Cartoon nerd and Secret Wars Semi-Finalist Max Berry, makes black and white geometrics a parade of goofy-eyed thicks, and belching, slack-armed kids. Throw in for good measure some chickens, ghouls and mo’s and you might have some idea of what he’s getting at. It’s a style with no boundaries and endless possibilities

Are you a night owl or a morning bird?
MB: Morning bird.

Describe an average day in the life of Max Berry?
MB: Wake up, flick through emails and blogs over breakfast, tea, procrastinate, paint some, meet up with ears to sketch/talk shop, hopefully grab sweet baked-snack, head out to the wasteland, paint some, tea, head home, emails and blogs, cook dinner, watch assorted anime, tea, go to work, come home from work, sleep.

Was there a ‘eureka’ moment when your current style clicked or stuck?
MB: Yeah I threw out my black paint.

What do you get up to when you’re not making art?
MB: What is ‘not making art’?

How did your collaboration with Ears come about? When did you two start working together?
MB: I meet Ears about three years ago. We were both volunteering at Rince Gallery Crown St. (RIP). It pretty much snowballed from there- the magazine, an office, the gallery and so on./p>

Where do you source the inspiration for your art?
MB: There is a source for inspiration… where is it!??

Do you hoard anything, and if so, why can’t you throw it?
MB: At the moment I have 9 pairs of the same shoes, all in varying degrees of degradation. Paint splattered, ripped torn and worn through I think I just like the history attached to them. That or I’m just too lazy to throw them out and too cheap to buy new ones.

Do you have any formal training?
MB: I have a Bachelor of Design form (COFA).

Three things you couldn’t live without:MB:
Kung Fu Panda
Tea
Badger-hair paint brush.

Where do you see your work/current projects heading?
MB: In no cohesive direction.

In five years time you will be…
MB: A hermit with a sausage dog named ‘crumpet’.

What advice would you give to budding artists?
MB: Go big or go home.

The current soundtrack to your work includes…
MB:
The Go Betweens
Oval
Pogo
The Octopus project
Pivot
Midlake

What is the overriding theme of your work right now?
MB: Despondency

What was the first thing you remember making?
MB: You know those cheap plastic plates you make in school, usually have naive drawings of children’s homes and family… mine was a side profile vacuum cleaner.

http://www.ohreallymagazine.com/

Interview By Maps Entertainment care of Changing lanes Festival