Alex Chiu still hasn’t slept.
It’s afternoon, and he’s been in Starbucks since 5 a.m. He sips a Venti coffee cup while brushing eraser crumbs off a new sketch ‘mdash; a manic, googly-eyed monster doodle. Towels, ballpoint pens and clothes crowd his corner table. Shut out of his house for the next three days (damn fumigation), but he scribbles away at his new studio.
Since graduating from UCSD in 2007, Chiu has been drawing nonstop. He just signed with Volcom to do a design for its spring 2010 girls line and published a book through Neko Press that has been featured at three comic conventions and over 100 other tabling events. He’s a freelance designer, Frappuccino maker, painter for Groundwork Books and wants a graphic novel by next year (the impossible deadline: 10 pages per month). He also plans to walk from San Diego to San Francisco with a few artist friends, and shoot a feature length film before he turns 30.
Every half hour, a curious coworker passes by the small table, offering condolences or their couch. Chiu declines with a smile ‘mdash; the displacement’s just a test drive for July, when he’ll head a full-scale East Coast concert tour with post-punkers Jim McCray and the New Sorrows, who spotted the classically trained violinist at an impromptu jam at Porter’s Pub, where he says their weird, experimental madness just clicked.
That’s how it is with Chiu: Even though his art is highly individualized, he’s all about the people; in fact, every artist featured at his March 6 event is a personal pal. ‘Let’s Get Loose!!!’ is a sample of his dream universe: collaboration between creators, a free exchange of ideas and unbounded expression.
‘I don’t even care about exhibition,’ he says. ‘I don’t even care about my artwork! It’s the process and the people and the relationships and the experiences that make being an artist worth it. You know, when you’re done making a piece, it looks cool. But there’s so much cool-looking stuff in the world. A leaf is cool to look at. The clouds are cool to look at. Man can’t really make anything that hasn’t been made in nature, you know?’
One glance at Chiu’s ultra-surrealist, Dada-inspired creations and you might disagree. Candy-colored swirls, grotesque blobs and anime cues compose an artist’s universe unlike anything else on the comic scene ‘mdash; tiny, adorable monsters cavorting in oft unforgiving worlds. In one piece, Chiu’s skinny kid gives a misunderstood dragon an ice-cream cone, his characteristic peace and love extending into the realm of social justice. Two particluar pieces proclaim, ‘Justice to the different’ and ‘Race is a construct.’ Although he admits to over-listening to Dead Prez and glancing over his girlfriend’s civi-rights literature, Chiu insists the messages aren’t conscious gestures.
‘I respect Jesus as a man, Buddha as a man,’ he says. ‘Martin Luther King is big in my life. ‘hellip; [but art] is an internal thing. I think it’s my attempts to define peace and love, and how to bring that to other people. ‘hellip; It’s based on a tradition of improvisation. Whatever jazz means, or freestyle rap, or doodling, or ranting, or jibberish, or scribbles ‘mdash; that’s what my art is. ‘hellip; It’s all stream-of-consciousness. It’s whatever comes out.’
What does emerge fills 13 blogs, hosted by sites like MySpace, Flickr, DeviantArt and’ Mojizo. For his online Post-It Project, Chiu scanned endless, tiny sketches ‘mdash; mostly in ballpoint pen ‘mdash; from his corporate day job, a project that rocketed readership. When other underground artists jumped into
the fray, which became one of his most regularly updated sites.
Countless student organizations at UCSD have commissioned the alum for T-shirt designs or wall art, including KSDT Radio, Mania Magazine, Intervarsity and Groundwork Books.
‘It’s a drug in itself,’ he says. ‘You have to understand, that’s why I do it. Like, who sits down for five hours and draws. You know? It’s a high in itself. It creates itself, and I don’t really feel like I do much. I draw eyes and teeth, hands, hair, whatever. And something appears. And I surprise myself.’
‘Let’s Get Loose!!!,’ featuring artwork and music by Alex Chiu and guests, will show at Porter’s Pub on Friday, March 6 from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.