Interview with MendyZ on Life as a Fine Art Resident Artist for a Chicago Art Gallery

Mendy Zimmerman, or MendyZ, has a captivating face and enticing hands. His face is a bit more entrancing than Spiderman (Hollywood actor Tobey Maguire), it is perfectly proportioned, and his green-grey eyes change subtly with his mood--with a dimple to boot. He uses his hands to gesture and drive home his points with pin-point accuracy to compound the thoughtful words he uses. The two cause you to flick your eyes from face to hand while he makes his points on art. He speaks in an eloquent and complex English language only reminiscent of my own daily-use English, with an interesting mix of Midwestern newscaster appeal and a restrained New York edge. We are sitting in his art studio only three hours before the creation of his spectacular large 'Lady Liberty' painting which pulls him from a 10 month stretch of art creation on everything imaginable into the lull of his current showing at Exclusive Canvas Art, A Chicago Art Gallery where he is one of the resident artists. Lady Liberty is part of a highly focused show, that is available at the Chicago Art Gallery. His paintings are the stars which discuss, each with their own Hollywood-level personality, of humans and their struggles. MendyZ has a fascinating way of being able to charm you with his highly focused artwork. Each artwork defines a little more of this enigmatic artist. He is sweet, intelligent, forthright, hidden, a leader, a follower, a mystic, a prophet, and musical. It's his work. It's his conversation. And, it's him that is receiving critical praise for works that traverse the divide across humanity. The praise is brought about in part because this show is so fresh, and different from his usual roles, protagonist of the highly grossing, 3 year art stretch, that made this 32 year-old artist one of the richest in accolades and event turnout of his generation.

When I opened the interview by asking MendyZ how he is, he enthusiastically replied, "I am happy!" -- his cheek dimpled, his eyes crinkled with genuineness, he grinned broadly, and gestured with his hands openly as if to toss me some of his happiness to better my day. Upon probing for the source he simply remarked, "family is here".

He has a tight dancers build, no doubt from his gymnastics routines, and wears dark jeans with a checked button down and brown loafers. He looks like an intelligent college student relaxing in the warm sun between classes instead of a thought provoking and deeply insightful and sought-after artist. At a short 5'4" his boyish, and appealing, face dominated strongly by his expressive eyes which are tempered like Superman's behind almost non-visible rimless glasses. He tugs them downward to blast you with sincerity. He is surprisingly open, while remaining charming, serious, and funny. At times his humor takes a moment to sink in, and leaves you with a warm feeling. His quick humor is so intelligent and creative, he pulls associations that are remote and unusual, that at times I can only laugh inside since I was hesitant to allow it out and break the new conversation, be cause we had moved onward already and I was the slow one to catch on. With his latest show now winding down, his last showing was slated to end the week after New Years, he is eager to discuss his latest works. These works are character driven, with many of them frightening. They are also about grief, longing, love, death, and a heightened awareness of the moment that mentally change our lives. It is a very compelling, although hard to grip, but most certainly beautiful.

He is acutely aware that he has entered a new stage of his career as an artist. He is also aware that he has to contain his trajectory with NASA control. Many artist derail at this stage in their career. They become known for one subject or style and have no way of appealing to their old fans while also propelling their career to the newest plateau. This transition is one of exposure. He clarifies that artists who are inauthentic will have the most difficult time. Your new fans need to learn more about you as a person, and your old fans need to understand your inner feelings from a new perspective. This requires candor and at times humor. But, most of all MendyZ says that this specific type of challenge absolutely demands that all boyhood to adulthood fears, hopes, and love be exposed and shared genuinely.

When did you know you were interested in being an artist?

