G. S. Carnivals
04-08-2009, 04:35 AM
TLO Member Interview: Aeron
Conducted by Phillip Stecco
Aeron Alfrey is a visual artist of the highest order. His works are dense, grotesque, and rich in the imagery of nightmares. Alfreyesque images have complemented a few books. It is rumored that Mr. Alfrey lives in a cave in the American midwest.
1) How did you first encounter the work of Thomas Ligotti?
Sometime in 1996 I was browsing the horror section at a Borders bookstore and stumbled across The Nightmare Factory and have been a great fan of Ligotti ever since.
2) What are some of your favorite works by Mr. Ligotti?
"The Tsalal", "Gas Station Carnivals", "The Strange Design of Master Rignolo", to name a few.
I can't recall the name of the story, the plot involved the place one goes to purchase nightmares like buying the pleasure of a prostitute? There was a scene involving a monkey wielding knives that has stuck with me for years that I found really disturbing.
Another story that sticks out in my mind, the name of which escapes me, involved the house with the dolls or mannequins in the windows.
3) What other writers do you enjoy reading?
To be honest I haven't finished a full novel in a long time. I'm still working on Clive Barker's Abarat 2 at the moment. I can say that Thomas Ligotti, Clive Barker and H.P. Lovecraft are the most influential writers for me. I've had the pleasure of meeting Clive on a few occasions, he's a very nice person. I have great respect for the amount of work he is juggling at any given moment. I'm looking forward to his Scarlet Gospels novel, the book that is to fully explore his unique mythology of Hell.
I also enjoy reading William S. Burroughs, Joe R. Lansdale, Clark Ashton Smith, J.G. Ballard and Ray Bradbury, who I had the pleasure of seeing at Butler University along with Douglas Adams. This was about 5 months before Adams died and I was very fortunate to see him on stage reciting some of his stories and discussing his creative process. It's strange, at the time everyone was thinking how it would probably be the last chance to see Ray Bradbury, given how old he was at the time. But here we are almost ten years later and we still have Ray but Douglas went so soon after.
Some authors I really need to get around to reading are L. Frank Baum, Lewis Carroll, Robert E. Howard's original Conan The Barbarian stories, Wayne Barlowe's God's Demon and countless other novels on my giant list of things to read before I die.
4) Did you formally study Art?
Yes, I attended the Herron School of Art in Indianapolis. I was focused on art history, painting, sculpture, traditional print making technique as in etching, lithography. I miss the process of stone lithography! I became disenchanted with art school at the end of my junior year, largely due to my inability to relate to anyone else about the kind of art I was interested in, and quit.
5) Which artists have most influenced your own work?
Hieronymus Bosch, Gustave Dore, Joel Peter Witkin, Pieter Brughel the Elder and Younger, Jacques Callot, Sidney Sime, Francisco Goya, Odilon Redon, Ian Miller, Alfred Kubin. One of the biggest disappointments of my life was the murder of Zdzislaw Beksinski. Apart from being one of my favorite contemporary artists I had a great desire to collaborate with him. He had recently taken on the digital medium and I assure you, had those bastard children not killed him in his home, he and I would have made incredible art together. I intend to honor his memory with a vast epic artwork but that won't be for some time yet.
I saw Alessandro Bavari's Sodom and Gomorrah series at the Echo Gallery in Chicago around 2001 or 2002? It completely changed my mind about what was possible in digital printing and art making.
6) Do you have any favorite singers or musicians?
I listen to hundreds of bands on any given week but to name a few... Massive Attack, Junior Boys, The Residents, Hot Chip, The Scientists, The Knife, The Raveonettes, Bent, I Monster, Boards of Canada, Felix Da Housecat, Coil, Tricky, Danzig, Eazy E, Electric Light Orchestra, The Sleepy Jacksons...
7) What are some of your favorite movies?
Anything by Karl Zeman, Wladyslaw Starewicz, Jan Svankmajer, The Quay Brothers, Hammer Films, weird Russian fantasy flicks from the 60's, Lucio Fulci, Dario Argento, Vincent Price, Bruce Bickford, Guillermo Del Toro, René Laloux, cheesy monster flicks, L'Inferno (1911) by Francesco Bertolini, The Night Of The Hunter, Vasilisa the Beautiful, The Secret Adventures Of Tom Thumb, etc.
