Artists' Choice Awards Interview With Poxodd
An Inspired Hermit
An Interview With Artist Poxodd
by Loree Harrell
about the eBay Artists' Choice Awards,
selling art on eBay, and her artistic career.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Congratulations on your wins in the 2005 Artists' Choice Awards... 2nd in Dark Art, 3rd in Imaginative, and an Honorable Mention in Most Creative - pretty impressive! I have to tell you, I love your work - am still mourning losing the bid on the fish man last year. Tell us what these awards have meant to you and a little about your experience on eBay.
Winning in the Artists' Choice Awards was a wonderful experience. To be selected from such a large number of artists who sell on ebay is such a great honor. To have earned the respect of other artists also means a lot to me especially since their the ones that really know how much work, imagination and care that goes into making a piece of art.
Selling on ebay has really been the best thing that's happened to my artistic career, although in the beginning it was rough. When I first started selling on ebay I had very little success and I nearly gave up. Fortunately I found out about Art Cards and gave them a try before I called it quits. I slowly gained more bids and customers by doing Art Cards, and now that I have a following, I can sell work in a variety of sizes without much trouble. Not only did ebay become a great venue to display and sell my art, but it became a reason to continue doing art, hone my skills, and to develop my own unique style.
You certainly do have a unique style, and your skills appear to be well honed. You describe yourself as "an inspired hermit". Is art your full-time job? And is the hermit bit a state of environment or a state of mind?
Yes indeed, art is a full time job for me. I start shortly after I get up and try to work eight hours, sometimes longer. Being in my studio for such long amounts of time is really what makes me feel most like a hermit. Alone in my cave I can feel free to create worlds of my own without the distractions of the real world outside. It's a lonely job sometimes, but someone's got to do it.
Ha! - yep, someone's gotta do it. Are you formally trained, Poxodd, or did you develop your skills and style on your own?
I developed my skills and style on my own for the most part. I took the basics in college (color, design, drawing) but after the first year of being an art major I decided to explore other areas of study and switched majors. Other people directing me on what to do regarding my art just took all the fun out of it really, and once I had the basics down I felt I would be able to develop my style on my own and I have no regrets about that since it has seemed to work out quite well for me that way.
Your work is incredibly detailed. How long does it take you to work, for instance, and art card?
I am very proud of the effort I put into the detail of my pieces. Usally it takes me about 3-4 hours to finish an art card. I most often do them in just pen and ink but if I use gouache it can take longer because even though I don't do any cross hatching in the gouache parts, it just takes a while to get it right.
Okay, so you knew it was coming... it's time to talk about... (pregnant pause)... The Name. Where did Poxodd come from?
When I was a kid, I just wanted a nick name, I don't even really know how I made up Poxodd, but it stuck. Today, Poxodd is my my legal name and I can barely stand to even hear my birth name. I've always wanted to think up a good story about how I got the name Poxodd or what it means, but to this day I haven't thought of anything sastisfactory.
Well, rats. I was rather hoping for some involved story about hallucinations during a bout of chicken pox or something. However, since we don't get a story about that, what's up with Flying Severed Cow Head Central??
In high school I started my own self published comic book and one of the characters in it was a Flying Severed Cow's Head who used to fly around and steal people's important manuscripts and such. It became quite a popular character so it ended up as the mascot for my fan club. I still think it's rather cute.
I just discovered the tank for your bike on your website. It's gorgeous - if you ever give up paper, you'd make a mint customizing bikes. How many you-designed tatts do you have to stay in character?
Thanks, I think the motocycle tank is coming out well so far, just wait till it's done! I've got no plans to do other people's though, sometimes you gotta just do stuff for yourself and make everybody else jealous. Surprisingly I have no tatts, I've always wanted some but I'm too scared to design them myself. I tend to look back on my older pieces and think "ewww, I've gotten so much better since then". It would be tragic to have that thought every time I look at my own tattoo, so if/when I do get one, I'm having someone else design it.
Well, that tank is going to create jealousy on the street. I've always wanted a tatt, but my sticking point is thinking of it all wrinkled up when I'm eighty. Ish.
I wouldn't mind a tatt wrinkling up when I'm old, it might end up looking like a Dali painting 
.
Ha!... good point - I'm off to get that one I've always wanted winding from the base of my spine around to my belly.
