Serendipity Now with Jim Pollock

by Randy Ray

Longtime Phish poster artist Jim Pollock is on site at Festival 8 presenting a gallery of his work for the band. He has also donated original artwork as a grand prize in Head Count’s Reality Check trivia game show, which will be held all weekend, and concludes at the Tournament of Champions before Phish’s final set on Sunday. The Express sat down with the artist for a discussion about his craft, long association with Phish, his gallery exhibitions in various cities and of course, his work presented at Festival 8’s WaterWheel table gallery, where four Pollock original Halloween masks will be displayed, along with a gallery of his work.

Like many artists you did not start out this way. At Goddard College in Vermont, you began on a more structured path.

Yeah, I did a little bit of computer programming, but then I was always doing the Phish merch. Something started to click when I started doing the posters and stuff like that. It’s actually a combination of things. I have a son, and it was very helpful to do a job that I could work at night, and then take care of my son during the day. I parlayed that into full-time activity. My wife became a writer, too. She writes children’s books, and books for teachers. We decided to go it on our own at one point when my son was around 4, and we started our business. Luckily, it’s been a terrific year with [Phish] coming back.

I’ve actually had other jobs come up, not necessarily related to Phish, but it’s been a very busy year for me with Phish

coming back and other things being thrown at me.

At festivals, you are holding these nice, friendly conversations with fans, and the whole time, you’ll be working your craft, and creating art. I’ve always been fascinated by that process because it is almost medieval in the best possible way when a craftsman would work amongst the villagers, and it was quite commonplace.

Yeah, I found that really early on when I did the Great Went. People really respond when people are working, and doing

their thing. It definitely offers a different view of how the art process works. Unfortunately, this weekend, I’m not going

to be printing. I was lucky to get everything done, actually (laughs). I created a couple of posters for the merch. I did this new thing that I dreamed up with a friend of mine. There are two posters—one is a 3-D poster. We were thinking it would be cool to make a mask, and use 3-D glasses to be able to see through the mask, and see this poster. However then I re thought it and I didn’t think that people would wear these masks with 3-D glasses the whole time. I created these masks as a fundraiser for WaterWheel. We wanted to create a cheaper, more inexpensive type of merchandise to raise money for that. It’s a series of four masks that I created. This is the first time I’ve done die cuts, which is cutting the paper down to shapes. I made these fashion glasses, and put double-sided Scotch tape on them to stick on a mask, and they came out really cool. I was pleased with them. I’m hoping people really like this. Beth Montuori [Rowles from Phish, Inc.] helps out with WaterWheel, and we came out with this notion. This should be fun. It obviously goes along with the Halloween theme.

And it is all tied in with HeadCount’s Reality Check trivia game, too, right?

Yeah, I’m going to be donating some art for the winners of their contest. I did something last year for HeadCount, too. It

was when they were trying to get people signed on as voters. They did a great job. Every little bit helped. Fortunately, you know, the winds were going our way, as they say. Yeah, it was really good. I want to work more with them. I like that whole notion of making people a little more politically engaged at a rock concert. I always feel like, outside of people who go to concerts and stuff like that, it’s hard to talk to people. I make business contacts, and different types of connections and stuff like that at these rock shows, but it’s true—it’s a social gathering, and there’s a lot of very interesting people wanting to do some interesting projects there. I love to talk with the people. There are always all kinds of things that go on as a result of all of those conversations.

Let’s look at your evolving creative process in relation to this phenomenon. What has influenced your artistic

choices over the years?

I think it’s all serendipity. I think it’s a little like Phish. For close to 15 years, I had done T-shirt designs and stuff like that, and actually, when my wife was doing teacher education, she was doing methods of teaching art, and one of them was to do a linoleum block. I had always wanted to, but never gotten around to it. A lot of my influences are from the printmaking medium like Rembrandt, Albrecht Durer, and a lot of the German Renaissance artists. I had looked at it as inspiration, but had never done any printmaking. I started around 1994, and just never stopped, mainly linoleum carving.

I’m not sure. I guess I’m assuming I was a printer in a previous life, or something like that. (laughter) I hang around

print shops and love print nerds. I don’t know. I’m into the older process, an older type of print style. Most of the stuff

that I’ve done recently is in a letterpress style. Some stuff that Phish has done for merchandise has been silkscreen, but

generally, I’ve done linoleum, and now I do other types of plates, but all letterpress.