8) Do you watch television?
I'm a big fan of older Dr. Who episodes, anything MST3K, Kids in the Hall, old black and white episodes of Outer Limits, just about any crime or forensic documentary.
As far as current television, I love Superjail. It's an animated show that airs on Adult Swim... You cannot escape the time police! Here's a good clip from the show. YouTube - SuperJail Psychedelic Clip
9) What do you enjoy eating?
Sushi, Chinese, Thai, just about anything spicy, baby back ribs. I'm really curious about eating at one of those Asian restaurants that serves live fish partially cooked.
10) Do you have any odd hobbies or collecting fetishes?
I used to collect dead things. It started with a pet black cat named Mookie, she liked to bring dead things into the backyard, usually bats. She was very good at catching bats. So I started a dead bat collection in a shoe box to use in some sort of artwork at a later time. I kept the box in the basement of my old house and I'll bet it's still there; I should sneak in there sometime and find out! One time I drove past a dead deer in the country and knew I had to have it. So I came back later with black garbage bags and a cardboard box. I scooped the remains together and left them in the back of a building for a month or more. I made the mistake of getting the remains out before the process of rot had finished. I ended up with the rancid skeletal remains with bits of flesh and fur on a floor and a vast flood of maggots squirming in every direction, an army of white worms. I ended up hosing down everything and throwing it all away but I went for years where I'd save any half mummified dead thing I could get my hands on. I never did get around to making any sculptures out of the parts either.
11) What recreational activities do you enjoy?
Alcohol, long walks and videogames.
12) So many of our lives are filled with the day-to-day anxiety of existence. Have you personally discovered any ways to relieve stress?
Making art.
13) Life?
See my art.
14) Death?
See my art.
15) Work?
Heh, see my art.
16) Do you have any interesting work anecdotes to relate?
In the summer of 2003, in a bout of extreme depression over a lot of bad things that had happened to me at the time, I opened up photoshop and started messing around. Previous to this I had never made any serious digital artworks. In the room I was in there was a strange infestation of moths. There must have been 2 dozen moths flying around the computer screen, the ceiling, everywhere. But that sank into my mind and I discovered a vast fantasy world that I immediately labeled "The Land of the Moth" where dead things live and a moth is God.
17) What is your earliest childhood memory?
Not wanting to get out of my parent's Volkswagen and my mother telling me she was going to leave me in the car if I didn't come inside right then, and running into the house. I must have been around 2 or 3.
18) What is your fondest childhood memory?
My parents taking me and my two younger brothers to see Return of the Jedi on opening night. I was born in '78 so I must have been around 5? There were dozens of people dressed up as various Star Wars characters, Darth Vader, storm troopers, etc. It was awesome.
19) Do you have a special plan for this world?
"The Land of the Moth" will eventually be a giant adult illustrated story book. I'm also working on (very slowly as any of my artist friends will tell you!) a hand drawn fantasy book, currently titled "Hob Bob" which involves a magician who is decapitated and must go on crazy adventures in search of his head, all the while his mad twin magician brother, Zob Bob, attempts to destroy the world. That won't be done for many years though.
I'm currently working on a giant illustration of a scene from Stephen King's "The Mist" to be published later this year. And I have 4 demon portraits that will be published in the UK in a book of demon portraits interpreted by various artists.
I have one very special project underway that I will be putting everything on hold for to focus entirely on sometime in March. If all goes to plan I'll have an entire book finished sometime next year.
20) What else should we know about you?
My artwork, as presented here, had the honor of winning an International Horror Guild Award the other year.
I recently did some work for a band called Unholy. On the album art will be a quote from Mr. Ligotti that will be presented over my artwork.
And some people here are aware of an artwork I've had in the works for several years, an adaptation of Ligotti's "Teatro Grottesco" which I've invested a great amount of time into. What has happened since has been my developing a much more advanced understanding of photoshop and effectively changing my visual style. So, instead of finishing the older version of the work, I want to remake it to look as good as I can possibly make it. The original was only designed to work as a 13 x 19 inch print anyway. The updated version will be able to print much larger. I am very caught up with many projects, as previously mentioned, but that image is still very much on my mind.
