Getting Trippy with Jen Stark

Abbie Hoffman famously decried the end of the ’60s by saying, “dope will never be as cheap, sex never as free, and the rock and roll never as great.” But the psychedelic spirit didn’t die when the last VW buses groaned out of the muddy fields of Woodstock. If anything, it’s alive and well in the mind-altering art of Jen Stark.

Like looking at the world through dilated pupils, Stark’s art captures the euphoric visuals of an acid trip through sculptures, paintings, and animation. Her work is groovy and free in spirit like a Jerry Garcia album, and bright and playful like a Lisa Frank sticker sheet. It’s organic like the logarithmic spirals of a conch shell. It’s chemical and uncontrollable.

Stark most recently captured the public’s eyes when her art was converted into motion graphics — a giant, rainbow wormhole — for the 2015 MTV VMAs. In her animation, entrancing recursive sequences ooze like a labyrinth while vibrant colors spill out like white light through a prism. In one advertisement for the event, trippy patterns melt around this year’s host Miley Cyrus as she sticks her tongue out to the camera. It’s an embodiment of the carefree yet in-your-face vibe of Stark’s art.

Beyond the VMAs, Stark’s work appeared on the cover of July’s “The Love Issue” of Cosmopolitan. She’s also done multiple public architecture projects like dripping murals at the Miami International Airport and a technicolored hodgepodge seeping off of a Los Angeles office building. What makes her work so universal is that it toes the line between simplicity and complexity. It’s this kaleidoscopic mind-fuck that is eccentric, yet calming, like the chill drug dealer who delivers your weed by bike and dreams of revolution.

NAKID Magazine ventured to Stark’s studio in the warehouse district of Chinatown. Stark showed us around her LA workspace in a colorful jumper as the sound of a train echoed through the industrial walls. Her dog Zelda ran around the loft where tables stood adorned with scattered color swatches and felt tip markers that looked like a torn open bag of Skittles. It was chaotic, but controlled, much like the art she creates.

NAKID: Just to start off, describe your art in your own words.

JS: My artwork is organic, mathematical, psychedelic. It emulates nature — from the tiniest design in a snowflake zoomed out to the shape of the Milky Way Galaxy. It’s about finding universal shapes.

NAKID: Do you dabble in sacred geometry?

JS: Yes. I’m really into trying to uncover some kind of secret in all of it.

NAKID: Who or what are some of your inspirations?

JS: I’m really into the artists Tom Friedman and Tara Donovan. I’m also inspired by the universe, spiral designs, and the Fibonacci sequence.

NAKID: How did you get started in art?

JS: I’ve been doing art since I was very young. I have drawings back from when I was 2 years old. I’ve really been doing art ever since i was old enough to hold a marker. I started doing my work professionally in 2007, but grew up making lots of artwork.

NAKID: Was there one moment that made you say — ”You know what, I’m going to be an artist”?

JS: I had that feeling my whole life, honestly. When I was really little, my grandpa, who was a hobby artist, would invite me over to paint watercolors of boats and birds. Well, one day we were over there and we were actually painting my Cabbage Patch Kid doll and after we were done he said to me, “Wow, your painting actually looks better than mine.” I just laughed and said, “Actually, it does, grandpa.” Then I realized maybe I could do this art thing when I was seven or eight.

I guess I really realized I could do it after college when I saved up enough money to “free fall into it.” Things started happening and everything started to come together. The whole journey has been really awesome.

NAKID: Did you ever have a “starving artist” stage?

JS: Yeah! Of course. A lot of summers. Summers are usually the starving times for me.

NAKID: How do you get yourself out of those slumps?

JS: Just time. And saving enough money to make it through slim times. And if stuff isn’t happening, you can just keep supporting yourself. Coast through it until things start coming together for you again.

NAKID: What do you project in your art?

JS: I really am fascinated by color. I love how in nature color is used to grab your attention whether it’s dangerous or delicious.

NAKID: So, kind of trying to understand why an animal sees red in a forest and is like, “Oh, cool, an apple?”

JS: Yeah! Or like, “Oh, a poisonous mushroom!”

NAKID: How do you make your art?

JS: Beyond just felt tip markers or paint, I do paper sculptures, wood sculptures, and aluminum sculptures. I usually start by sketching in my notebook, coming up with ideas, and then start laying out a plan for how to execute. So for a metal sculpture I’m working on, I have some aluminum pieces that I’m getting made through a fabricator. Or for a paper sculpture, I cut it all out by hand with an EXACTO knife.

I’ll have all my tools laid out and I start cutting and I get in a trance and start getting into this meditative state. It’s meditative sitting in front of something and getting into this cutting process. Cutting the exact shape with small differences over and over. I really fall into kind of an artistic trance.

NAKID: Your work comes off scientific, in a way. Like you illustrated a Carl Sagan textbook on acid. Where does that come from?

JS: I’ve always loved nature and plants and the mysteries of the universe. I feel like there are so many unanswered questions. Space is all around us, but we don’t have any clue about it. What’s the universe made of? Dark matter! But nobody knows really what that is. I’m trying to either figure out these mysteries in my artwork or just emulate it in some sort of way.

NAKID: Your work also has a psychedelic nature. Is that purposeful?

JS: I’m drawn to psychedelic stuff. And I feel like psychedelic drips and colors relates to my fascination with the universe, sacred geometry, and alternate dimensions. Psychedelic art for me just relates to all of this mind altering stuff and consciousness. It all has a lot in common for me. It’s very present in my art.

