The electricity went out in my house. This wouldn’t have been a big issue, really, it would have meant I could procrastinate college assignments that definitely required complete internet assistance (a complete lie). However, today was March 4th, my Zoom interview with Irish Mixed Media Artist Aaron Fahy, an artist whose work I had followed for a long time. Naturally, I winced and began to shamefully text Aaron a mini freak-out message apologising and begging to push the interview back an hour while figuring out a solution. Thankfully Aaron had beaten me to Instagram messages and by some grace of god, he also needed to push the interview back an hour, a severe feeling of embarrassment was spared. With an hour to sort out my predicament I grabbed my equipment and booked it over to my boyfriend’s electrified house. Sitting in my boyfriend’s living room with a scalding mug of tea in hand and Aaron’s face appearing on my fingerprint-riddled laptop screen the interview starts.
Aaron Fahy is a mixed-media artist from Waterford. You’ve most likely seen his crayon album illustrations but poking beyond the crayon-covered surface you will find that there is so much more to his work. From stop-motion mixed media that provides solace through music to collages that ooze vibrancy, Fahy does it all. He has created pieces for well-known names such as Def Jam, The BBC and most recently, Lil Nas X. If you haven’t seen his work yet or want to see more he can be found on Instagram and Twitter @aaronfdesign (I promise you you won’t regret it).
S: Aaron, how would you define your work?
A: Currently I’ve been calling it mixed media art. Mostly trying to work outside of a digital space and more of an analog kind of space. For years I was doing a lot of digital work and I just kind of got tired of staring at a screen. I think this allows for a lot of mistakes to be made, but sometimes that can make the stuff look a bit cooler as well.
S: You mentioned there that you like to work not looking at a screen and you can see that with your more recognizable crayon illustrations. Some artists would see it as like a gateway to other aspects of your work, or are you worried that people will only see you as the crayon illustration guy?
A: That is something I’ve kind of struggled with over the last two or three years because the whole crayon thing kind of started as a joke. When I was posting them originally, I used to caption them saying things like, this took me like three months to make and stuff like that. And I think a lot of people were kind of playing along as well in the comments being like, oh, it was well worth the time and stuff. As time went on, I was getting way more requests to do people’s favourite covers in the crayon style. I suppose there was a certain aspect where I got kind of tired of that. I wanted to showcase what other stuff I could do. A lot of people would have found me because of the crayon stuff and that’s cool, but I don’t want to be known as the crayon kind of guy, like four or five years down the line.
S: What’s your dream collaboration with an artist?
A: Tyler, The Creator. That’s my dream collab just because he’s a very creative person in everything that he does, it would either be him or Childish Gambino. Currently, the collaboration I really want to do is with Kojaque. His latest album was unreal.
S: With artists such as Kanye West being a controversial figure you are hesitant to associate your artwork with their music?
A: Yeah, it’s a personal choice but I’ve steered clear of making Kanye stuff the last two years. I had beef with someone on Twitter, I put out a tweet saying “What happened to Kanye” and someone replied saying that I was one to talk since I capitalised off the work he produces. Kanye has proved to me that he is just goofy, but I can’t hide from the fact that I would listen to his older stuff. It’s a hard thing to separate the art from the artist
S: A lot of your influences for your art is music. Why music, why choose that as your inspiration/muse for creating art through mixed media?
A: Growing up, I was always surrounded by music. My dad would have played in bands when I was growing up and myself, my mom and my sister would have gone along to his gigs. I was just fascinated by the whole idea of live music. We would have had hundreds, if not dipping into the thousands of CDs and vinyl. That’s always been in my line of view. When I was at the end of secondary school, I got a folder of a load of illegal music from my aunt. She gave us her iTunes library. None of it had any artwork. I’ve always wanted to make music-related art so I tried to do my own thing. It was all rubbish, but it was definitely a start. I fell in love with the idea of trying to tell a story that reflects what’s going on in the music, through a visual medium.
S: In third-level education, did you think that your creativity was skewed or hindered in any way?
A: In college, I did multimedia in CIT in Cork, and we did one graphic design lecture out of four years and the rest was all web development and video work. I originally had an idea that it was going to be mostly graphic design, but it wasn’t. All the projects were catered towards making the lecturers look good, you know. So I just felt like I was just trying to get through it rather than enjoying it. The way I combated that was I started to teach myself Photoshop and all that kind of stuff. That’s what made me start my page as well because I hated my college course. I was just doing stuff in my spare time that I enjoy doing. That’s where it all kind of began really.
