The growth of online trading forums has allowed music related poster art to flourish in recent years, and a number of the best artists have quickly risen to the top of the food chain.   Emek, Kozik, Jermaine Rogers, and Pollock, are becoming household names for young art collectors.  A Jermaine Rogers print will typically sell for anywhere from $100 to $150 on the secondary market.   As a result, this type of art is becoming popular not only with art and music enthusiasts, but with people who buy only to "flip" the prints online for profit, much like online ticket scalpers do these days.  

Meanwhile, Todd Slater, a young artist from Texas, has been quickly gaining prestige from critics and art lovers nationwide.   His prints are unique and practical in their presentation of striking artwork that accurately speaks to whatever band's personality and attitude he is working with, which probably explains their rising prices and the increase in online trading frequency.  

Recently Todd spoke to us about his tastes, his influences, his methods, and what the term Dankster truely means to him . 

Hi.  How are you?

Ok, just getting over the  flu but all in all good.

 
How long have you been doing posters for?

About 1 and a half years professionally.

What would you be doing if you weren't making money as an artist?

Geez, I dunno, assistant manager at Best Buy?  Something really
mundane and boring.

Do you collect posters and art yourself or strictly make them?

Oh yeah, I collect/trade with fellow artists all the time.  I have a
collector's mentality and posters are addicting.

How do you feel about relying on community sites like Gigposters to
sell your artwork?  Do these sites help or hinder young artists?

It helps.  Internet forums are brutal because people can hide behind
their anonymity and say exactly what they want which is what artists
needs to hear to make them better.  There's so many great poster
artists on that site that it's a great networking tool too.

I like selling on gigposters because of the amonunt of exposure it
gets.  It would be pretty rare that a personal artist's sites would
get as many hits in a month as gigposters gets in day.  I am working
on a personal site now but will continue to sell on gp.

Most of your work is music related it seems.  Have you done anything
non-music related, or do you plan to in the future?

I did alot of painting in college.  It was mostly me imitating Peter
Saul though and for the time being I'm content to make posters.  It's
possible that I would paint again though.

Do you have any shows coming up in New York?

None right now.  NY rules tho, and I will live there someday.

Can you talk a little bit about your methods?  For instance, is your
work all hand done, or do you use computers?

It's just different with every print.  Some sketching and some
redrawing in illustrator.  If your methods start feeling to easy it's
probably time to change them.

A lot of your posters are HUGE. Framing costs a fortune. Any thoughts?

Heh.  I think there are some cheap places to frame stuff online but I
can't remember them.  Ikea or American Frame maybe?  Whenever I pay
$25-50 for a poster I'm always disappointed when there like 11x17 size
and I'll always try and make big posters as long as I can.

You have done work for such a wide range of bands.  Are you a fan of
all the groups you do work for?  Do you listen to a band's music
before doing a print?   What goes into your thought process when
designing a print for a band/artist?

Not a fan of every band I've done posters for but I'll always listen
to their music before making the poster.  When I do a poster I always
think about how the band would want to be portrayed and whether they
want to seem sexy or dangerous or both or something else and then I
try and and do that in my style (whatever that might be).

What's type of music are you into?  What is your favorite band of all
time?  What do you think is the best band/artist out there right now?

My fav band ever is the greatness that is WEEN.  Some of my favorite
bands ever are  Sonic Youth, Pixies, Meat Puppets, They Might Be
Giants, and of course Ween.

I saw Eisley in Dallas a few weeks ago and was blown away.  They will
develop a large devoted following in the years to come.

What is your favorite piece you've done?

Interpol.

Some of your posters are getting pretty valuable.  Your Arcade Fire
print recently went on ebay for over 88 dollars.  How do you feel
about the secondary market?  How do you feel about people who buy
multiple copies of your posters with the intent to "flip" them on the
secondary market to make a quick buck?

It's ok with me.  I mean if people are buying then that's good.  I
feel really uncomfortable telling people a poster is $100 but when I'm
down to last few that's what I have to do.  Looking back on things I
really should have archived more posters for myself.

What are your favorite movies artistically speaking?

I love Wes Anderson movies: Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, Royal Tenenbaums
& Life Aquatic.  There's something about them, I never get tired of
watching them and quoting them.  I really like Paul Thomas Anderson's
movies too.

What have been some of your influences, artistically or otherwise?

For painting there's, Peter Saul, Jenny Saville, John Currin, and Lisa
Yuskavage and really the directors and musicians I mentioned above
too.

What blogs do you read?

Really just gigposters and ween.

What is your interpretation of the term "Dankster"?

Hmm off the top of my head it sounds the german version of Napster.
That's sooo lame isn't it?  You've probably got that answer a million
times.  For some reason it makes me think of air-ball in basketball
too or like missing a shot really badly.  I'm probably thinking
basketball because that's what's on the sports radio station I'm
listening too right now. 

-Dankster