Chris Knipp
06-26-2024, 06:36 PM
http://www.chrisknipp.com/images/%20gmf.jpg
GEOFF MCFETRIDGE IN GEOFF MCFETRIDGE: DRAWING A LIFE
DAN COVERT; GEOFF MCFETRIDGE: DRAWING A LIFE (2023)
His images are everywhere, but we've never heard of him: a portrait of prolific commercial (and fine) artist Geoff McFetridge, whose best work is his life
This is a commercial artist of considerable scope and influence who is also anonymous and invisible and has maintained much of his independence. He is not so easy to pin down, but this film, shot over a four-year period (a mustache comes and goes), by being staccato (highlighted by chapter divisions using Geoff's writing or poetry) and a bit sketchy, does a good job of it - though his innermost secrets may lie yet unplumbed, even though he seems to be telling all.
He is 53, is from Calgary, British Columbia, and lives with his family in Los Angeles. Co-producer Spike Jonze's films Adaptation, Her and Where the Wild Things Are are tied together by titles designed by him. After revealing an early talent for drawing logos, he went to a local art school, then moved on to study at CalArts. in L.A. thirty years ago. He then took a job as art director at the short-lived magazine Grand Royal, a spinoff of the Beastie Boys’ independent record label, where Jonze was one of the editors. After that soon ended he opened his own studio, partly using his connection with Jonze to branch out as an independent designer. The rest is history. He is in great demand, can choose what he does, and has a rich life that includes fine art and puts a happy life with his family first, and includes a sense of fun and an ability to laugh.
Early clients included Sofia Coppola for her clothing line Milk Fed. And then he did the titles of her first feature, The Virgin Suicides, and others after that. She describes his designs as having "something different than something that a team of creative professionals do." and adds, "It’s not about being perfect." With outlines hand-drawn, a little irregular: they are pictures of "ideas," not polished shapes; artisanal, naive, primitive or simple. Figures, sometimes blobby and ingeniously intertwined, tend to predominate, with flat elementary colors.
Simple. Geoff, whose origins are defined by being biracial (white father, Chinese mother) and from a very minimal place (suburbia, Calgary BC), discovered himself when he realized "I had the most to say in the simplest work." That was a breakthrough after a period of agonizing and confusion during art school. When young, he felt ostracized by being artistic - his mother says he drew for three hours every day after school - and biracial. He found skateboarders were an open group. He still is shown as drawing, endless permutations and variations, finding the one drawing from the many drawings that he wants to use.
He explains and shows that all or most of his work remains line drawings done with a pencil, because, he says, a pencil has a certain speed, and most of the drawings are the size of half a sheet of paper, because that's comfortable to his vision. (The paintings and finished graphic designs are often much bigger.) As a kid he was obsessed by geometry, he says, and he imagined lines everywhere connecting things. But we also observe right away that his images often involve big areas of flat color. He speaks of learning in his development period to "take away the layers."
The blurb for this film calls Geoff McFetridge "One of the most prolific artists of his time," and says "he has undoubtedly influenced the way the world looks. . .His art is everywhere," it goes on: "on your Apple watch, in countless galleries around the world," onn the film title designs for Sofia Coppola and Spike Jonze" (part of a key generation in the Los Angeles of the nineties), and "in collaborations with Nike, Hermès, Warby Parker, and more." The blurb says, as his own testimony confirms, that he is "the antithesis of the archetypal artist fueled by drugs, alcohol, and chaos," and he is set apart as a person by his "obsessive quest to balance family with a creative life." "In Geoff McFetridge: Drawing a LIfe, director and fellow artist Dan Covert offers unprecedented access into Geoff's multifaceted world, painting an intimate portrait of a man guided by intention and authenticity." This is indeed borne out by the film itself.
