UPDATE: bughouse.com has been updated to include both Rebecca’s Bad Medicine exhibit and Jeff’s Now Sounds seires from the February Create : Fixate show. Check it out. Now. (You could even buy a hypodermic needle chandelier!)

I first ran into—and was immediately attracted by—the work of Bughouse in local shops around Eagle Rock, CA while studying at Occidental. I remained interested, and followed their work through the internet until finally requesting an interview with them this February, which they kindly accepted and is printed below. The weekend following the interview, I attended Create : Fixate in downtown Los Angeles where their work was on exhibit. I took some pictures and dispersed these throughout the interview. After learning their philosophies toward art and its role in life, and seeing their very impressive show downtown, I am even more a fan.

In speaking with them recently, I’ve learned that another showing of Create : Fixate is in the works, though a date is not yet set. I will keep you informed—it is well worth attending.

Interview with Jeff and Rebecca Bughouse, February 7th, 2006:

What were the beginnings of Bughouse and where did the motivation for such a large project come from? Was it always a joint venture, or did either of you start it separately from the other?

We started the business together. We’ve been together for over 10 years, and we’d both been working in the entertainment industry. About 5 years ago, we realized that we wanted to combine illustrations with commercial art and make it readily available to the people. This all morphed into our company, Bughouse, which is British slang for a crazy house or sanitarium.

We learned screenprinting on our own, and we wanted to expand on the existing artbase, explore new mediums, add twists, be creative. We started together, and work together, but we have also pushed in different directions.

What are your roles in the company? Do you and Jeff do the same types of tasks, or do you have separate niches that you both sink into?

We usually start ideas separately; often we will work with them together, and input into each other’s work, trading back and forth. The art subsumes the individual. Jointly, however, our message is pretty clear: present something that hasn’t been seen before that also has a sense of irony and humor.

In terms of the differences between our work, we have similar motivations (heavily based in humor), but we mostly work individually. Both of us have a lot of diversity within our work, we have no one distinct style collectively or individually-commercially a distinct style will work against you, so we’ve avoided it by occupation. We work with different styles and mediums, experiment with new technologies. We really try to bring something new to the public through being creative with our art.

Where did your interests in making art originate? How did they evolve to the medium of printing?

Jeff: I was really drawn to printing because I never wanted art to be precious. I believe it should be affordable and available. These ideas have been seen historically in alternative art and are now more mainstream, which is likely a response to commercial products. I have always loved commercial art. Many people don’t see real art in commercial products, there’s always been a sort of rift between those in fine art and commercial art, but this gap is closing more now. I grew up with it: from comics, can labels, board games, television. I may not have known it then, but I was mesmerized by it.
I also love the idea that with commercial printing, we could produce 100-200 prints and sell for $50 and get it into people’s hands.

Rebecca: I guess I was first interested in art at a young age, drawing. But, art was not encouraged as an occupation. Art was just something you just did as a kid; it was considered a hobby, not something you do for work, and definitely not something you do for money. So I guess for me it was suppressed.
Then I met Jeff, and he opened it up for me again-bam! I had all these ideas. Eventually, I realized I had a real skill.

When we first got together, Jeff and I went to art classes. Neither of us had gone to formal art school, and the classes were interesting, but we realized we had our own styles to develop. The traditional art also wasn’t for us: you sell one oil painting for $1000 or more and then what? What does that do for you? Not to say that we don’t like playing with paint or other mediums, but we’d rather have our work accessible and available to anyone who is interested.

How do you start ideas?

Rebecca: I usually start out with pencil and paper, whether I’m dealing with a flat or dimensional piece. I also like to incorporate traditional medium in prints; I’ll splatter on paper, scan it in and and use it for a print, or else sometimes I’ll create the piece 100% on the computer. This is probably more in my case than Jeff’s.

Jeff: I think it was more of a generational thing for me, I didn’t really think about it. Growing up, I watched television, read comic books, paid attention to comedians, and art. [These interests transformed into] the sensibility that humor and strangeness compelled me to do something that was different. If I had to point to one source, it would be television. It may sound low-brow and pathetic, but TV is entirely commercial, and it was much better earlier on, which made it easier to filter through the junk. TV is captivating, and I’ve learned a lot from it.

