Morrison Ave

Max Bussell

Interview by C. VanWinkle

February 28, 2022

Let's start with the beginning. Can you describe for me what it was that you responded to?

“Morrison Avenue,” specifically the name because there's a street about a block from me called Morrison Avenue. I had a reference photo for like a year that I've wanted to use. The poem was actually talking about being lonely in the streets, which felt applicable to the that reference photo. So I was like, Yes, finally there's a real reason for me to use this photo. The photo was from one of those days when there was a fire and the lighting was all weird. I don't know if I totally captured the lighting, but you know when it gets kind of weirdly orange? Although you're not from LA! In LA, sometimes there are big fires and it makes everything smell like a campfire and turn orange.

Is it terrifying? Or is it pretty mundane at this point?

It's happened so often since I've lived here that it's kind of normal. And I used to camp a lot with my family, so I get a nostalgic feeling because of the burning smell, as terrible as that is. [laughs] I kind of like it.

What was your first impression of the poem?

I could really picture it, really see it. It made me feel a little lonely, but not in a bad way.

What happened next? How did you get started?

With my method, I try to not do too much thinking. So much of it is feeling. I knew that I wanted to use that photo because of Morrison Avenue and because it felt applicable. But when I actually start painting, I try to take myself completely out of it and just take it shape by shape, color by color. That's how I do every single one of my paintings. Sometimes with portraits it can come out a little wacky, so if I'm doing a commission of somebody's family, maybe they might get a little offended or something. I try to just completely match the color as close as I can get it, and then once I get the color, I can match the shape. As I'm doing it, I'm just deeply breathing and not thinking I'm Max the painter painting this thing. It's more like my job is to just match this color. I'm not thinking about anything else. Or I'm trying not to.

I've seen a lot of your work, but I don't see the photos they come from. I didn't realize that you are very meticulously matching colors.

I think of it like a game. I try to get it like 80% there. If I get all of the colors about 80% there, then it creates this illusion, which I feel like art is; it's just an illusion. It's a trick that we play on our brains that we suddenly see the light or the perspective, the feeling of the person's face or whatever. I try not to think that I'm making this thing. And as I'm making it, suddenly it appears. I'm like, Oh whoa! That looks like the thing that I've been trying to make without even thinking about it, because I've been taking it piece by piece. I basically never draw or paint from imagination or just or from memory. I should, just as practice, but I never do. I always have something, whether it's real life or a photo.

Aside from a handful of portraits, most of your work seems to be cityscapes. What's your relationship with your city?

Well, I'm from Cincinnati, Ohio, but I moved here to LA in 2010. I worked for nonprofits raising money for a few years, and then I was in a band for a few years, and then I was a massage therapist. I've lived all over LA in a bunch of different neighborhoods, so I know LA pretty well. And then the pandemic started, and I started painting in August, 2020. I've become totally addicted to it.

Were you drawing and stuff before then? Or did you not make art at all until 2020?

I took a couple drawing classes in college. When I was a young kid, I drew. But I grew up skateboarding and making skate videos, and I acted, and then I was in a band. I've enjoyed a lot of different arts, but not really visual art, besides editing skate videos – until the pandemic. Unemployment gave me a lot of time that I never had before, because I always had to work. You know, we were all baking bread and doing weird things during the pandemic, and I found painting. Once I did that first one, I was like, Oh I want to do that again tomorrow. That felt so right. It has nothing to do with money or anything. It’s like, I want to do that thing every day.

How does this piece relate to the rest of your work?

There's a lot of themes that are pretty similar with a lot of my stuff: focusing on light, cityscape in general, cars. I have so many car paintings, even though I'm not even into cars. Artistically, I like how they are shiny and colorful and you can tell what they are so easily without putting in that much detail. Because of those elements, I think you can probably tell that it's a piece by me if you looked at it.

Most of the time, you don't paint pictures of things happening. It's often just a view, just a casual slice of life. You don't seem to paint pictures of action, do you?

Well, almost all of the paintings I do are based on reference photos that I've taken with my phone. I live in North Hollywood and I take so many walks around the neighborhood. Sometimes I see something. I have a painting of a bunch of firemen training, because there were like 20 firemen right outside of my building and I took a picture of that. There was once a fire that burnt down an entire block of small businesses near me and I made a painting of that. There are random ones where there’s stuff happening, but so much of it is what I see, which is just cars, lights, beautiful LA light. If more stuff happened around me, I would take a picture of it and paint it, but you know.

I saw a while back that you had done an experiment where you used a negative version of a photo, and then painted something from that. How did that work again?

That was fun and I want to do that again. Like I was saying, my method is to first try to match the colors and then do the shapes. I realized I could do a negative version, try to get as close as possible to the negative colors, and not flip the color back until I'm done. If I do it right, then it's accurate when I invert it. It was like a game where I'm trying to make this weird, purple-world version of what it is, and then at the end it looks accurate to real life.

How did you like it?

It was fun. It was a fun, weird experiment. I love to switch things up. For example, I painted with food for a while. I painted rocks for a while. I've done left-handed stuff. I have no training. I just get bored with doing the same thing over and over, so I try different things sometimes. And that was one of them

Painting with food sounds like a pain.

It was interesting! It was all condiments. I did a few Sriracha ones and a ketchup one. It's fun. I don't know, it's different.

It sounds smelly to me.

It was a little smelly. My room got a little gnarly, a little vinegary. And if I ever did something like this again, maybe I would try a totally different type of art, just to see. That sounds fun to try something totally different and see what comes up.

It’s true, you are not required to do the thing you’ve been doing. It all depends on what the prompt inspires you to do. So if you are given a blueprint of a piece of architecture and it makes you want to dance, you can do that. What are some other things that inspire you?

Definitely music, skateboarding. I do a lot of yoga. I do a lot of breathing techniques and meditation. I do the Wim Hof method. A lot of cold showers and ice baths all the time. In a weird way, I feel like those things were kind of preparing me to make visual art. When you take an ice bath, you have to do it without thinking about it. And I have applied that same mentality to painting. Sometimes I'll feel like, This is not good. This is not turning out right. But then I just have to take myself out of it and paint it anyway. Just try to match that color, make that shape. And then by the end of it, it'll be decent.

How are you with deadlines? Are they stressful for you?

Deadlines don’t bother me. I've been lucky in that I’ve done a decent number of commissions, but they've all just been “whenever you're done.” I just don’t usually have deadlines. I grew up homeschooled, so I didn't have to “write that paper!” or anything like that. Commissions in general come with a deadline, [but the stressful part is that] somebody has an expectation of something personal to them that they want to see. Then it's hard for me to get into that zone that I was talking about, where I'm not thinking about what I'm doing, I'm just thinking of the shapes and the colors. In the back of my mind, I’m thinking how I don't want to make this person or this family look bad. And then if money's involved, it's like, They're paying me to do this too! Fuck!

Do you have advice for someone else getting involved in this project now that you've done it?

That's hard because it might be a totally different type of art that I don't even do. With art in general, just be as genuine as possible. Do what you feel is right, not what you think is right. You know, what actually inspires you? What do you actually want to do?

Call Number: C65PP | C67VA.buMo

Max Bussell is an artist originally from Ohio and has been living in LA since 2010. Grew up skateboarding every day and has transferred that same dedication to painting. Loves impressionist painters like Cezanne, Monet, Van Gogh.