of ink drawings and abstract oil paintings, too, like Don Van Vliet, and that lot. It’s the Photomontage art that I love and still do. I am now wrapped up with my website SURREALISM NOW! It’s a lot of work.
I always have been an artist, I was just too damn lazy during the 1980’s to kick myself in the ass to get on the ball to purely focus on art. I was too preoccupied with my various dayjobs and work, school, responsibilities, etc. I did write a large amount of poetry in the 1980’s and did a ton of video work, filming various local hard-rock, punk and blues bands too. However, its art that always fascinated me, particularly Surrealism.
q) What materials do you use and why?
a)I use boxcutters that I still have from ODD-JOB Dept. Stores, a closeout retail store that went out of business. I worked there as a Warehouse Manager and they had a load of the best boxcutters, so I loaded up. They are the best to use when cutting. Also, stamp tongs, tweezers, razors, and scissors, and glue. Also plastic and glass to cover the finished work, too lay it flat. Then I scan it, then I bring the image into Adobe Photoshop for final tweaking and fixing. However, its really all cutouts and glue, I just need to make them look in order and Photoshop can really clean up bad cuts and obvious lines, etc, that the eye can see in the finished piece.
q) Who is your biggest influence, both art and non-art related
a)HANNAH HOCH is really my biggest influence in Art. As for my biggest influences in Surrealism, its both ANDRE BRETON and his nemesis AVIDA DOLLARS, the great SALVADOR DALI! Then there is my ultimate favourite, RICHARD M.POWERS, who I adore. Also various writers and poets, like Artaud, Poe, Rimbaud, Chomsky, Marx, Hegel and Sigmund Freud. Also, I love GODZILLA, THE KING OF THE MONSTERS! HE RULES!!!
q) How do you dream up with your wacky ideas? What is your creation process?
a)My ideas are pure Automatism, right off the top of my head, a few are pre-determined. I use Hysteria for my creative process, no drugs, no alcohol, mostly pure rage, a lot of the time.
q) What haven’t you done yet that you definitely want to try someday?
a)I want to paint like Brigid Marlin, Prof.Philip Rubinov Jacobson, and Robert Venosa in the Mische Technique and the Techniques of the Old Masters.
q) Are there any contemporary artists that you love?
a)Besides you, Claudio, there is: CARRIE ANN BAADE, VINCENT CASTIGLIA, the great PAUL BOOTH, DAVID ANTHONY MAGITIS, my idol in Collage PETER LEWIS from WARP ART, who you should definitely meet! SHAHLA ROSA, who just amazes me, ROBERT VENOSA and his wife MARTINA HOFFMAN, BRIGID MARLIN, HR GIGER, and Everyone from THE SOCIETY FOR THE ART OF THE IMAGINATION.
q) How long does it take for you to finish a piece?
a)Around three hours.
q) What music, if any, do you like to have on while you're working?
a)No music, it’s a big distraction for me. I like pure silence when I work!
q) Do you do many art shows?
a)No, I never do art shows. Only online. Maybe some in the real world in the future. My art is real hard to come by.
q) Tell us about a recent dream you had.
a)I was being chased by Bruce Willis who wanted to stab me, I jumped on the back off a flying robot cyborg who flew me away from the evil Bruce Willis who was trying to stab me. As I was flying on the back of the cyborg-robot, a razor blade started to come out of my thumb and I started to bleed. Me and the cyborg-robot flew all over the earth and then into the universe. It was very vivid. I hate to wake up. I hate the reality of the coming day.
q) What are you doing when you are not creating?
a)I like to create total Surrealism, whenever and wherever I can.
q) Do you get emotionally attached to your work and do you miss your work when it is sold?
a)Yes, my work is me. I do not sell my work, not yet.
q)What new projects or exhibits are in your future?
a)There maybe two upcoming shows that AOI are going to bring to NYC, and Olga Spigel may try to get me into one, but I have to be ready, if not, I always have SURREALISM NOW!
q)What is your favourite art related web site?
a)My own site, SURREALISM NOW! It’s the real SURREAL thing!
q) What is the strangest thing you have ever seen?
a)Nothing is strange to me.
q) What is the strangest thing you have ever done?
a)My art.
q) any advice you can pass onto aspiring artists/designers?
a)AVOID CONTESTS! DO NOT ENTER INTO ANY ART CONTESTS AT ALL!!! BE TOTALLY ORIGINAL!!! Also, Attack those that attack you and your art. Its your art that will destroy all! Live for SURREALISM and DESTROY LOGIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!! VIVA SURREALISME!!!!!!!!!!!!
q)your contacts….e-mail…links
a)Keith Wigdor
E-mail: kwigdor@si.rr.com
SURREALISM NOW!www.surrealismnow.com
posted by Claudio Parentela at
03:31
3 Comments:
Feel free to bond with other surrealists. Maybe be less competitive. Be more collaborative. Lay down your ego and embrace a world of surrealism. Your politics seem sincere. There are more of us than you may think. Solidarity.
Everything Wigdor do is very wonderful. He is mighty surrealist art and leader of movement. We want to buy poster. Someday want to travel America and go to Staten Island to visit great leader.
Very thank you,
Kim-Jung-Sun, Beijing surrealist group
Dear Keith, this is a magnificent interview, I love it !!!!
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