Jim Shaw
Jim Shaw is an artist based in Los Angeles.
What artworks would you have/do you have in your drawing room?
A drawing of viscera being fondled by Scott Marvel Cassidy, a large drawing of myself dancing with my then 5 year old daughter amidst a sea of airbrushed vapors, a collage drawing by my wife’s father, Charles Weber, a small sculpture of an elephant with mad king Ludwig’s castle on it’s body, 4 Raymond Pettibon drawings from the early 80s, stacks of recent thrift store paintings, several advertisements from past magazines, 40s thru 70s that might inspire future artworks, and a small Sarah Cromarty carved book-painting. in adjoining rooms and hallways are several Mike Kelleys, 2 studies by Karen Liebowitz, a comic by Julian Hoeber, a photomontage by Dani Tull, a watercolor by my grandfather, a Morton Bartlett photo, a small Andy Hope, and a Tim Ebner clown painting.
What books would you read/are you reading in your drawing room?
I don’t usually read in my drawing room, but I do some visual research there. At the moment, I’m looking at “Ornament and the Grotesque” by Alessandra Zamperini, “Remember the Word” by Jerry Lucas (Pnemonic devices to remember Bible verses), and a large number of pre-code horror comic compilations that have come out in the last few years. I read myself to sleep with a concise history of the Byzantine empire, but that’s in my bedroom. There are a stack of books on the history of racism and slavery, and books on several “fine” artists that influence my work or dreams, like Picasso, Bosch, Breugel, Goya, Dali, Cadmus, Michelangelo, Ad Reinhart, as well as a library of popular cultural things, like advertising, illustration, political cartoons, and comic books.
What movies would you watch/are you watching in your drawing room?
I don’t watch movies in my drawing room (no TV), but in theory, I’d be watching mostly noir films, as well as whatever horror or sci-fi films I missed as a kid (2nd childhood?) but in reality, I’m usually sucked in to what the downloadable things are on netflix, hulu or amazon (the noirs are from TCM on DVR) which usually means depressing documentaries, or limited series. These have the advantage of not demanding 2 hours of time that are rarely available to me. So that would include stuff like Wormwood, Mindhunter, Fargo, Mr Robot, Wild Wild Country, The 13th…
What music would you listen to/are you listening to in your drawing room?
There’s a gamut of stuff I listen to that is dominated by compilation cds of psychedelic oldies (like those from ArfArf records, and Grapefruit records), country blues and gospel 78s (especially the Revenant comps by Fahey), John Fahey, Scott Walker, mood music, 20th century classical (Ligeti, Tansman, Bartok, Stravinsky, Prokovief) , world music 78s (like the Secret Museum of Mankind series), old Ska and Reggae, Sun Ra, Fats Waller, Miles Davis, Great Googly Moo, plus various indy rock bands I heard mostly though my daughter, like Alt-J, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Grizzly Bear, Son Lux, Animal Collective, St Vincent, Joanna Newsom, Oneohtrix Point Never, and occasional forays into Prog Rock (yes, ELP Genesis, King Crimson, Gentle Giant, Aphrodite’s Child, etc).
Who would you/do you invite into your drawing room?
Friends, fellow artists, journalists, fellow parents at my daughter’s school, curators, parents and friends of my employees, any movie stars who like my work. It depends on how many deadlines I have looming.
