Mark Zeidler

FT: Tell us a bit about yourself.

MZ: I’m a Brisbane based graphic/artist/musician. I work as an artist pretty much all of the time doing anything from freelance work with Universal stores and Tu creative in Brisbane (designing t-shirt graphics, in store art, wall murals etc.) to working on my own label audiodirtbath.

FT: How did you start audiodirtbath?

MZ: I started audiodirtbath back in 2005 after I threw in the towel studying Classical guitar for a few years at the Conservatorium in Brisbane. Studying was never my strength and practicing there stripped a lot of feeling. Tone, technique, pitch, and posture had to be perfect, everything was so straight up and down which left no room for enjoying the music. I traded music in for visual art and so Audiodirtbath was born. Audiodirtbath started out in my parent’s backyard shed where I was designing, building frames, stenciling, screen-printing canvases, t-shirts and boxes. I started out selling my work online through ebay, which became very popular. Then I made some contacts in Melbourne who helped me create a good looking website and here I am today still looking in bins for something to eat.

FT:Tell us about your upcoming show, Rankvision

MZ:Rankvision (tv superstar money buy yum cha!) is a vintage inspired street pop art collection of original works, men’s t-shirts and collectable little stencils on canvases that are packaged in cool hand screen-printed custom boxes. Rankvision explores the dark and bright side of pop culture using bold colourful graphics to capture a response or provoke a thought of a passer by. Rankvision will be kicking off in Sydney at Blank_space gallery on the 14^th of August then exhibiting in Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane.

FT:Are there any designers/ artists you look to for inspiration

MZ: There are plenty of artists out there in the world that I like such as Banksy to shepard fairey because they have made such a huge impact in the street art world with their ability to make the general public think with their clever placement of imagery. I really like Jasper Goodall’s design work especially his erotic porn style stuff because I have used plenty of provocative imagery in my work as well. Inspiration comes from a lot of things could be colours on a street sign, something someone says, a graphic image in a book, something on the internet or something deep implanted in your memory. Most of the time for me creativity comes from having space. If you work full time and your busy all the time it is difficult to be clear headed and to create..I’ts like our heads have all these ideas baking inside and once they are cooked you better take them out of the oven before your head blows off!

FT: How did you establish your style, have you experimented with other techniques/styles?

MZ: My first solo show, as an artist was actually an abstract art exhibition called Music Art. I wrote pieces of music that represented each artwork. I made up various colours that represented different keys in each piece of music. It’s own language a bit like music theory on canvas; anyway music is a big part in the way I make.  These days I like designing my most of my work in illustrator then producing the designs onto canvas through screen printing, cutting stencils and spaying aerosol all over the place. Mainly I use ink, enamel, acrylic, canvas, wood and cardboard.

FT: Do you have any formal training in art or design?

MZ: No formal training as such I have learnt from experimentation and determination. My girlfriend is a graphic designer has helped me along the way with computer graphics/designing etc.

FT: Do you have any advice for creatives wanting to start there own projects.

MZ: Just have fun with it, it’s only art, keep at it and don’t give up and accept the fact that you will never have money for a very long time, maybe never. It’s true when they say you got to love this shit to keep going. Also keep applying for art grants every year even if you keep missing out, you will eventually be successful.

See More of Mark’s work on his website. or buy his work from our shop!