ARTIST SPOTLIGHT | An Interview with Issue #9 Spot Illustrator, Sam Rheaume
I’ve retreated from my year of travel because of *cough* well... you know. After landing home I have moved to a hidey hole back in Vermont with my three-legged dog and my partner, Nicole. I now eat a lot of cheese and am doing very little to prevent myself from getting fat. But that’s 2020. When I’m not drawing, I’m listening to Jens Lekman records or reading about the evolution of Eastern Orthodoxy after the collapse of the Byzantine Empire or wondering how Fastball ever gained traction even in the world of gratuitous 90’s radio rock. More of my work can be found on social media at @sirheaume or at samrheaume.com.
PLANET SCUMM: How do you know when you’re done with an illustration?
SAM RHEAUME: It locks into the idea you had for it and the notion of adding more detail begins to feel pointless; whenever the idea communicates clearly in the language you’ve decided to use.
PS: Lycanthropes or vampires?
SR: Lycanthropes. So much has been done to revise the vampire, root out it’s classist narrative, sexualize its bloodlust, mourn its lonely immortality. The werewolf, on the other hand, is always fleshed out as a little more lowly, a condition that is a cyclical nuisance. I’m going with them because there’s a real proletariat tale waiting to be told.
PS: What’s the best artist advice you’ve read or received?
SR: I had an art professor tell me, “Sometimes you just have to be a dumb painter. Save your thinking for after you’re done. While you’re painting, just be dumb about it.” I remember this when all the narrative and anxiety creeps in before or during an illustration or a design or anything in life, really.
PS: What helps you get through quarantine?
SR: Wine, dogs, and working.
PS: Who would win in a fight, a giant squid or three polar bears?
SR: I foresee a bloody draw. But then, right before the credits roll, we get a close up on the lifeless squid eye which suddenly swivels in its socket to look directly at the camera.
How many sheep would an Android dream if an android could dream sheep?
SR: One high-output assembly line’s worth.
PS: What gives you hope?
SR: Oh man.
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View Sam’s collection of spot illustrations from Issue #9: “A Bloody Pulp” below:
