It's really exciting to find artists with distinct styles who are able
to take common themes and make them very much their own. One such artist
is
Cody Eich, currently at
Studio 13
in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I shot Cody a few questions about his work and
he graciously took the time to offers thoughtful responses:
You're
able to meld very different artistic influences together to great
effect. What's your process like in putting it all together? I've
always loved contrast and balance. Generally, I like to use one form
or color to compliment the other in some way. I also like breaking the
rules. I like putting objects or shapes in my artwork that aren't
normally there. Don't get me wrong, I think there are plenty of
technical rules that need to be learned and followed by any tattoo
artist, which are things that a fine artist or someone using another
medium wouldn't necessarily have to worry about. I always think about
how a piece will last over time as it ages, my linework and saturation
of a tattoo, but I've always loved that there is no real "right" answer
to the artwork in tattooing or in other creative fields, so I feel free
in my work when I get to break the rules.
Where do you draw your inspiration and references?I
always say nature and the universe we live in are absolutely the most
interesting art created by the most creative creator. The seemingly
chaotic but complete order of nature and the relationship between every
living things is absolutely astounding to me. Ordered chaos. So, I
love using natural things as reference for my tattoos, whether it be a
person, animal, plant, rocks and geology, or anything else. I find
mechanical things or manmade things less interesting. That being said, I
also worked at an engineering firm for seven years prior to tattooing,
and I find myself inadvertently and sometimes purposefully drawing
inspiration from plan sheets and other civil engineering based imagery.
Things like topographic style lines, engineering linetypes from
computer aided drawing programs will often pop up in my paintings and
tattoos next to, or juxtaposed with, natural subject matter. Lastly, I
am continually inspired by other artists, fine and tattoo based, and
being new to the industry I have so much to learn still from people who
have been doing this much longer than I have.
What point in your tattoo career did you feel that your own
particular style broke through -- or did you begin tattooing your own
art from the outset?
When I started painting before I was
tattooing, I felt free to paint whatever I wanted because it was mine,
and it was for me in my head. There were no consequences. With
tattoos, it took me a bit to really put "my" mark on someone else.
Because my clients didn't start off asking for geometric shapes and
other design elements that I like using, my tattoos were very stunted
until I was encouraged by the owners of Studio 13 in Fort Wayne to make
the art I wanted rather than strictly what the client was asking for.
From the time I started working there in 2012, they encouraged me to
redraw my tattoos for clients before I tattooed them if I hadn't added
my touch to the line drawings. Once I started getting some of these
tattoos that were more my style out there, people seemed to like them,
so it really encouraged me to push things a bit more and develop
something unique that I wanted to do.
In a number of your tattoos, I see forms that look like constellations -- what's your intention behind them?
People
always assume the shapes that you're talking about in my tattoos are
constellations, so I sometimes just make up a name for them as if they
are actually out there in space. I have only actually tattooed one real
constellation ever. They are really just design elements that I
started playing with as a way to put geometric, angular shapes next to
organic forms in my artwork. Contrast.
I read on your Tumblr page that you will be making the move to
Southern Ontario. Is that still in the works? Where can people find you
in the next few months?
I am from the States, but am
immigrating to Canada as my wife, Alisha, is from Canada. After we got
married in December 2012, we filled out all the paperwork and jumped
through all the hoops with that and were able to submit our paperwork in
March 2013. I believe the average processing time is about a year, so
I'm hoping that March of 2014 will mean I will be okay to live and work
in Canada as a permanent resident. In the meantime I have been okayed
to live in Canada while I'm waiting to work, so I live with my wife in
Brantford, Ontario and return to the States every month for about a week
and a half to work with the wonderful people at Studio 13 in Fort
Wayne, Indiana. I'm hoping to be working full time in Canada sometime
around March 2014 and am adding people to a wait list for once this
happens, so I can start scheduling appointments as soon as my paperwork
goes through.
