Sons of POP

People sometimes comment on the fact that I don't carry pictures of my kids in my wallet. I don't have to. Everywhere I go, there they are. On gallery walls in London or Japan, on billboards in Spain or New York, on movie screens in Indiana, Ohio or wherever I happen to be traveling. Since birth, they have been the subject of my art, be it paintings, billboards or whatever form my art takes at any given moment. Their participation involved weekly photo shoots that provided me with the raw material for the next week's work. Most recently, I have collected selected paintings of my kids, created over the last 10 years for a new book from 9mm Press titled Son of Pop. It's sort of an oddball family album. My children, Zephyr, 11 and Mars, 8, have been very patient with their artistic dad over the years. While I found posing for relatives' snapshots in my own childhood annoying and pointless, I can only imagine how my kids have felt, having had to dress up as Shriners, clowns or Kiss Kids for their whole lives. I always assumed they were having as much fun as me. It never occurred to me to ask them what they thought. That was until SWINDLE asked me to interview them.

Do you guys remember when you were first in my paintings?
Zephyr: No.

What was the first painting you remember being in?
Z: Kiss Kids.

Do you remember when you saw Kiss on TV?
Z: I said, “Why are they doing us?“

Good, so you remember that.
Z: No, I remember you telling me about that.

Mars, do you remember when you first posed for my paintings?
Mars: No.

Would you ever want to be a painter?
M: I think I might like to be a dumpster diver.
Z: Your clothes would get filthy.
M: Oh, I would go naked.

Mars, what's your favorite character to pose as?
M: I like the army man because I get the weapon. A big, red gun.
Z: One of the guns is real.
M: Isn't that illegal?

Sometimes you pose as clowns. Are you afraid of clowns?
Z: I don't really see clowns. Orlando is a clown.

Would you like to be a clown when you grow up?
Z: No, it seems boring.

Being a receptionist seems boring. A clown seems exciting.
Z: What's a receptionist? Someone who works with dead people?

No, that's a mortician.
Z: Oh.

What do your friends think about your being in my paintings?
M: They don't care.
Z: Mrs. Kateman said we were coked-out clowns.

Is Ronald McDonald your favorite clown?
Z: He's kind of creepy.

The fat one or the skinny one?
Z: They're both kind of creepy. One is too fat and one is too skinny.

Did you like the movie Super Size Me?
Z: No.
M: It was boring.

But you were in it.
M: It was still boring.

What did you learn from it?
Z: That if you eat at McDonald's for 30 days you lose a pound.

What, he gained 27 pounds.
Z: On the last day he lost a pound.

Do you guys like McDonald's?
M: No! It's worse than Coca-Cola; it makes you fart!

Who told you that?
M: You did. You made that billboard “�Drink Coke it makes you fart!“�

Zephyr, do you remember when I did the billboard Barney vs. Godzilla and you started crying?
Z: No. I remember you telling me about it.

Yeah, you were “�Why you put Barney on fire?“� I said, “�Barney's not onfire, he's taking a shower.“� You were “�No! Barney's on fire!“�
M: “�I love you, you love me. Let's get together and kill Barney!“� We love seeing Barney on fire. It gives me a happy feeling that Barney is gone!

Do you like being on billboards?
M: I don't know. It's not that interesting.

Do you ever help me with the billboards?
Z: No. You taught us to climb a fence at the park.
M: We don't help because we're too short. Once we helped watch for the police.

Do you like going to gallery openings?
M: No, it's boring. We have to walk around.
Z: Mars drank wine.
M: First I go walking through the gallery and I took a cup and I thought it was Sprite, but it was wine instead!
Z: We go to lots of openings, and we went to Comic-Con and got sore throats.

Have you ever recorded any songs?
M: We get 20 dollars for every song. We've done it three times.
Z: We did “Happy Springfield,” “Rock and Roll McDonald's,” “Room for Love” and “I'll Always Be Older Than You.“
M: I still have 10 dollars.
Z: I'm broke!

Do you remember Joe Camel?
Z: Oh yeah, the camel that smokes. I think he's dead now.
M: You made all these billboards that said, “Kids, let's smoke.”�

No I didn't. What's your favorite part about posing for paintings?
M: I don't know. It's not that interesting. I like making pictures because I'm actually doing something, not just watching TV.

Is it hard to pose?
M: It doesn't hurt my face because I'm good at making those weird faces.
Z: After we pose sometimes we get a treat. Sometimes we get 20 bucks. Sometimes we get a treat.

What is your favorite part of posing?
Z: Getting the money.

Have you ever made a painting?
M: I did a painting.

What did you paint?
Z: I painted a bear. We both made Guernicas for you. You gave us 20 bucks.
M: You still have them.

So you think you might want to be a painter someday?
Z: If I was a painter I would only sell paintings to blind people. Then I wouldn't have to be that good.
M: Yeah, you could make a painting with just one dot.
Z: And you could tell them it was great.
M: And you could make millions and zillions of dollars.