I also have a very cool blog where I share my favorite artists and monsters at MONSTER BRAINS (http://www.monsterbrains.blogspot.com/)
See more of my art at The Mutated Skeleton Cave (http://www.skeletoncave.blogspot.com/)
Conducted by Phillip Stecco
Aeron Alfrey is a visual artist of the highest order. His works are dense, grotesque, and rich in the imagery of nightmares. Alfreyesque images have complemented a few books. It is rumored that Mr. Alfrey lives in a cave in the American midwest.
1) How did you first encounter the work of Thomas Ligotti?
Sometime in 1996 I was browsing the horror section at a Borders bookstore and stumbled across The Nightmare Factory and have been a great fan of Ligotti ever since.
2) What are some of your favorite works by Mr. Ligotti?
"The Tsalal", "Gas Station Carnivals", "The Strange Design of Master Rignolo", to name a few.
I can't recall the name of the story, the plot involved the place one goes to purchase nightmares like buying the pleasure of a prostitute? There was a scene involving a monkey wielding knives that has stuck with me for years that I found really disturbing.
Another story that sticks out in my mind, the name of which escapes me, involved the house with the dolls or mannequins in the windows.
3) What other writers do you enjoy reading?
To be honest I haven't finished a full novel in a long time. I'm still working on Clive Barker's Abarat 2 at the moment. I can say that Thomas Ligotti, Clive Barker and H.P. Lovecraft are the most influential writers for me. I've had the pleasure of meeting Clive on a few occasions, he's a very nice person. I have great respect for the amount of work he is juggling at any given moment. I'm looking forward to his Scarlet Gospels novel, the book that is to fully explore his unique mythology of Hell.
I also enjoy reading William S. Burroughs, Joe R. Lansdale, Clark Ashton Smith, J.G. Ballard and Ray Bradbury, who I had the pleasure of seeing at Butler University along with Douglas Adams. This was about 5 months before Adams died and I was very fortunate to see him on stage reciting some of his stories and discussing his creative process. It's strange, at the time everyone was thinking how it would probably be the last chance to see Ray Bradbury, given how old he was at the time. But here we are almost ten years later and we still have Ray but Douglas went so soon after.
Some authors I really need to get around to reading are L. Frank Baum, Lewis Carroll, Robert E. Howard's original Conan The Barbarian stories, Wayne Barlowe's God's Demon and countless other novels on my giant list of things to read before I die.
4) Did you formally study Art?
Yes, I attended the Herron School of Art in Indianapolis. I was focused on art history, painting, sculpture, traditional print making technique as in etching, lithography. I miss the process of stone lithography! I became disenchanted with art school at the end of my junior year, largely due to my inability to relate to anyone else about the kind of art I was interested in, and quit.
5) Which artists have most influenced your own work?
Hieronymus Bosch, Gustave Dore, Joel Peter Witkin, Pieter Brughel the Elder and Younger, Jacques Callot, Sidney Sime, Francisco Goya, Odilon Redon, Ian Miller, Alfred Kubin. One of the biggest disappointments of my life was the murder of Zdzislaw Beksinski. Apart from being one of my favorite contemporary artists I had a great desire to collaborate with him. He had recently taken on the digital medium and I assure you, had those bastard children not killed him in his home, he and I would have made incredible art together. I intend to honor his memory with a vast epic artwork but that won't be for some time yet.
I saw Alessandro Bavari's Sodom and Gomorrah series at the Echo Gallery in Chicago around 2001 or 2002? It completely changed my mind about what was possible in digital printing and art making.
6) Do you have any favorite singers or musicians?
I listen to hundreds of bands on any given week but to name a few... Massive Attack, Junior Boys, The Residents, Hot Chip, The Scientists, The Knife, The Raveonettes, Bent, I Monster, Boards of Canada, Felix Da Housecat, Coil, Tricky, Danzig, Eazy E, Electric Light Orchestra, The Sleepy Jacksons...
7) What are some of your favorite movies?
Anything by Karl Zeman, Wladyslaw Starewicz, Jan Svankmajer, The Quay Brothers, Hammer Films, weird Russian fantasy flicks from the 60's, Lucio Fulci, Dario Argento, Vincent Price, Bruce Bickford, Guillermo Del Toro, René Laloux, cheesy monster flicks, L'Inferno (1911) by Francesco Bertolini, The Night Of The Hunter, Vasilisa the Beautiful, The Secret Adventures Of Tom Thumb, etc.
8) Do you watch television?
