I recently spoke on the phone with Mark Beam about his art, his life, and how the two go together. Read on to find out about his remarkable journey into the world of art -- a journey that started with one papier mache fish and the desire to not become an insurance claims adjuster. Enjoy.

Dusty Domino: Let's see, how did you get started? When did you get started making art?

Mark Beam: I was twenty-six, I was unemployed, I was destined for the skids, and I made this papier mache fish just for the hell of it. This girl came over and said, "How much do you want for that fish?" I said, "150 dollars," just off the top of my head. She bought it, so I made four more fish, and I walked into a place called By Design,it's a really nice store that sold really cool home furnishings and I noticed they only had posters on the wall. They were nice posters. I figured they might like something, so I went in there one day with this big fish that I just made. I looked like shit -- I had been working all day, but the manager happened to be there, and he loved the fish. He bought four of them from me that day, and he gave me a thousand dollars.

DD: Wow

MB: Which at the time was like, "Holy shit!"

DD: Right.

MB: So from that day on I was an artist, and it just kept blossoming, and I just kept making art.

DD: So you grew up in California, then?

MB: No, I grew up in Detroit.

DD: Why did you move to California?

MB: Cause it was sunny and nice.

DD: Alot different from Detroit.

MB: I moved there when I was nineteen and I had a bunch of jobs that I hated, corporate jobs and graphic design departments and stuff like that. I knew I didn't belong there. Eventually I was forced to lead the life I wanted to lead, and it worked out so . . .

DD: Well what are some of your earliest influences, I know you were probably influenced, just like every other artist, by anything that passes in front of your eyeballs . . . You made fish early on, was the sea sort of an influence? Was moving to California what influenced that or were you going for a particular style?

MB: I think that I was attracted to humor in art. It wasn't so much about fish. I wanted to make pieces that were kind of funny. As far as my influences, when I was a younger guy I was influenced by, I think, Frank Zappa because of the humor in his music. And there was a guy I really liked named Don Van Vliet -- his stage name was Captain Beefheart. I just really liked the way his mind worked and the way his stuff was created. As far as other visual artists, Red Grooms. He had a big retrospective here a couple of years after I started creating art, and thank God because I probably wouldn't have started [making art]. Seeing that he had done so much and that it was just so impressive, I think it may have taken the wind out of my sails if I had seen it before I started making my own work.

DD: Right.

MB: Nowadays, there's a guy named Mark Ryden. He's an art friend of mine. One of the coolest things about living in southern California [is that] they all live here. There are all kinds of really great people, and most of them are pretty nice, relatively helpful and generous -- it's a good scene.

DD: Yeah, I really enjoy looking at Mark Ryden's stuff -- he's got a pretty unusual mind, that's for sure.

MB: But when you meet him, he's like so much of a family man. Your gonna be surprised that this is the guy who does these paintings. You just don't expect this guy to be doing this work.

DD: I was gonna ask you about unusual experiences you've had as an artist, I read about the Frank Zappa thing and that sounds pretty unusual to me. [laughs]

MB: Yeah that was a good one -- let me think of another one. Shortly after I began making art, I was dating a girl who was an interpreter, and she brought this Japanese guy by my house one day. Didn't speak a word of English, but he liked my artwork alot. He came by, and I met him. Everything was good. It was like a year later, the guy calls me up and asks me if I want to do this job. It was for this company called Takashima in Osaka, Japan, and they paid me a devastating amount of money -- at the time. It was like twenty-five thousand dollars for four images. It was great! I got to go to Japan and hang out with their artists. It was a great experience.

DD: Wow, twenty five thousand dollars after a couple of years [making art] that must have been. . . .

MB: It was a real shot in the arm, and I came to realize that almost everything I have in my life, whether it's money or the clothes on my back or the friends that I talk to, all the good things have come from artwork in one way or the other, and I have real value for making art and all the things that come with it.

DD: What's the scene like [in Los Angeles] right now?

MB: It's a creative environment. Alot of artists, alot of people interested in the arts, alot of people coming here from other places to buy art. Artists can feel very isolated and think, "I'm never gonna sell another piece of art till the day I die," but here there are people and events that remind you that art is a pretty vital thing.

