q&a with michael hsiung.

i'm not sure where i first saw michael hsiung's work. it was over the past year or so. however, i do remember distinctly how quickly mesmerized i was by his monochromatic color scheme and humor. i really enjoy the nautical debauchery and pillaging that goes on within michael's work. i'm not normally a big fan of violence, but i was instantly overjoyed by the scenes michael creates. he draws them so well, making the mayhem almost delightful. plus his subject matter which includes narwhals, mermen, teddy bears, and centaurs is just the bee's knees.

michael recently answered some q's i had for him about his drawings, inspirations, hitler, horns and why unicorns and narwhals are so radical. i hope you like it, i laughed out loud. michael is incredibly funny, which clearly comes over in his work. this is one description from a drawing on his website: "there is no knowing what a stretch of love and beauty the human mind is capable of contemplating while it is sitting upon a baby angora unicorn." to enjoy more of his humor check out his flickr page and blog. both insanely entertaining. my favorite, for sure.

your work has a bit of an old timey flair to it. has it always been that way?

i think a lot of my early stuff wasn't so old-timey. it was just animals fighting each other, armless guy doing stuff, unicorns and hitler. an odd group. i think it started with the mermen really.

why do you think old timey is such a great description?

old-timey is such a great description because it sort of captures the ambiguity of all periods somewhere from the 1950's to the 1800's. and that's huge... it's like anything from a top hat to the locomotive. you know, i recently had my birthday themed old-timey and my sister said she'd come as a cave woman.  see, i guess that's also kind of old-timey too.

i saw on your flickr page you had a photo of a woman in a carriage w/ a crocodile pulling it like a horse it was titled 'drawing inspiration'. what are some of your other inspirations?

dungeons & dragons 2nd edition of course, gary gygax, the book on the whaleship essex, olaus magnus the mapmaker, john ashton, fantastical creatures in general, the zoo, xanadu... but often times I'll find myself thinking of "ice skating" or something and then after i do some searching about it - i'll find amazing old pictures that sort of will inspire me to do something. did i say grace jones? well, she does. i also love romance novels.

many of your drawings have animals that seem to be hybrids of other animals. can you talk a little bit about these horned furry creatures.

i think my hybrid animals are mainly my failed attempt to actually draw real animals. somehow me drawing a wooly mammoth turns into a giant beaver. sometimes i draw shapes and they turn into half beaver, half bears. as far as those little fluffy baby angora unicorns - i think i was trying to draw rabbits! 

speaking of horns, let's talk about how great unicorns and narwhals are. you go first.

 

unicorns and narwhal are definitely magical. i have several printed pages from the "internet" on them. where do I begin? in john ashton's curious creatures he's got a compilation of descriptions given throughout time. there are these great descriptions of how unicorn horn's possessed healing powers or how they have been seen to jump off cliffs (and land on their horns) to avoid danger. i've illustrated that remarkable feat somewhere. and there's a natural link between narwhals and unicorns of course. sailors were using narwhal horns as proof that unicorns existed. there are several things i love about narwhals. first, that their name derives from Norse "corpse" which was given to them due to their coloration and fondness for swimming upside down. how the horns are one large tooth? how we had one in captivity and it couldn't survive? god, and the fact the males rule their horns together? the list goes on and on.

funny how this will be my longest response of the whole interview, huh. okay, you're turn!

you have a great sense of humor that translates into your work, have you ever worked on serious pieces?

somehow the serious pieces turn into humorous pieces no matter what i do. perhaps it's a curse.  occasionally i do illustrations for LA Record, a newspaper magazine here in LA, that require me to draw actual musicians.  those are generally pretty serious despite the fact one musician i drew ended up looking like corey feldman.

i love your mermen drawings. what is it about mermen that you love?

i find the mermen totally repulsive in their excessive drinking, debauchery, and obvious lack of respect for their bodies. they wear too many accessories and are often times making a ruckus. i ask you why are the mermaids always with sailors? because the mermen are drunks. ha.

hitler seems to be cropping up lately in your work. have you gotten any flack for that?

funny thing is, or rather perhaps not so funny thing is that the hitler drawings were done early sometime in 2006. a while back, i had read William Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich and always imagined how hitler was like as a failed artist. i imagined him drawing unicorns and castles and then failing miserably at music and dance even. i don't know i guess i was trying to figure out what turned that guy. anyhow, i haven't had too much "flack" i just tell them it's Charlie Chaplin.

i was approached last year about doing skateboarding graphics for the company enjoi. they wanted, you know, a merman, some narwhals, but also a hitler graphic. i was a bit nervous doing it so i made the character more chaplin-esque, gave hitler a four o'clock shadow, and put him in a warm coat. the board is being sold as "the man petting bear" board. 

what are you working on right now? what's coming up for you?

well, right now i should be working on more and more drawings, an album cover design for henry clay people, and a logo for unhee clothing, but i'm sitting here at work pretending.

i've got an upcoming show july 11 called crazians at the world of wonder which puts together crazy asian artists(i think I might be more crazy than asian), then the suggestion box group show at GR2 july 19, and finally september 19 a group show at barnsdall art park, los angeles where I'm doing a mural? really? shit. oh yeah, i'll have some stuff up in NY october 2008 at gallery hanahou for spread the lead show.  this is all making me panic.

Comments

[L.A. RECORD]

michael rules. moris tepper tortoises forever!

[club narwhal]

this is amazing (not purely because of the narwhal reference, though that was awesome, too)! i had to post that little snippet on my blog and i hope you don't mind. if so just let me know and i'll take it down! anyway, i read your blog every morning and it makes me so, so happy. thanks!

[carol es]

michael is so cool. i did an interview with him on spymart (spymart.org) last year. LOVE his work. :)

[adam c.]

i really like that quiet life tshirt you posted and when i saw it just now, i tried to go buy and they are out of my size. but thanks for showing it to me and for posting all this rad art stuff. take care,

[Streets of Paris]

Quite unique, very impressive :)

[Heidi]

His sense of humour translates well through his work, fantastic OLD-TIMEY drawings hehe :)