Q & A with Funtime Dan

If there is one thing lacking in the art world, it is humility. We are often presented images and figures that reflect all the beauty that is in the world, with little to no conflict as to why we should appreciate the static grandeur. In Funtime Dan’s Man-Made Mythos, artist Daniel Velasquez AKA Funtime Dan accents his one-of-a-kind ceramic vessels as humorous contemporary time-capsules chronicling the demise and hope for our civilization with the aid of the most modern (and temporary) art form: graffiti. For this Q & A, First Amendment got a rundown of how Funtime Dan began his journey as an innovative creative as well as insight on the art of not taking yourself too seriously.

Interview by L. Herrada-Rios

Q & A has been edited for clarity.

Can you give us a bit of insight into your creative background? When did you start paying attention to art and when did you start creating it for yourself?

I have made art since before I knew how to walk. In my family home there are still artworks from when I was 1 and 2 years old. My mom would dip my hands and feet in paint and allow me to crawl around on sheets of butcher paper. I have been dabbling with clay painting and other forms of mediums as long as I can remember. When I was 5, my parents took me to China for the first time. We returned home with all sorts of Chinese silk scrolls that were painted in a traditional Chinese brush painting style. Growing up and looking at these scrolls had a huge impact on my artistic direction and gave me the sense that lettering with good form composition and brushstroke, was art. When I was about 13, I started exploring the abandoned train tracks in Santa Cruz and seeing all the graffiti. It was all incredibly inspiring but the work that really stuck out to me was the calligraphy handstyles. I started practicing calligraphy and doing graffiti on a regular basis from then on out. I believe that graffiti gave me the fundamental skills to pursue a career in art. It taught me how to brand, work fast, go big, produce as much as I can, make it look good on the first go, and always push myself to do something that hasn't been done.

My artistic career started at 16 when I started working with 5 Feet From The Moon, a metal and concrete artist studio in Santa Cruz, California. I learned basic welding and metalworking skills, as well as large scale concrete casting. I worked with this studio on and off for six years as I began studying Ceramic sculpture at San Francisco State University. I fell in love with ceramics because the material is so ancient and so human, but I wanted to learn how to work with it on a larger scale, which was not possible to do with the equipment at SFSU. I eventually met a potter named Mattie Leads who makes extremely large scale pottery and incorporates it into the architecture of buildings. Working with Mattie helped me to increase the scale of my ceramics and has changed the way that I seek to incorporate ceramics into the environment.

After graduating and pursuing my career as an artist, I began working a lot with graphic design, CNC operated machines, 3D modeling programs, and other types of technological mediums. I developed a studio process of working with technology so that it enhances tangible materials such as clay and the humanity of the media. I am always looking for opportunities that relate to the public on a deeper, more human level. The past two years I have been working as a muralist; this work has been the most rewarding because it has allowed me to contribute to diverse communities and promote creative expression.

What artists or crafts people influenced you to do what you do?

I’ve had incredible artistic influences throughout my life, and they have all been teachers. To name drop a few of the most influential people it would be:

Iver Hennig- He was my high school ceramics teacher who inspired me to pursue ceramics as a profession. He was a third generation professional ceramicist, who had a plethora of knowledge of ceramics. I would skip all my other classes and stay in the ceramics room all day and he would just pretend like he didn't notice.

Katie Harper- Katie was my high school painting teacher who taught me how to live the life of an artist more than how to paint: she taught me to think differently and inspired me to be a weirdo.

This body of work is very thoughtful and specific, honing in on not just the ancient craft of ceramic-making but even the styling in which your pieces are decorated. Did you think it was important to draw from both ancient and contemporary styles for this body of work?

I believe that Ceramics is an extremely archival form of art; it stands the test of time, unlike most other mediums. A majority of what we know about ancient civilizations, we know from studying their ceramic works. I seek to continue this tradition of documenting contemporary cultures, ideas, and modern history on this archival medium. The outside designs relate to contemporary art and graffiti because those things are a part of our culture and are relevant to our history. In addition to capturing history, I seek to capture the parts of our history that are purposefully covered up and taken out from the story, even though they show so much of our culture. Graffiti is the best example of this. 

P.O.T.S.

Pieces

Of

Time

Solidified

Amphoras were commonly used for wine- a beverage known to be consumed socially, ceremoniously, often symbolic of truth, purity, and even the blood of Christ. The amphoras in this show seem to reflect your own personal morals and observations on current societal standards. To me, you are using these vessels to serve up a humorous and sarcastic cocktail of self awareness. Do you think it is important for artists to hold up a mirror to society so that we become more self-aware of our toxic traits and pitfalls? 

I think it depends on the artist. I think artists who chose a path to become more self aware will, in turn, make art that reflects that path. Artists who chose a path in the opposite direction will make art that's more of the contrary. 

Artists have a unique role in society because they are, by nature, an unregulated magic mirror of contemporary culture and they can choose the image they wish to portray for society to reflect upon. 

These current pieces have a broad range of morals and pitfalls scrawled across them, which I see as an inside joke that you understand best when you are on a path of self growth/awareness. Therefore the mirror that I am holding up allows you to relate to it even if you don't quite get the joke and, in the end, you might end up laughing at your own pitfalls.

What do you hope people take away from seeing the good and bad elements of themselves or society at-large in your works?

I want people to create their own unique ideas on the topics that I have presented them to reflect upon instead of perpetuating the same ideas they have blindly accepted from society. I hope that by presenting the good and bad elements of themselves and their ideologies they will be confronted by the question of, “what do I really believe about these topics?”

I love how your current practice extracts from two starkly different art forms- ceramics and graffiti- to blend them into a contemporary context that is immaculate in technique and execution. How did that inclination to combine these two styles together formulate for you? What parallels do you see within ceramics and graffiti, and do they ever intersect for you?

Graffiti and pottery have gone hand-in-hand for me since I started doing ceramics. I started making ceramics in order to create functional, archival canvases.

Graffiti and pottery are almost complete opposites of the physical mediums, except in the way of mass production and in the use of chemicals. Most things don't remain after being heated to 2700 degrees, but surprisingly a lot of the chemicals that are found in graffiti paints and inks leave a mark that withstands the heat. The chemistry behind ceramics is an art form in itself and I could spend a lifetime just studying the intersection between graffiti materials and ceramic materials. 

“Funtime Dan’s Man-Made Mythos” opens this Saturday, November 9th; join us for an artist talk with Funtime Dan from 5pm to 6pm with the opening reception to follow from 7pm to 10pm. First Amendment Gallery is located at 1000 Howard St. in San Francisco’s SoMA district. For more information on this show, available works, or commissions, please contact us at info@1amsf.com.