DD: That's really great because its pretty rare to find that in the world today. It seems like there is a de-emphasis [on art] but what you are telling me is that there are people who need aesthetics elements in their lives and are willing to purchase art.

MB: I came to realize that when somebody gets rich, let's say they start a dot com company or something, and they start making a ton of money, the first thing they buy is a house then they buy a car then they go on a trip and then they start buying artwork. In Europe in the olden days, artisans were working for the hierarchy, for the really rich families.

DD: Almost like a status thing. . .

MB: Part that, and I think, to me, art can make you feel better and improve the quality of your life.

DD: How would you describe your work -- I know you said you that you were looking for the humorous. . .

MB: I would say that my imagery leans toward the lighter side, and I like the element of surprise. I've gotten into materials and surfaces and color and things that are more "art technique." As far as imagery goes -- it's the element of humor and surprise that I'm attracted to.

DD: I know you had experiences with the early versions of The Pee Wee Herman Show, and I know that was an adult version of a children's show, but how do children react? Do you ever get the opportunity to see children viewing your work?

MB: Yeah, I actually know alot kids, and they love it, but in my experience, there's a range of people who respond to my work, they cover the whole gamut. I know little kids who love it, and I know old retirees who bought pieces. I go to galleries, and I saw this old couple -- they had to be in their late seventies -- walking out of the gallery with a six-foot psychedelic fish under their arms. It's not so much age; it has a lot to do with mood. At the time that I started, I was one of the first few people doing blatantly funny stuff. At this time, there was alot of darker imagery, and there was more minimal imagery, too. It was a great time because I didn't have a problem making an ass of myself in my work. I didn't have a problem being a bozo when it comes to my imagery. I was fortunate because I didn't have a great deal of competition-and since then, things have exploded. I knew I would be considered a joke because at the time, everybody was a serious arthead, but believe me, I got my share of . . . I got bitchslapped a few times [laughs]. I discounted it; I didn't care. I just didn't give a shit.

DD: Do you think that you've found your voice or are you still searching for new ways to approach your audience?

MB: Both. I felt very confident shortly after I started making art. I've been doing this for seventeen years now. It's a continuous challenge. It's the same exercise to create something new that wasn't there before. . . Even before I started creating art, I was creative. I was interested in creative things. I used to do stand-up comedy for a couple of years when I was really young, maybe twenty. I was getting my feet wet with that kind of creative communication.

DD: So that translated into your work?

MB: Exactly. That's how I ended up hooking up with Paul Ruebens from my interest in comedy and performance, and then I started making visual art the year after I stopped working [on The Pee Wee Herman Show]. About a year later I made my first piece. There was a creative continuum that started long before I made my first fish. I used to make art when I was a little kid, but in Detroit there was no such thing as an artist making a living doing [art]. So forget that. [both laugh] I remember my mom saying, "Why don't you be an insurance claims adjuster?" and I looked at her like, "What?!" [both laugh]. Then there was a good ten or fifteen years looking around trying to find out where I fit into this goddamn world, you know?

DD: And it sure as hell wasn't as an insurance claims adjuster. [laughs]

MB: I've always had that drive to look around and try to find my place so that I could appease myself creatively. I was always sort of entrepreneurial, even when I was a teenager. It wasn't like I wanted to be really rich; I just wanted to survive so I didn't have to go get a real job.

DD: In this day and age, unlike days past, you have to be part entrepreneur and part artist, so what would you say about what it takes to survive [as an artist]? How much time should you devote to actively advertising yourself and how much should you devote to making the art itself?

MB: I think my position, when I started, was that I wanted to have the artist's lifestyle, to live like an artist. I made art day and night. I did that for probably twelve years, and it wasn't a job. It didn't feel like a job, and every time a company gave me money for art, I loved it! And I want to do this more! [both laugh] The whole thing about being an artist isn't, "Oh, look at this great body of work I did." It's life -- like when somebody buys something, or you meet someone, or you have this experience or that experience -- that's what being an artist is. The art is what's left over after you're dead, but as far as you and the value you are going to get out of art -- that's going to be the life that you lead.