RD: How did you get started in the Art World??

Brad Isdrab: I've been making things for as long as I can remember, and there is nothing I would rather do and I try to always do it for myself. I like to imagine that somewhere there is a little me and I want him to see the things I make. I started showing my work in 2003, and since then have shown work in NY, SF, LA and Costa Mesa. I've had work in the San Jose Museum of Modern Art and a few other pretty nice places. Really I jump at any opportunity to expose the world at large to my work.

RD: Where are you from??

Brad Isdrab: I've been a Bay Area local most of my life. I was born in MountainView and raised in San Jose, and currently live in San Francisco.

RD: Main art influences??

Brad Isdrab: There are really too many to list, I try to maintain a constant stream of inspiration. Stylisticly my sculpture shows the influence of Japanese character modelers, such as Yasushi Nirisawa, Kow Yokoyama, Katsuya Terada, Junichi Taniguchi, Takayuki Takeya, Eisaku Kito, Hajime Sorayama, and Yukio Fujioka. Other artists whose work I deeply admire include Dave Mckean, Barron Storrey, Kent Williams, Matthew Barney, Phil Hale, Scott Radke, Eva Hesse, Lee Bontecou, Stanislav Szukalski, Cam De Leon, Chet Zar, Sam Keith, and Clive Barker, whose art goes hand in hand with his writing. I've got a soft spot for almost anything created with stopmotion animation, so naturally I'm very impressed with the masters Jan Svankmajer, and the Quay Brothers, their films have this degraded, aged, and visceral realness. I watch a lot of movies, so there are a few filmmakers that I really admire. I love the way David Lynch creates mood and tone. His method of storyelling and establishing characters is something that really resonates with me, but the same could be said for Dave Fincher, Stanley Kubrick, Terry Gilliam, Spike Jonze, Ridley Scott, Chris Cunningham, and Kyle Cooper.

RD: Do you have to get in the "zone" to create, or do you just jump right into it??

Brad Isdrab: I always need to keep my hands busy, when I'm not working on something I start to go crazy. When I find myself in the zone is usually when I have been working on something for a while and I begin to feel like it is doing exactly what I want it to. I begin to feel a sense of acomplishment. It's that feeling that keeps me motivated. I rarely have more than a vague idea what the finished peice will be when I start it. I'll sketch out ideas and draw designs, but like to leave room for the peice to evolve and take on a life of it's own.

RD: What kind of Music do you listen to??

Brad Isdrab: I listen to alot of different kinds of music, sometimes really awful stuff, sometimes things that make me laugh. Here is an incomplete list... Aphex Twin, Radiohead, Zoe Keating, Danny Elfman, Beck, Bjork, Gorillaz, The White Stripes, The Rolling Stones, Fatboy Slim, Perry and Kingsley, Janes Addiction, Devo, Rasputina, DJ Dangermouse, Deltron, Rahzel, Coil, Megadriver, Prefuse73, Chemical Brothers, N.W.A., MF Doom, Rob Zombie, The Pixies, The Beastie Boys, The Cars, The Dead Milkmen, Autechre, Squarepusher, 12 rounds, Portishead, Boards of Canada, B.T., X-Dream, Dieselboy, Minor Threat, The Misfits, The Faint, Fisherspooner, Foo fighters, Nirvana, Metallica, Single cell Orchestra, Saul Williams, Skinny Puppy, The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Cocteau twins, This Mortal Coil, Cranes, Laetherstrip, Coil, Nick Cave and the Bad seeds, Orbital, Tool, Nerf Herder, Me Frist and the Gimme Gimmes, Elastica, Gwen Stefani, New Order, LFO, Corey Hart, Richard Cheese and Lounge againsed the Machine

RD: How did you develop your stylle??

Brad Isdrab: I like to look at things and imagine characters and worlds from them. I think of it as "de-contextualizing". I have drawers of things, parts I've found, glass eyes, dental castings, things I've started and abandoned, I try to look at them in a different light, create a new context. It seems I've always built models. This is something I started when I was around seven years old. It's what I do in my "free time" in order to stay sane. Its usually called kitbashing, I'd gather parts from multiple kits as well as other things such as clock parts, gears from VCRs, packing materials, and appliances. I always thought of it as a hobby, and didn't see it's relation to art. In school I learned many traditional and representational techniques. I studied anatomy and portraiture, developed my hand-eye coordination, and learned to sculpt realisticly. After I began adding articulation to my sculpture I wanted to bring it to life. I've always been interested in special effects and stopmotion animation. When I was a kid I'd always watch the making of videos and behind the scenes specials. Things like Robocop and of course Star Wars made a big impact on me. I did an internship with M5 an effects house, where I was able to work with many of the people who made "Nightmare Before Christmas" and "James and the Giant Peach". There I learned many of the materials and techniques I use everyday, things like silicone mold making and resin casting. My current style came from the blending of these things.

RD: Do you have any crazy art gallery moments??

Brad Isdrab: Several years ago I had work in a gallery that sometimes allowed itself to be used as a venue. I had a statue get first broken by a Voodoo priestess during a Santaria ritual. The peices of it were placed in a box by the mildly retarded crack-head they had hired as security. The box was placed in the garage and was run over by the space's owner, who then threw them away. Fortunately I was reinbursed a year later for the cost of the work by the promoter of the show.

RD: Whats your biggest accomplishment in terms of Art??