The Calgary Herald (https://calgaryherald.com/entertainment/movies/ciff-documentary-chronicles-the-work-and-life-of-calgary-born-artist-geoff-mcfetridge) review of this film continues with the description that "He is shown to be an obsessive workaholic and a 'control freak' who is nevertheless happily married and a devoted father to his two daughters." The Herald confirms that "He has done work for massive corporations, including designing Pepsi billboards and Apple watch faces" (though this corporate work isn't stressed in the film), but he "remains uncompromising in his vision" and "turns down '87 percent' of the work he is pitched and refuses to take meetings with potential clients because he 'hates meetings.'"
McFetritdge emerges as one who to a remarkable extent has learned to be his own man. What his style is, is a matter of showing rather than telling. Obviously he has a certain "look" or way of visualizing that people like. But no one comes in from outside to try to describe that. This is an insider's, an intimate, picture of the man. This may seem a shortcoming of the film, but it is what it is and is also its strength and its appeal. It also dates itself a little bit by having a Covid section at the end; and its cheery score is relentlessly conventional. Geoff's own direct-to-camera monologue sets the tone throughout, while his story is illustrated with carefully assembled stills and archival footage of his life.
He is forthright and articulate in defining who he is and what he does. "The downfall of design," he says, is in being anonymous." This is a key transition line to a description of how, to create a personal artistic legacy and compensate for this anonymity of commercial design, he painstakingly began making art for himself, to hang on the wall and having shows, the first ones of screen prints, early paintings taking three months to complete. He is unusual, it is remarked, in consciously balancing his ubiquitous graphic design with paintings of which he has these exhibitions. He really balances out the two activities - even though he admits smilingly that he is not an "in-demand" artist as a gallery painter. He has, nonetheless, shown in New York, a ruthless venue but also a sign of having arrived.
The fine art Geoff McFetritdge does comes out of the same imagery as the graphic design, and looks like commercial art transplanted to gallery settings: it can be described as simplified human figures twisted and distorted somewhat in the manner of Matisse combined with abstraction. But he does a variety of work in a variety of media, including watercolors that he paints when he is traveling, which look different and can be an alternate source of visual ideas.
The film has Spike Jonze, Sofia Coppola, his assistant, wife, photographer, and other associates as talking heads, but its ubiquitous presence is Geoff McFetridge himself, addressing the camera and talking about himself. He has a deep, firm voice. He inspires confidence. Part of this is that he is so physically vigorous. Not only does he declare himself to live healthy - no drinking or smoking, he is shown trail running, ultramarathoning, skateboarding, surfing, cycling, and skiing; and incidentally, dancing just for fun at home with his eldest daughter.
Geoff's wife since before all this relentless activity started, Sara Devincentis, also appears, as well as Frances and Phoebe, their two daughters. He explains that Sara, Frances, and Phoebe are absolutely essential to his being and his art-making. The photographer Andrew Paynter, who has documented his work - his David Douglas Duncan, he suggests - also appears. McFetridge counts on. Paynter to save his fine art work from oblivion.
Considered from a fine art background, the work of both kinds may seem less interesting than the man himself. It is his wholeness and the wholesomeness of his family life, his energy, his skill and openness in talking about himself that are memorable. In its ability to convey the satisfying life this film winds up being an interesting portrait, and its use of the artist and the people around him to tell his story, natural and organic, feels very successful.
A final scene shows Geoff receiving an award before an audience of designers that shows him to be well recognized by his peers. But the film makes clear that a happy life, a happy wife, happy daughters, and happy pets are the real priorities in his life, and friends and admirers suggest he's got it figured out, that his success is internal as well as external. May he live long and continue to prosper.
The film was written by Erik Auli with Dan Covert, Amy Dempsey, and Tara Rose Stromberg. The cinematography of Claudio Rietti and Daniel Vicheone provides an appropriate bright, sunny look.
Reviewed in Hollywood Reporter (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/geoff-mcfetridge-drawing-a-life-review-1235347562/) by Justin Lowe.
Geoff McFetridge: Drawing a Life, 80 mins., debuted at Austin (SXSW) Mar 12, 2023. In theaters NYC, Jun. 21, 2024; Los Angeles, Jun. 30; available on VOD via Gravitas, Jul. 2, 2024.
