NC Winters is new to Los Angeles, but seems to be an old west coast art soul. Paintings on wood blaze with intense color and contain subject matter from sunshine and daisies, to grimaces and monsters. His work fits right in with the illustrative art culture that has existed here for decades in the underground, low brow scene and now the upperground, and beyond. Winter’s paintings are a mix of masculine and feminine images – the feminine being quite beautiful and the masculine being downright tough. His images have echoes of art nouveau yet cross into psychedelic wonderlands.
Nathan Cartwright: Being a newbie to California, are you suffering at all from culture shock?
NC Winters: I’m originally from Phoenix, and we moved here after a 3 year stint in New York —New York was the definition of culture shock, angry people all the time. We got out of New York because the weather was terrible and the people were far too uptight. Out here, the weather is phenomenal, and the people are pretty much laid back.
Nathan Cartwright: Your work fits in well with the west coast’s skateboard/surf culture. Are you planning on approaching these markets?
NC Winters: Surfing and Skateboarding aren’t conscious influences. Being a child of the 80s, cartoons, MTV and illustration are bigger influences. I’m just trying to show my art wherever it fits. If someone brings a new market to my attention that’s a good fit, I find people to connect with so it becomes more personal than a blind endeavor.
Nathan Cartwright: These are trying times for America, with gas prices, food, and overall living expenses rising at a rampant pace. Do you have much to say about this artistically or otherwise?
NC Winters: Buying art is a luxury even in prosperous times, so the current economy makes it even harder. Needless to say, sales have suffered a bit since gas hovers around $4.50-$5.00 a gallon, food prices are up, incomes are down, etc. Remember when cheese was cheap? To me, it reinforces the idea I’ve always had that there’s nothing wrong with an artist wanting to sell. It isn’t a case of selling out so much as just plain selling- enabling me to paint all the time.
Nathan Cartwright: It’s difficult to use text without seeming like a commercial….it’s important in your work, NC, and you seem to pull it off quite well. What is your reasoning for using text in your work? How do you know when to say “when”, with respect to applying text for commercial reasons versus using it in an artistic way?
NC Winters: The text in my art tends to have one of two origins- it’s either the inspiration for the piece, or the response to the final painting. What keeps it from being commercial is that I don’t intend for it to say anything specific to everyone, it’s just something that I put in the work for me.
Nathan Cartwright: Besides showing at The Hive Gallery on September 6th, where do you see yourself as an artist in 5-10 yrs?
NC Winters: Hopefully I’ll have reached a level of success that allows me to do art full-time & that allows me to focus on creating more of the work that lives in my head.
NC will be featured at The Hive Gallery in September 2008 alongside Jason Hernandez and the “Bee-rotica”, erotic themed show.