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Artist Interview : John Keester (cont.)
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What's the most insane deadline you were ever given to "create" something from start to finish?
YI'd say trade shows caused the most stress for deadlines. There were always those cool but potentially weird jobs when we were designing the trade show booths or a video release party. That's when Stecyk would kick into action, talk about the right guy for the job. He and Fitz were a couple of lunatics. Excellent. For one I had to do almost life sized murals of George, Stacy, Todd Hastings, and some other goofy looking 'golf dudes' on foam core using felt pens in a couple of days. I had never worked big like that and of course there was also the pressure of making them look like 'them.' Another time we re-did the art for a pinball machine. We pulled out the old back glass that was on the machine, and I painted a skate scene, mirror image on the backside of a new sheet of glass that lined up with the dials and lights. Then I re-dressed the play area. Had to come up with a neon sign for a bar set up once. As was usual for these projects, I had never done anything like it before; luckily Stecyk was on the case and some how we got everything together. So there were always uncharted territory and problems that had to be addressed. Of course, that's also half the fun.

What was it like working in the shadow of VCJ and the "image" he had created for Powell Peralta to that point?
It sucked then and it's even worse now. The irony of the situation is that one of the driving reasons that I wanted to work for Powell was to do the kind of graphics that Court had been doing. I always thought the Powell Peralta graphics were superior and felt I could contribute to and evolve that style of graphic. When I got there and was told that the design thrust had changed I was devastated. Now when anyone finds out I worked at Powell as an artist, they launch into did you do the (insert any VCJ graphic here) deck? So Court's shadow is long and indelible. I still admire his work today, which is the testament to any good art.

So Powell decided to move away from VCJs style? What kinds of techniques or styles did you develop?
I had been doing some stipple work right around then, which I still like for the ability to control the values in a pen & ink image. But because I liked the graphic quality of Court's style so much, I messed around with variations on the 'Court-hatching' style. At first I used technical pens. I would ink the drawing, shoot a Photostat, and then sometimes I would correct the line work by cutting the surface off the stat paper to get some whites back; a trick Cliver showed me. That was clean but I felt it lacked spontaneity. Then finally I just went the full distance and started using scratchboard. I love scratchboard because it is so versatile; you work both black into white and white into black. You can work rough and get a kind of primitive woodcut look, or you can exercise control and get a very accurate drawing.

One time I looked at my asshole in the mirror, it blew my fucking mind.
That sounds like a personal problem to me. And that's what you get for keeping your brain in your ass.

What's your favorite graphic you did?
Hard to say... probably the McGill stinger, because that's the direction I would have liked to pursue. But I'm givin' honorable mention to the Hill ear, which I always liked... just because I do. Wade Speyer's "plaid" which I thought was just odd and plain enough to be cool. And the Hawk 'mouse' graphic because I thought it was funny. Oh, and the wing bone t-shirt ruled.

What was the turnaround time on a graphic usually? How did the approval process work?
It varied. One day - one week - one month. Approval process was...random.