Joshua Clay is open to getting cyber stalked. Sort of. With an upcoming solo show at Sunset Junction’s Thinkspace Gallery , the underground art darling started a website dedicated to the progress of his new series, "Shadows." Each piece is a dark and occasionally whimsical tribute to the visual and metaphorical. And they look rad.
We drooled over his new stuff, then called him at his studio and got nosey:
How late were you painting last night?
Ummm, (laughs) 'till like 4am. I love painting at night for some reason.
Do you have shows lined up one after the other?
Well, this is my only job, so yeah. L.C. [L. Croskey, founder of Cannibal Flower ] and Blaine Fontana taught me to book the shows back to back so that you’re always kind of working towards the next thing.
You're from Detroit. What inspired your move west?
When I was in art school, I was actually checking out Cannibal Flower online, and I had never seen artwork like that before. In Michigan, it’s like (mimicks a frail-sounding 75-year old) “Oooh, I want some tuuulips! With a white picket fence!” It was so creatively empty. Almost painful. I felt like I was working for Pier One. So my vision of artwork was really limited before I started checking out Cannibal Flower. Then I was like: “What?! Artists can paint what they want?!"
Is that why you have so many hot chicks in your paintings?
Yeah, exactly, it’s like: “I can paint whatever I want, huh….?”
Is there a reason you tend to paint mostly women?
I started pondering it; a lot of it has to do with the fact that I had strong female role models. My mom’s always been the one’s that’s been picking up the pieces. Also, the female form is very beautiful and flowy and you can read emotions just by the way a women leans.
Its so great to cyber stalk the progress of the show!
Right on! It’s exciting for me as an artist to follow my own progress. A lot of times when you’re painting something, it really takes on a life of its own, which is kind of weird. But some paintings, they just take over once you put the brush to the canvas. So I thought I’d just document that whole thing.
You’re so disciplined, and you’re what, 23, 24?
Art is just, like…my life. It’s really easy to be that disciplined when it’s something you want, like, really bad, you know?