Interview with Fanartica

Posted by Sara Kitaeff on Friday, November 18, 2011 · 1 Comment

Glovebox had the pleasure of interviewing Ellen Crenshaw and her husband Matt Boehm, two wonderfully creative artists who have brought together a talented group for their blog Fanartica. Devoted to fan art, these artists get together every two weeks and draw their hearts out according to a particular theme. We think they’re great and you will too!

How did you and your husband come up with the concept of Fanartica and how did you find such a great group of artists and illustrators for the blog?

Matt Boehm: I’m a 3-D animator and while I love my job, I don’t get the chance to draw very much. I was just looking for an excuse to draw more, so I had the idea of getting all our illustrator buddies together for a group doodle blog. I figured it would be easier to get into drawing again if there was no pressure.

Ellen Crenshaw: Matt suggested the idea to me and I came up with the fan art theme. Fan art seems to be blowing up online, especially among our favorite illustrators, so I thought it would be a cool overall theme for our tumblr.

Matt: There’s no worry with fan art. It’s fun and this blog is just for fun, so I thought it was a great idea.

How do you choose your rotating topics, what have been your favorites and what are some concepts we can expect in the coming months?

Ellen: There’s no tried-and-true way we’ve used to come up with topics. We do keep a database where everyone can contribute ideas and vote on them. Sometimes I make a survey from which people can vote on a topic, sometimes Matt and I pull rank and decide on a topic ourselves. But we always try to keep the interests of everyone in the group in mind.

Matt: My favorites have been the first topic, 90s Nickelodeon, and our first mash-up, Studio Ghibli and Wes Anderson.

Ellen: Right now we have our second mash-up, Disney Movies and Alan Rickman. I’m looking foward to our Jim Henson topic coming up!

Your blog pays homage to your favorite bits of pop culture – what in particular inspires you?

Ellen: Good stories and good characters are always inspiring, which pretty much encompasses everything we make fan art about. Doesn’t matter where you find it, whether it be in books, movies, tv, or games.

Matt: I agree. I have a lot of interests, but I think the one unifying element is good storytelling.

In which ways do you see Fanartica growing? Where will you be in 1 year? 5 years?

Ellen: Right now it’s a little early to be thinking about Fanartica’s future. It was started just for fun, and we’d like to keep it that way.

Matt: If Fanartica’s even still around in a year, hopefully that just means I’m drawing a lot more.

If you were designing album covers for four singers/songwriters, who would you pick and why?

Matt: Joanna Newsom, because she’s a great storyteller. And Colin Meloy for the same reason. But then I really love all the album covers by Carson Ellis, so I wouldn’t want to take the work away from her.

Ellen: I’d design an album cover for Patton Oswalt. But he’s not a singer/songwriter.

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