Whenever I work on an album and the time comes to do all the artwork, the only thing I think of is the LP artwork. When we worked on the ‘Electric Trim’ artwork, we spent weeks and weeks making the LP artwork great, and then the CD artwork came together in a day or two. The LP is what’s important to me.
My wife was the first art collector in the family, and I didn’t become interested until around 1973. The first important artwork we bought was a Van Gogh drawing of two peasant houses in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer.
I hadn’t thought about that before, this passionate following, with fan fiction and artwork. At first it felt like an invasion of privacy, but then I realized it’s nice that the character can be shared.
I produce a lot of my artwork in Germany.
From tours to mixing, mastering, graphics, artwork – I’ve done out of pocket.
I love art, but I’ve never bought an artwork or even considered it.
The music is super fun. I love writing the songs. I love performing, for the most part, and I love doing artwork, but I hate answering 100 emails a day and most interviews.
I remember opening up my first vinyl and seeing the incredible artwork it had. There’s nothing like it. You also get that true gritty sound on vinyl that really makes a rock record sound great, which CDs can never achieve.
I particularly like Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman. Both writers have wit and imagination and the breadth of stories they tell coupled with extraordinary artwork make for fascinating reading.
All the records I’ve put out have had either artwork that I did while I was young or something that my Dad painted.
It’s a tough thing to know that when you’re making your album, you’re going to end up collaborating with, say, Wal-Mart, on your artwork. That just sucks. And the pressure behind getting the numbers real fast is, to me, dizzying.
From the very early stage when I started doing performance art in the ’70s, the general attitude – not just me, but also my colleagues – was that there should not be any documentation, that the performance itself is artwork and there should be no documentation.
I have 17 full-time archivists working for me who put away in books all the diversity of artwork I do, from drawing to etching to monotypes to prints to lithographs.
I love that fans feel comfortable enough to send us their artwork.
I’m fearless when it comes to engineering and motors and gears and pulleys and glass and artwork.
In the Seventies, album artwork became really beautiful items. The whole process of doing an album sleeve, it became a very artistic thing.
I guess if you take yourself seriously as an artist there starts either the problem or the beauty of doing good artwork.
I only learned about Darger a couple years ago, when I kept seeing his name in reference to my artwork, so I looked him up. I wouldn’t consider him an influence because I’d already established my current style before learning about him, but I enjoy his work a lot.
If I’m not invested emotionally, the artwork doesn’t feel emotional.
The thing that weighs the most on how your final artwork turns out is the amount of time you have and the speed at which you can move.
I don’t mind a big fascinator. I think there is more scope for artwork in a fascinator rather than a hat.
When you become your own boss, and your artwork becomes your livelihood, it becomes the only thing you think about.
Picasso took scraps of wallpaper, and instead of using paint and a brush, he used all the existing elements which he made his artwork with.
People don’t go to the record store anymore. It’s crazy. The culture used to be so much stronger. People would go and support you, and go pick up the album. Not just for the music, but for the liner notes, for the artwork, just for the whole thing and to have it, and be able to say, ‘I have this album.’
When I started out, I wrote the songs, recorded the songs, mastered, mixed, did the artwork, made the packaging and did the distribution, all myself. Now I understand what everyone’s jobs are, who is doing them right, and who isn’t.
Artwork, films, TV – it’s always informed my work, no matter what I’m working on.
Really, my biggest risk was just the initial step to quit my day job to do music. I was packaging and shipping for an art gallery in Manhattan; I went to school for painting, so I always wanted to work around artwork, even though I wasn’t really contributing anything to the scene.
Paul Smith’s artwork was so elegant and so graphic, so I think that’s always had a strong effect on me, especially starting out.
The business of living – that’s your artwork, and the process of that is finding out who you are, what it all means.
Unfortunately, the general interest in art among the Japanese is very low compared to that of Western countries. I would love to be able to correct that by bringing many more pieces of interesting artwork to Japan.
I feel very English. I’m proud of it. I wanted there to be a thread connecting everything, the songs, clothes, artwork, even the string arrangements. It all creates a certain atmosphere.
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