admin
22 December 2023
IF YOU WERE TO TAKE A STROLL THROUGH CANDYLAND WITH PUNKY BREWSTER AND SLY & THE FAMILY STONE, IT WOULD PROBABLY LOOK SOMETHING LIKE MARCI RUSSELL'S BODY OF WORK. DEBBIE PUTS HER PLAYFUL PHILOSOPHY IN PRINT FOR THE PEOPLE.
debbie: Before we get down to business, I have to ask, girl, what are you doing this evening, ‘cause you is fine!
Marci: Woo-hoo! I’m going out with you, baby.
d: Aww yeah. It’s on. So, anyway, what do you think people get from your artwork?
M: With the stuff I was doing before, I felt like I was trying to do something that was entertaining,..like a good feeling. The stuff I would do would be telling a story with illustration. I hope whatever I’m doing comes across.
d: How do you come up with ideas for your paintings, like the one of the beatnik with the coffee cup, for example?
M: I was experimenting with stretching things out. I would take someone’s face, make it super-long and have their arms doing stuff they really couldn’t do. I had the beatnik holding the coffee cup and I wanted to put it somewhere else in the painting, so I put it above his head and sideways. I just hit that point where I knew that I had the freedom to do whatever I wanted to do. I didn’t have to have a guy’s arm be the perfect length or going the right direction. I’m all about that now. I do whatever I want. It’s awesome.
d: When did that breaking point come?
M: When I was a junior in college I started to feel kinda stuck with my assignments. But when I did stuff on my own, I would have a blast with it. I would do different stuff and make things look odd and interesting. But then, my assignments were just like, “This is my assignment and that’s what I have to do.” Now I can start reaching out and doing cooler stuff.
d: You come across as a very straight-forward, happy person. That attitude totally comes across in your work, too. Does that come naturally or do you ever have to force that happiness into the art?
M: (laughing) It comes naturally. It’s just my personality. I don’t think I could help it from coming through. If I tried to do dark, mysterious work, I don’t know what would happen.
d: Art is a pretty obsessive thing. It’s easy to get sucked in and do it all the time. Do you find yourself getting like that at times?
M: If I’m doing something I enjoy, I can’t stop. If I get the right colors and stuff is working out, I just keep going. But those times you’re working on crap you don’t want to do are awful. I hate forcing myself to get something done.
d: So it never feels like the work is taking over your life?
M: Well, I feel like that is my life. That’s what I want my future to be. Other people have their things that they do, and this is my thing. So if it’s taking over, then I guess that’s okay.
d: Now, most artists can trace their lives back to their earliest influences and what got them started making art.
M: I can tell you exactly what it was. I remember the day, exactly. I was 8-years-old, and my mom had this huge painting in her bedroom. Our neighbor had given it to us because he worked at a furniture store. It was a big painting of a little girl in a pink dress playing the piano. I remember it was in the summer and I was in my bathing suit, sitting on my mom’s bed. I sat there all day and worked on this little drawing and copied this painting. I did really well. I was impressed with myself. I remember running to my mom saying, “Look at my drawing!” She still has my little drawing of the girl playing piano. That was the first drawing I really remember doing seriously. For a while, I thought I was gonna be a veterinarian. Like all little girls, I wanted to take care of horses and cats and stuff like that.
d: What happened? Did you stop loving animals?
M: Well, I was into poodles for a while. Then it was just over. I realized that they were doctors and not just looking at the animals and petting them.
d: I’m still wondering how you follow a sentence like, “I was into poodles.”
M: It was kittens and then it was poodles and then it was over.
d: Never ponies?
M: I got bitten by a horse.
d: What?
M: I was 5 or 6, and we were housesitting for a woman. I was out petting one of her horses. It reached down and bit the inside of my leg. It actually picked me up off the ground and dropped me. I had this massive, huge bruise on my leg. It was nasty. The horse had gone out on the highway and got hit by a car, so it was all messed up.
d: That’s one fucked-up horse. Did they put it down after it attacked you?
M: No.
d: They should have.
M: (laughing) I know.
d: Do you still draw inspiration from things that you saw as a child, like cartoons or comic books?
