Bloomington, I give you the Bird

Blood flies amid a flurry of punches as Abraham Lincoln removes his stovepipe hat and steps into the cage. Michael Landon stands down-river with a look of misery stamped across his face. Cradling a squid, he watches Bea Arthur tackle a velociraptor on the shore.\nThese are the images occupying the fertile mind of artist Brandon Bird. The 22-year-old Sacramento native and artist in residence at Cornell University is a living conduit of pop culture. His work translates the iconic images of celebrities and Saturday morning heroes into fantastic vistas of "What If" possibilities. \n"Pop artists (like myself) ... don't generate culture so much as comment on it and bend ideas around," Bird said. "The people drawing comic books, and producing weekly TV shows, that sort of thing, they're the ones making 'active' culture, the stuff that will eventually stick and be adopted by the culture as a whole (and by other artists down the line)."\nSitting before the incandescent glow of our computer screens, Bird regaled the Indiana Daily Student with a little Q-and-A:\nIDS: What was the turning point that set your art career in motion? \nBrandon Bird: My mom continues to tell me a story where I used a block of cheese to draw all over a sliding glass door when I was 3, and when she got mad I told her, 'But mom, art is my life.' I remember gaining self-awareness. I remember the image on my second birthday cake, but I don't remember that.\nIDS: Is there anything that you hope to convey through your work, or is it there for your audience to interpret as they wish?\nBB: My work contains a sensibility that is, for lack of a less-goofy word, "me." Looking at my work, I've realized I've created a strange, idealized world made up of everything I like and everything I dislike has been conquered or discarded.\nIDS: Does painting a celebrity like Christopher Walken have a different appeal than painting a cartoon icon like Optimus Prime?\nBB: I like Christopher Walken more than Optimus Prime. Now, Rodimus Prime... that's a dead heat.\nIDS: Has the Internet presence and media buzz that you've earned translated over into the traditional art world? \nBB: So far, not really. I've learned galleries have very specific business models, and 'being popular' does not always figure into whether they think you can make money for them. And a lot of the time, they're right.\nIDS: How important is the Internet for a self-representing artist?\nBB: Super-important, since it means potentially reaching an audience larger than any one gallery can provide. However, having a Web site doesn't make your art any better or hipper than not having a Web site. \nIDS: What are the biggest challenges and insecurities of being an artist?\nBB: The continuing threat of homelessness and destitution. I'm not really joking.\nIDS: What advice would you give art students looking to "make it" in the art world?\nBB: Stick with it when it hurts, look to your peers, abandon rivalries, try any and all media. Do not be lazy. And look for ideas in the real world, not the art world.\nIDS: What movies and music give a jump-start to your creative mind?\nBB: When I was in college, I was all about things that were unintentionally funny and campy. Now I've slowed down and prefer movies and shows that are deliberately funny, or beautifully sad and dramatic. I will buy and watch as many seasons of "Arrested Development" and "Scrubs" as they chose to put out.\nBird's art can be found at: http://www.brandonbird.com.