0:00:08.687,0:00:10.694 FATHER: He was in college when he was in fifteen. 0:00:11.334,0:00:12.080 LANDLADY: …he's different. 0:00:12.080,0:00:14.477 I've never known anybody like him ever. 0:00:15.160,0:00:18.920 And venture to say that I probably never will. 0:00:18.920,0:00:25.809 MOTHER: Most of his art is actually writing. 0:00:28.542,0:00:31.520 RAYMOND: I spend a lot more [br]time writing than I do drawing - 0:00:31.520,0:00:33.720 I really wouldn't want to make that distinction 0:00:33.720,0:00:37.136 or feel the need to separate the two. 0:00:41.920,0:00:45.505 The fact is I make work that, that requires both. 0:00:47.734,0:00:51.360 FATHER: all those books downstairs, [br]and the thousands we have, 0:00:51.360,0:00:53.180 he reads those all the time. 0:00:53.681,0:00:56.560 LANDLADY: he loved to find books that are, 0:00:56.560,0:00:58.560 that they are underlined or highlighted 0:00:58.560,0:01:01.960 because especially those people [br]might not even be alive any more, 0:01:01.960,0:01:04.564 so it's like he gets to kind of shadow 0:01:04.720,0:01:08.345 and find out what was interesting to [br]the people that have gone before him… 0:01:09.921,0:01:12.682 RAYMOND: My writing is associational. 0:01:14.960,0:01:19.131 You don't necessarily know where it's [br]going to go while you're doing it. 0:01:20.840,0:01:22.200 Sometimes people, ah, comment that the, 0:01:22.200,0:01:26.515 that there's such a disparity [br]between the image and the words… 0:01:28.360,0:01:31.618 It mirrors the way I work overall quite a bit… 0:01:34.147,0:01:36.640 LANDLADY: I'm not trying to [br]say he's a slob, it's just, 0:01:36.640,0:01:39.880 that's the way he works and I believe [br]that he has to have his stuff around him, 0:01:39.880,0:01:42.227 all around him like that to be able to work. 0:01:43.320,0:01:45.440 That looks normal for him. 0:01:47.080,0:01:49.280 But it’s just hysterical to me that in his mind, 0:01:49.280,0:01:52.846 he felt that he would not make a mess at all. 0:02:01.200,0:02:04.067 He’s eccentric at times, I would have to say. 0:02:05.280,0:02:08.780 I have a special place in my heart for [br]him, I just think he’s a great guy. 0:02:09.453,0:02:16.233 RAYMOND: This is gonna be a [br]coup, actually, seeing me… 0:02:17.200,0:02:21.160 first, first known record or case of me 0:02:21.160,0:02:24.493 actually arranging or kind [br]of cleaning up the place. 0:02:29.960,0:02:31.937 It can't be a documentary though, 0:02:33.941,0:02:35.360 because no one would believe it. 0:02:36.180,0:02:40.280 LANDLADY: He just has a really broad [br]range of things that interest him, 0:02:40.280,0:02:44.040 and it can be erotic to a bowl of fruit, 0:02:44.040,0:02:46.600 A mind that can do that… 0:02:46.600,0:02:52.800 that kind of broad spectrum [br]artistically has to be pretty busy 0:02:52.800,0:02:54.120 with a lot of different things. 0:02:54.120,0:02:57.807 MOTHER: It's a thinking [br]persons art, isn't it true? 0:02:58.240,0:03:01.240 It's not just drawing pretty pictures, 0:03:01.240,0:03:06.100 and he has all these ideas. 0:03:07.171,0:03:10.400 RAYMOND: The way I think and the [br]way I talk and the way I write, 0:03:10.400,0:03:12.040 it’s not very direct always. 0:03:12.040,0:03:13.480 It can lead anywhere. 0:03:13.480,0:03:15.560 I want it to be as fluent as possible. 0:03:15.560,0:03:17.783 I mean, that’s a major part of my work. 0:03:19.400,0:03:24.000 Almost like an athlete would exercise his muscles 0:03:24.000,0:03:27.320 and do the same moves and get to a point 0:03:27.320,0:03:29.760 where it becomes almost instinctive. 0:03:39.480,0:03:43.840 Even though my work is usually [br]just, just one drawing, 0:03:45.200,0:03:50.480 it is more of a narrative than [br]it is a cartoon with a punch line 0:03:50.480,0:03:55.000 and a resolution and a laugh at the end. 0:03:55.680,0:04:00.472 There still is an element of caricature [br]and cartoons that my work retains. 