S: And has there been a difficulty with being in the creative industry? What were the difficulties you saw in getting yourself on your feet?
A: Starting out, it was quite difficult because I didn’t know what kind of style or what kind of art I wanted to make. A big thing I found when I was a student was how things like Adobe and stuff feed on students. I was pirating it originally until I was making money. Obviously, I don’t advocate pirating software and stuff like that, but honestly, to start off and find your feet and see if it’s something that you want to do. I don’t see why you should pay upwards of like 60 quid a month and if you want to opt-out, they charge you to opt out as well, which is ridiculous. Now that I’ve gone full-time, business expenses are crazy as well. I’ve gotten better over time on how to manage it. But starting out, it was tough.
S: Did you ever get a moment or feeling that your efforts were starting to pay off?
A: When COVID hit, I had all the time in the world, so I doubled down and tried to see what I could make of it. One of the moments where I saw a future in this was when I did work for the BBC during lockdown. They couldn’t host one of their concerts, they were doing virtual concerts so they asked me to do a few promo posters in the kind of collage style that I do. For me, that was the moment where I was like, okay, there might be something here. I always struggled with the idea that a professional company would accept the stuff that I make. I don’t necessarily have your traditional portfolio where it’s all these clean graphics. I have the crayon stuff in my portfolio, you know, it’s weird. But, those moments have shown that it can be used in a professional standard, which was something I always kind of doubted that it would.
S: How did the Lil Nas X commission for the cover of his single, Where Do We Go Now, come about?
A: It was during lockdown when he released Old Town Road I did a fanart kind of poster. Lil Nas X had seen that and he shared it and followed me. I was sitting in this exact same spot when I got the notifications. I was in awe, but at the same time, I didn’t think anything would come from it. When the crayon stuff took off he messaged me asking if he could use one of the drawings I did in the background of his video. I was like, holy shit, happy days. Then the single artwork happened and I wish it was a crazy story. His creative director messaged me on Instagram, asked me for my number and we just hopped on an iMessage call. He said that Lil Nas liked the crayon stuff I did for him before and thought that it would fit well with the upcoming single he was releasing. It’s one of those things where I don’t want to let this moment define me either, I want to kind of keep on aiming for the next thing.
S: What is next for you? What are the things you are aiming for?
A: That [Lil Nas X] job came from constantly posting the whole time. So obviously I’m going to keep doing that and see what comes from it. One of the things I want to get into is art therapy because mental health is a very close topic to me. I found that making helped me get out of the jam that I was in. I still have my days, but I just think it would be such a fulfilling thing or a nice thing to get back and help other people and see what they can create, too. Another thing I want to get involved with is creative direction. Hopefully further down the line, get into being a creative director. I just love the idea of trying to flesh out a project and seeing what way it can go. Obviously, within a budget, but aim for the sky and hope for the best.
S: You mentioned that art therapy had been a great help for you in the past, as it has been for me, how did you discover that this form of therapy could help you?
A: There was a certain period after college where I just felt like I had no aspirations. That’s when I kind of got into making art with some form of meaning. A lot of my art has no meaning, but there are a lot of pieces where I’ve put so much time and effort into it because of a particular way I was feeling. I do feel like the way that I feel sometimes can dictate how the work kind of comes out. Still to this day, I am on my Mental health journey. Doing art full time and seeing all your other friends doing really good jobs that are making a lot of money, can take a toll on you a small bit. I’ve learned not to compare myself to others but that’s easier said than done. When I’m making stuff, I feel like it’s the best medicine for me because I’m just listening to good music, drinking nice coffee and making the stuff I like to make.
S: What advice would you give to college students who want to go down the creative path?
A: Don’t give up if it’s not going your way. In this age of social media, it’s a lot harder to get your work recognised. But don’t be discouraged, it doesn’t reflect you, it’s just how the algorithm works. Don’t be afraid to tag everyone or post the same thing twice. Don’t give up because I see so many people who are stupidly talented and they give up because they’re not giving it time. It’s the classic cheesy answer but don’t give up.
S: Finally, what would be your top three albums of all time?
A: Rainbows by Radiohead is one. I think Flowerboy by Tyler, the Creator. That album came out a week before my granddad passed. That album got me through a lot of stuff. It means a lot to me. Stone Roses, their self-titled album. That’s probably my number-one album.
WORDS: Sarah Kerr
