Cisco: Do you have any thoughts about the viral nature of the internet and its effect on your popularity?

Kurt: I have to be thankful for it. I know when I started I became aware of what the internet would do for me when I would look at my website statistics and everything was being pulled from LiveJournal. And I would click on the link and it was people's LiveJournals with my images on the background. And then I started to realize: wait. they're hot-linking them off my site! One December I had over $900 in fees for bandwidth overages. So I used to switch the file names on people and put up funny pictures in place of what they wanted. But then I realized that that was mean, too, because they were just trying to share what they liked. That's when I realized that I had LiveJournal to thank for all of this and probably still do.

C: Do you protect your images in any way now?

K: I usually have my work section done in Flash so people have to do screen captures and save them on their own server, but that is something that I have to pay to have built. So I have to pay so I don't have to pay extra. And I pay a lot for internet bandwidth and hosting a year. There is only so much protection you can have and as long as I don't get charged overages, I don't pay too much attention as to where they are going or what people are doing. Things that I don't have any control over.

C: Your fan base is very young, does that make you feel any differently about the work you produce? Do you feel any additional responsibility or that you have to edit the content?

K: No. I get kind of rowdy and raunchy sometimes, I guess. It's good - it keeps me young, it keeps me feeling young. I am turning 29 at the end of the month and I think I've missed a lot of chances so far in life to live how I wanted to and everything. Having a young fan base and doing work that is still young hearted keeps me with hope that I'm not getting too old. If anything, it's good. It reminds me of how I felt at that time in my life. Maybe when I was happiest or could enjoy things a little more freely before real life set in.

C: There is obviously great demand for your work. do you feel like you, yourself, are a commodity?

K: I've tended to take myself out of the equation over the last year and a half. Taking down any artist statements that I had. I haven't had a resume in two and a half or three years. Trying to hide a bit more.

C: So no "Win a date w/ Kurt Halsey" raffle?

K: Oh, no. I've had three MySpace's now. I keep deleting them trying to keep a semblance of a personal life. It is hard on the internet - I can't hide. It's weird at times because everyone that emails you maybe wants something from you. It's given me social anxiety over whether I even want to read this email. What do they want? How did I disappoint them? Things like that. So I've tried to take down all the pictures of me on my site and anything personally that I've written and just have it exist as the work. With the newer work I've tried to take it less seriously. Not frame it and let it exist on the wall just like it existed in my hands. Just have it be simple and not as much about me and not in an expensive frame. I kind of just want to hide mainly and sleep and scribble on paper.

C: It's interesting to see teens begging their parents to buy them artwork. How do you feel about this culture shift?

K: I think it's really cool. I think still we don't see a lot of people come to shows like they would see a band. We're not quite there yet. I do a lot of shows where twenty or thirty people stray in and I wonder if it's worth it to show and then do a place like here where so many people can come. It's such a nice location and people can come from so many different states rather easily. It's really positive. I think that it is great to see people come out like they do here with their parents, have their parents drive them, I think it's really fun and amazing. I know my parents wouldn't have been like that at all. It's actually really cool and the idea that people are wanting to hang a poster of artwork in their room instead of a poster of Good Charlotte or My Chemical Romance is kind of cool, actually.

C: I think it's interesting that they want originals, too. It's like, "I could get an iPod, or I could get a piece of artwork."

K: Exactly. I've had to make that decision numerous times, too, and I've missed out on artwork that would have been a stretch for me at the time. Maybe it would have been one of my whole paychecks. I'll regret it to this day that I didn't get it when I could. Some of my favorite artists, I know that if I could afford to put it on a credit card and pay it off over a year, I would just to have it. I think art is so vital to live with and be around. I think it's great to even want an original. It's very special, the fact that something could mean that much to someone that they would want to live with it makes it really worthwhile.

C: Have you gotten any feedback from the painting packs that you did for Urban Outfitters?

K: Yeah. A lot of people were excited about them and I've gotten some hate mail, or angry letters, too. I've gotten two angry letters from people's parents who ordered them that were unhappy with the way they were shipped. They contact me to tell me that I need to reconsider who I negotiate to do business with. And the word "sellout" has happened. I try to explain that I've never worked with a company before. I turned down Hot Topic wanting to do t-shirts. That's not something I want to do, but when Urban Outfitters came along they wanted to do these mini stretched canvasses. If I did them on my own, they would never be as cheap as Urban Outfitters could do. The mystique of selling out, well, you don't sell out for what they pay. I bought in so that people could have these mini paintings, which I thought were a really cool little project. I'm sorry that I didn't tour their shipping department and inspect the boxes that they were going to be packaging them in before I signed the contract, but it was an opportunity and the first, really, that I've been offered that I wanted to take. I'm going to do five more for them.

