10 Questions With Shayne Hull

Outside of art, what hobbies do you have or how do you like to spend your free time?

Tennis.  I'm a tennis fanatic.  Love movies as well.

What do you like to listen to while working in your studio?

I'm a proudly snooty, pretentious musicophile.  Old-School Punk, Blues, Americana, Coltrane, Cash, Zevon, Guy Clark... usually something I can loudly sing along with. 

Do you have any pets?

Tuco, our amazing brown standard poodle. 

 

What is your favorite [book, movie, or television show]?

I like art that can transport you to another place.  Cormac McCarthy's "The Road", David Milch's "Deadwood", and Godard's "Breathless" did just that.

 

What is your quirkiest hidden talent?

I'm kinda OCD to begin with, but I go to extremes with laundry.  I fold t-shirts in thirds; they look like they're ready to be packaged in plastic. I fold my underwear... in thirds, of course.  Before folding my socks, I make sure the heels are parallel and the toes face the same direction.  I can fold a fitted sheet... perfectly.  It's all a bit much, I realize.

What is one skill would you like to master?

I'd like to be better at woodworking in general.  I'd love to be able to make furniture.

 

What is your favorite food/restaurant?

There are plenty of upscale, pricy places that we do enjoy to splurge on occasionally, but for a good affordability / yummy ratio... Cunningham's and Sapporo.

 

What is your biggest pet peeve?

At the gym, when people get on a machine, instantly pull out their phones and proceed to NOT work out but just sit there and scroll.  I want to walk over and shove that phone $%#&*#%.

What is the best concert you’ve ever been to?

Viagra Boys at Headliners a couple years ago - perfect.  Black Moth Super Rainbow at Z-bar about 15 years ago was a memorable groovefest. ANY time Bodeco gigged in town.  I miss them.

What was your first job?

I started young, working independently as a paperboy and lawnmower, but for a timecard kinda job...I was busboy at the Wells Fargo Lounge in Moline, Illinois.  14 years old.  Made, like, $1.65 an hour.  It was a 30-minute bus ride there and back for what was usually a 2-hour shift.  

 

What was the worst job you ever had?

In college, I tried telemarketing... for, seriously, less than an hour.  I just got up and said, "Sorry, I can't do this." and left.

 

If you could time travel, would you go to the past or the future?

Because of film no doubt, I have always felt a connection to 1950's Paris - Europe in general.  

Above: Piet Mondrian, 1872–1944. Lozenge Composition with Yellow, Black, Blue, Red, and Gray. 1921

Do you remember the first piece of art that moved you?

I remember it well, 1983, starting my undergrad BFA program. I was in the studio, thumbing through a book on Mondrian (whose work is a million miles from mine) and started staring at Composition with Yellow, Black, Blue, Red, and Gray.  Really looking hard at it.  The more I stared, it was like climbing inside of the book, navigating across the page/painting, wandering off the edges. It was like a high, it just 'clicked' at that moment that art can give you a buzz.  Ok, I was a 23-year old art student then, the buzz may have been more than just Mondrian.

I love singing along with Johnny Cash's "Spiritual".  My wife says I sound just like him.  God bless her.