M: Not really. I would look at the Sunday comics and draw Garfield and that stuff. But I feel like I just keep moving on step by step and looking at different artists and the way they do stuff. Whenever I do that I always keep that person’s work with me. I look at how they do things differently and get influenced by that.
d: So who are your more modern or current influences?
M: For painting techniques, I’m obsessed with Natalie Ascencios.
d: Oh, yes.
M: She has so much line work in her paintings, and I love the way it gets covered up sometimes. I keep copies of her paintings around me, just to be braver. I love the color she uses. The way she exaggerates stuff is really cool, too. I was doing necks real skinny. A lot of her necks on people are just big trunk-necks. They’re so awesome. I’m like, “Look at that. That woman is so elegant and pretty, but she has this massive neck.”
d: Do you spend time looking at older artists’ work?
M: Not really. Keeping up on what’s going on now is more important to me. I’m so into what’s happening and what’s going on and who’s doing work.
d: When you think of someone being an intense artist, you get this image in your head of a guy in a beret listening to The Cure, drawing at 5am, and shaking because he smokes and drinks too much coffee. But you don’t do that. You slip in under the radar and make this wonderful art. Do you ever think that, because you’re not very typical and you actually make good work, your teachers and peers fear you?
M: Going to art school, you know who is your competition and you know who’s not. There are definitely some people before me who just graduated who were really great. There are people in my class who are also really good. I fear them but I love them just the same. Maybe I cause fear, but I definitely am afraid, too.
d: Does it ever piss you off when people refer to your art as children’s illustration or commercial?
M: When I started doing this stuff that’s very outlined, I was thinking that I wanted to do children’s stuff. That’s got me in the direction I was going. I was outlining things. I was making things look more-- this is the worst word in the world-- cartoony. And then I had a little show at the end of the summer. I thought, “I need stuff that looks more adult. Stuff that I would really like to see.” So I just kept making it more adult and I feel like I’m there now. I have stuff that older people will look at and respect as much as my stuff that’s more entertaining for kids.
d: The show you mentioned was at a small coffee shop. A lot of people frown on showing art at a shop instead of a gallery. Where do you stand on that issue?
M: I think if people see your work, then people are seeing your work. If anyone sees it, then that’s great to me. If my work’s hanging somewhere, that’s the coolest thing. I worked on it all summer and, instead of being in my living room, it was hanging in public.
d: When it comes to selling work, do you have any misgivings about it? Are you worried at all about selling originals?
M: When I’m gonna sell something, I feel like I have to have tons of records of it. I have to have a million slides of it and I have to have copies of it. I had a hard time with pricing stuff, but I finally got past that. I think I’m getting past the “they’re my babies” type of thing.
d: So, when you finally get out of school, do you want to freelance?
M: Freelancing scares me. (laughs) I’m scared because I am this person who needs to feel stable. Especially since my parents have helped me out a great deal throughout college. I know that once I graduate it’s pretty much like, “Okay. Go do your thing.” So I’d love to start out doing something that is an everyday thing, just to start taking care of myself. I’d love to freelance eventually, but I need to get myself started.
d: What do you like to do when you’re not making art?
M: Anything involving water.
d: What, like water polo?
M: Like, just going home. The other day, me and a couple of friends drove back to my home, and just laid by the lake and looked at the stars. That’s my favorite thing. It sounds kinda cheesy, but you know what I mean. I just like to get away to where it’s completely silent and I can just relax.
d: I’m from Buffalo. I have no idea what you’re talking about.
M: I’ll have to take you home with me sometime.
d: What cartoon character from your childhood do you most relate to?
M: I want to say Punky Brewster, but she wasn’t really a cartoon. She was, but she wasn’t at first. I loved Punky Brewster. Maybe it’s just because I loved her that I feel I can relate to her. She was fun and she always wore crazy clothes. I had Punky Brewster tennis shoes. So that was the connection.
d: What was the deal with the cartoon and that alien?
M: The thing that flew around,..what was his name?
d: I don’t know. Dipshit?
M: It was this little fluffy thing and it would fly around.
d: Last question: would you like to buy a 1997 Toyota Camry? It’s going cheap. It’s blue.
M: Sky blue, or is it like, dark blue?
d: It’s kind of a dark, muddy blue.
M: Muddy blue? Sounds good. Rusted?
d: Very.
