Interview with May artist Troy Ayala

Introducing Troy Ayala, local artist and musician of the bands Stickers and White Coward, and Cairo's featured artist of the month!

Troy's show, titled Pussy Light: Wicklified, kicks of TONIGHT, May 9th, from 7-9 PM. 

Read up on Troy's influences and art practice, and then come tonight for art, drinks, and conversation!

Tell me a little about the art in this show.

The art in this show mostly consists of collage work based off of old magazines and books (lots of vintage penthouses) mashed together to form disturbing, crass, and funny characters with a little drawing included to add to the eye candy.

Who/what/which other artists inspired this work? 

My work has been influenced by the hilarity I find in vintage advertising, celebrities, and nudie magazines.  My primary influences are Art Chantry, Omar Pierce, and especially for this show Emily Denton, Gabriella Page Fort, and Colin Dawson...aka close buds and bandmates.

When did you start making art? 

I started making art about five years ago when I had a ton of free time on my hands and thought I was capable of making art just as good as other artists I'd watched over the years.  I'd always doubted my technical abilities but had the realization that it wasn't the most important attribute when creating something.

How would you best describe your creative body of work, thus far? 

I consider my work to be taken pretty lightly as I aim to make people have a giggle when they see it.  I just really enjoy making weird, awkward, sometimes crass characters that people can stare at for a long time.  I don't take myself too seriously and currently think of myself as the Riff Raff (rapper) of the Seattle art community. ;)

What is a medium you would like to try, but haven't yet?

I would try my hand at making and editing videos and I'd love to get back into photography which is something i used to love to do.

How has this city influenced your work? 

The city has really given me confidence to show my work in public and just be free to make anything that my brain wants to cook up.  I've had some amazing encouragement from amazing people throughout the years and am so thankful for what Seattle has done for me...it's pretty much made me not give a fuck in the best way ever.

See you tonight!

Interview with March Artist Shannon Perry!

Tonight (Friday, March 8th) is the opening of Hanz/Haus! 

This show, open until mid-April, features work by artists/musicians/housemates Shannon Perry and Lelah Maupin.

Shannon will be showing drawings and sculptures of hands.

Lelah will be showing drawings and paintings about Spruce House.

Set up at Cairo

Check out this interview with Shannon and come to Cairo tonight!

Can you tell me a little about your inspiration for this show? 

Over the last couple years, I've been doing a lot of hand-related art, so this show seemed like a good opportunity to bring that recurring idea into fruition in a more solid way.

Do you prefer collaborating for art or going solo? 

Well, when it comes to making music, I'd say I like to collaborate, but visually, I usually fly solo. I'm not sure if that's because I prefer it that way, or if it's just been the way things have worked out so far. I'd certainly say I'm open to collaborate on things; I certainly do a lot of collaborative type work when trying to create custom work for tattoos. People tell me what they want, and I try my best to create something I can be proud of that they like as well... Does that count? :)

What brought you to tattooing?

I bought a tattoo kit off EBay years ago because I didn't want to pay high prices to get the simple line-type tattoos I tend to cover myself with. I figured I'd save money, and that I was decent enough at drawing to pull it off.  It worked for a while until my left side started to become disproportionately covered. Eventually I enlisted Lisa Orth to help me with my right side, and we hit it off. I told her about my home tattooing, and she asked me if I'd ever thought about taking it more seriously, as she had seen and liked my artwork. It was an awesome opportunity, and I had to take it. I graduated from my apprenticeship last week, and I'm very happy to now call myself a tattoo artist!

How is it better/worse than other creative mediums? 

It's better because it feels like there's a lot of room to play with what kinds of things people might typically get as tattoos. It's worse because tattoo culture can tend to dampen the perception of the art. I think it's cool though. I love incorporating my sense of humor into my work, and I like to take simpler, less "serious" pieces more seriously. I like a real sketchy, hand-drawn style.

Is there something you would never tattoo on an individual (other than the obvious hate-speech or discriminatory images/phrases)?

Oooh, that's a tough question. I'm very lucky to have a lot of friends with great taste, so I'm not often confronted with what I would consider to be awful ideas. I'd really have to take it on a case by case basis. I haven't yet turned anyone down based upon my personal taste, but I've only been doing this for under a year, and I haven't been asked to do anything real extreme yet.. We'll have to see...

You, like many artists, work in the service industry. What is the worst service industry job you've ever had? 

I'm happy to say that I just quit my service industry job, and I'm going full time tattoo artist at Alleged Tattoo! The worst food service job I've had was at a Greek restaurant, that shall remain nameless. The owner suggested I wear more make-up. I would say that Red Robin was the worst, but I had a lot fun wearing the bird costume.

Join us for drinks and good conversation.

Hope to see you there!

CAIRO 

507 E Mercer 

98112