Thinking backward with 20/20 clarity it was always there. Growing up, did you have the sense of being an outsider? Absolutely! I remember being 5 or 6 and knowing that I saw the world differently from the rest of the boys in my class. I always told myself that there has to be a reason for me being this weird. There had to be some payoff in the end for that weirdness. I didn't conform to the givens and strictures of childhood. I always interpreted my surroundings in ways that were bizarrely clear, even if it was to my detriment. There are certain things that are better for children to simply take at face-value until at an older age. And although I was difficult, I was always loved by those I made life difficult for. And I mean truly loved. Many of these teachers, family friends, and family were not used to, or did not have the tools to cope with a genuinely creative child. The biggest difference was that I developed my creativity, views, and approaches entirely mental. This means that I was not a particularly crafty child. I didn't come home from school with macaroni creations that were anything more than glued and colored macaroni. The creativity manifested itself in my head, it created a context and framework for which all of my success today is based off of. My father was supremely talented (Nature), although my environment was not nurtured with any of it. My father was a composer of music for many of the A-List bands of his days. He rubbed elbows, dated, and traveled with names that almost anyone would know from music and Hollywood. He is listed in IMDB, and his songs were played on the radio, made the top charts, and became legends.

Your dad is from Chicago and your mother is from Staten Island, New York. Were you raised in a particular religion?

After traveling with various bands, and numerous Hollywood movie stars in protestation of the Korean War he became religious and then traveled to NYC and NJ for orthodox Jewish religious studies, where he met my mother, married, and moved to his birth home of Chicago. He played piano around the house, but surprisingly he never played his old non-religious tunes. I learned of his past life from his siblings, family, and some stories surfaced as he aged, and reminisced. I found the ultra level of orthodoxy troubling in that it left no room for the human complexity, because there is no thing as "the answers". We're complex beings. I have trouble with the ultra-levels of orthodoxy in any religion that says they have all the answers.

Was there a trans-formative point in your artistic career?

My creativity transformed from the intellectual to tangible art at Loyola University Chicago. I double majored and had a minor primarily in the sciences. One of my professors taught genetics, however she is also a world renowned contemporary BioArt artist, similar to Eduardo Kac at the Art Institute Chicago. She taught a course that merged the two which qualified for both an art credit as well as a science credit. This class nurtured the intellectual into the tangible. This teacher is to whom I am indebted for opening Pandora's box into the art world. I then continued my art education while also pursuing a Master degree in Clinical Research for Medicine with a thesis focus in Cardiology.

After that class how was your life changed?

I got very lucky. It wasn't necessarily the mushing around of paint that did it for me. It was that initially I was having fun with the sciences (genetics to be particular). Then I began to see the huge potential for storytelling. I began to use art as storytelling, as being part of something fundamental to the human existence. Working with other artists over the years I have intentionally fine-tuned this.

How would you have been different if you had not been in that Bio-Art class?

I grew up in an incredibly insular environment. Although I felt that I was expanding my intellect, I now know that I was really just scratching the surface. I struggled incredibly hard to get to University since our Ultra-Orthodox environment had little secular (standard English) curriculum. But, when I achieved that goal it still was at an insular institution by being a private, exclusive, expensive, university with predominantly white Anglo-Protestant students in a Jesuit environment, and very privileged. Suddenly, here in the art world, I was surrounded by hundreds of different backgrounds, races, classes, economics, and they all had extremely valid points to make with their artwork. They were as creative, or more creative than I was, and exuded everything I wanted to be with my storytelling abilities. Because of that art immersion, my world view became much wider and encompassed many new things.

When you began to attempt more frightening, insightful, and focused artwork did you worry that the critics would be gunning for you, being the new, young successful and desired artist?

I absolutely knew that they would be targeting me. I feared it. But, that fear doesn't work out so well with me. I loath fear. I need to prove myself wrong by secretly telling myself that I will fail if I do that. Then I see a challenge and dive right in to prove myself incorrect. I have learned that all artists. And, this is absolutely regardless of their stature, insightful-ness, or if they are coveted, all still feel like utter fools.

Can you explain what you mean by fools?

I need self-expression. I love it. I need it. I look for it in all new projects that come my way. When I create a piece of artwork or a series of works, that should speak louder than the individual pieces, I am only able find outlets for specific parts of my inner world. I am constantly looking to express my rich inner life through art. It's hard to be able to only choose one or two facets with each work. But, what I tell my collectors and critics is that I am still the same individual, only now you are seeing new pieces of my inner life. I have learned that unless a project can give me that self-expression I am not interested in it. I prefer my artwork be communicative before even being fully understood. I get emotional from my creations. I also tend to create best at night, which I am certain I got from my grandmother whom I could visit at 2am and know she would be reading the paper, or writing a letter.