Interview by Jimon

1-Where do you reside and work currently? Brooklyn, NYC (Bedstuy). I live on the Bedstuy and Williamsburg border.

2-Did you study art or is it inherent?  I studied painting at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. I started filming videos probably in 8th grade. I didn’t know there was such a thing as contemporary art when I was in my teens. Early on I was making stop motion animation and doing stunts, but I would draw and paint as well.

3-Huey Crowley, one word to describe him?  Fishman.

4-Do you remember the first piece of art that captured your imagination?  Yes, I remember when I first saw the show Jackass, it was ground-breaking for me. It was an episode of Wee-Man dressed up as an Oompa Loompa skateboarding doing boardslides down handrails. I was inspired by the idea of an outrageous character existing in my normal bland world, it was like watching a superhero or villain or something. He was essentially destroying public property yet dressed in a very sweet way which felt very abrasive and sassy to me. The way it was amateurishly filmed just made it seem more authentic. I loved it.

5-What is the source behind your paintings, where do they come from?  I’m interested in how society portrays manic ephemera everywhere you look- in advertising, billboards etc. I watched TV the other day with my mom and in a Geico commercial a man violently kicked someone in the head. Only seconds later an intense shark week commercial came on which showed sharks biting at the camera in a very menacing way. We were initially watching a show about people who get in each other’s faces while they build hotrods. My mom thought nothing of these intense moments, she was reading a magazine as they were happening. I’m inspired by stupid or extreme manic behaviors. These days attention spans are short and it requires stupid and quick extreme actions or moments to hold the American audiences attention. Americans love dick measuring contests, which is why I often use the fish blowing my characters. People who catch fish always love to show pictures of how big their fish was- which is the most American “my house is bigger than yours” notion I can think of. The general American public doesn’t seem to be interested in the intellectual. They seem to be interested in possessions. People sometimes think my work is alt-right or right leaning or “hick”, but I portray my characters this way because I’m from the Midwest. All cultures have their alpha male, machismo, manic and extreme signifiers, I’m interested mostly in the American portrayal of these.

6-What do you dream about? To be honest I wish I could just focus on my art full time. I’m always daydreaming about my art at my day job.

7-How do you define success?  I think choosing to be successful in art isn’t something you can choose to do, I think you basically make the work and the audience decides whether you are a success or not. Art isn’t something where you can really progress- I’ve seen people work extremely hard and not progress in their practice. Being able to check yourself and analyse the work is possibly important. I live in a rat race. Currently my day job is on the 10th floor of a skyscraper in Manhattan, and mostly everyone in the room listens to motivational speakers- myself included. We are just one room, of a 20 story building, on a block of 20 story buildings, in an enormous city, etc, etc. Millions of people are doing everything they can to be extremely successful, its a wash really. I’ve become anti-motivational speaker. The motivational speaker is usually the only person in the room profiting. In the early gold rush days the people that profited the most were the shovel salesmen. I try to be myself over doing acts to become successful.

8-Your work reminds me of Basquiat, is he a big influence for you?  Thanks. He definitely was when I was younger, I think color-wise and expressively for sure I can see the similarities. Maybe it never washed out of my hand, oh well. Its probably because we both use paint straight from the tube and we both paint very loose.

9-What other types of art interest you? I’m really into this guy right now that has sex with ladies in their 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s and uploads it to the internet and calls himself the Cougar Champion. I keep trying to get a hold of him. The way he articulates his motives behind banging the grannies really interests me because on his porn site he talks very aggressively and soulless about them but on the show “My Strange Addiction” he is very caring and makes it seem as though he is in a committed relationship with them. I think he is actually an authentic outsider performance artist. I relate to him because he creates disturbing images with the intent to profit. He says he brings the grandmas to Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails concerts and then bangs them. On the show “My Strange Addiction”- when they showed him in 6th grade- he was wearing a Satanic Bible shirt which makes me think he’s intelligent and self aware, which begs the question- why would you do such an embarrassing act and try to profit from it if you are self aware? Its also interesting to me because he’s constantly trying to profit off of something difficult to profit off of.

10-How would you like to be seen as an artist years from now? I’d like to one day have a career, all I can do though is just make the work that I’d like to make in the moment and if other people think it’s good-then great. Obviously I’d like to be successful, but that’s probably a boring answer. It would be great to get funding so that I can make more involved videos and works.

11-If you could have dinner with 3 artists living/dead who would be at your table? The elegant Elliott Offen, The Unabomber, and GG Allin. I’d also like to meet the Iceman- Richard Kuklinski. I’ve met Elliott before in the street. He tried to fight me and was yelling profanities at me which was great. He was wearing a Tutu and had black fingerless gloves on.

12-Name three things you can’t live without in your studio? Rainbow trout, anal beads and Oakleys.

13-Are you active on social media and if so where can one find you?  @hueycrowley on Instagram and www.hueycrowley.com Thank you for the interview, I appreciate it. I’ll be having a solo show in London at Lungley Gallery this month, come by and say hello if you are in the area!