The artist on his journey to finding a style and career

Where did you grow up and how has this inf luenced your art? I grew up in Houston, Texas, which does boast some deep-welled art resources: it’s Contemporar y Arts Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, the Rothko Chapel and the insane Menil Collection, which houses, I think, the largest collection of Rene Magritte’s artwork this side of the Atlantic. But the culture is anything but art, or at least it was in the 70s and 80s that I was there for.

There was an underground group of people scattered around the city that weren’t as obsessive about football and church, but it took me until high school to really find it, so I was largely left alone to sort out my art life. My mum helped a little in supporting it with art classes here and there, but it wasn’t until she made me apply and then get into a high school for performing and visual arts that I felt like I found my people and a way out of Texas to the more artful New York City after graduation, and on from there.

What, outside of art, has most inf luenced you over the years? I think movies, TV and books dominated my art seeking back then. There really wasn’t much else to chase after given the culture in Houston, and the stor ytelling aspect of those mediums really shaped me hugely, and led me into comics and books, and now working in film and TV as an artist.

I think in some ways the lack of support and community for an art life down there was a bit of a boon for teaching me to stand on my own, and carve my own path as an artist; there simply was no other choice. Sometimes the negative is what defines the positive.