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MD: How long does it usually take for a graphic to go from idea to final product?
VCJ: It can happen overnight.
MD: Is there any graphic that you’ve done overnight?!?!?
VCJ: Uhh… no. I’ve done a lot of commercial work overnight and it’s gone to print. "Can we get something tomorrow?". I say "Yeah I
happen to have a little window. Let me see if I can whip something together for you". It could take … I’d like to get it down to a month.
I use to juggle projects at Powell. I’d have a half dozen projects and other stuff on the go. Now I can focus on just one or maybe two
projects at once. And if I got it out in a month that would satisfy the creative self… but there’s also the matter of doing something too fast and
regretting you see. If George Powell is comfortable with say 3 or 4 meetings before final stage then that’s pretty smooth. You start with rough ideas
and then you do variations of rough ideas and then you pick one of those rough ideas, or several of those rough ideas, and you take them towards something
more comprehensive. And out of those comprehensive ideas you do subtle variations on that and coax that towards a final image. And then when you get
final approval on the comprehensive image, then you take it to the inking process. And then after the final inking, things can still change.
new friends...Matt and VCJ
MD: What was it like for you? Were you ever at a point where you were satisfied with an image and George wanted to keep working it? Were you
frustrated with that? Did you appreciate that? What was that like for you?
VCJ: I had a different nervous system. I don’t have that same nervous system. My nervous system was shot full of metals and alcohol damage and
this that and the other. From lead damage from washing my hands with gasoline as a kid. My nervous system was shot when I was with the company before.
My nervous system feels brand new after my detox and rebuilding process of the body. A shamonic practice that also uses…. I mean the shamans have known
about self purification for thousands of years. But I’ve learned muscle testing or kinethesiolgy which allows me to read my system and other systems.
And once I learned muscle testing I began to read my system and I became my primary guinea pig. I can monitor my system. I close my eyes and see the
dashboard of all the systems of the body. I know that my kidneys are overcharged right now because of the excitement…. And emotional.
MD: About what?
VCJ: About our encounter! Well we’ve encountered in past lives. And you looked like this to me before in past lives.
MD: What were we like then?
VCJ: We were … simple folk shall we say. The culture was much simpler. There was wood, air, fire, water.. mud, food. Much simpler lives. We
live in a highly advanced technological society now and we live in bodies that are essentially the same human bodies.
You were a fine comrade of mine in my most recent life. We travelled together long distance with lllong conversations.
24 hour conversations.
MD: So this is old hat for you then between you and me?
VCJ: Not at all! I noticed that you are so much at ease in your psyche that I can see that as a soul you’ve answered certain questions over the time
that it’s taken for us to encounter again. But essentially I feel like we’re continuing with the conversation that we left off with.
MD: OK! So continuing along. You could take a look at any skateboard back in the day, and there was a very distinct style that each artist had.
It was very easy to pick out one of your graphics. Where do you pick up your style? What has inspired you and helped you to mould and develop your
own distinct style?
VCJ: Style is based on how the soul sees. If you give a final comprehensive pencil drawing to a bunch of different artists, they’ll all come up with a
different treatment for that. You say "do a final ink of this idea" and it’s a matter of who the soul is how the drawing comes out cuz he’ll
express his values through the drawing and that’ll be conveyed.
I’m much more interested in substance than style. Styles come and go but if you bank on substance or some kind of truth… some inner truth,
then the inner truth about what I’m doing is that I want to inspire other artists.
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