Friday 9 March 2012

Gerhard Answers 15 Questions

GERHARD:
(from a 15-question interview with Julinda Morrow at Sequential Highway, 2 March 2012)
I don't think that I was led to being an artist. I have a strong suspicion that we are born artists and that life drains it out of us. A first grade teacher commented that her kids are all artistic geniuses; little Picassos. You just need to know when to take the drawing paper away from them before they wreck it.

I have an early memory; I was about four years old, doodling on a blackboard in a hospital waiting room. A man came in, saw what I was doing, told me that it was really good and said that he hoped I didn't lose the talent or ability to draw as I got older. I wondered how I could lose such a thing; something that seemed to be so much a part of me. When I asked him why he thought I would lose it, he shrugged and said, "People just do."

...My schooling consisted of high school art and drafting classes most of which I didn't go to. My training was drawing as often as I could and working on over 4500 pages of Cerebus with Dave Sim. On the job training... Dave was the one in charge of writing the story. My contribution was limited to finishing pages he had already started. But I certainly witnessed firsthand and close up the near-limitless possibilities for storytelling. My own first attempts can be seen on my website on the 'Stories' page.

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