 This England based artist had his first U.S. solo show @BLK/MRKT in 2007 and sold it out. We've been meaning to interview him for awhile.
Ian Francis was born in 1979 in Bristol, England, and graduated from the University of the West of England with a degree in Illustration. His work concentrates on the particulars of modern experiences things like television, world events, celebrities, and day-to-day living. He held his first US solo show at BLK/MRKT in 2007.
Describe your process of creating a new piece.
I spend a lot of time watching TV/films, reading books and looking around the internet... I save loads of photos I find interesting from all kinds of different places. I then flick through them, and try to think about how ideas link together, and mock up roughs in photoshop. I like combining different elements of photos of people with abstract sections of old paintings I've done. Once I've got an idea of what I want to do, I try and figure out how to paint it... sometimes the final piece looks a lot like the rough, sometimes it changes drastically while I'm painting it. When I'm painting, I just switch back and forth between paint, drawing, collage or anything lying around.
How would you describe your style?
I normally describe what I do as mixed media painting... the idea is to get different kinds of marks to work off of each other - so sometimes I'll paint/draw fairly accurately, then work quite loosely on a section, then break up elements of print on another section. At the moment I think a lot of the painting I do is too tight, it should really be looser and more expressive.
What brought you to Bristol?
I've lived in Bristol all my life... sometimes I'm tempted to move to London or abroad, but I'm happy here for now.
What do you love most about it?
It's really compact... there's a lot of different bars/clubs within walking distance, which I appreciate a lot more now having been to LA a few times. The people are pretty cool. There's a lot of old Georgian buildings which I really like too, I'm moving here in the next few weeks.
If I came out for a visit what would we do/ where would you take me?
I'd rely on my friends to come up with interesting things to do, because I've been working a lot lately so I'm pretty boring right now (or, always)... it'd probably involve getting very drunk and going to a club to see a genre of music that ends in 'core'.
What are you really excited about right now?
Lost season 4, going to All Tomorrow's Parties to see Portishead and various other people, and hopefully having a bit more time to work on some paintings for a show next year... there's some ideas that I'd really like to get down on canvas.
When are you the most productive?
Usually at night, although my schedule's pretty random... I do artwork pretty much every day, but it can be anything from less than an hour to about 10 hours.
Favorite place traveled?
Probably Barcelona, although I really like London sometimes
Music?
The last few weeks I've been listening to Scout Niblett, Crippled Black Phoenix, Health, Japanther, Thurston Moore, White Rabbits, Radiohead's new album, the Inland Empire soundtrack and a weird album of Reiko Ike's.
What were you like in high school?
Awkward & geeky, with bad hair. The bad hair continued long into my 20s until I just got fed up and shaved it off.
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