Krysti: I mean, I might be the biggest eye nerd other than you, Mark. I had a pretty big obsession to the point where all the parents that knew me and who got magazines when I was little would save eye pictures for my eye wall. Mark: Oh you’re kidding! An eye wall. I love that. Krysti: So EYE am the fan of this book. Mark: Well, EYE, EYE, EYE. (Holds up the book cover over his eye). Eyes are a pretty primal element and lucky for us, whoever is responsible, nature, science or religion, or God, whoever did it, gave us two eyes so that you could kind of fuck up a little bit and go, “Oh! I just got an arrow in my eye. Oh, the other one works fine.” Jonny: I feel like you’ve made your eyes a superpower. I remember the “Satisfaction” video and you were wearing those goggles. To me, it was the coolest thing. S. Putnik: It’s actually interesting because eyes have always been a big deal to Mark because of his childhood, because of his eyesight. He’s talked about when he would take his glasses off the world would look totally different and blurry and then he would put his glasses back on and the world would look like a fish eye lens. So he’s always had these weird morphed kinds viewpoints throughout life. And then especially me going through all of his artwork from when he was my age to now and he’s drawing all these characters with eyes or like one of the eyes exploding or something is happening with one eye. I think that he kind of predicted his fate during COVID. I pointed that out to you. Mark: Damn it. No one to blame but myself. Hey! That could be the next album title. First dibs. Or that might just be a song? Jonny: Love it. Also, to speak to the graffiti aspect of your book — I feel like Adam Lerner and people have acknowledged how you are an originator through posting your vomit stickers and potatoes in the early days of Kent State. I feel like Apotropaic Beatnik Graffiti is interconnected in that you’re speaking to your own place in history. And I like that you’ve tied Beatniks into it because I feel like Beatniks are rebels, and there’s an apotropaic element to them where they were rebelling against oppression, they were protective and they inspired all the artists, like Warhol and all the way up until now. And you were a big part of all that — artistically, musically. So I like how the title speaks to who you are. Mark: You know, Devo — although we were calling humans the one species out of touch with nature and the one that was damaging the rest of the planet — we also had an optimistic side. We didn’t think it was going to turn out the way it’s been turning out in the last 10 years. We thought people were going to be able to go, “Oh, wait a minute. Let’s turn this plane back. So it’s flying level again.” It’s kind of crazy how close you can get to really stupid things happening on this planet. S. Putnik: Devo was right. Mark: Unfortunately. We weren’t supposed to be. But I think this book just follows in that. Although it’s talking about warning off evil energy, it’s also turning that stuff into a positive. You’ll just have take a look at it yourself and tell me what you think when you get it. S. Putnik: I feel like Devo, or the concepts of Devo, can go two ways. It could be really negative or it could be really hopeful and optimistic. And I feel like Mark’s artwork has this big sense of hope throughout all of it. Mark: It’s the Booji Boy side. LIMITED COPIES ARE AVAILABLE OF APOTROPAIC BEATNIK GRAFFITI (W/ EXCLUSIVE FLEXI DISC): APOTROPAICBEATNIKGRAFFITI.BIGCARTEL.COM SEE MORE OF MARK’S WORK ON HIS SITE: MARKMOTHERSBAUGH.COM AND ON INSTAGRAM: @MARKMOTHERSBAUGH No. 123 "SATISFACTION" | PHOTO BY BOBBIE WATSON WHITAKER BOOJI BOY, PHOTO BY BRUCE CONNER
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