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How was your summer Mr. Steen?
Summer? Has it passed us already? I was barricaded inside my studio for it. Mind you I did get out for a few openings that I was in here in Toronto and up north at my close friend's cottage.

Is there one show that you are particularly proud of?
Sure that's easy there was my first US solo show at the Compound Gallery in Portland, Oregon, My first showing in LA at La Luz De Jesus as part of their "Everything but the Kitschen Sync" group show. How many did you ask for?

One
Okay, so I answered two, there you have double the answer.

Tell me about your current show and the work in it?
It's a show in Ottawa at La Petite North Gallery called Pervasive Art North. It came about after I showed in the Toronto Alternative Art Fair International. Two ladies from Ottawa and art lovers had seen me there and purchased a print, then roughly a year later I received an email from one of them and they requested a meeting at my Toronto studio. So we all met for around two hours, they left with seven paintings and two prints and they took my art back to show the director of La Petite Mort, Guy Berube. He then urged them to curate a show. So, I was asked to supply some names of Canadian artistes as they wanted a group show to showcase to Ottawa and so the show was in motion.

Explain the name of the show, "Pervasive Art North"?
Well, after speaking to me at my studio one of the things talked about was the type of art that I paint. I informed them that it was called a few things Low Brow, Pop Surrealism and artist Gary Baseman originated the term pervasive art, I suppose that stuck with the ladies.

What about your work in the show, what's it about and is there a central theme?
My pieces twenty-seven in all were inspired by the death of my "Gunky"

Who's Gunky?
He was my step grandfather and he passed away this last fall. He was a proud Iron Worker and the one who introduced me to Johnny Cash one early morning on the way to our favorite fishing hole.

Do you remember the year?
Well, I know it was in his silver 1977 Oldsmobile Delta 88 with the eight track so it must have been 1977. I asked who that was playing and he told me "that's the man in black" and my fanship to JR Cash was born. Funny how my reason for painting "Cash Strands" is based in death and sorrow just like so many of his songs.

What was the show like?
As for the show itself it was great. I was able to list some names of Canadian artistes whom I am a big fan of and luckily the three picked are friends of mine. They are Dave Cooper, Ross Bonfanti and Magda Trzaski The director was great and the art patrons of Ottawa were incredible, always good when work sells and new fans are found. However I was disappointed that Lesley Reppeteaux was never asked, her work is amazing.

Do you use the computer?
Yes, all the time to check Facebook and MySpace. As for my art, no. I am a traditionalist through and through except for scanning roughs, finals and invoices.

Your work is refreshing in an illustrated world dominated by computer generated work, do you find clients hire because you are counter to the majority?
Thanks for the kind words, well I hope they hire me because of my skill set first and then because I'm not a digital illustrator. I think that must play a huge part in being selected for commissioned work. Then again, most art directors are so used to what I call "diggies" that I have to remind them I work with a paintbrush and some are caught as they figured my work was digital.

Do you paint everyday?
I am a right geezer if I don't paint each day, mind you I have been creating ink drawings but even those involve a brush.

Brandon are you continuing this new medium?
Yes, it's instantaneous and when your back is as buggered up as much as mine, that's a happy happenstance to have.

What mediums are you fond of late?
I am always knuckle deep in my acrylics and knee high in wood. Winsor & Newton are my favorites especially their Galleria line of paints.

Is there one color that really excites you?
Vermilion Hue is so pretty, the perfect base for my reds. But I have always painted in acrylics, less fumes and they lend themselves to insane timelines. My surface of choice is masonite board and wood veneers.

What inspires Mr. Steen?
What a loaded question? Hmmm.....there are loads of things that inspire me. Probably the bill collector inspires me the most. Kidding aside my inspirations come from many things like Miss Jane, my childhood plays a big part in my art and I suppose always will. The bibles that drop through my mail slot each month.

Bibles, really?
Sure the Juxtapoz scriptures, have you heard of them? Death, halloween, tattoos, Betty Page, Big Foot, mental health, vintage cars, movies, people watching on the subways, pen club, bull terriers and my friends and peers.

Can you name them and what is Pen Club?
There are so many artistes that I admire and each day I seem to learn about others. But artistes like Lesley Reppeteaux, Shaunna Peterson, Jeff Soto, The Clayton Brothers, Chris Ryniak, Dave Cooper, Gary Baseman, Gary Taxali, Bernice Lum, Aaron Leighton, Magda Trzaski and Camille Rose Garcia. I absolutely admire Camille's work immensely and one day I hope to meet her. Luckily, most of them are my friends, as for Pen Club that's a recent thing for me but is a big inspiration for me all the same. My friend and illustrator Aaron Leighton hooked me up to it and a bunch of local illustrators meet a couple of times each month at a downtown bakery and draw in each others sketchbooks, eat cake and drink copious amounts of beer and coffee.

What is about you that you are known for besides your fantastic art?
Hmmm.....probably my insane love for the English Bull Terrier and cooking.

Why bull terriers?
I always have one near me in my studio, at gallery openings, on my website. I met my first one back in art college inside this yuppie furnishing store that was located beside my streetcar stop. Awaiting my streetcar I went into the store to kill time when I was met by a dog named Jake. I was in love instantly with his insanely comical personality and he liked to shadow me around. Sadly, he moved away to Manhatten. A few years later I rescued one and renamed him Clancy.

