James Flames is an artist who was born in Brooklyn but now resides a town called Asheville in North Carolina. He likes Cajun Food and Lego and made our day when he agreed to let us interview him. Below he talks about posters, living in the country and christmas presents.
How long have you been drawing/painting for and when did you first start screen printing? Why did it appeal?
Oh, I've been drawing since before I could remember. My mother, or someone, had the good sense to sit me down in front of a stack of plain paper and put a pencil in my hand, and I pretty much have not stopped since. But screen printing – I've only been doing that since, like.... I think 2006 was the first time I tried it. In my living room, no less. Trying to wash the screens out in my shower. It wasn't pretty. I got a little better in '07, but then I stopped till just about a year ago – I just didn't have the space to doit. Now I have a full setup in a great studio space, and I've been cranking stuff out as much as possible.
Where do you live? If there was one thing we should check out in your area what would it be?
Right now I live in Asheville, North Carolina. I'm originally from Brooklyn, NY – spent most of my life there, so it's weird being the city boy here in the middle of the countryside. But it's real beautiful here, and way cheap to live and make art and stuff. If you could only do one thing while visiting Asheville, I'd say go see a live band play at either the Orange Peel or the Grey Eagle. We are so lucky to have two such amazing venues in a small town like this. They're both very different – the Orange Peel is rather large, fits like 1200 people, and has amazing sound; the Grey Eagle is much smaller, it's super intimate and kinda looks like the inside of a barn or something – plus they serve authentic Cajun food there. Both places are run by the most amazing people. I think some of the best shows I've ever seen in my life have been at those two places.
When creating your posters for bands, do you actually listen to music? Does the music from the band often inspire the poster?
I always listen to music, pretty much when I'm doing anything. Either that, or talk radio. But I'd say99% of the time, my ears need to be distracted. So yeah, I definitely listen to albums by the bands that I'm working for as I draw – and when I'm sketching and getting the concepts together, I also read lyrics, watch video by the band, and listen to music of other bands that inspired them. All that usually really helps solidify a concept and direction – it's very important to me that each poster works specially for a band and the people who dig that band. Then, once I got everything down, I'll listen to anything while I finish the rest of the drawing and printing.
Who in your opinion is the ultimate gigs poster artist? Are there any other guys doing the rounds that you think are worth us having a look at?
That's maybe an impossible question to ask, cuz there's waaaayyy too many great poster artists out there – so many that have inspired me, whose work planted the seeds in my head to even start doing this stuff in the first place. That said, there is one dude that I was talking to my girl about just last night, who I feel like might be one of the most 'natural' poster artists around today – Ron Liberti, who also works out of North Carolina, is just incredible. It would be hard to explain, but I think if you were teaching a college course on posters or something dumb like that, it'd probably be a good idea to start with Ron, to kind of set the standard of how far the possibilities can go. Just a few of the other poster artists whose work I'm forever indebted to are Jake Kelly, Ken Taylor, Dan Stiles, Strawberry Luna, Zach Hobbs, Todd Slater, Crosshair, Tanxxx, Tim Gough, Aesthetic Apparatus, Drew Millward, and god knows how many more. Some of the most talented artists today are making posters, in my opinion.
What was the last record you listened to?
I usually make playlists of a bunch of stuff on my computer, or just let it go on “random,” but the last records I put on my turntable were the two most recent 7inch's by Gentleman Jesse and His Men. Killer stuff.
Where can we find you online?
My website is like the central place – www.jamesflames.com – you can see all my work and buy posters, and from there you can link to my facebook page, my blog, my twitter, and if you're real savvy, you can get into my bank account help me pay my bills. Or steal what's left. You're call.
With Christmas coming up, is there anything in particular that you hope Father Christmas will bring down your chimney on Christmas Eve? What was the best/worst Christmas present that you've ever received?
I'm not big on requests for presents – I know it sounds lame, but I really appreciate anything I get. Though it'd be real awesome if Santa knew how to re-stretch a screen, cuz I put a hole through one of mine the other day. That sucked. The best gift I ever got was probably when I was real little and my brothers and I got a giant Lego set – I think it was the castle, it was all yellow and stuff. That pretty much kept us busy and creative for the next few years. I was so psyched when we opened the box and that's what it was. I wish I still had some Legos.
What are your other inspirations other than art and music?
Food. I love to eat it, I love to cook it, I love to watch people cook it. I'm a big fan of food. I don't
know that it directly inspires my work, but there is a creativity there, a certain skill that I think can be appropriated to making good art and music.
Can you give us an example of Cockney Rhyming Slang?
You mean like “There once was a man from Nantucket...” or something like that? Hold on, let me
Google it.....
Okay, I was way off. Just read about it. That stuff seems really hard to understand! I'm gonna try one though: “Kitchens” would be slang for “Ink,” cuz it rhymes with “Kitchen Sink.” Am I even close?
Maybe I should practice before I visit the UK again....
Could you please finish this sentence, "Tuckshop Community Radio makes me feel like……"
...having a threesome. Or a onesome. I take what I can get.”
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