NAKID: I’ve noticed a lot of your public art has the same kind of style: colorful patterns. Do you do anything artistic outside of that? Maybe even just in your free time?

JS: I’m always doodling and just spitting out crazy ideas into my sketchbook. I also write a lot of words down. So half of my sketchbook is actually a stream of consciousness diary. And this is more of just personal for me. It’s for me to formulate the art I want to put out there.

NAKID: Does that mean you almost have a sort of philosophy behind your art? Or at least some literary origins?

JS: Yeah. A lot of times it happens like that. My words become my art.

NAKID: You’ve been doing a lot of commercial work lately, like the Cosmo cover. How is art that you make for a profit or for contract different than the work you do for yourself and galleries?

JS: I try to be as picky as possible with commercial work. Sometimes they want to run with an artist’s stuff and it doesn’t come out right. So, I try to find projects that fit with me. I’m very selective. And because of that I usually get a lot of freedom. It just has a brand name attached to it. And if they don’t give me that freedom, I say “no.” No matter what they’re offering to pay me. I stay true to myself.

NAKID: What about your work on the VMAs? I know Miley is a huge fan of yours.

JS: Yeah! We just did a photoshoot. We did projections of my artwork on her body for one of her songs called “Lighter.” Did you see it? Let me show you!

That we did like three nights ago and that was awesome. That’s through Wayne Coyne and Miley. It’s going to be amazing!

NAKID: That’s awesome! So you’re friends with Wayne Coyne? Have you two collaborated?

JS: He’s using some of my animations for The Flaming Lips as stage design. And he’ll be using my work for his tour with Miley. They’re both really rad and amazing people!

NAKID: How does your art that you do for the VMAs or a Flaming Lips concert differ from what you do for something like an art gallery?

JS: It’s more of adapting my art in various ways. Taking what I do in the studio and fitting it into a live performance. The animations that I’ve done in the past have been stop motion. You know, just taking the pieces of a sculpture and physically moving them photo by photo. But the stuff that I did for the VMAs, I teamed up with my animator friend who is a genius with After Effects and 3D animation programs. So for the drip, I drew them out in Illustrator and I gave him the vectors and then we chose all of the colors and how they dripped.

NAKID: You’re using the internet not only to promote on Instagram, but you’re also using all of these different types of software. How has this allowed your art to evolve?

JS: I never realized I’d have moving images on MTV. It’s cool how technology, but more importantly collaboration has allowed me to take my work to another level. Without people helping me, I couldn’t do it by myself. So, it’s awesome to have awesome people guiding me.

NAKID: You’ve also worked on the Miami airport. What unique obstacles did you face with architecture projects?

JS: For the Miami airport, we did it right before Christmas. It was kind of hectic. They only allowed us to come in at a certain chunk of time which was 10pm to 4am because the airport was so busy otherwise. And it was in a hallway that people would be walking through. So we had to do it at night only. It’s kind of a little more crazy, but it’s cool to get hands on and have people walking by and talking to you.

NAKID: Have you ever had people walking by stop and ask you questions about your art?

JS: Yeah! A lot of people do. They’ll walk by and be like…“triiiiipy!” Just say funny things.

NAKID: You’re a Miami artist who moved to LA. How are these two scenes different?

JS: Miami is still a very young art scene, but it’s growing. LA is more developed. And moving out here has helped me connect and meet a lot of new people. It’s helped my art to blossom a lot, and staying in Miami this might not have happened.

NAKID: What about the city itself? How has Los Angeles inspired you?

JS: Yeah. Meeting all new people and seeing what they’re up to has inspired me. There is a lot of amazing artists out here. Even the scenery. Miami is very flat. It has its own special things that make it beautiful, but LA is completely different. Mountain and desert and cliffs on the beach. It’s cool to get inspired by all of that new adventure.

NAKID: You’re married to the designer Freegums. What is it like being an artistic couple and are you ever critical of each other’s work? Do you ever work together?

JS: We’ll bounce ideas off of each other all of the time and just ask each other for advice. We both hold each other’s opinions very highly. So I’m always asking him for advice. But we don’t usually do art together. We used to very early in the relationship, but not anything recently.

NAKID: Your work relies heavily on colors. If you were forced to pick one color to make art with for the rest of your life, what color would you pick?

JS: Holographic? Is that a color? Either holographic or…maybe, like, mint green?

NAKID: What is it about mint green?

JS: It reminds me of tropical…I don’t know. I just like it. It’s a pretty color.

NAKID: I saw in SF you were part of a project to replace ads with art. Do you think that if you keep replacing ads with art, people will eventually get sick of art and replace it with ads again, creating an endless loop of dissatisfaction?

JS: I mean, the grass is always greener. They always want what they don’t have, but I think art is much better than ads, so I don’t think people would necessarily get sick of it. Maybe art would start to emulate those old ads or something?

NAKID: Yeah! I mean, pop art made ads cool.

JS: Exactly!

NAKID: There’s a natural element to art that’s commercial, whether you hope people will buy it to hang on their walls or they’ll use it to sell a Toyota. Do you think that profit motive is inherent in art?

JS: It’s society and the consumer mindset. And just businesses that want to bring creativity into brands.

NAKID: What artists out there right now do you find yourself most fascinated by? If you could collaborate with one artist on a project, who would you choose?

JS: Neil deGrasse Tyson!

You can check out more art by Jen Stark at Art Basel in Miami this December or at her upcoming solo show at the Eric Firestone Gallery in New York City in May.

Originally published at nakidmagazine.com