Hello yolks,

I am hard at work- creating a BOOK. I know it's an archaic medium, but don't worry, it will surely come with a dvd or flash drive with some mp3s of a robot voice explaining what to do with it.
I'm also FINALLY overhauling my website and ordering merch for the imminent online store: prints of Sonar, the work I did for the Milosh record iii, and the pieces I created for Imogen Heap's upcoming live record (those will be available when the album is released) and more.

There is a ridiculous feature about a crazy-artist-bird-safari-magic-man (me) in the current art issue of Rare magazine which can be ordered or viewed online if you get really really bored waiting for the Earth to explode. Don't worry... any day now.




What's new with you?

R

I would like to objectively offer some support for the claim that I can be impulsive: I've been taking flying lessons. It's not completely non-sequitur. For the past year or so I've been toying with the idea of taking some aerial shots for a series of new images I hope to complete. To realize these shots, I recently began joining a friend for some amazing flights in a Beechcraft Debonair. While I was up there, I decided I may as well learn to fly. After a few rides/lessons I began operating the controls as co-pilot. I flew to a nearby lake and had to help jump start the plane with a truck due to a faulty battery. Another time I had a semi-emergency landing to fix (with duct tape) a gas leak due to improper placement of the gas cap by a plane attendant. After this string of technical difficulties, I flew to Louisiana and had pretty good luck at a casino riverboat on the Mississippi River. Next I hope to fly to Alaska to learn to shoot moose from the plane and subsequently run for vice president. Anyone can do it --no really-- ANYONE.

R

The kind people of a cool site (www.CoolAddict.com) invited me to take part in an interview a few months ago. Read it HERE (transcription follows)


Cheers,
R




Cool Addict had the privilege to talk with multi-talented Ryan Obermeyer, whose work has been featured on Cool Addict before. He opens up about working with artists such as Imogen Heap, his proudest moment, frustrations on the job, living in Austin and being naked in public! Thanks Ryan for taking the time to talk to us! (photos by Teresa Tsai and Julian Humphries)


INSPIRATION

Ernst Haeckel, 1st Avenue Machine, Jean Cocteau, Werner Herzog, and Gottfried Helnwein are some. I get inspiration from other weird places though. Music mostly.


COMING FULL CIRCLE

My grandmother on my father's side used to subscribe to National Geographic World Magazine for me when I was a kid. A few years back they contacted me to do a feature on me as a "photoshop expert." They asked me to give some advice to their readers who might be interested in photo retouching. It was right after my grandmother had passed away so it was a cool thing; cyclical.


FRUSTRATIONS ARE PART OF THE JOB

Once, my hard drive with my life's work on it died. I was considering throwing more than a computer out the window. After a string of events the data was recovered. I think I have 4 backups in various locations
now.
It can also be frustrating when some vapid old lady on a board of geriatrics tries to tell you that you need to move that one tree a little bit to the left simply because she's been in a publishing company since before Carrot Top wore mascara. But that's completely hypothetical of course…


WORKING WITH IMOGEN HEAP

She's great– certainly an artist in the truest sense. Sonically, she uses a lot of digital tools but employs a very organic procedure to give her electronic music a heart. I think I work in a similar way visually. She has a real interest in all aspects of her record but she gives me a lot of freedom and trust which nurtures the imagery. I would also consider her one of my closest friends which creates a nice environment for our collaborations.


CURRENT PROJECTS

I just finished creating album graphics for Milosh (Canadian electronic musician). He's a good friend I met through Imogen. One of the new pieces I did for his record includes dentures in a botanical setting with a Freudian subtext. I listened to the album on repeat for days and allowed myself to use a stream-of-consciousness method of
working. I pieced together all of these random items I photographed separately to form a really strange composite. I didn't let myself over think or second guess the work. I wanted it to really evoke the feeling of the record which is mostly about love. I think love is beautiful and scary but compelling.

I also just created a piece for an Austin magazine called Tribeza that comes out on Monday. They invited me to be one of five photographers to submit my visual interpretation of "the little black dress." I think my submission might be the strangest. I hope it is. It's inspired by bees which were a reoccurring theme in my life when I
moved to Austin in September.


GUILTY PLEASURES

Showering, pasta and cheese (any configuration), gravy, chocolate covered gummi bears (or raisins), rum/vodka, music, cats, Rockstar energy drink, KY liquid. I wish I were in a band so I could put these items on a contract rider and throw a fit if they forgot the cats.


LIVING IN AUSTIN

It's this weird amazing anomaly in the middle of this backwards state. It's full of many progressive, democratic, creative, warm, diverse, active, relaxed, mature, unassuming, ambitious, friendly, real, people.


