Devin Finch.....
If you know Devin Finch then you know how great this interview went. enjoy! Devin would have wanted you to enjoy it.
Devin Finch: I fucked around all the time as a little kid, mostly copying Sonic the Hedgehog comics and Dragonball Z screenshots. I remember drawing a really shitty 'sketch' of a giant pair of titties when I was around 6. And in classic little kid fashion, it was just two big circles with two smaller circles inside. My aunt walked in on me drawing the shitty titties with her new boyfriend and started questioning me on what the fuck I was drawing. I panicked and quickly drew the shittiest, malformed rectangle on top of the titties and claimed it was a Monster Truck poster for my new Monster Truck Club. Nothing's changed really.
C&I: Who are your influences ?
DF: Lisa Frank. Garbage Pail Kids. Elliot's closet in E.T. 70's mech-heavy anime. Cute girls in 90s porn. Buzz's storage chest in Home Alone. Playboy cartoons from the 50's and 60's. Horror comics from the 50's (Tales From the Crypt and shit like that.) Old Hannah Barbera off-model toy packaging. The shows Peep Show and Larry Sanders. The Banana Splits.
C&I: What's one of your favorite subjects to draw ?
DF: Pictures of cute girls that look like they were printed on old comics then dropped in a puddle.
C&I: What medium do you mainly use ?
DF : Different colored pencils, one mechanical pencil and sometimes a shitty ball-point pen. Then tons of Photoshop rainbow explosions melted on top.
C&I:What keeps you up at night ?
DF: Drinking box wine and watching porn obsessively. Or depending on if I'm in a relationship or not, waiting till my girlfriend falls asleep so I can check her texts and find out she's cheating. Then masturbating again.
For more info on DEVIN FINCH go to ..... http://www.devinfinch.com/
Tra Slaughter ............ I had the chance to work this the gentleman, when I curated a show called the Mix, which is an annual show that a friend named,Tito Fabian and myself organize.
Cowboys and Indians : How early in your life did you start making art ?
Tra Slaughter: I remember 2nd grade, coloring with my teacher's assistant. We'd be assigned to color different words or pictures, and the T.A. would also color with us. The student that did the best job was awarded the T.A. colored piece... needless to say, I had quite the collection of her work! I also remember watching cartoon early Saturday mornings and drawing / coloring my favorite characters. Oh, and who (showing my age here) can forget "Picture Pages" with Bill Cosby. That was awesome!
C&I: Who are your influences ?
TS: My favorite artist at the moment is Charlie Isoe. Fantastic work. My girlfriend recently purchased one of his pieces for me, and it hangs in my studio. I look at it daily / nightly and truly inspires me. There are quite a few artists that inspire / influence me but, I'm also mostly influenced by just everyday life and the people that I encounter during my day-to-day.
C&I: What's one of your favorite subjects to draw ?
TS: My favorite subject to draw is people, and specifically faces. Faces of all types. I love the stories that a face can tell without saying a word. When I'm working on a painting of someone, it's as if I'm in a conversation with them, but a silent conversation. My favorite kind.
C&I: What medium do you mainly use ?
TS: I mostly work in acrylic, but I'm also a big fan of Oil Sticks. Graphite, Oil Pastels, and house paint are some mediums that I keep handy as well. Pretty much anything that will make a mark works for me.
C&I:What keeps you up at night ?
TS: The fact that I have to wake up early for work keeps me up... nah, seriously, odd dreams that I just can't seem to remember keeps me up. You know, you wake up out of a dream, and most people can vividly remember theirs... well, as soon as I'm awake, the dream / memory of that dream just vanishes. It's like the colors just running down the drain in a pool of water. It's actually very frustrating, as dreams are the true exploration of self, and yet, I can't seem to keep the light on.
Kristopher Kotcher
Is an Artist that I met in Austin,Texas. Kris and a friend of mine Adrian Landon Brooks (I will interview him in the next post of Still Playing Cowboys and Indians) were painting a mural on the side of this bikini shop called Eastside Bikinis. We sit down at a cafe down the streets and I ask the questions I ask every time I meet an new artist. This what he had to say.........
C&I; How early in your life did you start making art ?
Kristopher Kotcher :Well the earliest I can remember is in Kindergarden but maybe even before then. But when I was in Kindergarden I got in trouble for something and as a punishment I wasnt aloud to do Art hour or whatever and I got really upset and went to the other side of the class room and was crying. My Teacher Miss Thomas came over and felt bad so she let me go back and make art. It was my favorite part of the day. I still cry if someone try to take my art supplies away. Im a big baby. Boo hoo. C&I :Who are your influences ?
KK: Well from a young age I was really influenced by the books I would read as a kid. I would always try to copy the drawings and that is really a lot of how I learned how to draw. I loved Shel Silverstein and Dr. Seuss. My work is built off that child like imagination. I gain inspiration from other Artists as well. Ed Templeton, R. Crumb, Jack Teagle, Margaret Kilgallen, and Jon Boam are just a few Artists whos work really inspires me. I am also really inspired by Architecture especially European. I always look at pictures of different Houses to gain influence on how I draw them. Really influences come from all over. Just life.
