VAN HOUSE PARTIES | TAKING FIVE WITH BRIAN EWING We’re taking five with Vans House Partie

VAN HOUSE PARTIES | TAKING FIVE WITH BRIAN EWING 

We’re taking five with Vans House Parties artist Brian Ewing who will be creating a one-of-kind art installation while folks enjoy the music of Taking Back Sunday! We find out about how Brian chills when not making art, his latest book recommendation, and what folks should expect tonight. Take the leap below! 

Don’t forget to RSVP for all the upcoming Vans House Parties events!

Photographs courtesy of the artist. 

What’s your favorite thing about summer? 
That’s a tough one! As an artist I’m spending most of my timed bent over a drawing table and wishing I was outside. Luckily my table faces a window that overlooks a tiny dog park. So I get to watch dogs poop, people scoop that stuff into plastic bags and then disappear. It’s inspiring.

Other than that I get to travel. My girlfriend (Andria) and I just got back from New York, where we visited friends and family. We were there to exhibit at a convention (Five Points Fest) but we try to massage these trips into mini vacations. In July we’ll be doing the same thing for a project I did with Kirk Hammet (guitarist from Metallica) at the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada! You betcha there hey!

After that I’ll be exhibiting in California at DesignerCon and in New York at NYCC. We’ll turn those trips into more mini vacations with tiki bars, photo booths and hangouts with good friends.

How do you TAKE FIVE and chill out when you’re not arting?
Panic! Fear! SELF-LOATHING! But seriously, while I’m freelancing for bands I also tattoo four days a week at Cauldron Tattoo here in Columbus, OH. 

Art is what defines me. So if I’m not “arting” I’m hustling to do more art. I get the most joy out of seeing an idea of mine go from a sketch to a finished piece. Whether it’s a poster or a tattoo. 

I also have a small toy company with a friend - MetaCrypt. And I just collaborated with UVD Toys on the “Ghost Boner”! I drew it up as a piece of tattoo flash and it became really popular so I made a resin toy & enamel pin with UVD that we just released. I’m constantly trying to figure out ways to avoid getting a real job. To misquote “Lords Of Dogtown” - I plan to be on Summer Vacation for the rest of my life. So far it’s worked. 

What’s something not many people know about you?
I was born in San Diego, moved to Oahu, then grew up in Milwaukee, WI. From there I moved to Chicago to successfully drop out of art school after a year. Then I moved to Minneapolis, then Los Angeles, San Francisco, Manhattan and now Columbus, OH. I am probably not done moving. I’ve never had a drivers license and I hate condiments & cheese. Except for pizza cheese. 

I used to work in porn at Hustler magazine. Luckily they published Big Brother and I got to work on that too. One of my first freelance illustrations was published in Big Brother. I made sure that Hustler would be my last real job type job. It’s been 16 years since I quit to go full-time as an artist. The first time I went to Disneyland - the Melvins took me! I’m left-handed. I’m a kutte-wearing member of the Turbojugend. I’m sure there’s more boring stuff…

What’s the last book you read and would recommend to folks? 
I read mostly books and articles on art and business. Wow…I’m really boring!!! Ugh…

I try to multitask while I’m working so I’ll listen to a lot of audiobooks. Youtube has a ton of them for free. I’ll mostly listen to classic horror by H.P. Lovecraft to keep me in the mood as I work on a project. Otherwise “Beastie Boys Book” by Michael Diamond and Adam Horovitz. Oh, and “Girl in a Band” by Kim Gordon! I highly recommend these books!

What’s the worst piece of advice you’ve ever gotten? 
Don’t go to art school - you’ll never get accepted. Don’t quit your job in porn - you’ll never make it as an artist. Don’t go into tattooing - you’ll never succeed.

My mom was my biggest critic and eventually my biggest supporter. I grew up a million years ago in the 1980’s & 90’s. There weren’t any examples of successful artists that we knew of. I auditioned and got accepted into the Milwaukee High School of the Arts. In my senior year, my art teacher pulled me aside and said “you’ll never make it as an artist, so don’t waste your time trying to apply to art school." My mom pretty much said the same thing. So I applied to art school! I went for a year and then dropped out because I was trying to pay for it all myself. Luckily I could with a small loan from my mom and grandma and all the side jobs I took on. The thought of owing that much money with no guarantee of a job terrified me. So I dropped out. Got several odd jobs ( I was a janitor and had to dispose of body parts) and then a job at a Kinko’s where they had these things called "computers”! I used my job to teach myself graphic design and printing. That’s when I began my poster career - I started designing posters for the local venue First Avenue in Minneapolis.

From there I moved to Los Angeles and found myself working at Hustler magazine on their 1-900 ads and scheduling the magazines. I was hired as an assistant art director and got fired the next day because one of Larry Flynt’s relatives wanted a job so they got mine. 

A couple days later I got hired there again to work on the ads for various magazines. After a few years I wanted to quit. I was engaged at the time and my fiance told me to not quit because I’ll “never make it as a professional artist.” Ironically we split 3 months later. I quit Hustler on a Friday and started freelancing the next Wednesday. I’ve been working as a full-time artist ever since. 

A year later I got hired to design posters for the Van’s Warped Tour (2004). (Where I did a poster for Taking Back Sunday.) I even got to go on tour with everyone. My job was to sign posters for 30 minutes a day and then watch bands. When the tour rolled into Milwaukee (where I grew up) I invited my mom to check it out.  

My mom got to see me do a signing and then we walked around. (I even got to introduce her to the guys in the Bouncing Souls!) I said “Look around. Do you see the posters everyone’s holding? I designed those!!!” (Every day there were around 20,000 kids who attended the Warped Tour in whatever city it was in.) After that she understood I was doing ok as an artist and was glad I NEVER listened to the many times she told me to quit. From then on she was my biggest supporter. 

At her funeral many of her friends and coworkers told me how proud she was of me. That meant everything to me. Gah!! I’m starting to tear up.

The next chapter in my life has been tattooing. When I started out I had a girlfriend who was very toxic. She would constantly tell me that I was never going to make it as a tattoo artist and I should quit. Ironically we didn’t last long. I’m starting to notice a pattern… I’ve been tattooing for 3 years now (under Mike Moses) and will be done with my apprenticeship in a month.

To make a long story longer - the WORST advice I got was the BEST advice. If you have people in your life that don’t want to see you succeed and be happy - ignore them! Find people that support you!!! Take all that negative reinforcement and turn it into fuel to keep you motivated and going - even when those voices are the loudest and you want to quit.

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