Quotes from Marcel Dzama

Every now and then, I like to take a break from the visual arts and play a few songs on guitar. I don't play them for anyone.

Any given day, you'll find me at secondhand bookstores.

I'm always interested in seeing how other artists work. I want to know what their working patterns are. I even like to know if they listen to music when they draw or what time of day they draw, even materials they use, what they research, if they use photographs.

I made a tin man costume with tin foil and furnace parts because I thought it would help me be more heartless.

I make art primarily for myself and to show my friends, so I guess it's important to make art that they can connect to.

When I was a school kid, I used to read lots of comics. This started me on drawing. I would make my own comics about my teddy bear, whose name happened to be Ted.

The process of the body changing and making a whole human fascinates me.

I've always remembered 'Where the Wild Things Are' so clearly, which isn't the case with most other children's books. 'Wild Things' was a favorite from the start.

I don't go digital. I was never good with technology. I didn't have a cellphone until I moved to New York. My gallery was like, 'What? How are we supposed to contact you?'

Everyone was saying computers were going to be the future of art; everyone had to do something in this medium. And it was almost some sort of rebellion that I wanted to do these small, intimate drawings.

I use dull colors in my drawings because I started out using a root beer base, because it seemed like an interesting idea, and when it turned out that it worked quite well as an ink, I started using other colors that would complement it, like grays from Higgins black writing ink and, more recently, Dr. P.H. Martin's olive green and vermilion.

I only learned about Darger a couple years ago, when I kept seeing his name in reference to my artwork, so I looked him up. I wouldn't consider him an influence because I'd already established my current style before learning about him, but I enjoy his work a lot.

I like all kinds of music but some of my all time favorites are P.I.L., Yoko Ono, T-Rex, and Anton Karas.

I find that I'm constantly drawing. Even when I'm on holidays or when the baby's sleeping, I'll just start doing some automatic drawing, something like that, and then it will turn into a piece, even though I thought I was just doodling.

I feel that, for each show I've been doing, there's a character that dominates. Then in the next show it plays a smaller part, and then in the next it has a sort of cameo piece. So they all have their moment.

I've been very influenced by Inuit art especially some drawings and watercolors I've seen.

I've been very fortunate in my art career. It's something I would never have expected.

My main influence are the other members of the Royal Art Lodge, we've drawn together enough that we can't help but influence each other.