DoubleParlour Interview

Name: Ernie and Cassandra Velasco aka Doubleparlour
Occupation: Ernie- Artist/Pastry Chef Cassandra- Artist/Pharmacy Technician
Location: San Francisco, CA

How did you first become interested in creating art together?
Our collaboration grew out of the desire to both sell artwork on-line and create work together. We formed Doubleparlour in 2007. We were curious about the effect of creating paintings and prints together where we both shared the process from start to finish.


What do you find most rewarding with the collaborative process?
It is most rewarding being able to bounce ideas off of each other and have someone to critique a work in progress. Each of our individual ideas and approaches to creating vary greatly and at times we inspire or surprise each other. We also balance each other's strengths and weaknesses as far as the business aspects of customer service, shipping, and promotion.


What are your artistic influences?
We are both influenced by nature, human emotions and reasoning, architecture, decay and the irony in everyday life. We also find inspiration from many different artists. Here are a few: Tiffany Bozic, Tara Tucker, Alex Gross, Eva Hesse, Andrew Schoultz, Swoon, and street art.


What have you used/learned from another artist lately?
Well, we would like to give credit to artist John Casey for his polymer clay tutorial on the art and culture website FecalFace. His tutorial described his process of working with polymer clay which lead to our own experiments with this medium which we now embrace.


What are you trying to communicate with your art?
I think we are trying to create a subtle narrative with a sense of mystery. Any one object, conversation, etc can be interpreted in so many different ways.


You do both sculpture and two-dimensional works. How do you decide which
process will work best for your expressions. Do you ever have crossover
characters, ones that end up as both illustration and sculpture?
There have been a few crossover characters between illustration and sculpture, one example is the Shohin character. A Shohin is a small bonsai under 10 inches. See samples here: Sculpture & Illustration . I think for both of us, sometimes the idea dictates the medium and other times the need to create a sculpture or print for a gallery show or our on-line store will fuel the project. Our individual process of creating varies greatly. Ernie delves right into creating a piece once the idea has formed in his head and makes decisions on colors and final composition as he goes along. Cassandra prefers to plan a piece completely beforehand which involves sketches, references and decisions on placement, color and composition.


We just opened the "Bird" show on Valentine's Day and people were immediately drawn to the 3 sculptures we have here in the Gallery (see photos above). Could you tell us a little about how you make them?
All three pieces are made of polymer clay which is hand formed and baked at a low temperature. They are then finished with acrylic paint and matte and/or gloss varnish. Some of the pieces are mixed media incorporating such items as twigs, antique doll parts, antique keys and architectural elements, and railroad miniatures.


I think what draws me in most to your work is the sense of CHARACTER there. One gets the feeling that there are individual stories behind the pieces. Small fictions that accompany "the Diver" and "Hoagie" for example. I'm curious if you have a personality in mind when you create them, or does this form after the creation?
We do enjoy creating characters and that usually begins with a idea and basic form. A lot of times it is a matter of putting different elements together to create a piece. I think the story grows our of the character's development as it is being created. Usually there are parts of a story in each piece of artwork, like a movie without an ending. We like to leave some of the interpretation to the viewer. The Hoagie character was inspired by the wondrous world of Edward Gorey's characters. Hoagie is meant to be a somewhat odd and contemplative creature. He is like one of those people who don't need the approval of others yet whose gentle nature make them quite likable. People always try to guess what Hoagie is, some comments we've heard is that he looks like a worm, pickle or seal, or a character from Eraser Head movie.


How important is humor in your work?
Although it is not an aspect of all of our work, it is very important sometimes in order to express hidden meanings or to just have fun with the work. With art, the beauty of it is that it doesn't have to make sense. This is part of what allows viewer interpretation.


My favorite piece that we have here at the shop is 'The Diver'. How did this particular character come about?
Ernie created the Diver while imagining how it would appear as a large sculpture in a public space, if the miniatures where scaled to human size. There is also the small human figures in the cave. What are they running from or to and what is the relationship with the albatross? We will leave the answers to the viewer, it is nice to create a sense of mystery.


You both have 'Regular' jobs outside making artwork. What influence does your daily life play in your creation process?
Well, it does eat up a lot of time that could be spent creating. Really, both of our regular jobs are completely separate life from creating artwork. Although, some ideas for projects do form out of activities or conversations from work.

And our completely RANDOM question to end it all: In honor of our love of
poetry and posting here at the crow bulletin board. What is your favorite
poem of all time (to each of you individually)?
Ernie-
Dorothy Parker's "Resume"
Cassandra-
T.S. Eliot "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"