ART TALK w/ TYLER SPANGLER

A/S/L?
31/m/Seattle, Wash.

Sushi or pizza?
Both.

Last person you butt-dialed: 
Wife.

Favorite color: 
Bright ocean blue.

Have you been working on any art today?
I did my morning workout and had some food, hung with family, and now I am about to start making some personal pieces.

Your Tumblr page is a great thing to follow; how has the Internet helped you showcase your work?
The Internet has been the entire backbone in which my career exists. If it weren't for the Internet, I am not too sure where I would be.

You use a mix of graphics, gradients, photographs, ads, shapes, colors, animations etc. to create your collage work. Do you have a favorite of the formats? 
I love them each for their uniqueness. I am a pretty big fan of photo collage with digital illustration on top. 

Do you normally know what you’re creating or does it come to you as you go? 
Half and half. Sometimes I will have an idea going into designing and other times I will just lay down a photo and see what comes to mind.

Favorite piece you’ve worked on so far?
I think my favorite and most popular is a piece called Burning Hands. It's of an orange hand covering a woman's eyes. It has really strong political and psychological undertones. 

Where do you find your old timey images? 
I use a mix between the Library of Congress and Flickr commons. There are a ton of royalty free images on those sites.

Have you ever run into copyright issues?
I have had one copyright issue in particular earlier in my career when I was a bit more careless with sourcing my material. Since then, I have been pretty strict on where I get my images. I have had a handful of pieces stolen from me, but that's just the nature of being an Internet artist. You have the freedom and reaching unlimited people but that comes with a price.

How do you stay motivated to create? 
I am a pretty obsessive guy. When I get into something I go 200 percent. The process of creating is something that I really enjoy. I love researching and experimenting so it fits my personally very well. Having a mentor can be very crucial to the process.

As a collage and mixed media artist, are you inspired by other artists of similar categories such as Mimmo Rosella, John Stezaker, Peter Blake, Eilleen Agar, Andy Warhol, etc.?
I don't necessarily follow a lot of artists work, but I can see similarities in my work to other artists. In the beginning, when I was first starting, I did a ton of research on different art styles, artists, and all of that so I think it is kind of implanted in my brain.

How do you personally define your art? 
I think it combines surrealism, pop, dada, post modern, modern, minimalism, maximalist, and probably a bunch of others as well. Since its such a hybrid of styles I just started saying: 'A rainbow popsicle dipped in the ocean and placed on a rock to melt.'

What’s up next? Are you traveling anywhere? Plans for 2018 since the new year is approaching?
I just recently got over my 12 year long fear of flying last week by venturing on a Seattle seaplane. So who knows, the whole world has just opened up to me!

Shameless plug(s):
Web: TylerSpangler.com 
IG: @tyler_spangler