Images courtesy of Swampy
“Teamwurrk,” 2009.
For the “bootleg artist” known as Swampy, the world is an endless living canvas. Variations on his signature “swampdonkey” tag — the skull of some imaginary tusked creature — can be found in almost every imaginable setting across America: dilapidated skyscrapers in Oakland, Calif.; train trestles in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico; gallery walls in Atlanta or Brooklyn. Though he’s best known for his graffiti, Swampy’s output varies wildly and incorporates a kaleidoscope of materials, styles and settings. His studio is almost entirely mobile, his materials are liberated as needed from large art supply chains, and he travels entirely for free by hopping freight trains. Trains, and train hopping, are a central theme in the hundreds of works he displays on Flickr and at swmpdnky.com. T caught up with Swampy, who had just spent several months traveling by train through Mexico taking photos for a new book, from his home in Oakland. This is his first published interview.
Although repetition is central to your work, the spaces you choose to display and create art vary wildly. How do you choose where to do what?
A lot of it is looking for the place where my painting will live a long, peaceful existence. I try to paint places where it won’t ruin someone’s day, but sometimes when the spot is too beautiful, you have to weigh your options.
“Cold Growth,” 2010.Much of your work can be considered “private” — that is, only visible in isolated, hard-to-find places. Do you approach these settings differently than you would, say, a gallery space?
I find myself working in lots of “hard to get to” or “no reason to get to” places, where the prospect of stumbling upon my work is very low — the opposite of galleries. My approach doesn’t change much. I might let myself get a little more loose with my “private” art, but I’m trying to do that with my “public” art as well these days.
Where do you place your art in the context of graffiti’s growing legitimacy in the art world? I’m thinking, for example, of Jeffrey Deitch’s planned graffiti exhibition at MoCA in Los Angeles. Is that kind of setting something you can imagine for yourself?
I usually refer to myself as a “bootleg artist.” I never went to art school, I don’t know how a lot of things in the art world work, and I’m unprofessional with my approach to just about everything. At the same time, contemporary art has helped me realize that I can get away with doing what I love. For me, there was never a decisive moment where I felt obligated to pick whether to show in galleries or to only paint on other people’s property.
Graffiti is great, it’s mysterious, it’s real, it’s against the law, it’s acting upon a world that acts upon you, but the graffiti I make wouldn’t exist without the work I put on paper, and putting that piece of paper in a gallery is just another part of life. The graffiti game isn’t any less idiotic and narcissistic than the gallery game. I just pick and choose what I like and want from each, and that’s how I live with it all.
Do you have a favorite work?
No. I love doing what I do, but it’s hard to appreciate and pick a favorite work of my own. It’s like trying to listen to your own band.
“We Ride For Free,” 2010.Funny you should put it like that; some musicians are infamous for only listening to their own music. On another note, are you able to live off your art, or your Web store? How much of your travel is done for free?
Almost all of my travel is done entirely for free. I live in a squat and I ride freight trains; all I need cash for is bus fare to and from the train yard. I made the online store a little while back to sell a run of T-shirts, and I’ve been living off that money for a year now. The rest of that money is going into the production of a book I’m putting together this year about my time riding trains around Mexico.
That leads me to the trains — they assume a huge presence in your galleries, both as setting and as subject. Your galleries feel like train travelogues, and yet I know you’re hesitant to glorify the lifestyle.
It’s complicated. Far too many people send me e-mails asking for train advice, and if I ever feel even remotely responsible for the death of some kid in Kansas who likes my train-hopping photos, I’ll delete my Web site. But yeah, almost all of my travel is by freight train. Riding trains is a great way to get from city to city — and also a great way to get cut in half.
Where are you right now? In all your travel and work, does any city stick out to you as your favorite?
Right now I’m in Oakland, planning my next trip — Alaska, it looks like. If I ever figure out a favorite city, it will probably be somewhere in California. Sometimes I need to come home.