0:04:01.920,0:04:06.240 Gumby represents an alter-ego [br]for my work as an artist. 0:04:06.240,0:04:10.440 There’s actually a lot more [br]to that figure than just 0:04:10.440,0:04:13.219 ninety-eight ounces of clay or whatever. 0:04:15.360,0:04:20.360 In some of his cartoons he goes [br]into a biography or historical book 0:04:20.360,0:04:24.444 and he interacts with real figures from the past. 0:04:25.560,0:04:29.128 And I tend to do that in my [br]work and in my videos as well. 0:04:30.840,0:04:34.482 You know, who for me, does more [br]than Gumby would be Vavoom. 0:04:35.029,0:04:39.120 When I'm doing drawings of Vavoom, [br]putting him in this kind of 0:04:39.120,0:04:44.360 epic, sublime, romantic [br]landscape and he is this little, 0:04:44.360,0:04:46.625 little guy with a booming voice… 0:04:47.240,0:04:50.360 I consider characters like Gumby or Vavoom, 0:04:50.360,0:04:56.867 Felix the Cat, with respect, compared [br]to the President of the United States… 0:04:59.760,0:05:01.562 this one or any or them, you know, really. 0:05:03.840,0:05:05.920 And those are the real cartoon figures, 0:05:05.920,0:05:09.868 and those are the real ridiculous figures. 0:05:12.213,0:05:15.840 RAYMOND: There’s a very direct [br]kind of anger in some of my work. 0:05:15.840,0:05:21.760 The pretentious, the powerful, decadent, corrupt. 0:05:21.760,0:05:24.734 Those would tend to be people [br]who I don’t respect at all. 0:05:25.840,0:05:30.680 It's a way of trying to [br]break down this natural awe 0:05:30.680,0:05:35.862 with those heroes that comes [br]out of a sort of fear and envy… 0:05:38.960,0:05:41.560 I've never considered myself [br]much of a political artist. 0:05:41.560,0:05:46.076 And most of my art doesn't really deal [br]in like explicitly political issues. 0:05:48.400,0:05:53.800 But you know, I'm not going to [br]apologize or shy away from it any, 0:05:53.800,0:05:56.011 any more than I would any other subject. 0:05:59.383,0:06:03.240 (Patty) Daddy, you never [br]taught me the facts of life. 0:06:03.240,0:06:04.751 You never read me Marx. 0:06:05.480,0:06:10.280 I grew up not knowing what [br]a worker is or what they do. 0:06:10.280,0:06:11.760 Look at me now Daddy. 0:06:11.760,0:06:12.996 Look at your little daughter. 0:06:13.520,0:06:14.800 I’m out of the closet for good. 0:06:14.800,0:06:17.935 The blindfold’s peeled off [br]for the first time in my life. 0:06:18.560,0:06:21.720 RAYMOND: Patty Hearst and the SLA… 0:06:21.720,0:06:26.400 it would really be impossible [br]I would think, for me anyway, 0:06:26.400,0:06:30.200 to not treat it with broad comic aspect to it 0:06:30.200,0:06:35.000 because the whole situation [br]was such a broad burlesque. 0:06:37.080,0:06:40.360 And like a lot of the best humor, 0:06:40.360,0:06:43.655 whether it's the Three Stooges or Molière, 0:06:44.680,0:06:50.760 it's about someone who is [br]really strident or pretentious, 0:06:50.760,0:06:54.560 and a lot of political groups from the sixties, 0:06:54.560,0:06:59.080 seventies were so full of their own righteousness. 0:06:59.080,0:07:02.498 It's hard to take that sort of thing seriously. 0:07:02.680,0:07:07.800 If you can see it from any historical distance… 0:07:09.212,0:07:12.813 If I'm going to be [br]condemned for broaching that subject 0:07:13.200,0:07:17.218 from a comic angle that is, [br]that's completely absurd… 0:07:19.200,0:07:22.840 to demonize them in particular when 0:07:22.840,0:07:26.240 you had a war going on that was killing millions, 0:07:26.240,0:07:31.080 I mean it's a way for me to [br]objectify the lines there. 0:07:31.080,0:07:33.720 To even the playing field a little bit, 0:07:33.720,0:07:38.277 rather than picking one enemy and demonizing them 0:07:39.120,0:07:41.775 to basically cover your own ass. 0:07:56.841,0:08:02.320 RAYMOND: Now if you could get me [br]on camera doing a straight line 0:08:02.320,0:08:07.147 that would also be a historic shot. 0:08:08.400,0:08:09.711 That's not going to happen here. 0:08:13.880,0:08:16.600 If you do look at my, my [br]works, baseball for instance, 0:08:16.600,0:08:20.129 there is a kind of larger than [br]life attitude to a lot of it. 0:08:21.040,0:08:26.440 Not all the works are pure [br]adulation of the ball players. 