Jon Beinart - "What inspires you as an artist and animator?"

Meats Meier - "In the past I have been inspired mostly by nature and the outdoors. Things like the climbing tendrils of vines, the design elements of perfectly functioning living creatures on this planet, and the way rays of the sun bursts through the clouds and certain days.  Now I am finding that the explosion of interest focused on the new digital art movement and new technologies and research is what drives me most. The true ability for we as artists to show people across the globe our creations alone is incentive enough to make me work through the night.  It's a completely new paradigm shift in the art world.  I'm loving the "You Tube" simplicity of sharing animations and tutorials instantly and easily.  We are all pioneers and guinea pigs right now, the speed at which my tools are advancing is downright scary….but exciting!"

Jon Beinart - "It's great to hear that you're excited by the recent surge of digital interest and technological evolution Meats. I have heard that you are personally responsible for much creative innovation within the digital realm, but since you spend much of your time working through the night in front of a computer, do you miss your contact with the natural world (your early inspiration). Or do you still make time to engage with nature?"

Meats Meier - "I went through a strange period last year - I decided to move into a loft in the worst part of downtown Los Angeles. After spending most of my life nestled in the mountains of Salt Lake City and the alien worlds of Southern Utah, I wanted to try and live the exact opposite life. I was surrounded by nothing but concrete, homeless people, crack, and urine smell for the entire stay there. A lot different than I'm used to. I guess I just want to try and experience every spectrum of life. I believe that there is something interesting and exciting to be found in almost all aspects of the world. Every thing I feed into my brain makes it's way into my art, so I want to make sure there is fuel to burn when I go to town working on a new concept or animation.  Nature itself seems to have already solved most design problems, so I find myself often focused on the raw, untouched elements that have evolved over millions of years, like bugs and plants."

Jon Beinart - "There's nothing like a good dose of human decay to get the creative juices flowing ;) I noticed on your website that you have painted with traditional mediums. Do you plan to revisit painting, or are you satisfied with the digital medium you have immersed yourself in? I also recall the last sentence of a post you made in the news section on your website when I invited you to join the Surreal Art Collective: 'I'm glad that they opened a section for digital artists………a good sign for the new real outsider art "digital"'. Was this statement made in response to a prejudice you have faced as a digital artist?"

Meats Meier - "I was an airbrush artist before I really jumped into the digital world 12 or so years ago. I still love to airbrush whenever I have some free time and there is some sun shining outside. I'm airbrushing a mural outside of the Gnomon Workshop here in Los Angeles where I have an office as a resident artist. I called digital the real outsider art because, yeah, I've been trying to convince people for a lot of years now that there is art that can be made inside a computer. First people assumed the computer did all the work. Then people connected 3D art with what they are fed by movie companies like Pixar and Disney - cute animals over and over. There is just so much potential now for a new school of art to come of age.  It's not hard to be shown in galleries with digital prints, it's just mainly hard to get people to buy them.  I think the old "outsider" artists aren't outside of much these days, they are the norm, Juxtapoz is the top artist magazine in the country and many artists are selling their paintings in the 5 and 6 figure range.."

Jon Beinart - "I was excited to find out that you collaborated with Tool & Alex Grey on the 3D booklet insert for their latest Album. This is a huge step in your career. Congratulations! What was it like collaborating with Tool? Will you be working with them in the future? Do you spend time with them socially?"

Meats Meier - "Thanks a lot. It has been great working with them so far. Their "10,000 Days" album even won a Grammy for the package design itself, and the 3d stereoscopic image that I made for it (from an Alex Grey sketch) is even being used as their concert tour t-shirt. Both Grey and Jones are extremely inspiring and talented people, anytime I can work with them I am very appreciative.  I spent most of last year working on animations for their live show, which blows me away that it accompanies their mind-blowing live music. Currently, I'm working with Maynard (Tool, Perfect Circle) on art and animation for his side-band Puscifer. He's hired me to do a few videos for him. The first one is wild, I had him scanned into 3D and am now using motion capture technology to make him a master break-dancer and river-dancer. It's some of the most favorite work I've been able to do so far, I just don't want to say too much about it at this point.  Maynard is an amazing genius, he has more focus and drive to create than I've ever seen in a human. That is if he is indeed human….. I'm also going to be doing various other projects with TOOL later this year if they don't get sick of me first."