M: Awesome.
d: Do you have any final statements for the people?
M: Artists, have fun making art.
CONTACT MARCI AT MARCILYNN143@HOTMAIL.COM
debbie: Before we get down to business, I have to ask, girl, what are you doing this evening, ‘cause you is fine!
Marci: Woo-hoo! I’m going out with you, baby.
d: Aww yeah. It’s on. So, anyway, what do you think people get from your artwork?
M: With the stuff I was doing before, I felt like I was trying to do something that was entertaining,..like a good feeling. The stuff I would do would be telling a story with illustration. I hope whatever I’m doing comes across.
d: How do you come up with ideas for your paintings, like the one of the beatnik with the coffee cup, for example?
M: I was experimenting with stretching things out. I would take someone’s face, make it super-long and have their arms doing stuff they really couldn’t do. I had the beatnik holding the coffee cup and I wanted to put it somewhere else in the painting, so I put it above his head and sideways. I just hit that point where I knew that I had the freedom to do whatever I wanted to do. I didn’t have to have a guy’s arm be the perfect length or going the right direction. I’m all about that now. I do whatever I want. It’s awesome.
d: When did that breaking point come?
M: When I was a junior in college I started to feel kinda stuck with my assignments. But when I did stuff on my own, I would have a blast with it. I would do different stuff and make things look odd and interesting. But then, my assignments were just like, “This is my assignment and that’s what I have to do.” Now I can start reaching out and doing cooler stuff.
d: You come across as a very straight-forward, happy person. That attitude totally comes across in your work, too. Does that come naturally or do you ever have to force that happiness into the art?
M: (laughing) It comes naturally. It’s just my personality. I don’t think I could help it from coming through. If I tried to do dark, mysterious work, I don’t know what would happen.
d: Art is a pretty obsessive thing. It’s easy to get sucked in and do it all the time. Do you find yourself getting like that at times?
M: If I’m doing something I enjoy, I can’t stop. If I get the right colors and stuff is working out, I just keep going. But those times you’re working on crap you don’t want to do are awful. I hate forcing myself to get something done.
d: So it never feels like the work is taking over your life?
M: Well, I feel like that is my life. That’s what I want my future to be. Other people have their things that they do, and this is my thing. So if it’s taking over, then I guess that’s okay.
d: Now, most artists can trace their lives back to their earliest influences and what got them started making art.
M: I can tell you exactly what it was. I remember the day, exactly. I was 8-years-old, and my mom had this huge painting in her bedroom. Our neighbor had given it to us because he worked at a furniture store. It was a big painting of a little girl in a pink dress playing the piano. I remember it was in the summer and I was in my bathing suit, sitting on my mom’s bed. I sat there all day and worked on this little drawing and copied this painting. I did really well. I was impressed with myself. I remember running to my mom saying, “Look at my drawing!” She still has my little drawing of the girl playing piano. That was the first drawing I really remember doing seriously. For a while, I thought I was gonna be a veterinarian. Like all little girls, I wanted to take care of horses and cats and stuff like that.
d: What happened? Did you stop loving animals?
M: Well, I was into poodles for a while. Then it was just over. I realized that they were doctors and not just looking at the animals and petting them.
d: I’m still wondering how you follow a sentence like, “I was into poodles.”
M: It was kittens and then it was poodles and then it was over.
d: Never ponies?
M: I got bitten by a horse.
d: What?
M: I was 5 or 6, and we were housesitting for a woman. I was out petting one of her horses. It reached down and bit the inside of my leg. It actually picked me up off the ground and dropped me. I had this massive, huge bruise on my leg. It was nasty. The horse had gone out on the highway and got hit by a car, so it was all messed up.
d: That’s one fucked-up horse. Did they put it down after it attacked you?
M: No.
d: They should have.
M: (laughing) I know.
d: Do you still draw inspiration from things that you saw as a child, like cartoons or comic books?
M: Not really. I would look at the Sunday comics and draw Garfield and that stuff. But I feel like I just keep moving on step by step and looking at different artists and the way they do stuff. Whenever I do that I always keep that person’s work with me. I look at how they do things differently and get influenced by that.
d: So who are your more modern or current influences?
M: For painting techniques, I’m obsessed with Natalie Ascencios.
d: Oh, yes.
