this is oh so blue
                              A MAGAZINE OF FICTION, POETRY & MORE!
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                                            this is black shadow
     ZYGOTE
            IN MY
                COFFEE.COM

ISSUE #27
 
   $O.OO
Nov. 2004
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                                                               ZYGOTE IN MY COFFEE.COM
                        
***BIO*** Bill King says he's wanted to be a writer as long as he can remember, but he got side-tracked when he joined the Navy in 1972 on the spur of the moment.  They tried to give him a clerical job but he wouldn't have it. Instead he worked at the air terminal at the Naval Station in Rota, Spain, towing and fueling jet airplanes while on duty and running wild in Spain, Morocco, London, and Greece the rest of the time.   He didn't get much writing done at the time, but now he's making up for it with gusto. He doesn't like to give specifics about his past escapades, preferring to let his stories speak for themselves with some blurring between reality and fiction. Bill lives in Jacksonville, FL with his wife, son, and toy robot.

**LINK** to Bill King's website: http://billectric.org/
© 2004 zygoteinmycoffee Ink.
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Naked, Stoned, and Stabbed #5
Billectric: Man, I was trying to remember how we first met. You were in a punk band years go that used to practice in the same warehouse as my band, is that correct?

Lee Harvey: My God Bill, how in the world can you remember back that far? I can't.  I think you were in the 'Smashed Armadillos' but I could be wrong.  I was the front man in the Evil Kings.  That was in 1980. 

Bill: I thought you were in the Armadillos. The Evil Kings was Tommy Berlin’s band, before Radio Berlin. I think you’re fucking with me.

LH: Now, would I do that?

Bill: Anyway, you made the transition from music to art at some point.               

LH: In 1991 I sold all of my music equipment and bought art supplies.  I got fed up with dealing with drunks and assholes and decided to make art on my own.  By 1993 I was making a living off of the art and I've never looked back since. 

Bill: And now you live in the Village in NY.

LH: Yes.  I spend the winter months in Florida and the rest in NYC.  We, my girlfriend Kelli Bickman and I, have an apartment in the West Village...in the neighborhood where Raushenburg, Oldenberg, Jasper Johns, Warhol used to hang.  Jimi Hendrix's Electric Lady Land is right across the street.  Lots of inspiration. Kelli has become friends with Chris Claremont, the creator of the X-Men.

Bill: So you've probably been to my favorite New York hangout, the Bowery Poetry Club.

LH: We recently saw Jacksonville's Bettina Mackey perform at the Yodel Fest there...NPR was sampling yodels for an article on an author who wrote a book on Yodeling.

Bill: You were criticized recently by Folio Weekly, which is usually a very liberal newspaper. First I heard, and then read in the paper, that you created quite a controversy here in Jacksonville, involving a logo that linked Republicans to Nazis! What exactly happened and what were you trying to accomplish?

LH: The Vote Republican with a swastika image was created as a direct response to the current administration's fascist policies.  I was studying the Nazi's rise to power in the 1930's and realized that Bush's Neo-con's were mimicking Hitler's policies.  Exhibiting the image began in LA at a peace rally (Hollywood and Vine) and Haight -Ashbury in San Francisco.  The response was overwhelming. This made us realize the power behind the graphic.

Bill: The graphic is now nationally known.

LH: Since LA, the image has been exhibited all over the country and was one of the most seen images of the RNC protest in NYC.  Nationally known conservatives attacked the image as one of the most scathing of its own time.  Revolutionary Eye was a direct result of the success of that image (www.revolutionaryeye.com).  We've protested all over the country.

Bill: And this is only your latest concept. Whenever I see something from your clown series, it reminds me of Billy Bob Thornton's movie, Bad Santa. Of course, you painted the Clown Series way before that movie was made. What's the deal with those disturbing clowns?

LH: Interesting that you mention that...the clown series was painted in 1994.  They were based on artists that I knew, southern photographer Tom Hager being one of them.  This was a limited series of ten paintings.  I've since gone on to create a much bigger product in Jesusville, my cartoon based on the idea of hatred, oppression and racism in the south.  It makes fun of southern culture on the skids. (http://www.leeharveyinc.com/id1.html).

Jesusville Speaks - a southern city tells all, is my most recent publication containing a collected series of paintings and writings from 1999 to the present.  I just started a cartoon for an East Village newspaper, Boog City, which is pretty cool.

Bill: When you start painting, do you have a particular concept in mind, or does it just appear as you paint?

LH: Both. 

Bill: Who are your influences as an artist?

LH: Jullian Schnabel, Picasso, Fiona Rae, Phillip Guston, Francis Bacon, Abbie Hoffman, Martin Luther King, Steven Spielburg.  Life in general.
Billectric
Interviews
Lee Harvey, Artist