Oh, no, never mind, I forgot my twenties (okay, and thirties), have come and gone.
Where do your ideas come from? Your images are so thoroughly yours... do you just start working and they come out, or do you have an end result in your head before you begin? I am still mourning the loss of the fish man card - and that's been a year.
I'd say 75 Percent of the time I just start working and the ideas come out. The other 25 Percent of the time, I have a little morsel of an idea before I start (for example it may be a dream or something happening in the world around me that creates the morsel) then I incorporate it into a piece. Even then, I usally only have one vague idea or figure that I want to do and work it out on paper.
I just spent an hour browsing your EBSQ portfolio and am absolutely in awe. (And, no, I didn't get through all 630 images - I do have a life.) Every single piece is so identifiably yours, and yet some are funny, some are scary, some are spiritual, and some are almost incomprehensible. In a good way. Do you find that dark moods birth the darker pieces, or are most of those the dream-seeded works you mentioned earlier?
The darker pieces are actually not usually brought on by dark moods, I've had many a dark moment in the past, but at this point in my life I've never been happier. For some reason even though my life is pretty peaceful right now I still enjoy visiting the dark side, in fact I think the dark themes are my favorite to do. I think that considering dark posibillities only makes me feel that much more alive and appreaciative of what I have today.
While I was there, I noticed that you were recently juried into EBSQ-Plus. No small feat - that's not an easy jury. Do you enter any "real-world" shows or have your work in any galleries? It seems to me that you have the right mix of edgy and unique, plus technical ability, to get someone out there really excited about discovering you on the national art scene. Or are you even interested?
I was pretty excited to get in ebsq plus. It's my first time entering for it and it's so nice to be appreciated by those who look upon artworks with a critical eye. I even found out that out of all those who got into ebsq plus this time around I was the only one who was a unanimous yes vote! I did enter a contest for a real world gallery a few months ago and didn't get in. It was kind of disappointing, I'm not very fond of getting rejected (but then again who is?). However I'm sure that I will enter more gallery contests or eventually try to find a gallery that might like my work and try to get in. I suppose I'm one of those artists that really doesn't like going around and promoting themselves, so in a way, I've really mostly been waiting for galleries and such to come to me. Each day though I am gaining more confidence, perhaps it's just a matter of time and one day I will be able to get out there in the real world.
I think most artists don't like going around and promoting themselves... nature of the beast.
... and I just can't help it - my brain keeps playing around with your name - thinking about calling up a restaurant in Canton, Ohio, and making a reservation for Poxodd. Or getting pulled over for a burnt out left turn signal and handing the cop your license that says Poxodd. Or sitting in the dentist's full waiting room (dentists being somewhat on my mind these days) and having the assistant come to the door and say, "Poxodd?". Or paying with a VISA card that says Poxodd. I am just thoroughly fascinated! - what's it like? Do people just pretend not to notice or assume you're someone famous or what?
It's funny, I've kinda learned that the name Poxodd just kinda weirds people out. So when I go somewhere (like say to a restraunt) I usally have whoever I'm going with give the people their name, otherwise people just look at me with a confused look on thier face and say "what was that again?" it gets annoying. I've also been known to just make up a fake (more normal) name off the top of my head. When I have told people my name though they're usally interested like you are, they ask what it means, or where it came from, or they'll just say "that's an interesting name". Something else strange about my name is that people have a really hard time saying it. It's pronounced exactly as it's spelt Pox (as in Chicken Pox) and Odd (as in odd and even) then just stick them together, yet some people can't get it and call me Poxid, Poxoid or something like that. Quite often I just tell people to call me Pox cause that's a little bit easier for people to grasp. Oh and another funny story is that some people have refused to call me Poxodd cause the name disturbs them so much! They have an "I can't call her that!" type reaction. It is indeed not easy to have the name Poxodd, but I still like it regardless.
Well you certainly aren't ever going to get lost in a crowd. "Artist Carol Smith" might get passed over, but I'm bettin' a Poxodd will be remembered forever!
Poxodd, thank you so much for your time and for your art. I have thoroughly enjoyed talking with you, and will abandon my theoretical journalistic integrity long enough to personally tell everyone...
This woman has been high on my top ten lists of favorite artists since I saw the infamous Fish Man a year ago... grab a bottle of wine and go spend an evening with those 630 paintings!
posted by Loree Harrell at 3:35 PM
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