Godfather of Street Art Ron English on His Surreal New Creations
Originally published in Playboy Magazine. For more information, check out Ron English’s Popaganda.
“It’s hard, but it’s not work.”
Such is the creative process for Ron English, the undisputed godfather of street art and trailblazer of pop surrealism who paved the way for the likes of Banksy and Shepard Fairey.
He’s come a long way since his teenage years in the 70s “doing illegal billboards” in his hometown of Decatur, Illinois. Today, English is a celebrated artistic visionary whose mash-up of humorous yet provocative pieces expose humankind’s visceral drives and subvert our culture of materialism. “I think to experience joy in art is just as important as expressing a really deep concept.”
A year and a half in the works by his own estimation, “TOYBOX: America in the Visuals,” is English’s new multisensory extravaganza featuring music, sculpture and limited-edition toys created around his latest collection of 36 oil paintings. The production is on display at the Corey Helford Gallery, a massive space in Downtown LA featuring three separate galleries. “This is considered the best art gallery in LA and the space is epic,” says English. “You can do big things here. Literally.”
Man child: Donald Trump with Ron English’s signature grin motif
The exhibit explores themes of individual and societal identity as conceived through imagination, specifically childlike imagination, and weaves it all together through English’s signature milieu of vibrant, hyper-detailed imagery. “The music and art speak to the loss of innocence,” he conveys. “I was playing with the idea of trying to hold on to the childhood perspective. I still wanted to talk about sophisticated things, but from a childlike point of view.”
That point of view is very personal for English. “As a kid, I remember having all these [artistic] visions and there was nothing I could really do about it. I tried so hard to paint them but I was only five years old and didn’t have the ability. For me, this show is about reaching back and finding that little boy and saying, ‘Hey, guess what? I learned how to do all the things that you couldn’t do and now I can express them and show people.’ Essentially, with this exhibit, I’ve been working for my childhood self.”
It’s a compelling concept and not one isolated to the artist. It could be argued that most of us find ourselves simultaneously attempting to break free from the constructs of our childhood yet longing to return to the ineffable nostalgia of our youth. “That’s true. Narratives start when you’re young and it’s especially hard to get rid of old narratives. If somebody lives in the Midwest and is raised a Christian, it would be very difficult for them to question their beliefs because that story is one of the first things they’ve ever heard. I actually had that moment fairly early on, which made me a weirdo to most people.”
As he continues, “ I remember being a little kid and standing up in church saying, ‘You’re just making this stuff up.’ They got really angry with me, so then I became scared. I felt like I did something wrong when all I was really doing was using my God-given gift.”
Taking a knee: English’s statues of David and beyond
That gift, says English, comes down to one thing that applies to every human being. “The blessing that we’ve been given is our frontal lobe. Because I can look and see that all the animals don’t have this. This is what He or She or It gave us that’s special. So how can you diss that? How can you not use it? That to me is the ultimate sacrilege. And if there’s a hell, then you’re going to burn in hell for not using it and simply adopting the first myth you hear and go, ‘That’s it! Done thinking about that!’”
For TOYBOX, English also co-produced a musical soundtrack to be performed by a new real-life character–his alter ego DJ Popaganda. “It’s a real person from Vegas, but we don’t reveal who it is. He and I make the music together and then he performs wearing a mask so you can’t see him. I’m not sure a gallery has ever had a show that tells a story like Delusionville and also has an accompanying soundtrack created by the artist.
Delusionville is an incredibly complex and colorful fantasy created by English that features some 100 different characters. “It’s a parable about class. And delusion. And childlike innocence. And the loss of it all,” he says. Some of the more recognizable characters include Temper Tot based on his earlier creation of “The Incredulous Hulk Boy” and Dennis the Menace with Richie Rich, both by way of a Donald Trump makeover featuring English’s signature grin motif.
The child clown of Ron English’s Delusionville
“The grin is the darkness underneath the smiley face. When somebody’s always grinning, you know they’re up to something.“ The kaleidoscopic cast also includes Punk Skunk, the artist’s first pot-smoking character (“It’s a play on skunk weed; I just wanted a weed-smoking character in Delusionville”) and, of course, MC Supersized, his obese version of Ronald McDonald that was famously featured in Morgan Spurlock’s 2004 documentary “Super Size Me.”
“I grew up in the Midwest where people were raised to think a certain way and are very comfortable with that way of thinking,” he muses. “A lot of my old friends don’t like me anymore because I’m making fun of Trump and he’s our president and I’m a liberal and everything that’s wrong with the world, in their view, is because of liberals and yada yada yada. Americans are an interesting lot because they don’t have class consciousness. There’s a caste system here that people don’t acknowledge and that’s what I’m addressing with this work.”
Punk Skunk: The artist’s first pot-smoking character is a riff on skunk weed
It’s an observation riddled with irony, considering that America’s income disparity is at an historical record high, with the top one percent now taking nearly 40 percent of all U.S. income.
“A society isn’t just about how rich you can get. A society is about how we are going to get along together, how we are going to take care of the Earth, how we are going to take care of each other,” he asserts. “Money is a weird, distorting thing. There is nobody who has enough money. Nobody is satisfied with what they have. We worship the wrong things.”
So does English have a problem with money now that he has progressed from his early NYC artist days living in “a really bad area where guys sold drugs and literally walked down the street carrying uzis” to hobnobbing with famous friends and fetching tens of thousands of dollars for his works?
“I was always lazy about making money. Some artists pursue money really hard and others never think about it, but my now-wife who I was courting back then was sort of the [impetus] for me to start making money. She had grown up in a bad area in Detroit and I think she just didn’t want to live in that kind of environment ever again. So I realized I should try to make some money,” he laughs.
In front of the canvas and the camera
As for why his art resonates with so many people across ages and cultures, he says it’s “probably because I know so many different kinds of people and I have so many different people that I’m playing to. When I’m creating, I’m thinking about my friends in Illinois, I’m thinking about [Corey Helford Gallery owners] Jan and Bruce, I’m thinking about Slash, I’m thinking about other people. It’s not a purely selfish endeavor.”
The way he sees it, “If creating art were purely selfish, you’d just sit around and daydream. You wouldn’t go through the struggle.”
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A friend has a surreal painting he purchased at a garage sale. He was told it was by an artist who once worked for Playboy. He was also told it’s an original, no copy’s. I wonder if you could tell me if you have ever seen it if I forward you a digital copy. I looks like Jerry Lee Lewis’s face, or his “son”s , with hands extended with flames coming out of the tops of the hands. If it sounds like something you remember, I could attach it. I’m looking for the artist name. It is not signed on the front.