Jon Beinart - "Has most of your recent work in digital art and animation been collaborative or on commission. If so, do you miss having the creative freedom to explore your own vision or have you been given this freedom when bringing other peoples concepts to life?"

Meats Meier - "I would say that most of the work that I do is just for myself, working on personal projects, having fun, experimenting with new technologies, and making myself happy doing the artwork that I want to do. In my career so far, I have always turned down paid projects until the time when I need money.  I'm way more stoked to have free time than extra money in the bank.  It's kept me from having lots of money, but money isn't something I've ever really cared about in the first place.  I'm glad that I have the ability to pick and choose the projects that I want to work on. I make instructional DVD's (through the Gnomon Workshop), and the royalties from those disks pay most of my life expenses, so I can always focus on my craft without worrying about a 9 to 5 job."

Jon Beinart - "Do you have any spiritual beliefs and if so, how relevant are they to your art? What do you hope to achieve in life before you die?"

Meats Meier - "I was raised in a Mormon household in Salt Lake City, Utah. I was baptized a Mormon, but don't believe in their organized religion, so I am considered a "Jack-Mormon" as you cannot wash those things off.  I actually taught myself to draw when I was younger because of the intense boredom of the religious sermons. I filled the back of the Hymn sheets Sunday after Sunday with silly drawings of the people around me to help pass the time. I hope to just get to the point of not having to work anymore (for outside clients) so that I can focus on the new art tools that are on the horizon. I don't need a lot in my life, just freedom and happiness."

Jon Beinart - "I'm sorry, I didn't know you were from Utah (excuse the lame joke ripped off from Orgasmo). Well it’s a good thing you spent all of that time drawing in church. Are your parents supportive of your art?"

Meats Meier - "I have the most supportive parents possible. My Mom and Dad have always been major cheerleaders for me. My dad bought me my first pencils and computers (Vic 20, then the Amiga and Dpaint), and my first airbrush. My Mom always said that I could be anything I wanted to be, and made me feel like I could achieve anything.  My grandma was an art teacher and did oil paintings, so I was exposed to a lot of art early in life, and have always known what I wanted to be when I grew up."

Jon Beinart - "Meats is a very unusual name. Is it short for something or made up?"

Meats Meier - "My real name is James. I got the name Meats in high school. There was a restaurant across the street called "Meier's Meats", so it was easy for my friends to switch it around and start calling me that.  Once I started doing airbrush paintings, I signed them with the Meats name, and once I moved to California, I started fresh and just became Meats full time. James died the day I left Salt Lake City."

Jon Beinart - "Ah, so Meats is not a traditional Mormon name ;) Thank you for your time Meats. I really enjoyed this interview! Any exciting news in the world of Meats Meier that you would like to pass on to our readers? Any upcoming exhibitions, projects, publications or DVDs in the works?"

Meats Meier - "Thanks, Jon, It was a pleasure!

I've got a few art shows lined up  - I have a few pieces in a traveling digital art show that is currently going around the world, it's called Sumus Vivinae, and it includes a lot of really talented digital artists. I was also invited to create a piece for a group show in October curated by Chet Zar in Los Angeles. I've also just finished the "Introduction to Zbrush 3" training DVD, which (I hear) is very much anticipated. Zbrush has just come out, and there isn't currently a lot of learning material for it. I was a lead beta tester on this version (with Pixologic, the creator of the software), so I've been lucky to be able to study it for a while…."

Meats Meier's Gallery

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Jon Beinart - "How would you describe your comics Tim?"