0:08:26.440,0:08:30.680 Baseball has probably been my [br]favorite since I was a child. 0:08:30.680,0:08:33.440 The reason why I keep coming [br]back to certain images 0:08:33.440,0:08:38.214 is probably most often that there's [br]a visual quality that works for me, 0:08:38.920,0:08:42.360 whether you are throwing the [br]pitch or batting the ball 0:08:42.360,0:08:48.000 you do have that sense of movement [br]and for an artist like myself, 0:08:48.000,0:08:53.478 whose work is that one [br]moment, that can be important. 0:08:54.640,0:08:56.840 My work on the subject does say a lot about 0:08:56.840,0:09:00.080 what goes on off the field [br]as well about the society– 0:09:00.080,0:09:07.709 it's kind of a microcosm [br]of the society as a whole. 0:09:08.712,0:09:17.688 MOTHER: He draws a train and it can give you maybe hundred stories just looking at the train. 0:09:20.000,0:09:23.485 RAYMOND: I think trains in my [br]work are particularly American. 0:09:26.720,0:09:31.604 In this country, we still had vast frontiers left. 0:09:32.766,0:09:39.279 It was about bringing the shores [br]together, about going west. 0:09:42.240,0:09:47.880 Even when I was a kid, when [br]I heard the train at night 0:09:47.880,0:09:52.130 it was like the equivalent of running [br]off and joining the circus, I guess. 0:09:55.160,0:09:59.320 Every American kid kind of had that [br]somewhere in his mind and kind of embedded. 0:10:02.240,0:10:07.251 Beyond that, it’s an image that works [br]well for the kind of drawings I do. 0:10:25.901,0:10:29.320 RAYMOND: What you see is these motifs [br]that keep reoccurring in my work. 0:10:30.120,0:10:36.300 They started as one image and for whatever reason, 0:10:37.120,0:10:47.272 they did have this kind of resonance to [br]me and that brought them back and some of, 0:10:47.272,0:10:51.098 some of them, you know, [br]have had a fairly long life. 0:10:59.840,0:11:07.004 There is a kind of a strain in my work that [br]is usually described as like a film noir. 0:11:09.760,0:11:14.920 There probably is more failure depicted [br]in my work then there is success. 0:11:17.354,0:11:20.120 (Landlady) I find a lot of humor in his work, 0:11:20.120,0:11:23.720 because the world’s kind of scary sometimes, 0:11:23.720,0:11:28.520 and he tends to be able to make some [br]of the most horrible things funny. 0:11:30.440,0:11:33.440 He’ll just flat out put it down on paper 0:11:33.440,0:11:36.321 and then write something about [br]it and you can’t help but laugh. 0:11:41.219,0:11:45.040 Ray: I don't like my humor to be in [br]the service of making fun of people 0:11:45.040,0:11:51.764 based on superficialities just for the [br]sake of going for some cheap laugh. 0:11:54.520,0:11:56.600 I won’t do that if it will hurt someone, 0:11:56.600,0:12:01.040 if it’s based on things that [br]people have no control over. 0:12:02.080,0:12:06.680 We as humans still so oftentimes feel the need to 0:12:06.680,0:12:08.203 have someone to pick on, you know. 0:12:11.780,0:12:15.480 RAYMOND: Art can be a kind of [br]therapeutic or kind of a fantasy life or, 0:12:15.480,0:12:21.454 or wish fulfillment or creating [br]this alternate universe. 0:12:30.274,0:12:31.976 Art to me is, gives me the freedom 0:12:31.976,0:12:32.888 to do that. 0:12:35.394,0:12:38.021 I don’t feel constrained by 0:12:39.274,0:12:41.225 the subject matter… 0:12:41.225,0:12:44.134 I welcome practically anything 0:12:45.299,0:12:47.607 into the drawing. 0:12:51.320,0:12:56.222 I think it’s work that is best when [br]there isn’t any final resolution. 0:12:59.320,0:13:00.460 When you don't arrive.