Why Clancy?
I am Irish and I like to further my blood and giving an Irish name seemed natural to me. My dear Clancy was with me in my studio always until he passed away in 2006 from a brain tumor three months shy of his 13th birthday.

Is your studio a lonely place now?
It was for a while until Seamus busted onto the scene and came into my life, he is my new pup and studio foot warmer. Now old Clancy has been inked into my painting arm so I have my first boy back creating with me everyday.

Your friend and artist Sandra Tarantino says you can really cook is this so?
Yes, I am equally passionate about cooking as I am with painting. I filled out papers to enter into cooking school twice but decided against it at the last minute.

Why?
I didn't want to work every night, weekend and holiday, so I cook for friends instead.

Give us one meal that you make with pride?
Hmmm one dish?....Regional Italian is my favourite, I'd choose a margherita pizza with mozzarella di buffalo, pomodoro sauce with torn basil never chopped and I like to add prosciutto sometimes which is a no, no but I love meat.

You are based out of Toronto is that where you are from?
Yes, I am based in Toronto or as its known locally as hogtown.

Hogtown why?
Originally in the 1860's there was a large pork slaughter house and the buildings were loacated just east of the downtown and lots of hogs in the streets going to market. But originally I was born in a small hard working lakeside town where fresh water fishing and Heinz tomatoes reign known as Leamington, Ontario. But my father was a cop (how's that for an Irish stereotype) and he relocated my family to Toronto in 1974 so he could get on with the Toronto Police. The city ranks high if only for the reason I met my wife the lovely Miss Jane here. Her family emigrated from England to Toronto four generations ago, in fact our local fish and chip shop "Penrose" has been serving her family for three out of those four generations.

Does the Toronto art scene inspire or motivate you?
It does for sure. The scene is typical of probably most large cities in the sense that the art establishment is dissing the single most important movement in the art world since the post modernists that being Pop Surrealism. The gallery scene in Toronto is void of the ilk found in galleries such as La Luz, Thinkspace, Gallery 1988 but it is starting to change with the addition of the Magic Pony Gallery which is the only gallery that supports the pop surrealist, low brow movement. Most of my friends are painters and sculptors Their work motivates me in the sense that their openings get me out to the art experience and sends me back into my studio to want to create more.

You appear to be a narrative painter can you talk about that?
Well illustration is a big part of my studio and as such I am always forced to extract information from copy decks, manuscripts and briefs and create illustrations that work for me. So that narrative foundation in my paintings is stemmed from my illustrator background.

It has been said that you hide secrets into your paintings?
Well, if I were to answer your question it no longer becomes my many secrets, now would it? Yes that's a truism I do layer many little bits into my paintings, I love doing that because of the reactions people express when taking in a painting of mine. I love paintings like that.

When you set out to create a painting do you find that you consciously revisit your themes and symbols or do they manifest organically?
No, no my process is not disciplined in the least. Take my paintings from my latest show, all the work is based from the music Johnny Cash wrote and performed. I had no idea what I was going to paint until after the painting was done. I would peruse his playlist in bed and when one song spoke to me I would only then get a rough summation on what I would paint. Except the theme of depression is always in my gallery pieces, not so much in my commercial work. That's not to say I don't try.

So is it safe to say your subjects spring from your own experiences?
I only know my experiences and as such painting from anywhere else would be dishonest for me.

Did you have a childhood where your artistic tendencies were nurtured by your parents?
My parents divorced when I was quite young but I remember my mother, a nurse, painting her winter landscapes and my father, the cop, painting his sunsets. My 7th birthday party was at the local bowelerama where I received a present that changed my life and I still have it in my studio today.

What was it?
It was a book titled "How to Draw Cartoons" by Jack Hamm. It had over 300 step by step illustrations in it, priceless stuff. After my parents messy divorce, my mom would enroll me into summer art classes. Then I had my favorite Aunt, as everyone does. For me it was my Aunt Ann and she was an elementary school art teacher. She always paid special attention to me, asking what I was drawing and things like that. There is no one beside her that had as much influence on me as she did when I was growing up.

Is there one illustration that you are most proud of?
It would have to be an illustration that the Society Of Illustrators of Los Angeles loved titled "Stinkers". It was of my friends' bull terrier who passed away from cancer...there I go again with death. I am most proud of it as it got to hang in the Billy Shire Fine Arts gallery as part of the show celebrating the winners from last years Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles Awards.

What is up next for you?
Illustrating an article on car thefts in Washington State and more illustration work, hello art directors and designers. Continued gallery work, hello art dealers and gallery directors. Getting my back stronger from fracturing my spine in a car accident.

What happened?
Hell arrived at my front door and changed my life forever, let's leave it at that.

What's on your slate now that's got you excited?
I am getting paintings ready for shows in Vancouver, New York, Atlanta, Dallas, Phoenix and Los Angeles. But the most exciting of the fall slate has to be planning my piece for a special show at Gallery 1988 LA celebrating the work Stan Lee.

When is that show to open?
First week of January some time and I'm told he will be in attendance, so meeting Stan Lee will be off the charts.