Nathan Menglef is a self-taught painter, zinester, illustrator, gutter punk and linux geek, originally from Florida but now living, working and squatting in Amsterdam. He designed album covers for punk and avant garde record labels and made occasional contributions to various zines and magazines of all budgets and aesthetics before his work was spotted in a squat gallery in Amsterdam by a Dutch collector of the art-elite establishment who went on to sponsor several shows. Menglef’s work is visceral, beautiful, cynical, violent, subversive and by turns terrifying, combining the aesthetics of cute grinning 80s symbols of youth and pop-culture with underground comic art, and raging and blistering against the dumb cult of consumption with the cold eye of the elective outsider.
What do you do all day?
I suppose on the average day I tend to draw all day. Or paint.
But even while doing that, I also, check my email a million times, write emails, add little things to my website. I take time to go to the park, or go out for a coffee or something – it’s definitely not like sixteen straight hours of painting. I probably only accomplish 6 hours of work in a day, really – I just spread it out all day long.
What will you do today?
I’m still in vacation mode. I’ll probably clean up the house a little bit, and then later in the afternoon I’m meeting with a friend to discuss “aesthetics serving stories”. Kind of a discussion on the values of propaganda – I’m moving toward linear work, clearer illustration of ideas and clearer communication through visual information. I’m going to pick his brain on the subject. Then I might go to an exhibition.
What’s your working process?
On the average day, I tend to wake up around 8. There’s email, coffee, bread, reading news, procrastinations. Eventually I get to drawing another head at a ¾ angle and start sketching in some ribs and figuring out which arm I’ll be cutting off the figure today. After an hour of this, yeah — something clicks and I get going with something fresh. Some days, though, I do nothing but technical work, like filling something in, or just “making it work”, so to speak. More sweat than inspiration.
What’s the best thing about what you do?
It keeps me focused, and also a bit “head in the cloudsy”, so I can keep from getting too sucked down by the stuff that has pulled a lot of my friends into accepting things they once railed against. I guess it keeps me perpetually adolescent, which is probably a bad thing. Working on smaller works and drawings allow me to carry my stuff anywhere and work where I like. Most other creative fields don’t really let you carry it all with you: like if I was in a band I certainly couldn’t haul it all down to the cafe on a whim in the afternoon.
And the worst thing?
It can be very isolating. On one hand it is nice to be self-disciplined and in control of the whole process, but the amount of energy poured in and the hours spent alone in a room can be very depressing over time.
How did you get into it?
My mum draws very, very well, and my earliest memories are of her drawing her own hand, and how real it looked, and I was floored. I always thought it was like magic.
What’s been the biggest achievement in your career so far?
I think it was a solo show I had a couple of years ago which was both tough and disappointing, but still very valuable. I’ll be having another, but I don’t know if that will be a “career” show or just a personal one.
Where do you go from here, career-wise?
I want to get away from painting for yuppies and get back to comic books, illustration, and printmaking – making affordable reproduceable items is a bit more fun for me.
Have you got any advice for someone trying to do what you do?
Nope. It’s kinda DIY, and most of the advice I’ve had I’ve usually rejected. But I’m stubborn.
When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Race car driver, astronaut, fireman, “artist”. I’ve settled on drawer/painter.
And if you were going to have a complete career change, what would you go for?
Computer nerd extraordinaire.
Where do you look for inspiration?
Everywhere, I guess. I look at lots of advertisements for layouts, seeing what’s hip. Which idiot just went from making something cool into selling shit with what’s cool. I look at drawings, mostly, – anywhere, any of them. I really like Mel Kadel’s stuff, but the hippest of all has to be Matt Furie. His stuff is so retro, but I can’t help but enjoy the warm 80s feel of huffy bikes and gizmo dolls.
Which other artists do you look [up] to?
I guess the ones I mentioned, to a degree, but I’m still a junkie for the old and dead ones – Durer, Da Vinci and Schiele are probably my Holy Trinity. As for the living: Dwarfbaby, also known as Shane Ingersoll, who’s one of my best friends (dwarfbaby.org), and Brandon Haney, who is the master of harsh, maybe even brut, who’s at brh.menglef.org. I’ve been following him for 7 or 8 years now, and I get so much from his drawings.
What constitutes a successful work, for you?
If it makes me laugh, or if it just has some ring to it, like a clever moment where my brain sees a connection I hadn’t seen before. Usually the click is like “ah, of course!” — totally like some math equation solved. A month later I’ll think it’s lame, but it’s a success if I had that big moment at some point, like overcoming a challenge.
What constitutes an unsuccessful work?
Usually when I try to repeat a success. One follows the other and I start trying to do what I’d just done. This always winds up in severe frustration, and the work usually ends up unfinished.
