Adam Heffler, June 2011

An Interview with Artist Adam Heffler

Adam Heffler is an East Coast expat currently rooted in Berkeley, California. Having been a doodler since way back when, he started looking at his art as a “serious venture” shortly after leaving the academic womb. Heffler is a self-taught artist that specializes in a very precise, detail-oriented pen and ink style that he has cultivated over the past few years. He believes his art lies somewhere between linguistic and – almost like an otherworldly calligraphy – and absolutely loves it when people tell him what they see in it; sometimes they see things that he saw or intended – and sometimes, it’s something completely unexpected.

His work, “Fling,” appears in Redivider 8.1.

Redivider: You have described your work as being like “otherworldly calligraphy.” Could you elaborate on this?

Adam Heffler: People have told me that my work feels hieroglyphic, or like cave paintings. A lot of my work seems to have some pseudo-linguistic components that tell a story that I can only partially understand.

R: How did you start making art like this?

AH: I doodled. I doodled during classes, I doodled while reading, I doodled while doodling. At some point I started making things in the kind of shape-based style I revel in now, though I couldn’t tell you exactly how or when that happened. The earliest instance I remember came from a history class in my freshman year of college, where I covered most of my hand and forearm with these shapes, and they just kept getting smaller and more intricate as they ran up my arm.

R: Is there a concept or a theme behind the art you create, or does each piece tell a different story?

AH: When I start a new piece, I usually begin by drawing from my subconscious and let it guide me through until more tangible ideas and principles reveal themselves. From there, I might have a story in mind to graft into the work, or I might just continue to let whatever seems to be in the pilot’s seat remain in control. My piece that I call The Bay Point deserves special recognition here. I was drawing it with the concept of home in mind. Despite keeping it to the abstract and having no overall vision of what it should become, it rendered itself with a startling likeness of the San Francisco Bay Area, in which I had just began putting down roots. Lately, I’ve been trying to hone some more traditional drawing skills so I can apply my current process toward drawing specific forms, like humans and other lifeforms.

R: When did you start to show your art? What is your favorite part about touring?

AH: I was living in Greensboro, North Carolina in 2007 when a friend told me about The Center for Visual Artists, a local organization that was gathering work for an upcoming show. Everything felt right about the moment, so I entered a piece I called Dinner Table. After conversing with the CVA’s curator, I started volunteering there during my spare moments.  From the front desk where I worked, I got to overhear stray comments about my work every so often. After hearing someone say, “Dinner Table? I guess that means that it’s a bunch of insects all eating each other,” I decided to continue marching forward with displaying my work. Sometimes, I enjoy the effect random titles have on a viewer’s perception of the piece. What would that human have thought if I had titled it “Falling off a Toilet Seat” or “Kicking a Koala in the Kidney”? I’ll never know because I titled it Dinner Table and he let that frame his thoughts.

R: You say that you only realized the true importance of what you are doing after college. Did your college influence your art in any way?

AH: I avoided art classes like the plague, but college did influence my art in less apparent ways. I find that I can focus much better when I’m multitasking, especially when I am drawing. Classes with teachers that didn’t clash with me over the doodling resulted in notebooks filled with awesome designs and better grades. After I graduated, I went through a nice little aimless period, and throughout it my drawings and the style I’ve been cultivating remained constant.

R: How did you come up with the name for your online portfolio, FoobixDesign?

AH: State secret.

R: What methods and media do you prefer to use? Your profile on your website mentioned the Micron pen. Is this your favorite tool?

AH: I stand firmly by my Micron pens, especially the 005′s for pieces that emphasize precision. When I’m in more of a free flow mood, and the exact detailing of each shape matters less, the Pilot V5 is my weapon of choice.

R: Where do you find inspiration for your art?

AH: I want to say that I get inspiration from anywhere, but saying that feels very path of least resistance. Instead, I’ll say that inspiration comes most freely from observing things in nature, with little bits and pieces of mother culture seeping in as well. One thing I like to do when I know I’m preparing for a project is to take out all my art books, and put them all around me opened to pages of interest, all while watching nature documentaries. All the over-stimulation creates a nice little background static in my head that I can work with.

R: What are your thoughts on current art trends? Is there a kind of art that you admire the most?

AH: I’m bad at mapping out art in terms of trends and/or isms.  Aside from going to galleries and museums and meeting fellow artists, I seem to discover a lot of art that I admire by going to used book stores with substantial art book collections and pulling books out randomly until I find something that connects with me. I seem to have the greatest admiration for complex and surreal art that requires a lot of time and effort to fully absorb.