[ April 5, 2004 ]   Illustrator Elliott Golden has always been meticulous about his artistic process. "My mother still reminds me of how upset I would get when I couldn't stay in the lines," says the North Carolina native, who grew up doing paintings and collage. "When I was younger I felt restricted about being an artist, I thought you had to have incredible drafting skills or be able to render paintings perfectly." But Golden's notion of what it is to be an artist got blown out of the water in his second semester of college, when he took an illustration class taught by Richard Borge. "His style," says Golden, "was really funky and he was able to make a living creating this work. It was very inspiring."

One might consider Golden's career path a bit atypical, if not circuitous, having studied art while traveling throughout the U.S. and Europe, extensively, on and off, for nine years before coming to New York to pursue his career. His travel has led him to concentrate his work around color, composition, and experimentation using deconstruction and reconstruction. "I used to do a lot of collage and I handled my work with a heavier hand," Golden says, "but over the past four years my style has found its own place."

Or places, seeing as Golden has two studios and reps in two continents; his clients include MTV, Virgin Records The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, Newsweek and How Magazine. Golden says he is most satisfied when he can create an image that is visually successful and conceptually potent, as evidenced in a portrait of Pink and Jay-Z for the new MTV magazine Spankin New. "This was a great job," he says, "because it allowed me to focus primarily on tone and aesthetic."

Photographers will often continue to shoot even when they are confident they've gotten the picture they want. As an illustrator, do you continually tweak? How do you know when an illustration is complete?
I think the only thing I can say is you kind of know when it's done. It's similar to when you learn to work with colors. In art school you learn some different principles about how color works or how composition works but after a while it just becomes so ingrained and seamless like rhythm with music. If you have rhythm than you know when to do this or that. It's the same thing with a picture. You just sense it. Once I get to a certain point where I feel like the overall piece is where I want it to be, I'll go in and refine small details and kind of consider everything in the image and make sure everything is deliberate. After I've considered everything and it is what I want it to be, then it's pretty much done.

You came to New York specifically to pursue illustration. How did you get your first job?
Direct mailing and postcards. I bought a mailing list. I was working as Richard Borge's assistant for two years. Rich and I are good friends. I've known him for about 10 years. It just so happened that when I moved to New York he needed an assistant. So it worked out great. I was also working two other part-time jobs at that time. It really gave me drive to make sure I got work.

What was your first job?
My very first job was for Worth Magazine. It was a quarter-page editorial piece.

One of your part-time jobs was Web design that you've turned that into a second business.
My Web studio, Loopmedia 75, focuses primarily on developing Web sites and business strategies for artists. The sites that Loopmedia 75 builds are more than just on-line portfolios. The sites are client updateable via a Web browser and include functionality that can help artists stay in touch with current clients and even help acquire new ones. I find that being an artist myself has given me special insight into what really makes a portfolio site distinct and functional.

Are you still doing fine art?
I haven't had a show in a while and I am not really that driven by it right now. I'm just so busy with assignments. And assignments are cool when it is a cool project. I see it as a pretty fine line between fine art and the project. The process and aesthetics is kind of the same, as if it were my fine art. The difference is the content. When it's fine art it is your thing one hundred percent.

Do other illustrators inspire you?
I get a lot from looking at other illustrators' works. Some inspire me visually and others on a more conceptual level. Some of my favorites would be Guy Billout, Craig Frazier, Richard Borge, Istvan Banyai, Brian Cronin and Tim Bower. Other artists inspire me and I get inspiration from a myriad of non-art sources as well.

Do you see any trend in the use of illustration?
I think illustration is really hot now and it has been so for about three or four years. This is despite the fact we've had several major political and economic setbacks like the Dotcom bust and September 11th. But beyond that illustration has become a hot thing. You still see it in a lot of fresh advertising and a few of the cooler magazines are even doing their own illustration annuals.

What are you most proud of?
I'm proud that I can make a living doing what I love. I'm very thankful for that.

- Contributed by Mary-Beth Holland

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