We decided to start featuring various artists on MOTORCITYBLOG once a month with the help of MCB's Derek Ecker - DE is a recent CCS Graduate who in addition to his own efforts out on the streets wanted to put the spotlight on detroit artists here on MCB.
Enjoy!
Detroit Featured Artist: Josh Buckenberger
Written By. Derek Ecker
Photography by Chelse Schneider
Illustration by Derek Ecker
Recently MCB hooked up with Detroit artist Josh Buckenberger at c-pop galleries cpopur2unity show where he had a few works of art on display and was kind enough to let us shoot him some questions.
MCB-Ok Josh, for those who don't know you let's hear the backstory. Where are you from, and
what would you say was your source of inspiration for getting into the arts.
Josh Buckenberger-I'm originally from the hospital, as are most children. I grew up in Wyandotte as a wee lad. When I was 19, I moved out of the ol' parental hut and have bounced around the Detroit area since. I've lived in Downriver, the Upper East side, Southwest, Midtown, Oak Park, and RO. It's a lot of places to live and requires quite a bit of moving (which I have become quite efficient at) but I haven't found my own place yet.
The initial spur for my artistic endeavors was brought upon by myself. As a child I had an innate talent for drawing. It was something enjoyable to do and brought about a sense of pride in knowing that I made something that I would want to look at. Following my childhood, art receded into the background for several years until later in my adolescence where I would pick it up again as a communicative tool to deal with my long-standing depression. Most of my work at the time dealt with plenty of dark brooding personal and relationship issues. I would look to other artists to get a sense of how they accomplished something similar and it gave me motivation to work on my own art.
MCB-Your work tends to be dark and mysterious, has it always had that errie feel to it or is it something you evolved over time?
Josh Buckenberger-I happen to think that my work is dark and eerie only because of circumstance and laziness. Others may disagree, but if I were more prolific, I'm sure you'd see some brighter and happier images emerge. Don't get me wrong, I love the dark side of the spectrum; I'm naturally a night person because of my light sensitivity. With my work, I love implementing the use of chiaroscuro and working from the dark to the light. Because of the way that I work, I've been told that I "come from the dark side".
MCB-Now I know your a huge fan of oils, are you ever going to step out of the dark ages and start using acrylics?
Josh Buckenberger-Acrylics aren't bad, I just don't prefer them. I do work rather fast when I get into my rhythm, so maybe I should use some acrylics once in awhile. I use oils because I happen to have a lot of them. I've been working with them much longer than acrylics. There is something about the delicious consistency of oils, not to mention the incredible strength of colors. I could go on and on about oils, but I'll spare you the technical junk this time.
MCB- Is it true that your beard is the real mastermind behind all of your works?
Josh Buckenberger-Just like Chuck Norris, I have another fist behind my beard. Except mine holds a brush
MCB-As an emerging artist what is you opionion of Detroit's current gallery scene, and where do you see it going in the future?
Josh Buckenberger-As far as the Detroit gallery scene is specifically concerned, I'm not too sure. I'm still at the very beginning of my artistic career. CPOPor2nity is my second show. Ask me again when I've been to a few more galleries.
MCB-Whats on the horizons for you? Any new projects in the works for Josh Buckenberger
Josh Buckenberger-I'm open to doing commission work for the time being. Take a look at my website @ http://www.artuo.us/ to get an idea of what it is that I do and for contact information regarding commissions.
"JOSH BUCKENBERGER IS DETROIT"