Tim Molloy - "I would describe my comics as an ever expanding and interconnected web of dreamlike and nightmarish storylines soaked heavily in delusion, confusion and a general sense of unease. I draw heavily on surrealist techniques, symbolist ideas, synchronicity and dreams to construct my stories. Recurring themes include (but are not exclusive to) death, rebirth, the nature and expansion of consciousness, self-destruction and discovery… There is a kind of pre- apocalyptic tension throughout, balanced (i hope) with a sense of humor that stops it all from getting too serious…"

Jon Beinart - "That's some very heavy content. I'm glad you include humor to make it digestible. How important is satire to you? Do you get a warm fuzzy feeling when you see someone in hysterics over your work, or would you prefer them to walk away with a contemplative expression on their face?"

Tim Molloy - "Satire is very important to me. I think that as the years go by my work is becoming more 'political' and concerned with the issues that we have to face collectively in 'mundane' consensus reality. By shining a light on the beasts of ignorance, greed and prejudice you expose them as the shriveled sniveling things they really are… I read somewhere that If you can make someone laugh whilst making them think than you really start to change the way they view an issue or idea, and I think that is very true…"

Jon Beinart - "I have related to the social commentary in your comics in general, but my favorite series is 'Mr Unpronounceable'. I relate to this character on many levels, but mostly to his paranoia and depravity. Although I have found parallels between his paranoid dystopia and our own sick society, most of this series appeals to me on a basic level. I love the claustrophobic absurdity of his world. Its like a bad acid trip with no foreseeable recovery. Have I missed the point? Is 'Mr Unpronounceable' a vehicle for your political and social views, or is he just an outlet for your sick sense of humor?"

Tim Molloy - "Mr Unpronounceable has been a lot of things to me and to my art over the years… He can be a useful template to channel certain ideas through, or he can simply be a whirlwind force of his own… For instance, the Mr Unpronounceable strip 'The Burning Wheel' is (amongst other things) a pretty pointed statement about the role of art and creativity in the world as opposed to other more destructive forces… Mr U finds an overgrown, quiet park, with a fountain that has run dry. He ingests a hallucinogenic statue that tastes of battery acid, and immediately begins to levitate out of his environment into outer space. After millions of years he comes into contact with a vast burning wheel that seems to be at the centre of things, and he realises that the Wheel must never stop turning at all costs. When he returns to the City and the park, the fountain has started flowing again with a thick, sluggish fluid that tastes like ''oil and blood." This strip in particular is very political for Mr U, but for the most part he as been a vehicle for my own more destructive tendencies. In fact the latest series of comics that I produced I've come to view as a visual diary of some awful stuff I was going through. The thing I've found with Mr U is that it isn’t enough to 'get out those bad feeling on the page' and have done with them. There is no catharsis with him, and I mean that in the way that writing Mr Unpronounceable actually seems to perpetuate those kind of emotions… which is why I decided to stop hanging around with him for a while! He's a bad influence on me!"

Jon Beinart - "I have mixed feelings about your resolve Tim. I'm glad to hear that you have had this realization and will be protecting yourself from Mr Unpronounceable's bad influence, but I have to say. I will miss him dearly. Have psychedelics played a large role in your creative life Tim?"

Tim Molloy - "Haha! well, they’ve played a role that’s for sure (sorry mum!) Like most kids growing up in Auckland city I had a chance to experiment with magic mushrooms. I had my first experience when I was about 18 or 19. I had just read all this literature, Huxley’s 'Doors Of Perception', Leary’s 'Book of the Dead', 'The Electric Koolaid Acid Test'', some books by Terence Mckenna, and of course I was getting into Robert Crumb and all he associated material of the era…Just all the usual stuff i suppose. Some friends invited me along and I thought 'why not?' I'm lucky I was in the right headspace at the time because it was a pretty spur of the moment decision. In any case, it was an incredible experience, and I feel like my life would have taken a different route had I not indulged. As well as all the various localized hallucinatory and delusional effects, that initial 'flicking of the switch' provided me with the initial payload for the artistic trajectory I'm still on… I also felt a very deep connection (here it comes) to the universe as a whole and for a while there actually understood my place in it! I also randomly met up with some other kids on the top of a mountain who went on to be some of my best friends… In any case, i felt that an experience like that wasn’t to be taken lightly so I didn’t 'keep experimenting.' In the Acid Test, Wolf recounts how Ken Kesey was trying to get all the Merry Pranksters to stop taking acid. He said there was no point continuing to 'open the door', and I think he was right. I haven’t done anything like that in years, nor felt the need to…I guess we all have to move through different phases in our lives to really achieve a true understanding of ourselves and what we are doing here, and whilst altering ones consciousness is an incredible thing, it does devalue the really amazing thing, the fact that we have a consciousness at all."