I'm a big fan of older Dr. Who episodes, anything MST3K, Kids in the Hall, old black and white episodes of Outer Limits, just about any crime or forensic documentary.
As far as current television, I love Superjail. It's an animated show that airs on Adult Swim... You cannot escape the time police! Here's a good clip from the show. YouTube - SuperJail Psychedelic Clip
9) What do you enjoy eating?
Sushi, Chinese, Thai, just about anything spicy, baby back ribs. I'm really curious about eating at one of those Asian restaurants that serves live fish partially cooked.
10) Do you have any odd hobbies or collecting fetishes?
I used to collect dead things. It started with a pet black cat named Mookie, she liked to bring dead things into the backyard, usually bats. She was very good at catching bats. So I started a dead bat collection in a shoe box to use in some sort of artwork at a later time. I kept the box in the basement of my old house and I'll bet it's still there; I should sneak in there sometime and find out! One time I drove past a dead deer in the country and knew I had to have it. So I came back later with black garbage bags and a cardboard box. I scooped the remains together and left them in the back of a building for a month or more. I made the mistake of getting the remains out before the process of rot had finished. I ended up with the rancid skeletal remains with bits of flesh and fur on a floor and a vast flood of maggots squirming in every direction, an army of white worms. I ended up hosing down everything and throwing it all away but I went for years where I'd save any half mummified dead thing I could get my hands on. I never did get around to making any sculptures out of the parts either.
11) What recreational activities do you enjoy?
Alcohol, long walks and videogames.
12) So many of our lives are filled with the day-to-day anxiety of existence. Have you personally discovered any ways to relieve stress?
Making art.
13) Life?
See my art.
14) Death?
See my art.
15) Work?
Heh, see my art.
16) Do you have any interesting work anecdotes to relate?
In the summer of 2003, in a bout of extreme depression over a lot of bad things that had happened to me at the time, I opened up photoshop and started messing around. Previous to this I had never made any serious digital artworks. In the room I was in there was a strange infestation of moths. There must have been 2 dozen moths flying around the computer screen, the ceiling, everywhere. But that sank into my mind and I discovered a vast fantasy world that I immediately labeled "The Land of the Moth" where dead things live and a moth is God.
17) What is your earliest childhood memory?
Not wanting to get out of my parent's Volkswagen and my mother telling me she was going to leave me in the car if I didn't come inside right then, and running into the house. I must have been around 2 or 3.
18) What is your fondest childhood memory?
My parents taking me and my two younger brothers to see Return of the Jedi on opening night. I was born in '78 so I must have been around 5? There were dozens of people dressed up as various Star Wars characters, Darth Vader, storm troopers, etc. It was awesome.
19) Do you have a special plan for this world?
"The Land of the Moth" will eventually be a giant adult illustrated story book. I'm also working on (very slowly as any of my artist friends will tell you!) a hand drawn fantasy book, currently titled "Hob Bob" which involves a magician who is decapitated and must go on crazy adventures in search of his head, all the while his mad twin magician brother, Zob Bob, attempts to destroy the world. That won't be done for many years though.
I'm currently working on a giant illustration of a scene from Stephen King's "The Mist" to be published later this year. And I have 4 demon portraits that will be published in the UK in a book of demon portraits interpreted by various artists.
I have one very special project underway that I will be putting everything on hold for to focus entirely on sometime in March. If all goes to plan I'll have an entire book finished sometime next year.
20) What else should we know about you?
My artwork, as presented here, had the honor of winning an International Horror Guild Award the other year.
I recently did some work for a band called Unholy. On the album art will be a quote from Mr. Ligotti that will be presented over my artwork.
And some people here are aware of an artwork I've had in the works for several years, an adaptation of Ligotti's "Teatro Grottesco" which I've invested a great amount of time into. What has happened since has been my developing a much more advanced understanding of photoshop and effectively changing my visual style. So, instead of finishing the older version of the work, I want to remake it to look as good as I can possibly make it. The original was only designed to work as a 13 x 19 inch print anyway. The updated version will be able to print much larger. I am very caught up with many projects, as previously mentioned, but that image is still very much on my mind.
I also have a very cool blog where I share my favorite artists and monsters at MONSTER BRAINS (http://www.monsterbrains.blogspot.com/)
See more of my art at The Mutated Skeleton Cave (http://www.skeletoncave.blogspot.com/)