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Interview with Face-Melting Visionary Artist Vincent Fink
Editor’s Note: Vincent Fink’s limited edition prints are now available for purchase in the Surrealism Today online store. This is part 3 in a 3 part series. We have previously covered Vincent Fink’s Iterations project and his Atlas Metamorphosis Project.
Surrealism Today: Where were you born?
Vincent Fink: Houston, TX
Surrealism Today: What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Vincent Fink: A Renaissance Man. Like Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins.
Surrealism Today: Is there an artwork here you are most proud of? Why?
Vincent Fink: I am usually most proud of my most recent work because I am always improving and pushing myself to be better. But I would have to say out of the Iterations, 77: A Fleshy Facade, A Cryptic Charade because its the most surreal and strange. It was also the largest at 4ft x 5ft and was a commission piece based off a sketch I doodled for fun, never intending it to be a large painting, so it really stretched me in new directions I want to continue to explore. And for Atlas Metamorphosis, I’d say Stage 1 of 4: Emperor Egg cause it was the last piece in a Tetralogy that took almost 10 years to complete. Feels good to have that kind of closure.
Surrealism Today: What is the best piece of advice you have ever received? What is the worst?
Vincent Fink: The best advice is definitely this: to work hard and find a mentor. Don’t wait for inspiration or the right time, just get to work. The worst advice was to take it easy and just let things happen. Nothing ever happens, or not much when you aren’t pushing at 100%.
Surrealism Today: Who is the one person, dead or alive, that you would like to have dinner with and why?
Vincent Fink: My father, because he was my hero.
Surrealism Today: Where is your favorite place? Where is home?
Vincent Fink: Wherever I can truly be me. For now that seems to be my studio. I moved back into the house I grew up in for now, and it sometimes doesn’t feel like home anymore. I don’t think I have a home other than wherever I am. As long as there’s shelter from the rain. I would rather be constantly moving but that is not feasible at this juncture.
Surrealism Today: Who are your biggest influences?
Vincent Fink: Rene Magritte, M.C. Esher, Rob Gonsalves, Peter Gric, Alex Grey, Mark Ryden, Marion Peck, H.R.
Giger.
Surrealism Today: What wouldn’t you do without?
Vincent Fink: A pencil and lots of paper. A guitar.
Surrealism Today: What is your dream project?
Vincent Fink: I want to make Atlas Metamorphosis
books and eventually movies, among many outlandish ideas.
Surrealism Today: What’s your favorite artwork?
Vincent Fink: I think this might be impossible to answer.
Surrealism Today: What is currently on your playlist?
Vincent Fink: A lot of people say they listen to everything, but then I ask if they like Death Metal and they say no.
I actually listen to every kind of music but I lean heavily towards
metal and rock. I have been jamming Vivaidi, Cannibal Corpse,
David Bowie, Scars on Broadway, Lotus Effect, Bon Jovi, Jonathan Davis/Korn, to name a few… I listen to my own songs too.
Surrealism Today: What are your last three Google searches?
Vincent Fink: I don’t use Google anymore because they spy, sell your info, and rig the search results to hide things they don’t want you to find. So I use a safe search engine and I suggest everyone do the same. I use
DuckDuckGo or Startpage. I have been researching galleries, finding more ways to make a living doing art such as finding patrons, so it would definitely be something related to that.
Surrealism Today: What gives you life?
Vincent Fink: Creating something beautifully different that
I’ve never seen done before. Expanding my knowledge of useful
subjects. Also, being one with nature. I love the great outdoors
and want to start Decentralizing my life by learning to live off the
land a bit more. I think it is important to become self-sustaining
and not depend on any government to take care of you.
Surrealism Today: What is your superpower? Kryptonite?
Vincent Fink: I have an infinite amount of ideas and ways of expressing myself. It is also my kryptonite because it makes it hard to focus on one thing or to do the analytical work that it takes to successfully run an art business. So I have to tame my creativity while extracting the best out of it. I have more ideas than I can ever get to, so I have to be selective.
Surrealism Today: If you could visit any artist’s studio, whose would you visit and why?
Vincent Fink: Peter Gric. His house looks fabulous.
Surrealism Today: What was the last thing you bought?
Vincent Fink: Art supplies. Always. That’s about all I ever ask for.
Surrealism Today: What is your favorite piece of clothing?
Vincent Fink: My Point506 hoodie or one of my many Point506 T-shirts. It’s all about that .506 gear.
Surrealism Today: What is hanging on your walls at home?
Vincent Fink: I have a lot of small local artist’s work. My favorite originals are by my deceased friend and amazing artist Michel Draper. Also, I love my Kevin Peterson giclee print of the painting he did that got used for the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ album cover for The Getaway. Kevin has a studio right down the hall from me and gave me some excellent advice about how to advance into galleries a few years back so I have great respect for him.
Surrealism Today: We all love a movie night, so what is your favorite film of all time?
Vincent Fink: Either The Matrix or Waking Life. I like movies that change the way you see the world. Ones that open the 3rd eye. You are never the same after those movies.
Surrealism Today: What is your favorite art gallery in the world and why?
Vincent Fink: I would say Dorothy Circus Gallery in Rome and London because they seem to have the best in surrealism today. I am under a consultancy with their owner, so you might see my work there at some point. Her professional advice has been invaluable. But for now, I have to give it to Corey Helford Gallery in L.A. for the same reason but also because they have actually dared to have my work in a show later this year!
Surrealism Today: If you could collaborate with anyone, who would it be and why?
Vincent Fink: Other than dead people, I would love to collab with Mark Ryden on something like a public art sculpture. I was influenced by his
Dodecahedron when I made my 1st and 2nd Dodecahedron, the 2nd of which is temporarily on display at Heights Blvd. in Houston until this December. Large-scale geometric public art poses a huge challenge for me but it is extremely rewarding to pull off. Having created it also spawned my new performance art series inside the structure in response to the Covid-19 lockdown. I can only imagine what Ryden and I would cook up together. It would be insane!
Or Peter Gric because I think I would learn a lot from brushing shoulders with someone who has such a refined process to his art. I think we would see a little more eye to eye and connect more as humans so it would probably work better with him.
Surrealism Today: What is next for you?
Vincent Fink: So many things are on the horizon its hard to isolate what is next. I am pivoting in light of the lockdown so hopefully, that won’t cause me to just become an off-grid quaker, but as far as projects go; I’m refining my process and developing a new series of work that will synthesize everything I’ve done in the past into something fresh and different, yet at the same time, more consistent. I recently started experimenting with 3D software again so I’m thinking about stuff like augmented reality, but we’ll see if I ever get to that. Even though I’m ever sharpening my focus I still foresee more multimedia works of public art, murals, performance art, clothing design, tech-based stuff like animation, and sculptural/3D works. But definitely more shows featuring the drawings and paintings I’m working on right now.
This year is still my year in spite of all the chaos. This decade is ours to make of it what we want. I want to look back on this decade as the time when I finally put it all together and worked hard enough to make something truly marvelous that helped elevate the human condition.
Can you imagine what the world would be like if we all had that
mindset?
Editor’s Note: Vincent Fink’s limited edition prints are now available for purchase in the Surrealism Today online store.
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