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Moments after Steve Jobs removed the MacBook Air from its instantly iconic envelope to the gasping applause of Apple’s discretionary income demographic, a creative couple were offering their aptly-inspired notebook sleeve online. Doing something with a great idea first can lead to wealth, fame, or at least some sense of personal fulfillment (which is probably preferable anyway.) The various investigations of his curious little astronaut creation may lead artist Scott Listfield to such discoveries himself.
Who is Scott Listfield?
Just a totally average guy living in the future.
Why do you create?
I think I’ve got something to say. Of course, I might be wrong.
The Iceberg
I discovered your art when it was featured in WIRED Magazine. How do you promote your art, and what have been the results of your efforts?
Yes, I was in Wired magazine, so I know it might seem like I know what I’m doing in the PR department. The truth of the matter is that it’s mostly smoke and mirrors. I’ll tell you my secret if you want to know: complete dumb luck piled on top of some hard work.
Eric Smillie, the fellow who wrote the article, and to whom I probably owe at least one kidney, emailed me one day out of the blue to let me know he wanted to pitch me to his editor. Apparently this is how these things work. Eric and I went to the same college, although I don’t think we were actually there during the same time period. Which I guess leads me to this nugget of advice: go to a college where people you haven’t met will eventually be able to help your art career.
In all seriousness, I don’t have a real plan when it comes to promoting or marketing my art. Most everything good that has happened to me has been something I stumbled into. I knew a guy who knew a guy. But its important to do two things that sound stupid: 1. You need to go meet that guy who knows the other guy. And by that I mean its very difficult to be an artistic recluse these days, you need to network. Art is a business, just like any other, only much much stupider. And 2. Work hard or make good art. Both if you want, but at least one will do.
I’ve been lucky to find people who seem to like what I do. But, like I said, I’m not a PR mastermind or anything, so maybe don’t take advice from me. At least not until after my first Whitney Biennial.
It’s a Question of Simian Survival
What motivates you as an artist?
OK, this is going to be a totally horrible answer. I want to say something poetic, or at least pleasant, but the truth is boring, egotistical, and kind of depressing. I do art mostly because I’m afraid of two things: I’m afraid of dying and I’m afraid of dying without anyone recognizing my accomplishments. A close friend of mine who was also an artist passed away a few years ago, and it made me realize how horrified I was by the thought that I might keel over before anybody had the slightest idea who I was. I knew I had something to say, and I knew I had at least the rudimentary tools it took to accomplish it (at the time I could kind of slap together a picture of an astronaut with a lot of paint and a little bit of guile - nowadays it takes a little less paint).
I guess that’s what motivates me. If you want to know what inspires my work, which is a different question, but one that I’m about to answer anyways, then I would say, in no particular order: Robots, forward thinking architecture especially if its kind of utopian, soft rock tunes of the seventies, shopping malls and grocery stores, and whatever crap they’re playing on MTV or VH1 right now. Anything completely bizarre or particularly anachronistic from either the past or the future. Oh, and Star Wars is a pretty cool movie.
Man of La Mancha
You are a professionally trained artist and your work has been featured in magazines and on blogs, yet you don’t sell your paintings and you keep your day job. You seem to seek and avoid greater commercial success in your art. Why this ambivalence?
Have you been reading my press materials? I tend to be sarcastic in them and don’t always tell the full truth - one version of my bio has a joke about not really selling my work which was meant to be self-deprecating, but in hindsight was probably just misguided. The truth is, I actually do sell my paintings. I wouldn’t at all say I’m ambivalent about success, its possible I just define it a little differently then other people. I made a conscious decision early in my art career that I didn’t like the idea of being dependent on selling work for my income. If I have a day job I can pay the bills and paint whatever the hell I want at night. I’m not constantly worrying about the hustle.
And I’m sure I’m not alone here, but I want to show my work. I want people to see it, and to say “That Scott Listfield fellow has got it going on.” I’d rather have ten thousand people come and look at my work and not spend a cent than one person buy it straight out of my studio and hang it in their antechamber, or wherever it is that people who buy art actually put it. Of course I’m exaggerating again, because I like people to like my art enough to buy it. And the type of people who have bought my art are not really the type to have an antechamber.
But my point is I’m driven by exposure not by sales, and I’m lucky enough to be able to afford to do that because I have a day job. If one day I can afford to be just an artist, maybe I’ll give that a try and see how it goes. But the art world is a terrible place to try and make a living. I haven’t found a single part of it that makes sense. It’s like trying to do business through the looking glass. I’m all like “Would you like to show my paintings in your gallery, or would you maybe like to buy one?” and they’re all like “WOULD YOU LIKE A SPOT OF TEA????” It’s complete insanity.
My thanks to Scott for sharing his work. Please visit astronautdinosaur.com to see more of his art.
If you would like to share your creativity, or you’d like to suggest someone for Show Us Yours, please send an e-mail to share@yorkrules.com.
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