C&I: What's one of your favorite subjects to draw ?
KK: I really enjoy thinking up new characters to draw. With my work I kind of have slowly over the years been building this little world all my own. With all kinds of different monsters, humanoid characters, little bird people, fish, Its fun to just keep expanding. I also really enjoy painting landscapes and villages.
C&I:What medium do you mainly use ?
KK: Well when I paint I use Gouache, Watercolor, and ink. But I also have been doing a lot of Sculpture work where I use plaster strips, felt, Antlers, and whatever else I find handy to make sculptures of my characters.
C&I: What keeps you up at night ?
KK:Well I used to have this problem where I had no patience and I had to finish a painting in one sitting and I didnt care if it kept me up all night long. I am kind of an obsessive person like that. I would stay up until my eyes couldnt stay open anymore. Luckily I have gotten a lot better about it. I spend alot more time on my work and being patient has helped me grow as an artist. I still do stay up late a lot working on stuff though. Its pretty much all I think about all the time. Its borderline unhealthy. Luckily I have a very understanding and supportive wife. Cause I do not think most would. I love her for that. Art and creating is my passion in life its like breathing.
find more of Kristopher Kotcher's work at
www.frenemylife.com
2. Music
J.Gangelhoff (Houston,Texas) Joe Gangelhoff is a person I have known for along time, but recently got to know a different side of Joe, the creative side, a look into a quite life of excited thoughts of a young man's mind. Since I hate describing what music sounds like, why don't you go a head and listen. See what words you can come up with.
Latest tracks by /oeyjoey/joey
Shakey Graves (Austin,Texas) During Free Music week in Austin, Texas, I was introduced to a young man that goes by the name Shakey Graves. Walking in right before his set started a friend suggested we squeeze to the front. "I am down" I reply, little did I know I was about to be watch one of the best Singer/Songwriter acts in Austin,Texas. Armed with a small acoustic guitar, a kick drum (which he used to the keep the beat with his left foot) and a voice that you wouldn't expect a tall skinny white boy to have. He had the girls smitten after the first song.
3.Literature
This Dude Thinks He’s Jesus
by Mills McCoin (Houston,Texas)
I was practicing my short game in Omar’s front yard when he walked out to complain about the noise. Tim was drawing pictures and keeping bar from his lawn chair situated next to the record player but safely behind the tee box. He was serving Bloody Mary’s on this particular Saturday morning in July.
I chipped another ball. Omar grabbed my nine iron with anger and expletives asking that I no longer hit golf balls at his bay window. I grabbed his shoulder and said, “Hey, man... this dude thinks he’s Jesus.”
Omar was stunned, so Tim threw a paper airplane from behind the bar and hit him square in the belly. He unfolded the airplane and found a ticket to Benny Hinn’s Holy Spirit Miracle Service. He looked up at me with the joy of a boy trippin’ on Christmas. Tim cued up the record player to Paul Simon’s “Me and Julio Down by the School Yard” and thoughts of good old-fashioned trouble poured over Omar’s brain.
We ran around the yard like children until the song ended; then jumped in the car and headed to Rudyard’s to brief over beer and burgers. Omar was familiar with this crazy bastard, but I had done some “research” and felt the need to share. So I began to regale the mythology of Benny the Hinn.
Toufik Benedictus “Benny” Hinn is a smarmy mad man laying claim to special powers of healing given to him by God (specifically, the one from the Bible). He moved to Orlando and founded his first church in 1983, the Orlando Christian Center... which means that the arrogance of Benny the Hinn carried him so far as to open shop on Walt Disney’s turf. Normally, the idea of someone trying to compete against Walt Disney in a contest of “who’s got a bigger imagination” seems silly and predictable.
But back to Benny and his jet. The alarming success of his “healing services” has allowed Benny to relocate to Southern California’s Orange County with his family and television show, which is called “This Is Your Day.” The name of the show never changes. It’s always YOUR day.
Benny Hinn lives lavishly in his ten million dollar home and flies around to his various “miracle crusades” on his jet (I wasn’t just making a pun earlier- he actually has a jet that costs nearly $200,000 per month to operate). And he doesn’t just go to the local pentecostal church downtown. Noooooooooo. No way. There’s no money in that. This dude fills stadiums with people. And these “people” are either skeptics (like Omar and myself) or they believe he is actually a circus freak with magical powers. And on this day, Benny’s Traveling Bullshit Show was at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.
We parked downtown two hours before the show started and left Tim sitting on the hood of the car- drawing, of course (he was our getaway driver if it came to that). We walked into the Toyota Center and Omar’s head began to change colors as he tried to take in all of the information from his new environment at once, like a child.
