Interview with the artist as a middle aged man

In a first for this blog I, Dr. Monkey, have landed an interview with Steve Denton, an internationally known self taught artist. 

Dr. M:  So, Steve, thanks for sitting down and talking to me about your art.
Steve: It's my pleasure.  Thanks for the opportunity to plug my work.
Dr. M: When did you start making art?
Steve: I've been around art all my life.  My late father was an artist, as was his brother, my late Uncle Curt.  Both of them were technically very good artists, but both of them were afraid to make original art, they both stuck mainly to making copies of others works.  My father loved copying Van Gogh and some of the Pointillists.  Uncle Curt copied animals and landscapes out of instructional manuals.  I have a brother who makes art as well, he paints and draws houses, naked people having sex, and other prosaic stuff, it's not my kind of art but I guess someone likes it, even if it's only him.  Anyhoo, I began actually making my own art in 1999.
Dr. M: What spurred that on?
Steve: We, my girlfriend and I, were on our way back from the beach in Delaware and we had stopped to stay the night in Durham, NC and I bought some art magazines and I saw the kind of stuff that others were making, so I decided to give it a try when I got home.  Some of that first stuff was just awful and it's been thrown away, but some of it I liked so I kept it.  I made a bunch of stuff, then I slacked off when I changed jobs but I started making art again after my heart attack.  Then we geared up to sell our old condo and I stopped making art for a few years but then a Facebook thing was going around where you make something by hand and give it to people and that got me back into making art.
Dr. M: What kinds of art do you make? 
Steve:  I do mixed media works on plywood and canvas.  I also do linocuts and collages.  I use my own drawings and I use portions of copies of other things.  I incorporate inks, paint, and other things in my art as well.
Dr. M: Are there themes that run through your work?
Steve: Mainly the themes of pattern and repetition.  I like both.  And bold vivid color.
Dr. M: Anything else?
Steve: I like to use pages out of old reference books and other vintage publications in my art.  What I'm trying to do, with the bigger pieces anyway, is to put people in mind of the ancient cave paintings.  I want to get back to the primal images that were painted on cave walls, so for me the way I do that is to draw on, or use cut outs from old books, which are our cave walls so to speak.
Dr. M: Your bigger works are spare but they have a lot going on in them as well.
Steve:  Yes.  I prefer simple clean lines and then if the work needs it I add circles, drips of color, numbers, words, cutout shapes, or what ever I think it might need.
Dr. M: Are you showing your work anywhere currently?
Steve: Yes.  I'm online on Facebook, my various blogs, I'm on Society 6, and I'm in a gallery in Asheville, NC.  The name of the gallery is ZaPow! Gallery and it's downtown in Asheville.
Dr. M: Very cool.  Well, that's all we have time for, thanks for your time.
Steve: Thank you.  It's been a pleasure talking to you.  You're quite the good interviewer.
Dr. M: You're a good interviewee.  And you're quite handsome as well.
Steve: You're not so bad yourself Monkey.  I'll see ya.
Dr. Monkey: Not if I see you first!
Steve: Boo ya! 

Four Norwegian girls with a gorilla want to tell you something

"Hi, I'm the girl on the far left. We're here to plug Dr. Monkey's novel, Trouble De Ville. If you haven't bought a copy yet, you really should. It's steal at $11, heck that's $3 off the old cover price and all the money goes to him and not to anyone else."

"Pink pants girl here and I've got all the detail about his book. It's a funny crime novel about people who work in a book store, some of whom like to pretend they are other people in chat rooms which leads to all kinds of problems. It's got everything you could want in a crime novel. It's got murder, double crossing lovers, weak willed men, a femme fatal, lesbians, crazy sex obsessed preachers, strippers, and a divine can of Hawaiian Punch. Seriously, it's hoot but if you're easily offended then you shouldn't buy it, and you shouldn't be reading this blog either."

"I'm the girl with braids and I've got your how to order info. If you want to buy a copy of Dr. Monkey's book you send him an email to monkeymuckATgmailDOTcom with the words 'I want Trouble' in the subject line. In his return email he will instruct you how to deposit your money in his Pay Pal account. Then when he gets your cash in his account he will email you a copy of his novel. If you hate Pay Pal you can tell him so and he'll give you an address where you can send him a check and he will email you your copy when he gets your money. If you are one of those people who don't like reading books on the computer then once you get your copy via email you can feel free to print off your copy and read it that way. Dr. Monkey is all about helping you buy and enjoy his debut novel."

"I'm the girl on the far right and I'd buy Dr. Monkey's book if I read English. And if I had $11."

The gorilla has no comment about this shameless commercial post that will hopefully sell a few more copies of Trouble De Ville. However he was more than happy to comment about having his picture taken with four cute Norwegian girls. He said, "Hubba hubba!"

Once more, with feeling

Just in time for the big holiday season I'm offering you all one more chance to buy my out of print novel.
It's a wild pulp noir crime novel that got great reviews when it first came out. You can get a copy emailed to you, whereupon you can read it on your computer or you can print it off and read it on paper. The choices are endless!

How do you get this great work of contemporary fiction? Well kids, it's simple. All you have to do is make an $11 donation to my Paypal account and when it shows up I'll email the novel to you. If you'd like to get my novel please send me an email to monkeymuckATgmailDOTcom with the words 'I want Trouble!' in the subject line. When I get your email I'll check if you have made the donation to my Paypal account and if you have sent it in, I'll send you the novel via the interwebs.

J.K. Rowling, Terry Pratchett, and Stephen King don't need any more sales, I however could use a few hundred or more, so buy my novel and encourage others to do the same.