Four

Dream on

BY Four, January 18, 2012

Ever wondered what dogs dream about? Olive, Michael Wertz’s dog, inspired the California-based author and illustrator to explore unchartered territory on his book Dog Dreams. We chat with Michael about inspiration, colour, stamps and creating from the heart.

You have mentioned Dog Dreams was inspired by Olive.
What other traits of Olive find you inspiring?
I like to say that Olive keeps me human. She gets me out of the house a few times a day for walks. She’s starting to slow down now (she’s 11), but when she was younger she insisted on either a daily hike in the Oakland hills, or 4 neighborhood walks. Every day.

Tell us something that Olive has teach you over the years?
Olive is a survivor. Andy (my husband) saw Olive in the cage at the animal shelter and decided she’d been there long enough. She was eight months old when we got her, and she’d been in the pound for four months.

There’s this great Lynda Barry story about adopting a dog (‘Oo-La’) who was a fear-biter. When they first brought Oo-La home, she had a broken foot. She had been thrown from a second-story window. The dog was intensely afraid, and had lashed out at the previous folks to foster the dog. Lynda responded to this dog by applying the ‘monks of the new skete’ method of training – show the dog who’s boss – throw the dog on its back if it misbehaves, make sure you’re the alpha dog, yadda yadda yadda. This, not surprisingly, turned out to be the wrong thing to do for that dog, and the wrong thing to do for Olive.

Dogs like Olive need positive reinforcement to get your point across. She’s stubborn, so fighting her will just make her mad and confused and won’t get the training done properly. She, like her owner, won’t respond well if you scream at her.

Lynda started ‘spoiling’ her dog (special treats, let the dog up on the bed occasionally, lots of love and exercise) and the dog turned into the dog it was meant to be. A good dog. A great dog. Olive turned into a great dog too.

Dog Dreams is full of such life and charm. When you illustrate, do you work from your heart or your head?
Thank you! I suppose when I illustrate I do both. It really depends on the project, but Dog Dreams seems like it came from the heart. There are times when I’m trying to get a drawing done just right, and those drawings come from the head, but with Dog Dreams I let the drawings be loose and expressive, so I suppose those came from the heart. These drawings were percolating for a long time, so perhaps some of the drawings started in the head but emerged via the heart.

Bold use of colour seems a constant in your work. 
Any grudges against black and white?
No! I love using bold, graphic shapes with any color scheme – all color schemes! Black and white work can be incredible. I’m thinking part of my next book should be one colour – maybe that colour will be black. I feel like my work (through the silkscreen work) is getting more and more graphic, so the logical next step is one colour.

What makes screenprinting such a beautiful printing technique that you keep coming back to it?
Oh, I just love pulling prints; it’s terribly satisfying. I love getting away from the computer, going to the studio, and getting my hands dirty. Making something away from the computer feels realer. It’s hard work, but it feels good. You kinda feel like Popeye after a day of pulling prints. I’ve always been attracted to bright, flat color, and silkscreen lends itself very well to that.

The prints for Dog Dreams book aren’t actually silkscreen, they were made on a Vandercook Proofing Press at the San Francisco Center for the Book. They’re letterpressed prints, printed with a two-color process (much like the silkscreen).

The kind folks at Gingko Press in Berkeley saw the prints and asked to re-print the book, and I couldn’t be happier.

Is illustrating for children’s books any different to working on other projects? Any preference?
Sure. It’s different in some ways. I don’t prefer one kind of work over the other, though I am enjoying the kid’s work right now. Last year I signed on for representation with a kid’s agency that was started by my editor Abigail Samoun, Red Fox Literary.

Some of my work wouldn’t be considered appropriate for kids, but there’s a different side to my imagination I can use when doing kids projects, and I enjoy that. You don’t have to work representationally, since kids love graphic shapes. Kids love bright color, and that works for me, too.

What/who influences your work?
What: Coffee. Olive. Oakland, California. Trees and the garden. The ocean. Fish. My bookshelves. Zines. Who: Lynda Barry. Keri Smith. Leigh Wells. Ward Schumaker. Vivienne Flesher. Marcos Sorensen. Isabel Samaras. Robert Rauschenberg. Maira Kalman. Rex Ray. Jim Winters. Rama Hughes. Luc Latulippe. Mats!?! Dave Warnke. Shepard Fairey. Adam McCauley. Calef Brown. Rhode Montijo. Sara Fanelli. Esther Pearl Watson and Mark Todd. Maurice Vellekoop. The Little Friends of Printmaking. Dan McCarthy. Eric White. Robert Shadbolt. Brian Biggs. Edwin Fotheringham. Sarajo Frieden. Alison Bechdel. Phranc. Gronk. Lloyd Dangle. Gary Panter (and Lynda Barry) were the first artists I really loved. I saw their work and thought, “Hey, I want to do that.”

What intrigues? What makes you tick?
Music, all the time. Andy and I do a monthly radio show called the Argyll Adventure Tree. Argyll was Andy’s radio show at UC Santa Cruz (20 years ago), and we decided to re-start it and keep it going.

Stamps, and the Postal Service. I like writing and receiving mail. I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole of the Games of Nonchalance in San Francisco. The initial games (The Jejune Institute) are over, but I belong to a spinoff group called The Elsewhere Philatelic Society. The EPS has a game running at the Koret Center at the SFMOMA until August 2012, and we’re very very excited about it.

And finally, how would you describe yourself in three words?
Artist. Friend. Goofball.

—
Illustrations by Michael Wertz
Visit Michael Wertz’s website here and check his beautiful illustrations
For more information about the newly published edition of Dog Dreams click here

Tags Book, Children, Colour, Culture, Dreams, Illustration