Like I said, it’s kind of serendipity. I started doing it and then realized that there aren’t many poster artists that really even work in letter press. Most people use silkscreen, and I think that really helps me stand out from other poster artists. It’s just very helpful. The actual printmaking medium is part of my style, basically. It’s what people come to expect, which is cool. Totally not planned; it just happened. It’s crazy that way.

Do you have equipment that you’ve had since the beginning?

I have one printing press that I still have, and I occasionally use. It’s a screw-top press, and I printed stuff at the Great

Went on that, the Great Went robot poster. That might have been one of the first ones I printed on there. It’s just basically a bookbinding press—very simplistic, and you have to roll the ink on.

What equipment are you using now?

I’ve graduated. I have that, and I also have a Washington iron handpress. It’s a press that is from the late 1800s, and it allows me to do much better registration. When I get a chance I do that, but a lot of the Phish stuff, I go to a printer friend of mine in Chicago who also did the masks, as well, Bruno Rohner and his letterpress. He is a fourth generation Swiss printing family, a huge printer in Chicago for years, and a lot of people know his family. It’s great to be in really, really experienced hands in that way. He teaches me a lot, and shows me things that I can do. These machines are amazing. He runs these things called Heidelberg. Most of them are from the 50s and 60s, and earlier. I learn every time I go into the print shop there.

You’ve had some exhibitions of your work in various cities over the past few years. Who is selecting the pieces for

display at these events?

Recently, I’m represented by a gallery in Miami, 101/Exhibit. It’s actually a collector who has been collecting my stuff for a long time. I’ve done some pieces for his family. His family, both his parents, has owned galleries in the past, and just opened one last year, and he asked if he could represent me. I had a gallery opening in the summer, and he curated that. Sometimes, I get someone else to pick out the art. I actually picked out the art for this one. I shoved a bunch of art into a box, and shipped it out. I kept a lot of the 1999s and 2000s out of what I’m showing at Festival 8. Part of the reason is because they’re so darned expensive. I hate shipping them around everywhere, and having to worry about them. I did bring 2003 posters and stuff that I’ve done while Phish wasn’t playing, so my more recent style is represented in this show.

You also had an exhibition at the Phish comeback shows at Hampton in March.

Oh, yeah, yeah, we did have a little show there at a hotel. It went really well. That was the first show of the year for me.

I’ve done a lot of shows this year. I’ve been out and about. It’s a nice thing. I had Bonnaroo. That was more or less a representation of the gallery stuff. They actually brought a lot of framed pieces out to Bonnaroo. (laughs) The frames got a little beat up out there. It’s a little more low tech [at Festival 8]. I can’t really afford to ship the frames all the way across the country.

Yeah, it’s a little more scaled back, more impromptu like the Hampton show—putting the prints up, and showing the work. And you won’t be working at Festival 8?

I’ll be around, but I didn’t bring my printing press. I’ll be there, talking, and hanging out. One of these times, I’d love

to come out with a nice, printed-from-scratch, on those premises. That’s what I did at Great Went, and that was a very

good situation. It created a lot of interest in my work. Part of the reason is, I think, it was such a rainy weekend, and I was printing on water-based inks so only a handful of those prints made it out of the concert in one piece. Because of the limited nature of them, they’ve become very valued. Another serendipity thing. You just never know.

What are your upcoming projects for the near future?

I’ve still got stuff on the drawing board. I just finished doing some work for Magic Hat. I’m doing some of their packaging for one of their beer labels coming out. I’m doing some more Phish stuff, and hopefully, get to do some regular old art prints and release them. But yeah, this year has just been breakneck. It really hasn’t stopped since getting ready for Bonnaroo. Right after Bonnaroo, was the art show, then I did the Alpines and the Gorge [Phish 2009 summer tour], and now this—crazy.

A bit of a break over the holiday season?

Yeah. Yeah. I’m hoping for a little bit of decompression. But I guess I have things on my plate for [Phish] for the fall tour, as well. I’m sure we’ll talk this weekend. We’ve all been so busy. It’s good to see everyone, too. It’s nice that they’re

touring around with their families. I haven’t gotten to meet the extended family of the different members. Mostly, I talk

with Page.

Yes, the two of you were roommates at Goddard College at one time.

Yeah. And the rest of the band, except for Mike moved to Goddard, as well. I got to know them there, but I mostly stay in touch with Page. I keep up with his stuff. I’m looking forward to meeting the other band members’ kids. I remember

meeting Trey’s daughters way back when, but now they’re all grown up. They’re around my son’s age. He just started high school. I’m looking forward to this weekend.