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Debra Anderson: What does your show title mean, and how does it tie in with your work? Michael Mararian: The title is Phobia, Foibles, and Fiends, and it is a reexamination of my last show, Little Unfortunates. The works in this show all fall under one of the categories listed in the title. The subjects fall victim to their own fears, act as a catalyst in someone else’s demise, or simply self-destruct, prey to their shortcomings and their inner childlike cruelty. |
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Debra Anderson speaks to Michael Mararian on the eve of his new solo show.
Michael Mararian, Mechanaphobia (Fear of Machinery). Ink on bristol board, 9.75 x 9.75 inches. Courtesy of the artist.Debra Anderson: What does your show title mean, and how does it tie in with your work?
Michael Mararian: The title is Phobia, Foibles, and Fiends, and it is a reexamination of my last show, Little Unfortunates. The works in this show all fall under one of the categories listed in the title. The subjects fall victim to their own fears, act as a catalyst in someone else’s demise, or simply self-destruct, prey to their shortcomings and their inner childlike cruelty.
DA: How would you describe your work?
MM: I’m interested in altering concepts that we traditionally find comforting. Adding a shocking twist to an innocent scenario feeds my darker side, and I love to share this side with viewers. If I see a sweet photograph of children looking all cute and wholesome or the perfect family scenario, my first instinct is to shake it up, primarily to achieve humorous results but ultimately to comment on lost innocence. Adults can never regain that quality anymore. Children are the only bit of innocence we have left, and I like to play on that vulnerability.
On a more personal note, I grew up in a Catholic household as an only child, and I drew many pictures of children to please my parents. My mother and father have always wanted grandchildren, and now that my wife and I are in our 40s, it looks like we won’t be having any. The guilt I feel in failing to please my folks has set me to create and destroy these children again and again as well as the perfect families they represent.
DA: What mediums and techniques do you use to create these pieces? What is your process?
MM: All my work is done in ink. I pencil out the drawing first, then do the initial inking in black India ink. I follow up with archival brush pens to smudge and blend. For the finer shading, I use ink that I dry overnight on the brush. Finally, I do the backgrounds as painted ink washes. I like the subjects of each work to have that cut out effect—like a modern graphic version of an old-fashioned paper doll.
DA: Approximately how many pieces will be in the show, and how will they be presented?
MM: The show will be divided in three parts and will comprise around 33 to 36 pieces total. The Phobias section will be presented in 13 square uniform frames, and each image will be floating in its frame. The Fiends section will be shown in oval vintage portraiture frames, and there will be about nine of those in various sizes ranging from 8 x 10 to 16 x 20. Lastly, there will be about 13 pieces in the Foibles section shown in larger vintage frames.
Quick Quotes – Micahel Mararian
Concepts and works
Shapes and forms. I like the idea of expressing the dark side of human nature as family portraits, and I try to represent this storyline on the visual level by allotting each emotion its distinct shape. Squares equal fear, circles equal wrath, and rectangles are faults and weaknesses. Together they form a visual DNA strand of our gray areas.
Inspiration
New and old journalistic photographs mostly, as well as cabinet cards and children’s picture books. I was a collector of photography for many years, the likes of Shelby Lee Adams, Mary Ellen Mark, Roger Ballen, and E. J .Bellocq. Seeing real people, real expressions—moments of a hard life captured on peoples faces—is inspirational to me. I try hard to make my work seem like a captured moment in time.
Vintage photographs
I scour Ebay and local flea markets for vintage photographs. They are a great
resource for era clothing and furniture. I’ll often combine elements of four or
five cabinet cards to create a piece. I’ll use a kid’s face from one picture, legs and shoes from another, a fun wicker chair from a third.Humor and Tragedy
For some reason, and I’m sure there is a scientific explanation for this somewhere out there, but the act of associating something virtuous with something ghastly becomes funny. I think the whole basis of all my artwork rests on one concept: a child dropping his ice cream cone on the ground. Or alternately, a child getting his or her balloon popped. It’s about the moment of realization followed by the deluge of tears. It’s funny and heartbreaking and funny all over again, and it just keeps on going in a circle. I take that concept and just stretch it to the max.
At the same time, I try hard to get my point across without being too overbearing or gratuitous. Any violence that has occurred has happened off stage, or it’s just about to happen. I try to never show anything gruesome or hard to look at. Am I a humorist who can draw or an artist who is funny? I don’t know. But at the end of the day, I know I want the viewer to keep being drawn back in.
Narratives of children
People pay attention more when you use children as your subject. If I used adults in my work, I think the message would be lost because we expect adults to do bad things—we see it everyday and are immune to it. If something bad were to happen to a full grown man in one of my pieces, it just wouldn’t have the same impact. But the idea of a little tyke having diabolical notions, or finding themselves in impending doom, makes people take notice and react.
Women Attracted to Wicked Art
I get a lot of email from women thanking me for not being afraid to do things that are considered
"just wrong." They think my pieces are deliciously wicked. I believe many of them see the work as a release of the binds of motherhood. Their whole lives are about their babies. Even when they are angry with them and want to lash out, they can’t because society says they have to tolerate their children and love them unconditionally. Perhaps it feels good for them to take a moment and enjoy the guilty pleasure in seeing something wicked happen to these little kids, to grow a satisfied smile on their faces and laugh at something that would be unacceptable off-canvas.Drawing Children
For years, I’ve been infatuated with the idea of little kids in peril. When Stanly Burns put out a book of post mortem photography, chock full of deceased infants posing in from of the camera, I found it absolutely chilling. That’s when I knew children were the key to the type of art I wanted to delve into. I’ve drawn since I was a kid, and over the years I’ve filled sketchbook after sketchbook with ink drawings—all of them weird, all of them humorous. For a while I was doing things with Hallmark baby cards, twisting them around a little, but when I got older I wound up here. I feel like I finally have an audience for the type of work that inspires me. I hope to put out more of these strangely delightful works.
Unique Frames
I find some on Ebay and some at the Chelsea flea markets, and I also go to this neat little place in Buffalo, New York. I pop in a couple times a year and clean the guy out! This is the first time, however, that I had some of the frames custom-made. I wanted all of the Phobias to look exactly the same frame-wise.
Fine Artist or Illustrator?
Although my work has elements of illustration, I see it mostly as fine art. I feel like the
the fine art world has yet to really recognize artists that drift in from the illustration world. There are only a few, like Marcel Dzama and Joe Beil, who are considered to be fine artists. I see my work in their realm, but only time will tell.Upcoming projects, shows, themes
I want to do some work involving mentally challenged children as my subjects, the way Diane Arbus did. I would like to portray them in a different way than they are usually viewed. But it’s a fine line to cross and I don’t want to upset people, so I’ve been keeping that project on the back burner. Since I’m half Armenian, I’ve always been fascinated by the quiet disregard for the genocide they incurred. I thought it would be interesting to comment on that, once again using children as my subjects.
