Sean Welker is a local artist who works in digital media. He will be showing his work at MOCA DC as part of A Celebration of the Figure VI. The show’s theme is an exploration of the human body, and it opens on Friday. His web site is Secret Worm.

TNG: What are some of the ideas and themes that your work engages with?

SW: That’s a hard question in that I’m usually working out what I want to convey as I’m actually making a piece. When I’m in the actual process, I liken it to the automatic writing used by mystics and charlatans popular at the start of the last century. There’s something oracular there, like it’s churning up the subconscious to sort out what’s really important.

The themes I tend to revisit are identity and value, beauty and insecurity, loneliness and connection, being desired versus being objectified. I’m a terrible boyfriend because I tend to work through my relationship issues via art.

I tend to find beauty in things removed from their normal context. A lot of my art is a visual remixing, combining many different things I find interesting — color theory, the language of advertising, urban decay, street art, Internet culture, comic books, music — I see them all as an interconnected ecosystem, and my art is a less linear, more emotive way of explaining that.

TNG: What media do you work in?

SW: I work almost exclusively in digital media. I draw and I take photographs — lots of photographs — and then I scan them and mash them up using computers. To me the actual art is figuring out how the layering of these different pieces work best, and getting the play between them to express what I want to say.

In the past, I released these in extremely small print editions, usually five or less. Most recently, I’m only making a single print and presenting it as its own entity.

TNG: Do you have a favorite art spot/event in DC?

SW: I could live at the Sackler Gallery, as it’s quite possibly the most perfect Zen space in this city. It might not be readily apparent, but the Sackler has been a constant source of inspiration for how I think and create.

The art event I think everyone should go experience is X, which is held on Fridays towards the end of every month. It’s a modern adaptation of the creative salons of last century, where music and visual art and performance and video projections all merge into this amazing collective energy.

TNG: Do you have a favorite gay spot/event in DC?

SW: I’m laughably out of that loop, really. I won’t knock the “scene” though — there’s a market for places like Halo, Apex and Taint, and I’m uninterested in poo-pooing anyone else’s good time. I celebrate that people have those venues to enjoy, and at the same time I’ve found I’m not very well served by them.

My idea of a rad night out is collecting a handful of friends and grabbing beers somewhere removed from all that. Dives or small concert venues are choice.

TNG: Does your work engage with your sexuality?

SW: I can’t see how it *couldn’t* factor in. How we see the world is based in part by what we define as beautiful. I’d be making entirely different types of art if I were straight.

It’s a crappy cliche, but I don’t consider myself a “gay artist.” Not because of some sort of “straight-acting,” unresolved masculinity issues — but rather I like to think that what I create expresses a series of universal placemarkers that defy categories like the organs between our legs or what permutation of how we employ those organs.

I’m just getting out a phase where I was showing lots of naked men. Some of those will be seen at the MOCA Gallery show. So yeah, I’m a HUGE artfag.

TNG: How would you describe the DC art scene/community? Is it a good place to be an artist?

SW: Like most everything, the DC arts scene is a mixed bag. On one hand, it’s easier to make your mark on the scene, because it’s a smaller ecosystem to negotiate. It’s not very hard to meet people, and most of them are generally friendly and eager. On the other hand, it can quickly get petty because resources are so limited and the stakes are so small.

My biggest challenge comes from people who look down their nose at digital tools in art because they think it’s somehow easier or less creative. Nothing could be further from the truth, and I think that’s because there’s a tendency towards Luddism in art. Somehow the art isn’t ‘pure’ if you’re not painting in oils or sculpting. This is funny because in the art world, there’s a constant and huge push for the Next Big Thing. What most excites me about using computers to make art is that the tools are constantly evolving, and that only helps to push everything — art, technology, culture — forward.

I love DC, and I draw a lot of inspiration from this city. It’s not always an easy place to be a creative for a lot of reasons, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

TNG: How long have you been making art?

SW: My story in a nutshell: I did art, then I did music, then I did fashion, then I did drugs, then I did music again, and now I’m back to doing art. Except for the drug part, I’ve always been doing something creative, and I don’t see a difference between one avenue of expression and another.

It’s important to not gloss over the drugs, because they were integral in how I came full circle. Ownership of one’s baggage makes it an easier thing to carry.

But I didn’t answer the question. Here goes: I’ve been doing digital art in earnest for the past three years or so.

TNG: Do you have any upcoming shows?

SW: I’m showing at the MOCA Gallery as part of the Celebration of the Figure show. That opens on Friday, July 11th.

There are more shows down the road, but the details are still not concrete. A couple of those may involve commandeering an art space, bringing in five or six artists, and generating a series of artwork on the fly. At the end of the night, the artwork is raffled off and the proceeds go to local charities. I’m more and more drawn to this sort of guerrilla art marketing.

In late August, I’ll be releasing my second season of tee-shirts, which are shaping up to be monstrously rad. I’ll need to throw some sort of party to celebrate that.

TNG: What do you see down the road artistically?

SW: I’m working on larger pieces these days — both in terms of physical scale and of their relevance. I’m getting better at being honest and digging deeper. Some politically-motivated stuff is on the horizon. I’m working on some images that involve fashion magazines from the ’60s and ’70s, so expect re-imagined girlie icons.

TNG: How long have you lived in DC?

SW: I’ve lived here for six years — longer than I had planned, to be
certain. But this city and its people have been extremely good to me.

Know of a queer artist? Send me suggestions for future artist profiles!

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