GEOFF MCFETRIDGE IN GEOFF MCFETRIDGE: DRAWING A LIFE
DAN COVERT; GEOFF MCFETRIDGE: DRAWING A LIFE (2023)
His images are everywhere, but we've never heard of him: a portrait of prolific commercial (and fine) artist Geoff McFetridge, whose best work is his life
This is a commercial artist of considerable scope and influence who is also anonymous and invisible and has maintained much of his independence. He is not so easy to pin down, but this film, shot over a four-year period (a mustache comes and goes), by being staccato (highlighted by chapter divisions using Geoff's writing or poetry) and a bit sketchy, does a good job of it - though his innermost secrets may lie yet unplumbed, even though he seems to be telling all.
He is 53, is from Calgary, British Columbia, and lives with his family in Los Angeles. Co-producer Spike Jonze's films Adaptation, Her and Where the Wild Things Are are tied together by titles designed by him. After revealing an early talent for drawing logos, he went to a local art school, then moved on to study at CalArts. in L.A. thirty years ago. He then took a job as art director at the short-lived magazine Grand Royal, a spinoff of the Beastie Boys’ independent record label, where Jonze was one of the editors. After that soon ended he opened his own studio, partly using his connection with Jonze to branch out as an independent designer. The rest is history. He is in great demand, can choose what he does, and has a rich life that includes fine art and puts a happy life with his family first, and includes a sense of fun and an ability to laugh.
Early clients included Sofia Coppola for her clothing line Milk Fed. And then he did the titles of her first feature, The Virgin Suicides, and others after that. She describes his designs as having "something different than something that a team of creative professionals do." and adds, "It’s not about being perfect." With outlines hand-drawn, a little irregular: they are pictures of "ideas," not polished shapes; artisanal, naive, primitive or simple. Figures, sometimes blobby and ingeniously intertwined, tend to predominate, with flat elementary colors.
Simple. Geoff, whose origins are defined by being biracial (white father, Chinese mother) and from a very minimal place (suburbia, Calgary BC), discovered himself when he realized "I had the most to say in the simplest work." That was a breakthrough after a period of agonizing and confusion during art school. When young, he felt ostracized by being artistic - his mother says he drew for three hours every day after school - and biracial. He found skateboarders were an open group. He still is shown as drawing, endless permutations and variations, finding the one drawing from the many drawings that he wants to use.
He explains and shows that all or most of his work remains line drawings done with a pencil, because, he says, a pencil has a certain speed, and most of the drawings are the size of half a sheet of paper, because that's comfortable to his vision. (The paintings and finished graphic designs are often much bigger.) As a kid he was obsessed by geometry, he says, and he imagined lines everywhere connecting things. But we also observe right away that his images often involve big areas of flat color. He speaks of learning in his development period to "take away the layers."
The blurb for this film calls Geoff McFetridge "One of the most prolific artists of his time," and says "he has undoubtedly influenced the way the world looks. . .His art is everywhere," it goes on: "on your Apple watch, in countless galleries around the world," onn the film title designs for Sofia Coppola and Spike Jonze" (part of a key generation in the Los Angeles of the nineties), and "in collaborations with Nike, Hermès, Warby Parker, and more." The blurb says, as his own testimony confirms, that he is "the antithesis of the archetypal artist fueled by drugs, alcohol, and chaos," and he is set apart as a person by his "obsessive quest to balance family with a creative life." "In Geoff McFetridge: Drawing a LIfe, director and fellow artist Dan Covert offers unprecedented access into Geoff's multifaceted world, painting an intimate portrait of a man guided by intention and authenticity." This is indeed borne out by the film itself.
