Marcel Dzama: Drawing with Raymond Pettibon | Art21 "Extended Play"

[Marcel Dzama: Drawing with Raymond Pettibon]

I enjoy working alone for about a month.

And then after that, I really need
to be around other artists or friends.

I always really enjoy collaboration.

Working with Raymond Pettibon
has really been an honor.

He was the first contemporary artist
I had heard of,

because of all the album covers he had
done over the years of punk bands.

We started collaborating because we'd
go to all these Zwirner artist dinners.

We're both a little bit socially awkward.

So we'd be drawing at the dinners.

Usually, we'd sit beside each other.

So then we started drawing on napkins

over the table.

I really feel that he opened the door for
the acceptance of drawing as a main art form--

not as just the sketch before the painting
or before the sculpture.

He really put his foot in the door.

And then I got in as well.

[LAUGHS]

--Should we do that cathedral or the waves?

--Should we start that one?

[RAYMOND PETTIBON]
--Sure.

[DZAMA]
--There was this one that you had, too,

--from the horses.

[PETTIBON]
Oh yeah...

[DZAMA]
--It's a pretty good color.

[PETTIBON] I love gothic cathedrals,

because you just let gravity...

[DZAMA] Yeah, just let it drop!

[LAUGHS]

[PETTIBON] It took five hundred years
with hard labor to get done,

but drawing them is my favorite.

[DZAMA] We didn't even talk about
what we were planning to do.

We just naturally started on
one end of the paper

and met in the middle or switched off.

We knew that a lot of people
would try to pick out, like,

"Oh, Marcel drew that and Raymond drew this."

So, purposely he would draw a bat.

And I would draw a wave,

or a surfer,

or something we're more known for.

If paint dripped across my drawing,

I would try to incorporate it into,
I don't know, a snake or something.

Whereas Raymond would just leave the drops.

I really like that looseness that he has--

just kind of let it happen.

It's just this natural flow
that really worked well.

Our sons are the same age,
they're both six.

They were in here a few days ago
and painted this one in the corner.

So Raymond and I added to it as well.

They started it all--

they had this whole wave in there.

So this is kind of like our little
family collaborative piece.

It's quite fun.

Since having a child,
I find that seeing things through his eyes--

seeing things as brand new,

and discovering things that I've just ignored
or become used to--

has found its way into my work.

I've definitely found that

I have this looseness to my work
when I collaborate.

That gives it more of an energy.

The work is alive
and I've really embraced it.