DYLAN RABE

I had plans to meet Dylan in his studio on a day I had packed way too many activities and errands into. It was rainy, I was hungry, and my brain was foggy.. but talking to Dylan got me feeling a little more relaxed and human again ( his way of speaking is pretty slow, steady, calm and spaced out, which I appreciate ). Interview and photos after the jump:

DR: You don't have to ask me anything.

EC:I want to, though.

DR:Okay. I guess that would help..

EC: Because it 's an interview. But I don't want to ask you where you're from ,or anything like that.

DR: Yeah, nobody needs to know.

There's this..you know Balthus, the painter?

EC:Yeah.

DR:His artist statement, when he had a retrospective at the MOMA or something was,"BALTHUS IS A PAINTER OF WHOM NOTHING IS KNOWN. NOW LET US LOOK AT THE PICTURES.."

I think tha'ts the best artist statement ever. 

No information. No facts in this interview.

EC:Just lie to me the whole time, ok?

DR:Ok.

EC:Alright, what are you doing right now?

DR:Well before you got here, I was drawing..

EC:You've mostly been doing drawings.

DR:Yes, I've been drawing with this stick that I think..is a chopstick?

EC:...a stick.

DR: Yeah.It doesn't have any little nib thing to hold ink, and I like it this way. 

It's a very good stick. I'd say I've made every good drawing of my life with it.

EC:Wait, you've had this stick for longer than..

DR:I've had it for like..three years, probably.

EC:So you just dip it in ink and draw with it.

DR:Yeah, and I have to keep dipping it constantly, because it doesn't hold liquids. 

All the small drawings are made with the stick. 

EC:Only the stick?

DR:Actually, those (pointing at some drawings )might have a brush.

There's already a lot of deception happening here.

EC:So..you just like the stick because it's really simple..and you've had it a long time...or?

DR:No, there's no sentimental attachment to it..and it's a simple object, but it's pretty complex...the things you can do with it. I like the limitation. 

Feel free to try the stick.

( I try the stick )

EC:Have you not been doing paintings lately then?

DR:I've been painting, but my paintings have just turned into drawings. Like this one.. and this one.. are the most recent paintings. 

EC:Are they done?

DR:No. But the longer I don't work on them, the more I'm starting to think I won't finish them..or that they are done. 

EC:What was your plan for them initially?

More color? Fleshing the forms out more?

DR:Trying to stay away from color right now. It causes a lot of problems for me. But yeah, I was going to keep fleshing out the drawing.I don't know what that means..fleshing out. That's not really what I'm doing.

EC:I meant like..molding them a little more..

DR:Yeah,that was..last month .I don't really paint like that anymore.

EC:(Laughing)That was last month, and you don't really paint like that anymore?

DR:I feel like I've left that phase behind. After this painting, I made that one..and that was pretty fun to do. 

EC:That one looks political to me.

DR:A lot of people think it's Obama or Nixon. 

EC:Well, it's so ..such a caricature.

DR:It was from a drawing..uh..and the drawing was an ink drawing made with the stick.It looked like a political cartoon, sort of. But I guess that wasn't what I was going for. 

EC:What were you going for?

DR:I don't know, like a family drama.

Just a domestic scene.

DR:Yeah, I feel like I'm kind of in the middle of a crisis with painting. That's maybe why I'm drawing so much...but that feels good. I'm just trying to feel good when I paint and draw now..as opposed to having a goal in mind. 

EC:That's probably healthy.

DR:I feel a lot healthier than before...I say, as I play with this knife. 

EC:(Laughs)

DR:I think a lot of the paintings I was making before were kind of overdetermined..I knew exactly what they were going to look like before I even got close to being done, and that got to be a kind of chore.

EC:Expectation. You've let go of some of that..

You know what? I think that expectation might be the root of all evil. 

DR:I think you're so right.

EC:The key to unhappiness is expectation.

DR:Is expectation.. kind of equal to desire? 

EC:Does expectation come out of desire, or the other way around?

DR:Desire is definitely the cause of a lot of suffering. Maybe all suffering. 

EC:Either way, you're letting go of some desire..or expectation..or both.

Did you used to desire validation for your paintings and 
drawings..from other people..for them to like your work? And has that changed with your new attitude..?

DR:I mean, obviously a part of your ego is always there..lurking in the background..but I'm definitely making a concious effort to put those thoughts out of my mind when I'm working..and that's the biggest shift probably. It seems so obvious..and I've tried to get to that place before, but..

EC:It's one of the hardest things to overcome, especially being in a school situation..because you're constantly being reminded that people are judging your output. It's not like you're making them at home by yourself..you have people coming in, looking at your works and works in progress..critiquing.. 

DR:Totally.. and it begs the question: what am I doing here in art school if I came here to learn to make things just for myself? But that's ..I don't know. It's a lot easier said than done. I feel like ..I'm getting somewhere.

I'm taking this John Cage class right now, and he kind of inspired me to not seek particular outcomes for a work of art. To just uh..do it.

EC:Just do it.

DR:Nike. Swoosh.

A lot of swooshes happening.

I think maybe that's what my subconcious has been wanting to do all this time ..is make these goofy swooping lines, and they're so corny.. but they give me pleasure as I  make them. And these funky surrealist objects..which I had always just doodled in sketchbooks, but had never allowed myself to put in a painting. Now I feel like, why not? I felt before like they were..

EC:Silly?

DR:Yeah, silly. 

But I like that now. 

I was kind of..mentally unstable like three months ago.I was making a lot of things just to cope, I feel like.. 

I made this....this is the Devil.And some legs...it's so dumb. It's got the moon. And a cabin in the woods.

I was making a lot of demented big drawings, and now I'm making really small careful drawings with my stick.

DR: I feel ..like I actually know kind of where I might be going now...as opposed to being completely insane before. Just trying to survive my project, as they say.

EC:Whens your last one?

DR:I mean the project of being an artist..in general.

EC:Oh. ..your life.

DR:Yes. 

EC:Surviving your life. Until you die.

DR:Surviving my life. Until I die.

I also stopped smoking weed a few months ago. I was realizing I was using it to escape from reality. I'm trying to come back to reality in a lot of ways. Not trying to escape so much. Probably don't put that part in. 

It's weird what just ends up on the floor. I don't remember putting this here..this Max Beckmann skulls picture..but it looks a lot like that demon drawing.

"Still Life with Skulls" Max Beckmann

EC:Why is this person vomiting?

DR:Because it was Easter when I made that drawing. 

EC:(Laughs)

DR:And I was fed up with all the marshmallow Peeps.

I made that in one afternoon. I was posessed. 




Dylan's WEBSITE