The 2021 Miss Experience White wall calendar will be available in early January, illustrated by acclaimed Bay Area artist John Seabury. Half of the proceeds from this limited edition will be donated to benefit public education. A Grammy nominated illustrator and designer, John Seabury’s visually addicting works of art have been featured in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and internationally renowned publications, while his fine art is sought by collectors. John can draw anything you might imagine—and plenty that you can’t. For this blog, I sent Mr. Seabury some questions to answer. When his email came back, his answers sparked comments in my mind. I decided to weave those comments in and create a conversation.
Who are you, John Seabury?
I am myself. Born at Kaiser Oakland 1956, I have lived and worked in Berkeley or nearby almost my whole life.
I grew up in the epicenter of the youth counter-culture movement here through the 60s and 70s. Exposed to all of the music, poster art, underground comix, and independent media.
I've always been an artist, when I was young I figured that was all I would ever be good at. In my late teens I got involved with music, largely because most of my friends (and brother Dave) were musicians. Turns out I'm okay at music, too.
After the collapse of the Psycotic Pineapple, I became a mercenary bass player/singer working in a variety of oldies bands.
At the same time, I got involved in commercial art, largely music-related. Record covers, posters, t-shirt designs, etc.
A mutual friend introduced us because we’d both conceived of Trump as a Tyrannosaurus— me in writing, you in a drawing. As soon as I laid eyes on that drawing, I knew I’d found the artist for the job! We aren't the only ones to come up with this— What IS it about him?
In that caricature, I made him a dinosaur because he is a product of our cultural de- evolution. Savage, uncivilized. I did another cartoon showing a Cro-MAGA Man beside his cave, with club and unconscious, barefoot, pregnant wife.
Some might perceive the T-Rex cartoon as referring to the secret lizard people of myth. But I only intended to convey the backwardness of it all.
I’m glad you said that. I’ll go on record here and say, “Me too. I do not now, nor have I ever believed gray lizard people roam the earth.” Back in June, I sent you a PDF of the entire poem cycle, Miss Experience White. What were your first impressions? What did you most want to draw?
It was overwhelming at first. So much detail, where to begin? The first one was the solo portrait of our intrepid anti-hero. That was a nice change from some of the boring commercial jobs I've had lately. And a unique experience having a client (a woman, no less) requesting that I draw him with "really ugly balls". I don't have to pussyfoot on this job. I've always been fascinated with ugly things, and this time around I get to have fun and get paid! Not done yet, but the climactic scene is going to be a doozy.
I love how you drew the balls. They’re actually so ugly, they’re beautiful. This job required creating 12 images, four for each Part. What made you choose a particular medium— watercolor, pencil, etc.— for an image? What 2 or 3 images really called out for a particular medium or illustrative technique?
When we first started it, I gave that a lot of thought. After reading all the way through at least twice, I decided that I would need several different techniques to illustrate the different eras in the story, and also to differentiate between reality and the dream/nightmare parts. One is a mostly pencil drawing meant to look like an old lithograph. One is watercolor, depicting a scene on a rainy day. Another is my old standby, pen and ink cartooning, only harshly colorized on the computer to portray the evil family for the common tasteless trash that they are.
Which illustrations are you personally most pleased with?
Please don't make me choose a pet from among my children.
It’s been a trip for me, working with you, watching you illustrate some scenes that have lots of personal meaning. And I’ve been impressed by how much historical research you’ve done. How has the collaboration been for you? Hopefully not too excruciating?
Very challenging, in a good way. It's easy to get lost going back and forth through all of these different scenes. And thank you for being patient and helpful with my questions. So many questions...
I’m glad I could answer them. Many times I’ve had to stop and ask myself, “Well, what absolutely has to be a certain way, and what doesn’t? Do I let Mr. Seabury run wild here, or hold the line?” Doing a calendar was my idea, and this was a huge, labor- intensive job. You brought in a couple of helpers. Tell us a little about them, and what they did.
My friend Bruce (Horton) and I have been spending a lot of time discussing art and music lately. He earned his MFA from UC Berkeley long ago but life interrupted his art career. After his daughter grew up and moved out, he got back into painting after 20 something years. We share many tastes. He has a 17 year-old protégé nicknamed "Gidget" who is an excellent painter already. I decided I wanted one scene to be an acrylic painting, which I hardly ever do, and they're both experts at it. So I designed the scene in pencil and gave it to them to complete. They did an excellent job and they are doing a second one.
Yes, the big, climactic doozy! When you and I started six months ago, the pandemic was underway, and then came the whole insane ramp-up to the election. Now the election is past, Biden won, and Trump will be out of a job soon. How has it been working on such “timely” material for these past 6 months?
It's all a bit surreal. It's been frustrating for political cartoonists and satirists, since the reality of our experience is so over-the-top weird, it's hard to come up with anything to exaggerate it.
And, after drawing a few political cartoons of my own, I gave up. 45 thrives on ANY attention, good or bad, so it felt like I was playing his game.
I think Miss Experience is different in its scope and breadth, unlike a one-shot cartoon or short SNL sketch. A record of current events and past events that have led up to the now.
What’s your next project?
There have been many discussions over the last year and a half about doing
a restaurant mural at a place in El Sobrante, but Covid and other factors have delayed it. It's frustrating, partly because, in addition to Bruce and Gidget joining in, I would also get to collaborate with my friend, the legendary graffiti artist and muralist Mark Bode.
But until that happens, I'll be finishing up a lot of unfinished work of my own. Being unemployed sucks, cause everybody needs money, but I get most of my best work done when I'm not distracted by trying to hawk my posters and other "wares'. For a short while I'll have the luxury to sit back and take time on my own ideas.
If you’d like to pre-order a calendar, please write to contact@milostarrjohnson.com with the subject heading, “Calendar Pre-Order.”
Thank you for your continued interest and support!
Milo