M: She has so much line work in her paintings, and I love the way it gets covered up sometimes. I keep copies of her paintings around me, just to be braver. I love the color she uses. The way she exaggerates stuff is really cool, too. I was doing necks real skinny. A lot of her necks on people are just big trunk-necks. They’re so awesome. I’m like, “Look at that. That woman is so elegant and pretty, but she has this massive neck.”
d: Do you spend time looking at older artists’ work?
M: Not really. Keeping up on what’s going on now is more important to me. I’m so into what’s happening and what’s going on and who’s doing work.
d: When you think of someone being an intense artist, you get this image in your head of a guy in a beret listening to The Cure, drawing at 5am, and shaking because he smokes and drinks too much coffee. But you don’t do that. You slip in under the radar and make this wonderful art. Do you ever think that, because you’re not very typical and you actually make good work, your teachers and peers fear you?
M: Going to art school, you know who is your competition and you know who’s not. There are definitely some people before me who just graduated who were really great. There are people in my class who are also really good. I fear them but I love them just the same. Maybe I cause fear, but I definitely am afraid, too.
d: Does it ever piss you off when people refer to your art as children’s illustration or commercial?
M: When I started doing this stuff that’s very outlined, I was thinking that I wanted to do children’s stuff. That’s got me in the direction I was going. I was outlining things. I was making things look more-- this is the worst word in the world-- cartoony. And then I had a little show at the end of the summer. I thought, “I need stuff that looks more adult. Stuff that I would really like to see.” So I just kept making it more adult and I feel like I’m there now. I have stuff that older people will look at and respect as much as my stuff that’s more entertaining for kids.
d: The show you mentioned was at a small coffee shop. A lot of people frown on showing art at a shop instead of a gallery. Where do you stand on that issue?
M: I think if people see your work, then people are seeing your work. If anyone sees it, then that’s great to me. If my work’s hanging somewhere, that’s the coolest thing. I worked on it all summer and, instead of being in my living room, it was hanging in public.
d: When it comes to selling work, do you have any misgivings about it? Are you worried at all about selling originals?
M: When I’m gonna sell something, I feel like I have to have tons of records of it. I have to have a million slides of it and I have to have copies of it. I had a hard time with pricing stuff, but I finally got past that. I think I’m getting past the “they’re my babies” type of thing.
d: So, when you finally get out of school, do you want to freelance?
M: Freelancing scares me. (laughs) I’m scared because I am this person who needs to feel stable. Especially since my parents have helped me out a great deal throughout college. I know that once I graduate it’s pretty much like, “Okay. Go do your thing.” So I’d love to start out doing something that is an everyday thing, just to start taking care of myself. I’d love to freelance eventually, but I need to get myself started.
d: What do you like to do when you’re not making art?
M: Anything involving water.
d: What, like water polo?
M: Like, just going home. The other day, me and a couple of friends drove back to my home, and just laid by the lake and looked at the stars. That’s my favorite thing. It sounds kinda cheesy, but you know what I mean. I just like to get away to where it’s completely silent and I can just relax.
d: I’m from Buffalo. I have no idea what you’re talking about.
M: I’ll have to take you home with me sometime.
d: What cartoon character from your childhood do you most relate to?
M: I want to say Punky Brewster, but she wasn’t really a cartoon. She was, but she wasn’t at first. I loved Punky Brewster. Maybe it’s just because I loved her that I feel I can relate to her. She was fun and she always wore crazy clothes. I had Punky Brewster tennis shoes. So that was the connection.
d: What was the deal with the cartoon and that alien?
M: The thing that flew around,..what was his name?
d: I don’t know. Dipshit?
M: It was this little fluffy thing and it would fly around.
d: Last question: would you like to buy a 1997 Toyota Camry? It’s going cheap. It’s blue.
M: Sky blue, or is it like, dark blue?
d: It’s kind of a dark, muddy blue.
M: Muddy blue? Sounds good. Rusted?
d: Very.
M: Awesome.
d: Do you have any final statements for the people?
M: Artists, have fun making art.
CONTACT MARCI AT MARCILYNN143@HOTMAIL.COM
artid
116
Old Image
4_4_untapped.swf
issue
vol 4 - issue 04 (dec 2001)
section
untapped