House of 1817: July 2009

The Psyche of Garrett Perry, a local Minneapolis artisan, has been on my list to explore for some time. He has been a good friend of Minneapolis and 1817 and in the past year his art has been popping up in galleries across the cities. Here is an inside look at Garrett's "Breath of life" (definition of Psyche). Enjoy!

Top 3 favorite electronic devices?
1 my ipod
2 computer(s)
3 my cameraS, Sony Cybershot, Nikon D50, Cannon Rebel 35mm, Some old crappy polaroid camera

Top 4 published written works (ex: book, mag, porn convention brochure.)
1 1984
2 slaughterhouse five
3 brave new worlds
4 The brothers karamazov (1/3 done)

Top 5 reasons why Minneapolis is your home
1 quality of life!
2 actually have real seasons!
3 family & friends
4 dont have enough money to move to new york
5 lakes galore to get my fishing on!

Top 6 ideal money making methods (jobs, schemes, crime)
1 circus promoter
2 traveling encyclopedia salesman
3 Alaskan Crab Fisherman w/ Jordan Walczak
4 Art professor (painting)
5 Paleontologist
6 Bank Robber (That goes out in a blaze of glory!)

Top 7 Minnesota hangouts
1 Walker Art Center
2 Minnesota Zoo
3 Franklin Artworks
4 First Ave
5 Uptown Bar
6 558 Vandalia sreet St. Paul
7 Grandma Joyce & Grandpa Bill's Cabin that is about an hour north of Lake Mille Lacs

So you like to do painting...what did you eat for breakfast?

Today? breakfast, i went with the always bangin lunds' blueberry muffin, and i like to paint, i like to paint alot.

Tell me a little more about your art and why you have a beard?

my art, well... i make it, i have a studio and thats where the "magic" happens. I've been drawing for as long as i can remember and started painting in junior high. art has always been a huge part of my life. i just got a BFA degree, so i guess you could say im a "certified" artist, but to be honest the more i make art the more i feel like i know nothing about it... art is limitless and infinite, i love it and hate it at the same time.

Well my beard is gone and i miss it. it started out with me just being to lazy to shave and then one day it was just out of control. when it started getting hot i shaved that thing off, but it'll make a comeback, some day.

Does it itch? the beard not the art.

The beard itched like crazy the first 4 weeks and then one day it just stopped itching, it was awesome! then it got humid out and it was just too itchy... it had to go.

but i do get the itch to goto the studio, if i havent been in a while i start getting really anxious and restless.

I have noticed that you work large scale most of the time?

yeah, i try and paint as large as i can most of the time. most of my paintings are anywhere between 4 x 5 ft by 6 x 8 ft. When i was in art school i had the space so i would go big. Its alot more fun but there are alot of headaches that come with painting large.

Transportation becomes an issue, sometimes i have to strap paintings to the roof of trucks to get them from point A to point B. Plus storage space is a problem, my studio and my parents garage are filled with large paintings. The benefits due outway all the difficulties... i wanna do a painting thats roughly 10 x 18 feet cause i have the room in my studio, but we'll see.

You have also been curating the Cal Surf Gallery Shows, Thats cool...

ya i started doing that after i graduated from the College of Visual Arts, my title at Cal Surf is Art director so i get to manage everything art related. Web stuff, Tee shirt/ Skateboard designs, Flyers and organizing and promoting the artshows. i think organizing the artshows is my favorite part of working at Cal Surf. it can be stressful at times, but the openings are always fun and I've meet a ton of realy cool local artists.

Whats is a normal day like for Garrett Perry?

oh man, good question... Everyday is a little different. Usually work at Cal from 11-8 and then i head over to the studio for 3-5 hours, depending on if i have some shows coming up.

A day of work at Cal usually goes like so:

Wake up late, rush to work, get there and check email/ messages and get some work done, get coffee/ brunch, make fun of Dennis, check in some product, work on website, take photos of product, check email, listen to some good tunes usually provided by Jordan Walczak of the savage crew, Joke around with Dooner, talk shop with Scott, figure out events, make flyers, check email again, check house of 1817, google some stuff, check baseball stats, Listen to some La Chat with Alan, make fun of Dennis more, and of course help out the customers. On Thursdays i always do the Cal Surf E_News which is the emailer we send out about events, products that came in, local team happenings, basically just take care of business at Cal all day!!!

Other then that i just try and get to the studio as much as possible and go out during the weekends. i like going to shows and partying with the homies.

Sunday is probably my favorite day of the week cause i dont really do anything that involves a high level of brain function. I wake up and make some food, drink some beers on the deck, maybe goto a lake or skate around, do some fishing... Go home watch some baseball and grill some more food and drink beers, sunday's are my fundays, Sunday Funday for sure.

Do you want to drink some beers with me in august?

Oh you know im down, actually my birthday is Sunday August 2nd, so Sunday Funday Birthday for sure! Wanna come to my birthday party? im thinking grilling on the deck with some beers, maybe get one of those little kiddy pools... i might try and hire a clown or some crazy shit... no probably not but something crazy like that would be cool. you down?

You have some shows happening and coming, true?

Oh man yeah ive been so busy lately thats why this has taken me forever to get to you. i did a live painting last thursday with my buddy Chuck for the Swell Society B4BC event which was amazing! I'm in a show this friday the 17th at the Aloft Hotel called Vigilante Justice II, On July 30th i'm in a show with my buddy Jesse Draxler, I got an email today saying i was accepetd to the clapperclaw art and music festival in september, in October i have a solo show lined up at Umber Studios... So yeah things have been good, they've been great and i have been way busy!

Top 4 favorite words
1. Fuck
2. Savage
3. metaphorically
4. obnoxious

is that a haiku?....

Thanks Anthony and house of 1817!

Thank you, Garrett!