Jon Beinart - "Brilliantly put Tim. If one keeps opening and closing that door (of perception), one could just snap the hinges and either lose access all together or go insane. Have your comics ever really shocked or offended anyone? How do your parents feel about your characters and stories?"

Tim Molloy - "Yes, I think I've definitely shocked and offended a few people in my time… I remember one occasion, back when I was a regular cartoonist for Auckland Universities 'Craccum' magazine, they had a feature which was a survey of readers’ reactions to the content. I went up to the offices and couldn’t resist the urge to go through the surveys and see what people really thought. It's a pretty rare experience for an artist to be able to get that kind of unbiased statistical input into their work… In any case, whilst I can say that more than 50 percent of people 'appreciated my scrawlings,' there were some worrying responses to the question "What drugs do you think Tim Molloy is on?" (haha) such as "Ones that aren’t killing him fast enough." Also some people apparently though that I was some kind of fundamentalist Christian putting subliminal messages in my work to convert people… but yeah, some of those complete strangers seemed to be pretty worked up over what I was doing… the thing is, people weren’t bothered so much by the violence or the grossness or whatever. They were genuinely offended by the lack of obvious meaning in most of the strips I was doing at the time. I mean these people were actually outraged that someone would go to the trouble to produce something that didn’t spell it all out for them. I guess that's what happens when you watch too much TV, or Hollywood blockbusters… As for my parents, I think they're proud of me and what I’m doing for the most part. They both look at my deviantart site regularly as well so they can’t be too bothered. I think they've come to the understanding that it's OK to be puzzled now and then…My mother probably appreciates what i do slightly more, as she has a fairly sick sense of humor (thanks ma!) Both of them have always encouraged my brothers and I to go for our dreams and not settle for anything less so I've been lucky in that respect…"

Jon Beinart - "Gotta love da Mumma's! I am also lucky in that respect. But my father has the sickest sense of humor in our family, followed closely by my Mother (perhaps I am on par with dad). I understand you are not a fundamentalist Christian Tim, but do you have any spiritual beliefs that play a role in your creativity?"

Tim Molloy - "Well I wouldn’t really use the word 'beliefs', perhaps 'notions' is a better word… I also think it would be better phrased if you were to say that my creativity has played a part in my spiritual…notions. The whole process that I embarked on with my art was originally a kind of 'vision quest' kind of thing. A search for ''God'', as it were. My work and my life are pretty tied up together and for the most part I suppose it's all about that search for something greater or least that wonderful headlong rush into mystery… I guess the system that I have molded for myself over the years sounds like any other new-age crackpot hodge-podge, but for me it seems closer to objective 'truth' than materialism or fundamentalism, which seem to rule most peoples paths… I do believe in one thing, and that is Synchronicity. I feel like I have had too many incredible meaningful coincidences in my life to discount this phenomenon. Many of these coincidences have been inextricably tied up with my art as well, and I feel like in 'following the signs' I have for the most part walked the right path up til now. I have been given many gifts and I feel like when we walk the creative path we feed those back into the collective consciousness, and in doing so we create this kind of perpetual motion or flow of energy that begins to sustain itself… am I making sense? i don't know. Basically I think that there is something strange going on behind the scenes, a secret thing behind the curtains… whether this is some kind of super consciousness, or a manifestation of the collective I don’t know… I have more questions than answers! What fascinates me is the hypothetical question of whether consciousness exists elsewhere in the universe. In the instance that we are the only species (although a good case can be made I think for gorillas etc) that has or ever will hold consciousness in the cradle of our brains, then that is one thing. You could call Consciousness a symptom of biology, like our senses, an evolutionary tool that we have developed to interact with the world around us. In the other instance that somewhere, sometime, another species separate from humanity develops what we would call consciousness, and i suppose language to communicate with one another, than consciousness becomes something of a universal constant. A force inherent in the makeup of our universe like matter and energy (same difference right?) So then you might argue that Synchronicity could be to consciousness what gravity is to matter… (my thinking is of course muddled somewhat, not holding any sort of degree in quantum physics!) The boiled down questions here for me are 'Do ideas themselves reach out to each other across time and space? Are we just a way for the universe to ask itself questions about itself?' Of course this kind of heretical thinking will probably land me in the 7th circle of hell…"

