Rumpus Interview with Zak Smith (link)
Michele: How does your environment influence your work or the way in which you work?
Zak: When I lived in New York and I painted a girl sitting on her bed, there was a fire escape out the window, so there was a fire escape in the painting and I had to figure out what made fires escapes interesting to look at. Now there are palm trees out the window, so there are palm trees in the painting and I have to figure out what makes palm trees interesting to look at. Everything else is the same–they sell liquitex acrylic and needle-width brushes on both coasts.
Michele: Why work in porn?
Zak: Nobody ever asks me “Why make paintings”? Is wanting to spend your time around attractive women who like to have sex much more difficult a desire for journalists to understand than wanting to dip wisps of horsehair into a wet lake of colored goo and smear it all over a piece of paper until it looks pretty?
Such clear-sightedness. Such simplicity.
There’s a sweet interview on his porn career here.
Do you just fuck women? Do you have a certain “type”?
My type is like…I guess I like girls who are attractive. I like attractive women. And gophers. Pretty much any kind of gopher.
You mock my questions! You’re not getting off so easy. What do you consider attractive?
I like women whose hotness is really really obvious. I have no interest in subtle, coy, or mysterious women. The answer to the mystery woman’s mystery always ends up being the same: She’s not very good in bed. I’ll take quality over mystery any day. I like a woman who introduces herself by saying “Hi, let’s have sex a lot.”
I don’t really like his art, but I like the way he lives. And I can see how others can like his art. It’s full.
Posted 2 years ago
