darin bendall volume 1, 2005, #007

darin bendall is a thirty-two year old man-child who ekes out a living as an illustrator and animator. he currently lives in tokyo with his aussie wife, where he is working on his first beer gut. he also enjoys skateboarding and the internet.

1. how would you explain 'art' - in 19 words or less? best answer ever: "if i have to explain it, you just wouldn't understand" . . . louis armstrong, talking about jazz, dude.

2. what is the first work of art you ever loved? i don't actually remember, but it would definitely have been a comic book of some kind.

3. how important is theory to your art? uh, not sure. i never went to the art schools, so i have my own theories.

4. describe your ideal art workspace. pretty much like my current one, except bigger - it has a wood shop, i can make unlimited mess, play music unlimitedly loud, and it is far enough away from the bedroom that i can work late at night without keeping my wife up.

5. describe your current art workspace. fucking excellent. great big desk i made out of an old door stacked on top of some shelves - spacious and practical. i can either sit on my bar stool or stand so i don't get tired. the computer is underneath and i can move the monitor out of the way, or focus on it. the volume control to my massive mp3 collection powered by my awesome speakers is just below my right hand. the scanner is just to the right of that - i've got it set up where i just have to put something on there and touch the button and it saves it right to my desktop (the computer desktop). i have rigged up my phone and ipod charger things to a convenient central location. i spend between 8-14 hours a day here, so i've gradually made it pretty good.

6. if you could be placed in suspended animation and safely reanimated at some time in the future with the sole purpose being to see how history treated you / your art, would you do it? i would lie and agree to do this just to see what the future is like.

7. who are some of your favourite artists (contemporary or canonical)? i don't think i can even begin to answer this - too many, just way too many.

8. tell us about a gallery (online or physical space) that you think rocks, and why you think it rocks. for the last couple of months, wikipedia has been rockin' my world. while not technically a gallery, anytime anything pops into my head, i'll click on over there and find out more about it, especially art stuff.

9. would you choose the baked bean jaffle or the caramelised pumpkin and red onion tart with crispy radicchio and hazelnut salad with apple vinaigrette? i think this question is supposed to be asking whether you are an everyday kind of guy (baked beans) or fancy boy (the other one). in my case i'm a beer chuggin', never shavin', jeans and t-shirt kinda guy . . . but i would actually choose to eat both of these, 'cause one of my dearest pleasures on earth is the wide variety of food we get to enjoy here, and i love fancy food and the basics equally.

10. finish this sentence: "the work of art can / cannot be considered separately to the artist because ________." the work of art can or cannot be considered separately to the artist because it's a free country, right? i'm not gonna tell you what to do. but i always like to know about the artist, and it always sounds like pretentious bullshit to me when people make the case that it doesn't matter.

check out more of darin's work at: www.bendall.biz

Buddy ink / digital 2005

Onceuponatime ink / digital 2005

Fish ink / wood 2004

Hands ink / wood 2004

Sticky ink / digital 2005