SIGNALS 3 IDENTITY THEFT to some of the work I do now. I had a character assignment once, and I did this really disgusting old George Bush character. And during the first term of this orange bastard, I did a lot of daily drawings of him. Just getting it out. I made a lot of enemies and got some scary Instagram responses. Right now, I'm a little more about making the world around me nice — and maybe this is why I'm volunteering so aggressively. Be a good person. Be a mirror or a projection of what I would like the world to be. So with my art right now, it's a little more of an escape as opposed to painting images that are clearly poking at things. I think my artwork still has an environmental edge to some of it, you know, trying to protect things. Birdy: Be the change. We always try to be an oasis with Birdy — fun but real. We feel that way about you and your work. You're such a sunny and kind person, but then there's this darker element and humor in your art. Joe Vaux: For sure. It's kind of therapy for me too. Anytime there's a victim in my painting, I'm projecting that onto society. It's aimed at certain people. Maybe not visually, but the intent is there. It's cathartic. I'm trying to chase out some of the demons. I'm not going to go kill or hurt anybody, but I can at least paint the anger. That's how I'm coping. It's healthier. Birdy: Tell us a little bit about your show at Mortal Machine Gallery. Joe Vaux: It's a group show called Signals From Elsewhere. The title alludes to aliens and extraterrestrial contact. At the time I was painting for it, there was another round of UAP news. You were seeing little ships flying around. I kind of latched onto that. I've done paintings with flying saucers before, but not a giant Independence Day-style invasion. More like they're little bugs. I've always thought bugs were like little aliens. Anytime I see a praying mantis crawling around, I can't help but think, Where are you from? So I treated the saucers like insects. Maybe the ships are huge, but on the planets they're visiting they're more like bugs, flying around and meeting the locals. I ended up doing this series of mostly nocturnal scenes. There are little beams of light coming down from the ships like they're investigating things. But they're also being watched by something else that lives there. There's one aquatic painting with sharks. The title was stolen from the Kessel Run — Han Solo bragging about doing something really difficult with his ship. So I imagined an aquatic version where they have to swim through these shark-filled kelp forests. It became Kelp Run. Birdy: Speaking of sharks we wanted to talk about them and Jaws. Joe Vaux: Love. Go ahead. Birdy: You love sharks. We love sharks. Did Jaws influence your fondness of them? Joe Vaux: I mean, Jaws terrified most people, right? But I think even as a kid, part of me rooted for the shark. When I finally read the book, the shark lives. It disappears into the deep blue. I think that was the beginning of it. And those early National Geographic shark issues. I used to love flipping through those. I'm certainly scared of sharks, but I think they're beautiful and graceful. Their design is just perfect. I always dug dragons too. I like things that scare humans, that still put fear into us and humble us because we think we're the apex species on this planet. Birdy: We love that about your art. The beasts, creatures, monsters, sharks — they seem like the protagonists, the good guys. At least to us. Joe Vaux: To me, they are the good guys. We're in their environment. It's the risk we take. I'm always rooting for the animals. Birdy: They're better than humans. Joe Vaux: They really are. Birdy: It always feel like we're stepping into their world too with your art. Each painting is like an episode, or a diorama, always capturing a moment. How much of that is planned out? Joe Vaux: I always travel with a notebook. If I've had a
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