What phrase would you use to describe the goopy nature of your work?

I’ve been using a fun term lately, “bubble gum body horror”. I have a few other ones, but it's basically just cute-wootsy with just gross. I love combining those elements, I’m really into the feminime aesthetic right now, old 90’s teenage girl bedroom kind of shit. Like Lisa Frank notebooks,I’m getting a Lisa Frank logo shirt. 

Lisa Frank has proven to be timeless.

Exactly. Stuff like that, I love blending it with kinda gross,goopy, creepy. People say my work is “creepy”. I get it, but it’s not supposed to be, but that’s the fun of it, people look at something and make assumptions. 

“Bubble Gum, Body horror”… is it more of a chewable texture then?

Yeah, it’s definitely more malleable for sure, less wet and more … like a silly putty but less firm. But it changes, it's not a specific texture all the time. So sometimes, it's absolutely wet and slimy. 

How did you form the drawing style?

I don’t remember, I think it started with drawing circles and oval shapes that blended into each other. Then it evolved into dripping bulbs, and shading those. And with more and more details in the drips, the drips started becoming tendrils and then I started doing crazier and crazier strands and everything. I don’t know. It just kind of happened.

Was this a few years ago?

Had to have been 2012, 2013 when i really started “building the goop”

What did drawing give you back then?

Drawings’ always just been me, you know? My identity, I’m a guy who draws. It’s always been the case. I knew I was a weirdo,I’ve always been a weirdo, a goofball, a goober. So being an artist… it kind of gives – a context to it. Cuz’ you know if you saw someone and you're like, “ well he’s an artist”, then it's more like , “ ahhhh he’s just a little eccentric” . Whereas if he’s a dentist - it's more like hmmm that's odd.  

Did I see you dabble in NFT’s?

I did… I made a little chunk of change off the little collection I made, enough to pay rent for the next few months.

That’s a chunk.

Yeah it is, I bought some new boots today so I’m splurging.  It’s good but it’s a whole thing, so I’m happy with the ten I put out. That’s good for me for now.

Did you begin mural painting when you moved to Austin?

It was just “happenstance”. I had done murals before but I was contacted by the art director of Liquid Death who I had been in contact with before when they were at  PBR and said “hey I heard you're in Austin”, so we got set up. And right around the time I was doing that I met Wade Thompson(FISH)  who is together with Candy Kuo, who is another awesome Austin muralist. She’s fantastic, she's got a mural at a bar down the street. They are some of my best friends now and through them I did a lot more pieces. But I’m taking a break from murals this year to finally close off my 10 year commission list so I can do other stuff (laughs).

‘Other stuff’?

I have been thinking about changing names and characters, so that's the whole thing about closing commissions for Spencer Mann. So after that last piece is done, alright cool let’s do a hard reset.

Any thoughts about Austin?

I’m just one guy with zero education, but one of my main criticisms of Austin is it isn’t fucking weird. It’s the guy that yells “I’m so0o CraAazy”, or its Betty from accounting and she comes to your desk and says “ Look at my Shrek Pencil ! Whoa!“

Yeah, but in ways I would argue that Betty has the potential to be more integrally “weird” than some people that look cool and dress “weird” at creative events or ACL’s.

Right well, - Betty is ‘camp’. That’s a whole John Waters vibe, I love that shit... What I mean is we’re really just scratching the surface of what weird can be. Make chaos, do weird shit, create nonsense in the city that you’re in.

A random example I gave a friend of mine, is fill the street with hotdogs. Don’t actually do that cuz’ its a waste of food, but the idea of… do random shit and give someone an experience other than, “ I went to work today and then I came home”.

There’s this poppy song, by an artist name Kobra. A line in her song is “ no identity, necessity is what you chose to do”. And it’s like, ahh shit yeah, thats a good line. There’s no flavor, you’re safe, you’re comfortable that’s fine, but there is so much else, SO MUCH . And you get one go, you get one fucking go.

//Check out Spencer Mann’s work here, while it still exists! Or visit one of his ‘bubbly-gum-body-horror’ murals downtown Austin, Texas.

(From Left to Right: Spencer Mann, Candy Kuo, FISH)