This content from this article is provided by Upstate Diary, a print and online publication about the creative possibilities that thrive in communities outside of city limits. Denny and I really excited to see that our friend, Will Lytle of Thorneater Comics was not only featured in Upstate Diary, but also working for Colette in Paris for what’s being called “Catskills Week.” Our congrats to Will on all his well-deserved success. Interviews by Mark Connolly, with photos by Kate Orne.
Upstate Diary is thrilled to be selling Issue One at the mecca of concept stores, Colette, in Paris. Sarah Andelman, Colette’s creative director and cultural magpie, is launching Catskills Week on November 16th with a handpicked selection of products and produce discovered during her latest forays into one of our favorite regions of upstate New York, the Catskills. UD gets up close and personal with four of our favorite artists and creators discovering their unique perspective on living and creating in close relationship to nature.
MC: I love the simplicity within your post apocalyptic, pagan, tribal world but why is there so much pain and suffering? Does it reflect your own life?
WL: I think the work has always been a place for me to work out my problems with life, you know? I’ve always been a sensitive and sort of fearful person and life was always a little scary for me when I was younger. So, these things surface pretty quickly; fear, hurt, doubt — the soggy, human things.
It’s about how those human feelings fit inside the larger context of the natural world: does nature feel the same, or, does it have answers for those things? It’s a lot of searching, trying to learn and trying not to feel those bad things as much, which is really a human struggle.
MC: How would you describe your work?
WL: I’m a big believer in art as a means of communicating one’s conditions and perspective to the world. I’m not super motivated on a technical level. Instead, I prioritize the expression of certain ideas over the perfection of the medium.
I feel like my work is punk in spirit. Stylistically, …well, I tried to copy a bunch of people and failed horribly and so I’ve got a funny mish mash thing going that comprises a lot of influences and somehow ends up being unique, or so I hope.
MC: You live in a rustic cabin with no plumbing…?
WL: Yep, I live in a little cabin on my Father’s property, it’s nestled right against 100 acres of forest. I built it without plumbing and only a woodstove for heat. It keeps my overhead down and in turn allowed me to quit my day job to focus on improving the work — which is everything to me now. There is also the feeling of being responsible for one’s home and shelter. In the winter, if I don’t start a fire I’ll die and the prospect of death gets me very motivated, ha!
MC: I’ve seen you do your $1 portraits, how did that come about?
WL: My buddy and I decided to travel together on a big cross-country trip, riding freight trains — Hobo style. It was intense, and dangerous, a real adventure. We were broke by the time we arrived in New Orleans so we started to beg for money, for food and stuff. After a while I got sort of angry about the process of begging: it just didn’t feel right. So, I started drawing people in a real basic manner and sold them with a price so low that I figured no one could turn them down, no matter how haggard the drawings were — and it worked out really well. I didn’t have to beg any more!
MC: You grew up with stoner parents. How did that affect your life and work?
WL: My parents are lifelong pot smokers, not interested in the norms I guess. While in high school, this always made me feel weird and I definitely wasn’t into drugs — probably in rebellion against them, ha! But as I grew older the social stigma of pot smoking grew less important to me. Now I really respect their life style and the choices they made. I couldn’t have wished for better parents.
MC: Why do you think that your work is big with teenage girls?
WL: Well, my work has a big following on tumblr and there are a lot of young people on that platform. I think the themes of my work, the doubt, the fear, the sense of being lost and finding your way — that resonates with kids of that age who struggle with similar problems.
My illustrations kind of counter our society’s preconceived idea that guys need to be ‘strong and in charge’ — I really hate that shit, it’s so deceptive. It’s more important to me to allow my characters to encompass all that we are as human beings.
Read the full article on Upstate Diary, featuring Catskills artists and creators Laura Ferrara & Fabio Chizzola of Westwind Orchard, musician Burnell Pines, and artist/sculptor Joshua Vogel.