The Calgary Herald (https://calgaryherald.com/entertainment/movies/ciff-documentary-chronicles-the-work-and-life-of-calgary-born-artist-geoff-mcfetridge) review of this film continues with the description that "He is shown to be an obsessive workaholic and a 'control freak' who is nevertheless happily married and a devoted father to his two daughters." The Herald confirms that "He has done work for massive corporations, including designing Pepsi billboards and Apple watch faces" (though this corporate work isn't stressed in the film), but he "remains uncompromising in his vision" and "turns down '87 percent' of the work he is pitched and refuses to take meetings with potential clients because he 'hates meetings.'"
McFetritdge emerges as one who to a remarkable extent has learned to be his own man. What his style is, is a matter of showing rather than telling. Obviously he has a certain "look" or way of visualizing that people like. But no one comes in from outside to try to describe that. This is an insider's, an intimate, picture of the man. This may seem a shortcoming of the film, but it is what it is and is also its strength and its appeal. It also dates itself a little bit by having a Covid section at the end; and its cheery score is relentlessly conventional. Geoff's own direct-to-camera monologue sets the tone throughout, while his story is illustrated with carefully assembled stills and archival footage of his life.
He is forthright and articulate in defining who he is and what he does. "The downfall of design," he says, is in being anonymous." This is a key transition line to a description of how, to create a personal artistic legacy and compensate for this anonymity of commercial design, he painstakingly began making art for himself, to hang on the wall and having shows, the first ones of screen prints, early paintings taking three months to complete. He is unusual, it is remarked, in consciously balancing his ubiquitous graphic design with paintings of which he has these exhibitions. He really balances out the two activities - even though he admits smilingly that he is not an "in-demand" artist as a gallery painter. He has, nonetheless, shown in New York, a ruthless venue but also a sign of having arrived.
The fine art Geoff McFetritdge does comes out of the same imagery as the graphic design, and looks like commercial art transplanted to gallery settings: it can be described as simplified human figures twisted and distorted somewhat in the manner of Matisse combined with abstraction. But he does a variety of work in a variety of media, including watercolors that he paints when he is traveling, which look different and can be an alternate source of visual ideas.
The film has Spike Jonze, Sofia Coppola, his assistant, wife, photographer, and other associates as talking heads, but its ubiquitous presence is Geoff McFetridge himself, addressing the camera and talking about himself. He has a deep, firm voice. He inspires confidence. Part of this is that he is so physically vigorous. Not only does he declare himself to live healthy - no drinking or smoking, he is shown trail running, ultramarathoning, skateboarding, surfing, cycling, and skiing; and incidentally, dancing just for fun at home with his eldest daughter.
Geoff's wife since before all this relentless activity started, Sara Devincentis, also appears, as well as Frances and Phoebe, their two daughters. He explains that Sara, Frances, and Phoebe are absolutely essential to his being and his art-making. The photographer Andrew Paynter, who has documented his work - his David Douglas Duncan, he suggests - also appears. McFetridge counts on. Paynter to save his fine art work from oblivion.
Considered from a fine art background, the work of both kinds may seem less interesting than the man himself. It is his wholeness and the wholesomeness of his family life, his energy, his skill and openness in talking about himself that are memorable. In its ability to convey the satisfying life this film winds up being an interesting portrait, and its use of the artist and the people around him to tell his story, natural and organic, feels very successful.
A final scene shows Geoff receiving an award before an audience of designers that shows him to be well recognized by his peers. But the film makes clear that a happy life, a happy wife, happy daughters, and happy pets are the real priorities in his life, and friends and admirers suggest he's got it figured out, that his success is internal as well as external. May he live long and continue to prosper.
The film was written by Erik Auli with Dan Covert, Amy Dempsey, and Tara Rose Stromberg. The cinematography of Claudio Rietti and Daniel Vicheone provides an appropriate bright, sunny look.
Reviewed in Hollywood Reporter (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/geoff-mcfetridge-drawing-a-life-review-1235347562/) by Justin Lowe.
Geoff McFetridge: Drawing a Life, 80 mins., debuted at Austin (SXSW) Mar 12, 2023. In theaters NYC, Jun. 21, 2024; Los Angeles, Jun. 30; available on VOD via Gravitas, Jul. 2, 2024.