Sell Out, A Series: 5 Questions with Atticus Mercredi
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Sell Out is a series by interdisciplinary artist Angela Fama (she/they), who co-creates conversations with individual artists across Vancouver. Questioning ideas of artistry, identity, “day jobs,” and how they intertwine, Fama settles in with each artist (at a local café of their choice) and asks the same series of questions. With one roll of medium format film, Fama captures portraits of the artist after their conversations.
Atticus Mercredi (he/him) is a Dene Cree emerging artist. Follow him on Instagram (@swampboy.supreme).
Location: Prototype
What do you make/create?
I mostly used to do marker drawing of goblins and monsters and stuff, and there was no real meaning behind it. I just wanted to do cool psychedelic medieval-type monsters. I am slowly getting more political, but I like to add the goblin element to it. My artist name is Swampboy. Right now, I am working on a painting of a goblin eating a watermelon, and it’s going to say: “Goblins for Gaza.”
I’m going to art school right now, so I’m feeling really inspired by the stuff that gets referenced in school. The other day we looked at The Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord. The cover is all these people staring up at a screen with 3D glasses on, and I just started a piece with different creatures with 3D glasses looking up at a screen. I mostly use acrylic, some Japanese fine liner ink, some linocut, and I just started doing T-shirts.
I also do music. Because I’m in the young professional artist part of the N’we Jinan program now, I didn’t want to just do a gallery again. I did a gallery last year—that was mostly for my mom, a tribute to my mother and my family. This year, I wanted to do something completely different. I know they fund a lot of musicians to make EPs or singles. Sometimes, they’ll use all the funding to do a really high production single, so I stretched the music project out. I mostly wanted to make a loud guitar rock album where I’m yelling about Indigenous politics and Land Back. I’m in a band right now, Prophecy Club, with other people who are in other bands from around town. We have four good solid songs right now. I’m working on the lyrics, which is a lot harder than I thought it would be. The instrumentation is super loud and abrasive, and then there’s parts where it’s quiet and chill.
What do you do to support that?
I don’t have a full-time job; I do odd jobs here and there. During the summer I do forestry in Alberta. Last year we did fire assessment, where you walk around all day, because a lot of the forest burnt down in Alberta last year. We go around to where all the charred areas are, seeing if there are any areas that are still good for growing. That pays pretty well, so I use a lot of that money for art supplies.
I’m going to art school right now, so my band, they give me a monthly allowance to help pay for rent. I have a student loan, and I use that for rent as well. I use the monthly allowance to buy more equipment. I can buy really good stuff; I feel like it’s making the art better. I’m helping a contractor work on my friend’s house on the weekends. I work two shifts at the art gallery in the university. Sometimes I sell a couple t-shirts. It’s like little bits of income here and there. I’m happy; I feel like I have a lot of time to make art.
Describe something about how your art practice and your “day job” interact.
The forestry part – because I used to tree-plant, I’ve done tree nurseries, I’ve worked at tree farms and stuff – that influences my art a lot. I’m always coming across animals in the woods, and mushrooms and stuff, and it gets my brain going. For some reason, that weird cowboy culture in Saskatchewan and Alberta influences my art to make sort of Western characters, especially with tree planting. I feel there’s a huge bluegrass subculture in tree planting, so I like to include stuff like banjos and cowboys. That’s kind of how it interacts.
What’s a challenge you’re facing, or have faced, in relation to this and/or what’s a benefit?
I spent a long time working 60-hour weeks, so at this point in my life, I don’t want to work too much. I like to do a little, like contract work, just on the weekends. It's still a pretty good income, but it’s also sporadic. Sometimes I’ll be low on money and feel like I’m running out of paint, or paper, and I have to wait until the next time I have some income to get more stuff, so that’s a bit of a challenge I’ve faced in the past. Or, I’ll have to save money and go to Walmart and get the supplies there, but it’s not the same working with the cheaper stuff. I feel like my taste in art supplies has improved a lot over the past couple years.
For me, making art doesn’t feel like a job, even though it does help me out a bit here and there, and it’s opening doors — like when some people want me to create tour posters or album covers for them. Having a lot of time to do that stuff in my basement is a huge benefit. Having the time to create and having multiple things going on at once. My art space is super chaotic—there’s a lot of stuff all over the place, and I love that.
Have you made, or created, anything that was inspired by something from your day job? Please describe.
I was in a 3D design class in my first semester at school, and there was one project where we had to make things out of sheets of metal. Right away, my brain went to little mushroom creatures, so I made a gigantic shaggy mane mushroom cap out of scraps of metal. I was bending everything, so it really looked like it was shedding the cap, where it looks like it has all those layers going on. Then I got two of those giant flashlights and taped them together, and I glued a bunch of crystals onto where the eyes would be. I went into the woods and found sticks and made hands and painted them green.
It looked like a little creature popping up out of the ground underneath a mushroom cap because he was hiding from loggers and stuff. I came up with this whole backstory for this character. I remember everyone in this class really believed the story behind the creature, and they felt so bad, because it looked worried, poking out. I called it: Balthazar, this little creature hiding from the forestry industry.
I grew up in the foster care system in a small town in Saskatchewan. I faced a lot of racism from other students growing up, and just bullying in general. I feel like that influenced going into young adulthood—after graduation I kind of dove head first into a bit of a…like, I drank a lot, I partied, I worked in restaurants, and I wasn’t very healthy. By 27, I got sober and I think in the wake of all that, I feel like in the first 27 years of my life, I was not doing so well. It’s been about five years since then, and I’m slowly working on all these things that have influenced who I am as a person. I think it’s good to, like…when I was doing the gallery for my mom, I went and met my dad for the first time, and it was this huge cathartic process. Since then, I feel like I’m doing stuff that is a bit more political, or I’m looking inward into things that have affected me in the past, and I’m using that to make art. I feel there’s so much potential for a lot of other pieces. There’s a lot of pieces that I’ve thought about doing for the past two years, and I haven’t got to them yet. As I keep progressing in my practice, I’ll probably get there, where I’ll have some bigger pieces.
Angela Fama (she/they) is an artist, Death Conversation Game entrepreneur, photographer, musician, previous small-business server of many years (The Templeton, Slickity Jim’s etc.). They are a mixed European 2nd-generation settler currently working on the unceded traditional territory of the Coast Salish xʷməθkwəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh Nations.
Follow them at IG @angelafama IG @deathconversationgame or on their website www.angelafama.com
