@samvanallemeersch

Instagram: @samvanallemeersch Tumblr: www.leplusdangereux.tumblr.com, www.kolchoz.tumblr.com Website: www.sovchoz.be

1. What's your story? Where are you from?

I live in Belgium. My story is really average. Growing up and drawing and playing computer games and (almost) daily library visits. Reading lots of comics. First heartbreak. Being an adult and drawing. Meeting beautiful ginger woman. Having a kid and a house and drawing. Obsessing over stupid things. Having no money. Still drawing.

2. Tell us about your aesthetic.

I honestly do not know how to answer this question. My drawings are rather busy and detailed because I have an incredibly short attention span. So I tend to draw a couple of small things for two minutes, do nothing for the next five and repeat. It became a thing, but it wasn’t my intention. Though I like stories on top of stories evolving into other stories so the first story doesn’t matter.

3. What is your favourite medium and why?

I used to love Rotring pens for their objective line but now it’s black ink and nib. Very direct material. Colorex too. Thinking of branching out into airbrush. Airbrush is cool. This is airbrush by Masao Sato in 1984. I love it.

4. What is your artistic process like?

Thinking, lying down, being insecure about what I’m going to make, eating cookies, drawing, throw drawing away, start again, go back for cookies. I also eat a lot of bananas these days. Trying to remain concentrated, which I find really difficult. Some days I draw all day. Some days I don’t.

5. Who and/or what inspires your work?

It can be anything really. Some stuff just hits you at the right moment.

6. What role does art play in your life? How does it change the way you view the world?

No pedestal for it. I look at art from a very technical point of view, I hardly understand it.

7. Where did you study?

Antwerp, Belgium.

8. Where do you see yourself in five years?

I do not think about this. It gets me really anxious and I start thinking about bills and diseases.

9. What about in ten?

Hopefully healthy, not balding, not fat and well off with no unpaid bills. Looking at my daughter going out with boys and/or girls and my life becoming like this (very bad) movie. But honestly, I don’t think about this either. I just did this as a mental excercise so you’d have more interview. (you’re welcome)

10. What do you hope to achieve with your art?

I have no idea. I just do it. I get up in the morning and do something or nothing and that’s it. I had some idea when I was young(er) but it all sounded very preposterous so I stopped thinking about it. Knowing what one wants to achieve ruins all the fun. Though it's probably great as a sales talk. (the same with knowing how to explain one’s aesthetic I guess). Sorry, I’m bad at this.

11. Now, tell us a little more about you as a person: what is your favourite food?

Cheap ramen noodles (prawn flavor). The thought alone makes me salivate.

12. Favourite book?

If I have to answer something now, from the top of my head… The Airtight Garage (by Moebius). Read it the first time when I was 14 and still obsess over it. From the other top of the other head, a book with polaroids by Helmut Newton. Also: Dune and Kangaroo Notebook (<--reading it is a work in progress. (fun fact))

13. Favourite genre of music?

Right now: this, this, this, and this. And this is my playlist should anyone care. I also love this live set very much. Makes me want to draw :)

14. What are your hobbies?

Does sleeping count?

15. If you weren't an artist, what would you be?

This guy. I still don’t consider myself an artist, even when other people tell me I am. So I’ll consider this, and the interview, like a compliment :)