Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael “Pooch” Pucciarelli.
Michael, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I was inspired by art at a young age, the art of Frank Frazetta, MC Escher and HR Giger are my top three. I Love the architectural elements of Escher’s work and the mood and power of Frazetta and the dark futuristic biomechanical worlds and being of Giger. I also am hugely influenced by Lowbrow artists like Robert Williams, Mark Ryden and Todd Schorr. All these influences pop up in my paintings in various ways. I have found a voice of my own though through my fascination with carnival and theme park rides, especially the wondrous creation of Walt Disney and the way he used different cultures and pop influences in his park, like the Tiki Room and the Jungle Cruise, etc. I create paintings that are built around different themes all taking place in a carnival ride to express these ideas and create a composition that is visually interesting and guides the viewer’s eye to certain parts of interest. I didn’t strike upon these roller coaster ideas until after I had been tattooing for several years. I learned tattooing from Jeff Watson and Peter Goldbar through apprenticing with them in the Boynton Beach area in 1990 and then after a break from Watson due to commitments with my band Raped Ape in which I played guitar and sang. Then I worked for Goldbar for about two years after which I opened my own tattoo shop in Lake Worth called Altered State Tattoo. I began to learn more about Asian and Mexican cultures as well as tattoo history and started to combine these elements into my painting. I like highly detailed, busy compositions with almost CGI like rendering, kind of a cartoon realism, to quote the great Todd Schorr. I have been painting steadily since 2000 and have shown my work at Roq La Rue in Seattle, Copro Nason in LA and Last Rites in NYC to name a few. Between tattooing and still playing music, I pretty much only do commissions due to time constraints but am still open to showing my work if the opportunity arises.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
I love art that takes you on a journey to a different place and draws you in, this is usually done through perspective and architecture or landscapes, I try to dew the viewer into a world they can revisit from time to time and see something different each time. Busy compositions can do this in many styles from realism to cubism to Lowbrow art etc. I paint with acrylic on canvas or board, I have found a way to work with thinned acrylics in a manner that can look like oil or airbrush, I know a lot of artists that struggle with acrylic, but it’s just about layering and having tons of patience. I try to convey a sense of childlike wonder that I feel when I draw, just letting go and exploring my imagination is like a trip down memory lane to when things like Disney World and toys and monster movies blew my mind. I love to hear that the kids of people that have my art in their home just love to look at my work and talk about it with their folks. Maybe that’s the purpose of what I do in an indirect sort of way. I also want to expose people to various cultural art forms like Japanese tattooing motifs or Tibetan Buddhist art or Mexican Dia De Los Muertos folk art. I did a large canvas in honor of the great stop-motion animator Ray Harryhasen, I just loved his Sinbad movies and monsters when I was a kid, I actually got to talk with him on the phone about it and sent him a print which he had in his flat in London. I just ventured into three-dimensional miniature art in the form of a diorama. It’s a 24 x 24 inch diorama called “What Now?” which has an industrial stream punk look, with skeletons riding in cars on a track through a water treatment plant- factory look, with resin water effects and brick structures in a very European looking setting with rusty pipes and cobblestone streets, all built using 1/35 scale model kits and many scratch built pieces which was then painted with airbrush and by hand, I glued down about 3000 tiny cobblestones with tweezers lol. I would love to build more of these miniature static dioramas with carnival rides. I suppose my love of those Harryhausen miniature model movie sets had a lot to do with why I like to build miniatures.
Do current events, local or global, affect your work and what you are focused on?
I think the artists’ role is create something that impacts others in some sort of positive way, in my case the childlike wonder that many have lost as they get older, or to bring them together as in the parent and child both enjoy looking at my art. I think family is super important and something that needs to be there for kids, so they have respect for others and for human life. I see much too much violent crime being done by younger kids and it’s worrisome and sad, these things are closer to home for me, and I don’t really care much for politics as it separates people rather than uniting them, people have a look beyond these things and learn to respect each other’s beliefs rather than trying to fight one another over political parties. These things rarely show up in my art though as I create art as a form of escape from the crazy world we live in. I do have one painting called Illuminatus R Us which deals with the role of how politics fuels the military machine and the soldier is basically a disposable meat patty, Inspired by the work of Irving Norman and his socio-political masterpieces.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
I have much of my work, originals and prints on display at my tattoo shop-gallery, Altered State Tattoo in Boynton Beach Florida. My website is www.poochisland.com and has prints of all my work available for purchase
Contact Info:
- Address: Altered State Tattoo Gallery
10114 S. Military Trail #116 Boynton Beach FL 33436 - Website: www.poochisland.com
- Phone: 561-806-5853
- Email: tat2pooch@bellsouth.net
- Instagram: Pooch_art
- Facebook: Michael Pucciarelli
Illuminati Scan, 8/15/07, 5:19 PM, 8C, 11556×15354 (126+414), 150%, My Repro Curve, 1/20 s, R82.0, G48.7, B45.8
Harryhousen Scan, 7/21/05, 4:44 PM, 8C, 9892×13052 (30+150), 125%, My Repro Curve, 1/20 s, R82.1, G48.9, B45.1
Image Credit:
Mike Pucciarelli
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