Many creatives experience peaks and valleys in their career. Sometimes to offset these irregularities we think of alternative ways to stay relevant. Others consistently make work and are somehow immune to losing their charm. One of those people is artist Gary Taxali. I just had tea with him & let him school me.
Alex McLeod:
I just saw a traffic signal box with your work on it outside Dufferin Mall. You’ve also created pocket squares for Harry Rosen and coins for the Royal Canadian Mint. I don’t think that many people can produce work as consistently and still stay in the favour of the public, but you do. Will artists have waves of popularity or is it possible to sustain momentum?
Gary Taxali:
The only thing I pay attention to is constantly creating work and then hoping for the best. If you put your mind in other people’s perception of who you are and what your career is, it not only messes with your head but it never gives you correct conclusions about anything.
The fact of the matter is, there are certain things that happen for every artist and designer that are pushing and pulling–interest on one side, and a lack of interest on the other side. There was a time when every major publication was calling me all throughout the day and I would joke with my friends that my default response would be, “no”, “no, no, no.” You can’t do everything.
Then at a certain point ,that shifted due to the decline in publications but also the perception from art directors and designers that all of a sudden I became too expensive for them. When you’ve been doing something long enough and you do some pretty big projects, people just assume that, “Ok you are in a different league financially.” There is a certain truth to that. I did start doing bigger and more artistically-inclined projects where people paid me to be me, like the Royal Canadian Mint did and Harry Rosen pocket squares did and even Converse did with an ad.
I don’t think I have reached the peak of what I can accomplish. Things are still happening, I continue to make the work but I also think it is projects like public installations, the apparel stuff, that has helped get me to new markets, those folks haven’t gotten sick of me yet.
Alex McLeod:
Lol, there is a lot of work in galleries now that we didn’t have five years ago and it’s really popular. Does your work exist independently of trends or not even within them?
Gary Taxali:
On one hand, I think it’s dangerous to create in a vacuum. We are part of a community and so everything needs a dialogue, especially if you are trying to say something. You have to be aware of certain communication expressions. If the content isn’t speaking to the people of the times, of right now, it’s just archaic and indigestible to the masses.
I pay attention to some dead people. From a stylistic point of view, I am interested in things from a long time ago, but even then, I don’t want stuff to get in my head. I think a lot of people are just following each other rather than shaping their own way of looking at things. I do know that distressed screen-printing is popular now. Some of it’s good, yeah.
Alex McLeod:
Cool, let’s see, ummm, ok you kinda answered that, you take lessons from dead people really and they are kind of–
Gary Taxali:
We have to! All of us do.
Alex McLeod:
Is there somebody that you try to follow, like a mentor?
Gary Taxali:
Yeah, there are people like that, none of them are strangers. The people that I have deep respect for and inspire me creatively are a small group of musician friends, and fellow artists. I don’t really talk about art and design with them.
Alex McLeod:
You really have to be on top of your game, otherwise you got nothing. You can’t be a casual musician.
Gary Taxali:
Exactly! You can’t. I want to be forever that kid in the candy shop that doesn’t know how things happen but they’re just really good. I have no interest in learning how to play because I like the freedom of enjoying it.
Alex McLeod:
That thing outside Dufferin Mall, it’s part of streetART Toronto?
Gary Taxali:
It’s all over the city now. The City of Toronto initiated a program to combat the graffiti on traffic boxes at every intersection. They commissioned me to design wraps from the same material as the post boxes, so it’s difficult to tag. There are 35 more popping up. It’s a nice way for the city to say, “We dig art and design, but let’s not damage things.”
Alex McLeod:
This is a good thing, maybe it’s like, and I hate the term “exposure opportunity” because you’ve already exposed yourself, for lack a better phrase, but it’s showcasing your work to people who may have not seen it before, people coming out of Dufferin Mall could be saying, “Hey, this shit’s cool.” You are forever building your audience by doing these things, which I think is fantastic. What advice would you give students of yours, young people or creatives in terms of “exposure opportunities.”
Gary Taxali:
Well, I think it’s a really bad hole to go down when you’re motivated by exposure. You should be motivated by doing the work you love and surviving from it. A plumber survives from their work, why wouldn’t you survive from your work?
Right out of the starting gate, I was working for publications as a student and the thing that insulted me the most was when I met some older professionals who said I should work for less because I am starting out. If we are both in the same publication one artist should not get paid less than another artist. If a rate for something is an established price a professional or emerging artist should get that same number. A famous rock star artist may say ‘double that’ and they may choose to pay that person that, but that doesn’t mean that the flip thinking should happen where an emerging artist should get less.
So the problem with the exposure thing is that it’s exploitation by companies using it to blackmail people in order to say that this will help their career advance and that sounds an awful lot like what a pimp would say to a prostitute.
Alex McLeod:
Fair enough, but when is it advisable to work for free?
Gary Taxali:
I wouldn’t advise anyone to work for free, what I do is donate to charities.
Alex McLeod:
I noticed that, just the other night I was just at an Artscape art auction, and I saw your work.
Gary Taxali:
And I love it. We have an unwritten career/social contract as members of the community who’ve been lucky to bestowed a career by the world. I think an artist needs to give back. I think it’s dangerous not to and it’s bad karma not to. So there is that, but I also think a person should seek things out that are important in the world you want changed.
I have some very good friends who work in Greenpeace and last year I did a poster campaign. For me to go out of my way and spend hours of time, if I can help this thing, it’s important. Children, that’s not a charity or social cause, but I’ve never turned down a small child that asked me for a drawing.
Alex McLeod:
Aw shoot–I should have found a kid and brought him in here. I coulda made a deal with them.
Gary Taxali:
[Laughs] Yeah, they have immunity to that. They always get stuff, right? I don’t even consider it compromising to my career. The only thing is if someone is making money from your pictures then you should get part of the pie, that’s all there is.
Alex McLeod:
That’s pretty simple.
Gary Taxali:
Pretty simple right?
Alex McLeod:
When would you decline to work?
Gary Taxali:
I would decline to work for somebody that’s paying me lots of money that’s a cigarette company or something that isn’t in align with my politics. I think condoms are fantastic, it’s one of the greatest inventions of humankind, it’s important, everything about them is great, but there was a time when a condom company asked me to do some designs right around the time my kids book was coming out and I sort of thought it was a “Not right now’ kinda thing.
Alex McLeod:
Ah for sure, because if that condom campaign is too successful there won’t be any kids in the future to buy the book that you just produced.
Gary Taxali:
[Laughs] Exactly, that’s right.
See more of Gary Taxali’s work here.
Read out studio visit with Alex McLeod and visit his website here.
