We’re looking forward to introducing you to Fuzz E Grant. Check out our conversation below.
Fuzz E , it’s always a pleasure to learn from you and your journey. Let’s start with a bit of a warmup: What do the first 90 minutes of your day look like?
Rolling out of bed and downing coffee before heading to the studio. Once in the studio I take time to assess what’s happening, write a little journal, get comfortable with the day and how I am feeling before starting work. I usually have around 5 artworks going at a time so it’s important to have that moment of calm and organization before the flurry of movement begins.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Fuzz E Grant, an artist who lives and works in San Francisco. I feel like I was born a bear and forced into the human world. I delight in being a scavenger of color and texture and having an intuitive animalistic nature of creating works. They are not very planned, they grow.
My art is a vehicle to connect humans to the non-human world, while providing joy and humor. I subvert the voyeuristic portrayal humans have of non-human animals by discarding saccharine or cliched imagery of animals. Instead I portray them as characters, watching over humanity, in silent judgment.
A pivotal point in my artistic career was spending time with brown bears in Alaska. The subversion of the power balance, with humans on the bottom, I realized the anxiety that most animals must constantly feel in the ever expanding human world and highlighted the need for a more equitable power balance of non human and human animals.
Working with characters allows me to bring a connection with you and the art, at a personal level, and provides comfort and support. I’m often told from someone that they “need this work to be in their lives” which seems indicative of humans disconnection with the natural world.
Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. What part of you has served its purpose and must now be released?
I used to be able to do a bang up job of pretending to be normal- to fit in with society-after many years being told to. It served me as a defense mechanism against criticism but left me feeling dead inside. I find my strangeness and strange attitudes seeping out more, and still get a bit freaked out when people point it out. However I know I should be embracing my strange qualities. I’m working on it.
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
So many times. After being in a large artistic community for a number of years I realized the true artists- the ones who have the spirit have tried all their lives to NOT be artists. I have tried many different jobs and ways of life and I always came back to making art. Relatively recently I just gave up trying to be anything else and embrace the broken down roller coaster that is being an artist.
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. What are the biggest lies your industry tells itself?
That sales are what makes a great artist. It’s such a weird industry (is it even an industry?). Naturally people want to define it in terms that are relevant in other areas and it just isn’t accurate. I know many artists who are amazing world class but have never sold their work- nor want to. And there are many who make awful work that sells like crazy. It’s tough to not get caught up in it and to really keep your idea of what is art and what is success.
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. If you knew you had 10 years left, what would you stop doing immediately?
Stop worrying about what others are doing, what’s happening in galleries and just go real crazy with the artwork.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.fuzzegrant.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fuzz.e.grant/
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