I also almost see our art as reflecting what you might see in music sampling: reconfigure, sample, redo. We are able to mold fantasy and reality by experimenting with technology. In this way we create original art, which is not easy for more traditional artists because they are forced to filter the history of what came before them. Our type of work almost breaks down the boundaries between art and commercialism, hopefully producing something substantial and not crass. I truly believe that the artists’ new paintbrush is technology.

On your website, you list that you do several types of printing. For our readers, what are the differences between heat transfer, screenprints, “one of a kind,” and giclees?

All of our work originates organically, whether it be through inking, or painting, and then it is scanned to output as, say, a giclee.

A screen for screenprinting is produced from a scan of our artwork or output from computer-generated artwork. You output a clear acetate with black line art, and burn it onto screen. It becomes a stencil, and by pushing ink/paint through the stencil with a squeegee onto different mediums (canvas, wood, glass), you create a print. It is actually the same technology as t-shirt printing (or silkscreening).

With a heat transfer, the final image is digitally printed onto substrate that can be heat transferred onto a medium. We have a commercial heat press that can get up to 400 degrees, so that we can fuse paper onto different materials, or photographic imagery onto canvas.

A giclee is an archival print. It is almost a regular print from a printer, but the inks are archival, and the paper is archival, so that it is considered a fine art print, and is sometimes called an iris print.

Our one of a kind section refers to our oil or acrylic paintings, or any type of sculpture or dimensional display. It also refers to our more experimental work, such as combo heat transfers, or screen printing onto raisin boxes—we are also testing the audience for interest. We are interested in selling work, and not working in a vacuum, which stems from our commercial drive. Some artists will work alone in studio, they don’t sell their work and they don’t communicate. We want people to be interested in what we’re doing.

Your work is distinct and unique. I’ve noticed that much of it revolves around making a statement; whether it be drawn from politics, commercialization and the environment, or your community. Where do you find your inspiration and how have your experiences affected your art?

Well, we were both born and raised in LA: Rebecca in the Santa Monica surf culture, and me in Burbank–a valley boy. We had different childhoods, but we are both Angelenos. Many people see the Los Angeles culture in our art, and it’s true, it’s unavoidable.

Jeff: I’ll refer back to television, again. But today in general, there is a huge resource base for ideas, that are constantly coming at you, whether it be from the newspaper, current events, billboards, television.

It is also true that you can go for a long time, not necessarily being creative. You can sit down and contemplate, but the best ideas come in neutral state, like driving, or walking the dog, etc. Then you go to the drawing table. Like an architect, you have the idea and you’re ready to sit down and work it out.

Rebecca: I think an interesting family situation, whether good or bad, builds a sense of humor, and can inspire you in different ways.

Nature has always been an inspiration for me; the shape, and texture…weird bugs, animals, plants…there is an endless supply of variety in mother nature.

Also, the modern world is full of information. It is important to take the time to create this reaction to the world, or recreate it from your own perspective-be open to the world and pay attention to details. Artists see the unseen and bring it to the attention to those who may not have noticed it before. Then you might get the reaction “oh that’s right. Huh, that is interesting…”

I think it’s important to be open to good and bad emotions, embrace you neurosis, or to be angry to drive a political piece of art, or to be exasperated by a situation, and to want to do something-make a change. This is your voice. (But the crazy family also helps.)

Printing is a fairly modern artistic medium, how has the changing technology affected your artwork over its years of development?

Because we also have a graphic design company, we have a predilection toward graphic design in art. We started in graphic design, and as a result, we learned computers at the genesis of this business. We were able to explore illustration to its limits, which is not what it was 10 years ago because of computers–technology is at the forefront of how to produce work. In fact our work is influenced as much by graphic design as much as fine art.

We embrace technology and take every opportunity to experiment with it. Our latest technological endeavor has been exploring laser cutting. A friend of ours recently bought a laser cutter, and we’ll bring him ideas and jump in with “try cutting this,” and he’ll try it and we’ll see how it works. We can cut pieces out of wood or plastic, or etch out of glass or mirror. We’ve been experimenting with it a lot and are now moving into more of a product realm. We’re also talking about laser cutting machine that can be used for 3-dimensional work.

Technology is incredibly important because it opens up new realms for artists. This machine is affordable enough for a friend of ours to buy, have it at their disposal.

We have a sort of advantage over other artists, with our background in graphic design. We are less afraid of technology, and our knowledge has enabled us to build our website and manage the site and sales there.