IF I COULD PUNCH….

I punched your mom last night (unless your mom is dead in which case I retract that answer and apologize profusely).


NAKED IN PUBLIC

Countless, but it's more goofy and inebriated than lecherous. I don't usually entertain pride, but when I do– it's in all the right places.


SECRET

I'm a bit of a klepto (major chains only).

Grüß dich!


I would like to share with you a new digital piece I conceived this past winter for the upcoming Milosh record, iii.
Here's what I wrote about it back on February 5th while it was still in concept stage:

"...his new record is very mercurial and subconscious so I've decided to create an homage to Dalí with a very fluid amalgam of biology, botany, and sensuality. Presented as a surreal composite- impulsive and impractical; strange and familiar at once..."

Milosh is an extraordinary electronic musician and good friend that Imogen Heap introduced to me a few years back at her Goodnight and Go video shoot in Toronto (Milosh stomping ground). If you aren't familiar with his music you certainly need to check out his two previous masterpieces:


You Make Me Feel

MeMe

Most of his work features gentle keyboards, soft beats, and meditative lyrics. His soft, soulful, and androgynous vocals are like Thom Yorke in a gospel choir on a few sedatives (Boards of Canada fans will enjoy the arrangements). Check out his myspace page and listen to his new single, Remember the Good Things, for which I have just completed more strange (and aquatic) imagery.


Here is an E CARD promoting the album with a link to a new MINI SITE I created to explain the concept and process behind this new work. Posters of the new pieces I have created for Milosh will be available shortly and I may be accompanying Milosh on a European/US tour in the colder months ahead with some very innovative art (3D?!) to bring with me-- just for you, my baby chickens...







Here are two previous mini sites I created for IMOGEN HEAP:


GOODNIGHT AND GO MINI SITE

AND

HEADLOCK MINI SITE

Dear Londoners:

"The London arm of The Strychnin Gallery are tonight unveiling Whaleless, an international exhibition dedicated to artists who, alongside Greenpeace, are promoting efforts to protect the ocean's largest mammals. Involving over 50 artists from as far afield as Russia and Venezuela, the show opens tonight and features the likes of Stuart Semple, Luke Insect, Lee Baker and Ryan Obermeyer."


A limited edition print of my piece SONAR (created in 2005 for the cause) is for sale as part of the show. Unfortunately, I won't be in attendance.


You can read a slightly abridged version of an interview I participated in for Dazed and Confused Magazine online to promote the show. Here's the full interview:

1.Why did you become involved in the project?

I was invited by the organizer to consider contributing a piece to
support the cause. I felt like my work would lend itself well to the
cause. I collected information regarding the Save the Whales and
decided I'd like to be a part of it.

2. Do you think direct action like that taken by The Sea Sheperd group is
justified? Sinking Japanese whaling boats with limpet mines for example?

I don't think their actions really resolve the issue on any scale and
they have the potential to damage the efforts of peaceful
organizations like Greenpeace who are trying to diplomatically protect
the whales.

3.Do you think artists have a responsibility to champion issues like these?

Artists do function as communicators but I don't think it's my place
to assign responsibility to other artists. We happen to be poised to
reach people effectively through our work if we choose- I see that as
an opportunity, but not a responsibility. I can't pretend that my role
in the art world is usually a political or ecological proponent; I'd
be really hypocritical to say other artists are obligated. I'm happy
that my work lent itself to this particular cause but you can exact
change in the world without having to use your work or your
visibility. I don't think a professional ice skater is accountable for
not skating in a whale-shaped formation.

4.Whose work amongst the other artists exhibiting do you most admire?

Grégory Ledoux, Aurelien Police, Chiaki Mochida, Matt Seymour, Joe Vaux

5. Do you think exhibitions like these can help to enlighten people to
the issue of species extinction?

Certainly. It's a show with a theme and a purpose of raising
awareness. You don't have to have a particular predilection for whales
to be concerned about the potential loss of a species or an imbalance
in our ecology- you just have to be aware of it.

6. If you were swallowed by a whale (Pinocchio style) what would you
like to find inside?

A webcam. :)

Hey there. Here's a few things going on with me:



I was recently invited by the Austin (TX) magazine, Tribeza, to submit my visual interpretation of "the little black dress" for their special April art issue. My interpretation is inspired by Colony Collapse Disorder of Western honey bees I kept hearing about when I moved here. The magazine is free and hits newsstands today. You can contact them HERE to inquire about obtaining a copy.


The latest SPIN Magazine (May 2008) features a special article about fashion in music and features Jonathon TeBeest from Rasputina wearing a jacket I made for him. Here's a pic of me wearing the jacket (yeah my head is on backwards) :)