The only bad part of capturing a sleepy-eyed supertigress like this in the wild is trying to think up some bullshit to write about her shirt.Comments/Enlarge |
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BEN ROSS IS AN AUSTRIAN ARTIST WHO MIGHT BE THINKING A LITTLE TOO HARD EVEN THOUGH WE LIKE THESE CAT PEOPLE HE DRAWS
INTERVIEW BY DAVID BOGNER
MORE DRAWINGS BY BEN ROSS1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | >
Vice: Hi Ben. We really like the cat motif you have going in these drawings.
Ben Ross: To tell you the truth, it’s never really been my intention to draw cats. It just happened. Maybe I watched too many cartoons when I was young. Disney, Kricfalusi, and Avery were the ones I liked best.
How many cat drawings have you done?
I did about 100 illustrations in this style over the course of three days.
Do you like any other animals?
Yeah, dogs. But I only use them for perverted drawings. The cats are the cool ones.
Do you base your cat dudes on any real people? Some of them kind of look like Daft Punk fans or something.
Well, actually Mark the Cobrasnake influenced me.
Oh, um… Hmm… Well, uh… Do you really like his website?
Maybe it’s not even important if I like it or not. I think it’s a phenomenon that didn’t exist ten years ago. This is the subculture, which is omnipresent. I think Cobrasnake is a good symbol of our generation.
Geez, I, uh…
It touches all of us basically. It’s an end in itself—capitalism devoured the youth culture, and Mark documents this. He reduces it to a common denominator.
So you’re doing a political critique of the party kids on Cobrasnake. Are you making fun of them? The drawings seem to be kind of hateful.
These kids are the new Nazis. But I’m not making fun of them, I just reflect on what I see without defining my position on it.
What do you do besides drawing?
Marcel Duchamp used to play chess. That’s all he did when he wasn’t making art. He decided to lift chess to an art form. So I am watching porn. And when I’m watching, it’s art. The internet is the new chessboard.
Anonymous, on Dec 16, 2008 wrote: i want his cats tatooed across my chest. fuck yes.
Anonymous, on Dec 10, 2008 wrote: as if this style wasn’t dated enough, he had to go and add quotes from klaxons songs. way to go man.
Anonymous, on Dec 4, 2008 wrote: did you just find these in the mexican kid’s locker in phys ed?
Anonymous, on Dec 4, 2008 wrote: hipsters can’t be nazis. nazis dress much better.
Anonymous, on Dec 4, 2008 wrote: once the cobrasnake dude started being in half of the photos i stopped visiting the site. also, who is taking them all if he’s in that many?
Anonymous, on Dec 4, 2008 wrote: cobrasnake is becoming a joke even to his target audience. he probably doesn’t care since now he’s mainstream enough for companies to fly him all over and pay for his shitty photos.
Anonymous, on Dec 1, 2008 wrote: i guess its ballzy that he was willing to admit hes interested in the cobrasnake, when its so wildly over that to say ANYTHING about it is considered lame. but...is he aware of what a d-bag he looks like. the drawing are pretty good.
Uland K. , on Dec 1, 2008 wrote: -You can see it in the drawings; there is nothing genuine going on there. He’ll stop drawing, thankfully, once he discovers cocaine.
Uland K. , on Dec 1, 2008 wrote: This guy is an idiot and succks balls.
Anonymous, on Dec 1, 2008 wrote: the only "real hipsters" are in LA
Anonymous, on Dec 1, 2008 wrote: saturday morning cartoons as l.a. hipsters. i’m flabbergasted.
DabblesInPacifism, on Dec 1, 2008 wrote: "I think Cobrasnake is a good symbol of our generation."
god i hope my kids never read that
Anonymous, on Dec 1, 2008 wrote: why does the worst artist have the most pictures in his article. probably because he drew all of them during the interveiw.
bored barista , on Dec 1, 2008 wrote: you should listen to this guy. the Austrians know a lot about Nazis. some are still hiding out there
Anonymous, on Dec 1, 2008 wrote: this guy should consider making a line of stuffed animals. i bet they’d sell like hotcakes in japan
Anonymous, on Dec 1, 2008 wrote: no. the dr. katz tom snyder you fucking mongo
Anonymous, on Dec 1, 2008 wrote: tom snyder? the late late night show guy? he fucking blowzzzzz
Anonymous, on Dec 1, 2008 wrote: this vaguely looks like some tom snyder stuff without the squiggles
Anonymous, on Dec 1, 2008 wrote: that third one really really really looks like my brother. i just sent it to him and he was like "Oh fuck you," i didn’t even have to explain!
Anonymous, on Dec 1, 2008 wrote: i really love this shit. i don’t know what it reminds me of... it’s familiar but original
