What's the weirdest request you've ever gotten?
Bit of a head scratcher there. I’ve gotten some pretty “out there” asks from rogue event guests. I think the one that most sticks in my memory came from a gentleman at a brunch event in Orlando, FL, who requested I make a pancake of me making a pancake of me making a pancake of me making a pancake etc, etc, etc…yeah. That one filled the griddle. Not sure where the photo went, but he asked for a similar one the year after, too. I call it ‘Pancakeception’. We’ve got to go deeper.
Are there any things you still struggle with in pancake art?
Oh, all the time. Pancake art is such an awkward medium, there’s so much extra work you have to do that isn’t a part of, say, illustrating with pens and ink. You have to mix all of your colors fresh every session, you can’t really sketch things out and trace over them, you cover your drawing up as you go and can’t see the final product, the whole thing is mirrored, the layering is really important…yeah. You get better at all of that stuff with practice but sometimes you’re standing in the studio shake-mixing colors for the thousandth time and your arms are tired, and you think, “Man, why did I pick this medium to build a career around?”
I think on a more technical level the biggest challenge for me with pancake art in general is patience. I see Dana come in and take hours and hours mixing colors on the fly to give her pieces these brilliant and dynamic lighting effects, and it just makes me tiiiiiired. Consistency, too, is a problem for me. Sometimes, especially when I’m trying to draw a really realistic portrait of someone, it’s hard to straddle that line between “carbon copy” and “artistic interpretation”, and I mess up peoples’ expressions or fail to capture their ‘essence’. I dunno! I will never consider myself a master of this art form even if other people do – that way, I’ll keep learning.
What's your favorite breakfast restaurant?
Oh gosh. Definitely Southwest Diner just down the street here in St. Louis. The menu is simple and stays consistent, the food is delicious and affordable, the coffee is crap – but, y’know, in that awesome ‘this is a diner experience’ way – and the staff are all some of the best and coolest people in the city. ‘Course, I’m answering this question in month 4 of the COVID-19 pandemic, so…I, uh, hope they’re still around when this all blows over. Otherwise I guess I’ll have to open something myself.
What's the coolest place you've traveled to?
It’s kinda cool how hard this one is for me to answer. I’ve been extremely blessed, and had opportunities that have taken me all over the US, and then internationally to Sao Paulo Brazil, Bangkok Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sharjah and Dubai in the UAE. All of those places were crazy to visit in their own way and I’ve got really great memories of each. If I had to pick, though…
Gosh. This is hard! Visiting Dubai was really cool – there’s a peculiar cultural juxtaposition going on there that opens your mind to a lot of things. Waking up at a hotel in Sharjah – an epicenter of Islamic cultural heritage – and hearing the ethereal ‘call to prayer’ echo over the nearby towers and neighborhoods, or going into downtown Dubai and taking an elevator to the 150th floor of the Burj Khalifa – the tallest building in the world at the time I visited it – and looking out over the other skyscrapers like you’re playing a game of Sim City…that whole experience was surreal. Hank and I were in the same building as Al Gore at one point? Almost all the portraits I drew during that trip were women wearing abaya, the black headscarves, and they almost all asked me to draw their portraits with the snapchat flower crown filter. That was an interesting little quirk! Yeah, all in all I loved having the chance to go there, even if dancing in public is technically illegal.
Are your pancakes edible?
They absolutely are.
Pineapple on pizza?
Yes. It’s the sweet and the savory, what the sages of old have passed down as “delicious”.