Brad Isdrab: My biggest goal is to create a world, a fully inhabited place to go. I've come very close to this a number of times. Things that stand out in my memory are building a forty-foot town along the wall of a gallery with Lucien, and completing Boris and Bianca my interactive stopmotion film which inhabited a gallery for two months. The interactive element was set up on a projector while the props and puppets were installed in diaramas through the space. The whole show took place during the ZeroOne festival of technology and International Symposium on Electronic Art, so it was a great opportunity to watch alot of people interact with the exhibit and wander through my world. I always feel honored when people buy my work. The president of Nike has one of my pieces in his collection, as well as the owner of Hurley and the CEO of Seagate. I've also given a peice to Matthew Barnew, and to Doug Bradley (Pinhead from Hellraiser). It pleases me beyond words that people actually like the things I make enough to want them in their homes. But sales have never been my primary goal, I make art because thats what I do, not because it's marketable.

RD: Do people ever send you pictures of tattoos of your work??

Brad Isdrab: I have designed more than a few tatts for people, as well as all of my own. There was even a time when I really thought I wanted to be a tattoo artist. I practiced for a long time but after doing about a dozen of them on various friends I had to give it up. I realized it takes a different kind of focus then I enjoy. There is a great deal of pressure when it is a permanent part of someone. I have a great deal of respect for peolple who can tattoo well. I still have all my equipment, I've been fighting the urge, but soon I think I'll be integrating it into a sculpture...

RD: What do you think of porn??

Brad Isdrab: I used to spend a lot of time looking around online for things I've never seen before. I tend to think this has led me to be a bit jaded towards the majority of porn. It amuses me the parrallels that can be drawn between hard-core porn and adveritising.

RD: What kind of girls are you into??

Brad Isdrab: Robot girls and unattainable ghosts. My track record would suggust I like blue hair. Honestly, personality is really important to me, to be really attracted to someone I need to get to know them, I can't stay interrested in someone if I don't respect them.

RD: Do you have any "art groupies"??

Brad Isdrab: Where can I get me some of those? There have been several people who come to my shows whenever they can, but I wouldn't really call them "groupies".

RD: Any Crazy Sexual Exploits to brag about??

Brad Isdrab: I think the gentleman thing to do would be to say nothing. But this would make for a really dull read, so I'll say very little... I did it for twelve hours once, while fun at the time we were both raw for a few days, some of the more interesting places I've been intimate would be inside a parked hearse and the bathroom of my Psychiatrist's office.

RD: What do you think of razordolls.com??

Brad Isdrab: The internet is great for the way that culture evolves by grouping interests. Razordolls is a good example of a (sub)cultural hub and features an interesting cross section of cool art, tattoos, music and beautiful girls. What more could you want?

RD: Whos your favorite razordoll??

Brad Isdrab: It sounds like a cop-out, but they are all so pretty, I can't pick a favorite.

RD: Do you think Porn will ever be an accepted art form??

Brad Isdrab: I don't think I want porn to become an art form, it seems like it'd loose some of the appeal. The term "Erotica" usually refers to pornography presented in an "artistic" light, but the catagory of Erotica is a whole other can of worms. There have been artists whose work is very pornographic, such as Jeff Koons's photographs, but I think all of his work is intended to offend, just look at the gilded statue of Michael Jackson. Usually this sort of art is using the associations and social stigma that porn carries with it to make commentary. I heard somewhere that the difference between art and porn is where the model is looking. In the end though, I don't think porn and art serve the same purpose.

RD: What upcoming artists should we look out for??

Brad Isdrab: Granted they are all friends of mine so I may be a bit biased, but they are all badasses... Jonathan Wayshak, Lucien Shapiro, Alex Pardee, Dave Correia, Nate VanDyke, Erik Siador,

RD: Do you like Horror Movies??

Brad Isdrab: If so Whats your Favorite??

Brad Isdrab: I love horror movies, picking a favorite is pretty tricky though. At one tim I was working my way through the rental shop's Horror section alphabetically. "Tetsuo: the Iron Man" was good, "Angel Heart", "The Serpant and the Rainbow". "The Thing", "Tremors"... There are definitely a few masters, like John Carpenter, Wes Craven, and Tobe Hooper. I am a sucker for the big franchise flicks, I have done marathons of "Amityville", "The Omen", "The Exorcist", "The Prophecy", "The Children of the Corn", "Critters", "Nightmare on Elm st..", "Friday the Thirteenth", and more that don't come to mind at the moment. If I were to pick a favorite series it'd have to be Hellraiser, I own all eight movies, and have a tattoo of the Elysium Configuration, I do realize they went downhill after the second one, but the mythos is so interesting to me that I will overlook that. There will always be place in my [hellbound]heart for it.

RD: Whats your opinion on the art scene today??

Brad Isdrab: I'm pretty turned off by scenes in general. They tend to be filled with drama and gossip, which I do my best to avoid. I prefer to interact with small close groups of people. I like to go out to shows long enough to see the artwork and shake a few hands, then I run back home to work.

RD: What would you say is the biggest problem with society today??

Brad Isdrab: Society would be really great if it weren't for the people. Really all the problems in the world come down to the amount of asshats in it.

RD: Anything you want to plug, do it here??

Brad Isdrab: Last year I put out a compilation DVD of my short films, which I have been selling directly, it's also at Annubis Warpus on Haight street in SF, and hopefully more shops will start carrying it soon. Fangoria just aquired several of the short films from the compilation which they show on their new website FangoriaTV.com. I recently finished my interactive stopmotion film "Boris and Bianca", which is online at www.BorisandBianca.com but unless you have an ultra fast connection though it's a bit of a tease, and you'll really want to get the book/DVD when I put it out. At ComicCon and APE next year I'll be selling the books and DVDs, and online later this year when I set up my webstore. My sites... www.bradisdrab.com www.unethicalproductions.com www.borisandbianca.com www.annexbot.com If anyone wants anything in the mean time they could always contact me through email, brad@unethicalproductions.com