C: Five more painting packs?

K: No, five more individual pieces that can be ganged on a wall like my work is usually hung. Still smaller, but paintings again. I think it's a cool little thing and if they wanted to do t-shirts, I'd say no, you can get t-shirts anywhere. If I did these on my own, they'd be like $90 a piece instead of $40 for three. There are no benefits in royalties and I'm sure the people that are buying them already know my work. So, there have been a few emails that have made me cringe and they just make my head hurt. I've done everything myself for so long and try to keep it simple and honest and just for me. And then I do one thing and people are just mad because it's Urban Outfitters. They think it's easy. I've had an agent for almost two years now and we haven't gotten any kind of deals anywhere shopping my work around for stationery or greeting cards or anything. They did my contract for Urban Outfitters, but that was really the only professional thing we've done. People think I need rethink who I do business with, but I don't think they realize that there are not a lot of options.

C: In what ways do you think your work has developed over the last several years?

K: Oh, man, well I went through a dark period of my life for the last two years. Pretty unhappy living in Detroit, which was really terrible. I got out of there. I wasn't inspired to create. I can only make what's inside me and there wasn't a lot in there that I wanted to share. So there were darker pieces that now I look back on and don't want them showing anymore. It was really hard for a while. All your life you can create and have fun and be free and you go to art school and you stay up all night with friends and drink Dr. Pepper and throw bowling balls at the still life setups and you just make work. And then you get out and you're like, "Oh shit, I just graduated art school, how am I going to make a living?" Real life starts to sink in and there is still maybe that wonder of not growing up so quick. I worked part time jobs for four and a half years out of art school and painted on the side and it was fun and easy. I only worked five hours a day and then I could come home and draw. Now that's turned into a full time job and the job aspect can take away from it with deadlines. Obviously you can't make a living selling original artwork, so you go into prints and posters and other things, but then you're dealing with shipping those and customer service and you spend all morning and $600 ordering packaging supplies. It becomes hard to find time to create and then, if you're not in a good place in your life, there is almost not hope to ask for new work. But I moved to Portland, Oregon and renewed my senses and faith in the goodness of people and life again. Things have been more fun for me and my work has gone through different phases. I know a lot of people will say that I do the same things over and over again. And some like the older work and obviously some like the newer work better. I read all of that on the evil internet and it just clouds your brain and you have to try to figure it out for yourself. In renewing my senses I thought I wanted to go back to how I used to draw or approach work to try to get the fun-ness of it back for me in creating. But as far as what comes out, I never ask for anything and I never hope to change it into anything. When people say they are just waiting for me to do something new, well they just have to wait. I have to wait, too, and see what comes out over time.

C: The demon drawings that you have up in Portland seem like a shift from your standard subject matter.

K: The one girl called those, she's actually the moderator of the LiveJournal community, she said the imagery was played out.

C: I actually prefer those pieces. Are there any plans for more that are similar to those?

K: I don't know. A lot of the work for that show I had never planned to show anyone. It came from me being pushed to create for creations sake and not worry about if I liked what came out, if it scared me, if I didn't want anyone to see it. Just to make the work. I guess a lot of what I'd been through the last two years, I felt hideous and humiliated, and maybe it was a reflection of that. There were other ones that I drew that I didn't show, demons licking their nuts like a cat would lick its parts. I held some of that back, but the carrot in the tooshie I decided to let out. I don't know, I can't really say what will come. That came out and I had an opportunity to show and I had all of those darker pieces and I decided that it was ok. I would never be against trying something new or letting work that comes out take me to new places or guide me, but that all has to happen over time.

C: The last time you showed at Art Star, you had several sculptures and pieces on shaped wood panels. Any thoughts about experimenting with custom vinyl toys?

K: Again, you could do anything. The world is wondrous, anything that you'd want to get made someone can make it somewhere. It just a matter of finding who and how much money it takes. I don't think I'd want to paint on anything stock, though. I started in art school as a sculpture major because I was so influenced by the character design of Nightmare Before Christmas and things like that. I thought for sure I'd get into toy design or making puppets. So I've always been interested in it, it's just a matter of opportunity coming and it never has.

C: Lastly, this is the the 2nd time you've been to Philadelphia for shows at Art Star. How do you feel about the city?

K: I love Gianna's. I got bike delivery of the vegan deluxe pizza and some cookie dough cake. So I was a real happy camper. I like it. It's gotten really built up around here, it's nice. My second favorite TV show besides The Office (American) is It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. I can't stay too long in town because I have cats to feed, but it looks like it's getting really nice and happening. It sure beats Chicago.