Jon Beinart - "If you're going to hell for thinking like this then I believe you will have a lot of company. It should be fun! I'll bring my pillow and some snacks. Thank you for sharing so much in this interview Tim. Do you have any exciting news for our readers? Upcoming publications, exhibitions, etc?"

Tim Molloy - "My pleasure Jon! I'm currently working on my first, tangible, real world comic book in over two years! Its all completely new material, and totally wordless. I'm quite excited about it and feel it's a bit of a new direction for me. When that's finished I'll have some kind of release party/gig here in Melbourne. I'm also going to get my own website up and running soon, which is long overdue. I'm also in the planning stages of a graphic novel which is set mostly in and around the lives of people I know, but will retain a surrealistic bent and a focus on the role of the meaningful coincidences that run through our lives. Otherwise, it's business as usual…"

Tim Molloy's Gallery.

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I recently received a few copies of INSIDE ArtZine #11 in the mail. INSIDE ArtZine (founded in 1990) is a glossy Underground & Lowbrow Art magazine from Germany which has featured artists on beinArt.org along with many exceptional artists previously unknown to me. Over all I was very impressed with the quality content and creative layout of this dark and gruesome journal. I was also proud to have introduced Jenzzz to the work of Karl Persson (a close friend of mine) and license Karl's work to be published in Issue 11 (with Karl's permission of course) as well as contributing a photo of one of my own Toddlerpedes for the "Are you still playing with dolls?!" double page spread.

Here is a blurb supplied by Jenzzz, the publisher of the German magazine (and promotional sponsor of Metamorphosis):

Graphical fevervisions from the depth of the creative sewer: The art of the real underground! Paintings, drawings, collages, photos, sculptures, stories, poems, denunciation, lies and other effronteries. A4, 40 pages, full colour, quality paper, english, 4 EURO / $5.40 USD. Order from the INSIDE Artzine website.

INSIDE artzine #11 - This time with MAXIMUM ARTSCUM from Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Poland, Brasilia, USA, Japan and Australia: Naoto Hattori (JAP), J.K. Potter (USA), Jan Off (GER), Marcel Ruijters (NL), Microbo (ITA), Karl Persson (AUS), Mike Bohatch (USA), Fabrice Lavolley (BEL), Urs Böke (GER) & many others….

"Are you still playing with dolls?!" - Dolls & Sculptures of the damned, Interview with Michael Hutter, "Ink means eternity" - The tattoomummies from Riberalta, ancient oddities & Reviews. May it hound your dreams….

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In the true spirit of collaboration the ZoomQuilt project has taken the Surrealists game of Exquisite Corpse to a whole new level (or dimension) with an interactive online flash animation. Zoomquilt I was a collaborative art project (17 contributors) from 2005 which used optical illusion and a series of interlocking surreal comic images, to create an endless series of imagery when compiled in a programmed loop. In 2007 (after 2 years work) The group (now with 34 contributors) has launched Zoomquilt II which is substantially longer than the original, making it slower and less dynamic, but still very impressive!

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