10 Questions with Emek

1. First off, want to introduce yourself?
name: EMEK
age: 36
profession: poster artist,
years making posters: 15

2. Do you remember the first poster you ever did? And I mean EVER, like before the MLK/L.A. Riots piece.
lots of fliers for my friends bands, local punk rock and garage band stuff in junior high and high school. before that, when i was really little, made up posters for the beatles and neil young and black flag- poster making was in my blood from a very early age. Growing up in my mom and dad's art studio, being exposed to old opera posters and world war 2 propaganda posters in their studio, i always liked the combination of text and art, it made it feel more immediate, like a headline..

3. Favorite piece you've done?
my next one. you can never rest on your laurels. each piece is a challenge.

4. Favorite piece by another artist?
i like the simplicity of jason munns artwork. i can't do simple, its not my usual style, but i can appreciate it. but really, there are so many great artists out there, any given minute could be a different answer. gigposters.com is full of great artists.

5. Which musical artist (that you have not worked with yet) would you like most to make a poster for?
Leonard Cohen.

6. What was the creative process behind the Obama Bomaye poster?
creative? not so much, this piece falls outside of my normal style, but then again, my style has always been about coming up with a concept first, then i figure out a way to best render my idea. that is why my posters are all so unique, laser cut, embossed, stitched, printed on metal, wood, denim, burned, resin cast, printed onto antique maps, etc. In this case, its based on a famous photo, so i stuck to the photo approach. to have hand drawn this seemed to defeat the purpose.

7. How long did it take to complete?
like most of my ideas, this one came to me in a dream. I heard Obama give a speech in portland, the largest of his campaign. The crowd of people cheering. That night.. I had a dream...
the rest took 5 minutes. the inspiration about why that photo etc. is on my website. i took the McCain photo from his infamous "Bush Hug" (you can google that to see what comes up!), so he looks like he is pleasantly sleeping.


8. The print was sold out instantaneously (I know I tried to get one myself), and by the end of the day they were already popping up on ebay (as high as $1500), what are your thoughts on that?
my views since day one, is that i make "poster art" because i want it to be affordable to other people like me. i have been doing this for 15 years with that ethic. but what good does it do me to sell something for $25 and donate a large part of the proceeds to the Obama campaign, only to see others making all the profit off of this silly stuff. what am i supposed to do? we do catch some "flippers" and ban them from buying from our site, and its kind of funny that some of those people then become the harshest critics of my work on internut chat sites.

9. If you were getting elected President this November (instead of Barack) what changes would you make?
I would get rid of all the artists. they are a dangerous bunch.


10. Upcoming projects?
sleep. and maybe a real Obama poster for his campaign.

Thanks to Emek for taking time out of his busy schedule to do this interview. You can find out more about this prolific artist and purchase his prints HERE