As expected, it was crowded; and it didn’t take long for me to get separated from Omar. I knew he would show up later though, so I wasn’t worried. I continued walking about by myself trying my best not to participate in the madness but failing beautifully. The scene was surreal. It was, in fact, a circus. When was the last time you went to church and the concession stands were open? Popcorn, peanuts, hot dogs, nachos- the usual suspects, but draft beer was not available. I was heart broken, mildly. Alcohol and miracles are not a rare pairing.
There was a table near the entrance where old women with blue hair were loudly selling books (no Bibles though) and other merchandise used to brainwash the obviously weak. Amongst the propaganda was a DVD that assured me if I believed in God (again, specifically the one from the Bible) and did whatever the DVD commanded me to- then my FINANCIAL CRISIS WOULD GO AWAY. I knew then that I was dealing with liars. Familiar foes of mine. And oftentimes, not foes at all.
In any case, I left the table and went to look for a seat before any of the old ladies could trap me with the magic they were hiding in their humongous hair. I found a spot halfway up, between a middle aged black woman who was already weeping and a middle aged Mexican woman sitting with her children who were eating cotton candy. I felt very cynical and caucasian.
The arena air smelled like a thousand different perfumes battling it out to see which one can remind me of church the most. Occasionally though, a pocket of stadium beer stench wafted into my vicinity and I would be reminded that our city’s NBA team plays in the very building where Benny Hinn was about to commit egregious fraud.
The service began with songs being sung by a patchwork choir-for-hire (Benny Hinn doesn’t have his own choir because that would require him to pay people money- so he works the sympathy gig and gets the voices for free from different churches around whatever town he’s flown to on his jet). All of a sudden, Benny Hinn appeared in front of the pulpit on the stage. I had no idea what was going on until I saw him. I didn’t understand the mechanics of his show... until I saw him. He was clad head to toe in white- like a klansman almost. Sporting tannish ostrich skin dress slippers with his white cruise director suit... I won’t lie, he looked godly. On his left was the music and on his right was a bullpen of pastors and other minions dressed in dark suits. Behind Benny was the choir. Earlier, when I said it was a circus- it got circus-ier.
The first act was an eleven year old girl that Benny called out of the audience to the stage. She looked like Rudy from The Cosby Show. Rudy proceeded to sing a song like a miniature Whitney Houston strung out on electric cocaine. It was pretty miraculous.
The next act was a heart-warming lesson from Benny on how to dodge the IRS. He actually talked about it. I was shocked. With his forked tongue, Benny said that all inquiries into his ministry had been concluded and he’s cleared to continue stealing people’s money.
The third act was a music/salvation combo. The music was wondrous and probably scored by Andrew Lloyd Webber or whoever does work for Jerry Bruckheimer. Benny climbed back to the top of his mountain and asked that everyone who had been “saved” by that point- stand up. Omar magically reappeared on the floor, five or six rows from the front!
Omar was the first to stand up then hundreds of others scattered across the Toyota Center followed suit. Benny applauded their salvation and commanded them to come to the front of the stage so that he might bless them- closer. Omar ran up to the stage like he was going to sit in Santa’s lap. Everyone stood silently during the blessing of “the new people”; all except Omar, who was wiggling like a puppy dog. After the blessing, I made eye contact with him and he joined me up in the cheap seats.
Then it was time for the wallets and checkbooks to come out and vomit forth revenue into the belly of Benny the Hinn. Buckets were passed around to collect all of the booty. I didn’t donate but Omar scribbled, “You are a fraud,” on the back of his business card and dropped it in the bucket with hopes of a free lunch. Benny continued to preach words that encouraged people to donate and assured them that they would get something back- someday. For crying out loud (which is what a lot of people were doing at the time), he wasn’t even being Karl Rove about it. He laid out his evil right in front of us... and people bought it. He hadn’t even performed a miracle yet!
But then he did- and that’s when the shit hit the private jet engine.
After the buckets were collected, Benny’s enthusiasm took a turn for the violent. His speech got darker and more condemning. Over and over again, he repeated exact phrases as if to cast a spell upon us. Then without warning, Benny screamed at the minions like a dirty old pirate, “Fire on YA!” and they all fell back into their chairs or to the ground. He did this several times while yelling and carrying on like a professional wrestler on pay per view.
And that was it- that was the “miracle”. After six hours, he “healed” what was essentially his entourage. You can’t “heal” people that work for you and call it a miracle. That’s flagrant. And the biggest surprise of all was that nobody asked for their money back. That’s what disturbed me the most. It wasn’t Benny Hinn that bothered me; it was the fools perpetuating his fraud. Benny Hinn simply manipulates people’s vulnerabilities for profit. He’s not the only one, so I can’t throw stones. But the people that “contribute to his cause”- those are the vipers. They are the ones aiding and abetting this con artist; and getting nothing in return but more lies.
If you ever see a man dressed in white with Bibles in his hands and dollar signs in his eyes- he ain’t Jesus.