Overall, artists shouldn’t be afraid of technology, and instead jump on the opportunity for new work and to see something different come out of it.

Another significant result of technology in the last couple decades is the internet. What role has the internet played in building your business and promoting your work?

The internet helps on many levels. It is a fabulous resource for research, finding imagery, and materials. It has also enabled us to have a commerce website and a great email list-people do purchase from website and it’s helped us quite a bit.

The intenet also provides a great resource for connectivity between artists. You can very easily get a basic sense of who’s doing what and when, and that’s brilliant. On the flip-side, it could hurt some artists because these days everyone is expected to have their own website.
It also wouldn’t be possible for us to work from home without the internet. This locale is really convenient both for Bughouse and our graphic design business. So we really appreciate it.

You have an event coming up this weekend in Downtown LA. When did you first get involved with Create: Fixate and do you have anything to add about the event?

Create : Fixate is an event that comes around every two months in LA. It is always a group show, with several DJs, vendors (fashion, eyeglass, jewelry, or other merchandise); sometimes its only photography, sometimes its all mediums.

It is on a floor in building downtown that hasn’t been renovated; it is pretty much a guerilla event. We set up and tear down in the span of a week. We used to have to install our own lighting, even.

Through a quick internet search, I’ve also discovered that your work, specifically your twist on the McDonalds’ M: “I’m Lovin’ It” logo to read W:”I’m Bombin’ It,” is part of a traveling exhibit called Yo! What Happened to Peace? How did you become involved in this project and when exactly did the exhibit start meandering around the world?

I believe we started in that event about two years ago? John Carr is the curator, and he invited us to be involved. The first show was Tokyo, and was a limited number of prints (20-25). Since then, it’s been traveling around the world, from DC to New York to San Francisco, Chicago..,and also to Italy, Scandinavia, and back to Japan. It has also grown with time; now, I believe it includes over 100 prints. I have one print in the show and Jeff has two.

It was inspired mostly by Bush Administration policies, and is ongoing…so is the war so I guess it fits. We actually don’t do a lot of political art. Mostly when people ask for it, we are motivated by an assignment. We aren’t naturally drawn to do it.

The McDubya in the exhibit has also been included in the book Design of Dissent, and also in the traveling exhibit whose curator is Josh McPhee: Paper Politics.

Have you been to many of the Yo! exhibits? Do you have an impression of how the event has been received in different cities around the world?

We wanted to go to the second Tokyo run, but we ran into scheduling problems and weren’t able to make it.

Our impression has been that American artists that participate in the show are more Bush-centered. The submissions from other parts of the world focus more on militarism, or peace. The Japanese were definitely focused more on peace. I don’t think culturally they are willing to speak out as much as Americans.

We aren’t sure how the Tokyo crowd related to the show. I believe they were bemused. It may be too upfront. But we can’t really say about the other cities the show has traveled to: European cities probably received it pretty well.

Josh and John at forefront of this endeavor. It is fun to be part of this community, and it’s great that it’s just being done. It is vocal expression that brings people together. It is angry and positive and allows the voice to be heard. Dissention is the hallmark of America, and this is a great way to display it.

Another motivation for the show was to showcase the medium for the masses: printing.

Have you receive much attention as a result? Positive/negative?

Well, we got into other shows because of it. It opens doors for shows in the same genre, and then there is the book, Design of Dissent. We haven’t gotten much negative attention, weird emails occasionally, but you’re going to get those regardless. The show hasn’t caused any major problems (that we’re aware of).

Are there other exhibits you’re involved in that we should know about? Anything exciting coming up?

Paper Politics started in Seattle and is in Brooklyn now. They want to keep it going, but are not sure where it will go next, possibly Portland, OR, Washington DC, Philadelphia, and/or Los Angeles.

Are there any artists that have had a particularly strong role in inspiring your work? Any recommendations you’d like to add?

Francis Bacon, Ralph Steadman, any and all comic book artists, Gary Baseman, Damien Hirst, Tibor Kalman, Sagmeister, Jeff Soto, Mark Ryden, Odd Nerdrum and Mother Nature.

I highly encourage you to explore the work of Bughouse and keep an eye on them in the future. Oh, and buy their prints—I have Los Angeles and never get tired of staring at it. Perfectly encompasses my perspective on the city.