Tilteed

Artist Interview: ninthwheel

Curator’s Statement:

I can’t keep quiet about how great this abstract wonder from Ninthwheel is. Yours to own for three days only.

Welcome to the site! Tell us a bit about yourself

I live and work in Austin, Texas and have been trying my hand at designing shirts for about two and a half years now (though the 9 to 5 has nothing to do with art / design).

When I think of Ninthwheel work, I think of this sort of ambiguous conceptual work. What inspires your more abstract pieces, and what is the concept behind this one?

Haha…that’s probably because I’m always short on ideas. In reality, and this no doubt dates back to when I started painting 15+ years ago, with art I’m much more interested in how it looks than the meaning behind it. Concepts are great and usually help steer one toward making excellent work, but if the execution isn’t interesting, no amount of story telling is going to sell me on the piece.

I read a lot so when I paint, the kickoff point is usually from a book and is probably only one line taken in isolation and completely out of context. With shirt design, especially in the last few months, I’ve been more inclined to experiment with shape and color without really knowing where something is going. This design came from one of those exercises, so there is no great concept behind this one, I just like how it looks.

If you could collaborate with any other artist, who would it be, and what do you think the two of you would come up with?

I’ll stick with artists I’ve become aware of through shirt design communities. Kmeleon (http://rudyguedj.blogspot.com/) & Steven Silverwood (http://www.flickr.com/photos/steven_silverwood/) continue to make really interesting work. Joseph William (http://www.josephwilliamdesign.com/) submitted two amazing pieces to another site about a year ago (both of which I wish I could buy) and haven’t seen anything from him since. I wouldn’t want to collaborate with any of them, though, as they do perfectly well on their own. No need for me to muck up their work.

A genie grants you three wishes, but refuses to let any of them be useful. What would you wish for?

The first thing that comes to mind is to look like Gene Hackman circa The French Connection between the hours of three and four in the morning every other Tuesday. The remaining two might require some more thought.

What’s the most important thing for a budding artist to remember if they’re interested in the big bad world of tee design?

Not every piece of art belongs on a t-shirt. More practically speaking, make designs that you like, the rest of the world be damned. People will respond to them or they won’t, but if you’re proud of the work you are creating and focused on improving, you’re definitely pointed in the right direction. Reading that back, that sounds way too much like the beginnings of a pseudo-inspirational “you can do it” speech. Apologies all around.

Do you have any sites or projects you’d like us to check out?

I’ll get around to making a website for myself one of these decades. Until then, flickr will have to do:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ninthwheel/

Any last words for us?

Have fun.