Marc Swanson is simultaneously Ted Nugent and Liberace. He grew up surrounded by sharpshooting hunters with perfectly sculpted bodies and a penchant for the disgusting. The result is a bad-ass fop with a beard and an NRA membership. He eats moose meat with Chardonnay and can beat the shit out of any girl in New York. We know Marc for his hilarious T-shirts (remember the “Moustache Rides 2¢” shirt from vol 8 number 5?) and his rhinestone-encrusted deer antlers, but since we turned our backs he’s onto some new shit. Now he’s got a fifteen-foot-high rainbow target on the wall and rings for every day of the week that are actually a 14k gold version of brass knuckles. “I got one for every day of the week because that’s how often I fight,” Marc told us at a Rastafarian-themed party he recently put on complete with red, gold, and green Jello shots. “Beating the shit out of people has become a hobby of mine. I’m not proud of it. It’s just something I do. Like urban hunting.”
When talking to Marc about his art you’re never sure whether to slap him on the shoulder and scream, “No you didn’t, girl!” or put on your fatigues and jump into his rifle-encrusted Jeep. That’s probably why everyone is so in love with him. We don’t know which end of the spectrum to meet him at. “The answer’s both,” Marc assures us. “I just love to kill.”
AMY MULLRELL
Special thanks to Clementine Gallery (clementine-gallery.com) and Bellwether Gallery.
