Tomorrow
is the last opportunity to catch “Faux Été” (“Fake Summer”), the solo
show of Rochester-based artist Bradd Addison Young currently
hosted at The Yards. Young’s mixed-media illustrations are fresh and strange,
each pastel-toned picture a peek into a cartoonish, nostalgic narrative with a
slightly ominous underbelly. His background is in studio art and graphic
design, and he has also created a line of apparel that sports his playful,
irreverent imagery.
Young
answered some of our burning questions about his enigmatic work and his process
via email. Check it out below.
“Faux
Été” wraps up Saturday, June 17;
catch it during market hours, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. You can follow his work on
Instagram at @young_salut.
CITY: What inspires you to create?
Bradd Addison Young: All throughout my young life, I was fortunate enough to be
taken on several vacations and excursions with my family during breaks from
school to tropical countries. The summers that I was in town, I spent hanging
out with my friends watching cartoons, playing video games, listening to music,
and exploring nature. When I try to recall my childhood and those summers, it’s
like a hazy, sunburnt dream. I try to embody that sense of nostalgia and “summer
magic” we envision as kids. At the end of the day, I just wanna
make drawings that the 15-year-old version of me would like.
Your work involves food, figures, pieces of wood, balloons, and a lot of pastel. Can you
discuss the specific themes you favor and choices you make?
In
terms of subject matter, I can only tap into the feelings and times I had
growing up. As a result, what I tend to draw is the free-association of
tropical vacations, nature, and festivities with friends; and ultimately, an
extension of me.
To
maintain the youthful aesthetic, I try to keep a simple sense of beauty and surrealness, with a soft color palette full of baby blues,
mint greens, and pinks. The goal of much of my work is to be light-hearted,
inviting, and youthful, but a little weird.
Though
my work is meant to be summery, dreamy, and light, there is a somber underlying
tone to the work. The feeling comes from the longing for that past time in my
life. I try to convey this sense of nostalgia with this idea of a fake,
never-ending summer. I work with things like lawn flamingos, woodblocks, and
scenery painted on cardboard because those are inanimate representations of the
real things I associate with childhood “fun in the sun.”
The
balloons I often draw represent summer parties and a fake sense of happiness,
hence the big dumb smile. The blocks of wood I draw are meant to be
simplifications of the feelings of being in nature when I was younger. I wanted
to take something, like nature-walking, and objectify it into one thing that I
could incorporate into multiple pieces.
I
have been a die-hard fan of cartoons and animation ever since I could remember.
I would watch whatever was on Cartoon Network, so I can attribute my love of
vibrant colors, subtle humor, and an “anything goes” type of mindset
to my fandom of kid shows (shouts out to “The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack”
and “Adventure Time”).
Where does the name “Salut”
come from?
Salut is a French word, which is
an informal way of saying “hey.” In my watercolor illustrations, I like to
imagine all the figures I include are in one “universe” where everything is
very soft, pastel-colored, and the people wear this one style of clothing. I
made up this brand for them to wear called, Salut.
The translation, “hey,” is meant to be a representation of the
inviting colors and content in the drawings; but I also wanted the name to be
something foreign to the average person.
What are you listening to in the studio these days?
I
always work with music playing in the background. Most of the time, my work is
very still and sterile, almost as if they were organized snapshots of random
scenes. I like to listen to music that I can envision playing in the background
of whatever setting I’m drawing. I’ll either listen to music that has a
repeated melody or rhythm like electronic music and some Krautrock (like Boards
of Canada or Stereolab) or something really dreamy
like Cocteau Twins or My Bloody Valentine.
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This article appears in Jun 14-20, 2017.
