Page 48 - DontPostMe

DPM: What interests you the most except drawing?

Have you got any hobbies or talents?

JVL: I have a (mostly unrealized) natural capacity

for creating music, and I've played drums on and off for

years. I have a growing interest in video as a medium,

but no time to pursue it right now. I enjoy unconven-

tional travel, to less desirable places in what are con-

sidered America's "flyover States". I'm also known for

taking disastrously long walks through depressed and

unsafe areas. Chicago is America's most ethnically seg-

regated city, which makes long walks through well-de-

fined areas interesting.

DPM: What is the most worth-visiting place for you in

Russia?

JVL: I’ve never been to Russia but it’s high on my

list of places to visit. Two of my favorite artists, Andrei

Tarkovsky and El Lissitzky. Most every Russian artist I

admire comes from a different place in Russia and a

different walk of life, but there is a permeating charac-

teristic to all Russian art making it apparent that both

the natural and socio-political environment of the coun-

try are a constant conceptual anchor. Alexander

Sokurov made the great experimental historical film

Russian Ark at the Hermitage, and even though that’s

such a canned response to your question, I’d be a fool

not to make it there at some point in my life.