State Of The Art Interview Series: Aldous Massie


Aldous Massie is quite the Renaissance man. He’s mastered mediums that range from digital and graphic design, to pencil illustration and gouache, and managed to do it all quite convincingly. There have, however, been factors assisting him along the way. Namely his degree in design at the College of Fine Arts, and his time spent in a deserted house in Botany dabbling in psychedelic drugs; which he believes is the reason he started painting in the first place. Whilst we don’t encourage the use of drugs, we have them to thank for some of the world’s great creative masterpieces. Without them, we may never have seen a Beatles album, a gothic novel, a Brett Whiteley painting, or Britney shave her head.

Having said that, artistic skill does also factor quite significantly into this equation. In the case of Aldous Massie, talent is in vast supply. On the recommendation of one of his teachers/believers, Massie will soon be responsible for designing the Hermes Melbourne window displays. We have no idea what he is going to come up with for our exhibition at the Stairwell Gallery, but this Jack of all trades and lover of chicken stir-fry surely won’t disappoint.

Aldous Massie will be exhibit as part of Pedestrian and ABSOLUT’s State Of The Art series this Thursday. To RSVP click here.

I noticed on your website you’re pretty much a Jack of all Trades. You’ve mastered many different media. Can you describe your style when it comes to painting in particular?

I don’t know if you can put this into the interview, but my girlfriend and I have been taking some psychedelic drugs lately, and, well actually, I’d never painted before that.

And is that how your Miscellaneous 08/09 section came about?

Yeah practically.

You know, I can almost tell!

There’s a bit of a difference between that edge of my work and the others I guess.

So what’s you preferred medium to work with?

I don’t really have a preferred medium. I guess I can call or label them phases. If I dig a particular artist’s work, I’ll immediately try and mimic it.

Emulate?

Yeah, emulate might be a good euphemism.

So did you have a formal artistic education?

Kind of. When I was about three years old, I used to try and copy the dragons from Disney movies that were shown on TV and that didn’t really work out successfully if the goal was photo realism; but my mum thought I had a knack for drawing so she sent me to an art school. I don’t really remember much of it, but I got good marks in HSC Art. Then I studied design. The only justification behind that, was that it had a higher UAI cut off, so I stuck it at the top of my preferences thinking that if I didn’t get into that, I might get into Fine Arts, and if not, maybe something else…

So you studied Design at COFA – did you do honors?

No I’ve actually just done my final year. That finished in September and now I’m working in a communications agency full time at the moment as a graphic designer / illustrator.

So do you see your future in that, graphic design/illustration?

I’m not exactly sure because I don’t really have a plan at all. I’m still weirded out by the fact that I’m working full time…

Yeah, it can be a shock to the system for a Uni student. Lets talk inspiration. Which artists in particular do you draw from?

At the moment I’ve stumbled upon an illustrator by the name of James Jean. I purchased a book of his which was a process diary or a sketch book, and the sketches are fucking amazing.

I’ll definitely look him up! So in terms of collaborations, we know you’ve done work for things like the No Answer club night, but if you were commissioned with insane amounts of money to do anything, what would you do?

Well, at the moment I’m being commissioned to do window displays at the Hermes Melbourne Store…

Really?

Yeah, they wanted a drawing of their Paris shop front with some other elements added to it, and it was good because it was very open ended. It’s been quite fun, but really busy at the same time.

How did you get on to that?

I actually got in contact with them because one of my graphic design tutors recommended me.

This is a bit out of left field but if you were told to burn all your possessions but you were allowed to keep three things, what would you keep?

I guess I would try and keep my, for want of a better term, unwavering perspective through psychedelic experiences. Two, my girlfriend. She just made me a cool lunch. I just left it in the microwave actually and just walked away. So three, my lunch which I’ll eat as soon as it is time.

Interesting choices…So how often are you making art if you’re working full time?

Well lately I’ve been extremely busy because of the full time work, but at the moment, I’m doing illustrations for the Green’s Party campaign. I’ve been juggling a few freelance jobs at the same time. The last couple of weeks have been incredibly intense.

Apart from Pedestrian’s exhibition at the Stairwell gallery, what other upcoming shows do you have in the mix?

Actually I’ve only had four or five shows until now and none of them have been planned. They’ve all come up under similar circumstances to this I guess. I had a show at China Heights gallery, Palmer Projects, Gallery 285 which I think is being renamed The Dealer, and Rinse Gallery which used to be on Crown Street.

That’s pretty impressive considering you’ve just graduated.

Yeah well, the truth of it is, that I actually haven’t graduated. I’ve still got a few Gen-ed subjects to do. I don’t know if I’ll be going back to claim them though.

So you aren’t going to finish the degree?

I’ll see what happens. I guess I’d like to have that piece of paper that says I can design…

BY BIANCA GEORGIOU

All Images Provided by Aldous Massie

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