Youngstown, Ohio - 26 - MLIS from Kent and BA in art history from Youngstown State University - http://www.personal.kent.edu/~asulliv7/

I would say that I make my own world and I give form to my world through my work. It has a lot of forests and seas and there is lawn furniture everywhere and everybody gets sick. Nobody can really communicate but to make convoluted puns. Nobody understands anybody else too well. Visions don't need visionaries, they occur on their own. All of the art that is made is absurd and redundant to look at because everything is already so bewildering, so they try to make jokes instead. There is a very famous book about a man with an upside-down face that nobody has read, but still it is very important to everybody. It is known for a significant quote, "Man created God in His own image." Everybody knows they are in a narrative but that it's somebody else's. Everybody is probably afflicted with Asperger's syndrome, but they probably don't know it because there is nobody who isn't. Everybody is in love with somebody but also nobody is in love with anybody. It is too difficult for everybody, somebody, anybody, and nobody to understand who they are and what "they" means. To wonder about it is very exciting though, and gives existence its meaning.

I am influenced by Robert Gober, Raymond Pettibon, Asian arts, Les Nabis and the Symbolists, Horace Pippin, James Ensor, Albert Pinkham Ryder, Aya Takano, and a comic strip from Japan that is called "Juicy Fruit" I think but I can't read it so I'm not certain [http://juicyfruit.exblog.jp/], among other things I'm sure. Certainly there are thematic influences and ideas from stuff like Celtic Frost, Strawberry Switchblade, Flipper, Burroughs, Momus, Kosuth, conceptual art, language, and art history. Net artists are very inspiring as well but I am not very good at making net art.

Sometimes I imagine something and then I take a few months thinking about it and talking about it and losing sleep over it then falling asleep and dreaming about it, then eventually I sit down and cut out some shapes and make it into a picture. But other times I feel very urgent and then I work closer to a stream of consciousness and make free associations as I draw and cut out shapes and put them together. Some pictures are very indulgent and emotional, some are mysterious things that I can't account for even thinking of, some are jokes, some are questions.

Paper, scissors, blades, UHU Stic, pens and pencils.

I have an idea for a movie called "Party Bird" that I would like to make. It is about a guy who is a dork but he has a pet bird that can talk and is cool and tries to make him become cool so he can get dates. I would like to spend the money on this movie but I think it would be pretty cheap so whatever money is left I would like to use to start an infomercial archives and museum.

There are trees everywhere and old buildings. The aesthetic character is frozen it seems because the industrial infrastructure of the city collapsed in the 70's. I have always liked looking around at things here and there is an absurd kind of depressedness that has probably exerted a lot of its influence on the things I think.

There are two art museums that have had worthwhile exhibits and a few galleries and many theaters and an art department at the college. Still, I am not sure there is anything you would think of as an "art scene," but there are some quite good artists, and some good audiences as well. I think it is detached in many ways and I like that, doesn't everyone want to be an "outsider artist" after all? Maybe not, but I just imagine feeling so defensive and awkward if there were a big social scene and any kind of sexiness attached to making stuff.

I would choose invisibility I think because I would feel very anxious about flying around.

I would like to meet people then we go to some garage sales and buy some VHS movies about spring break or summer vacation and watch them and then talk about stuff and then maybe make some pictures or play music.

In March I have an exhibition at the Bliss Gallery in Youngstown and I would like to do an exhibition in Chicago soon.

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