Two and a half years ago, when I first started going through the wallpaper section at Skinz.org, there were only a handful of pieces there that struck me so much that I looked up the artist's site and hungrily went in search of more.  One of those artists was Michael Bodine, known to Skinz as tech13.

I downloaded all I could from his site, and continued to watch for more.  Two years later, tech13's art can still be found quite frequently on my PC at work and on my Mac at home.  At one point, I began an extensive NextSTART skin as a compliment to one of his pieces, but realized early on that I simply wasn't doing it justice.

As the skinning communities and digital art communities slide against each other, sharing, collaborating, and communicating, one place where they connect is Razorart.com.  As admin and co-owner of the site, tech13 has taken a major hand at integrating skinning, art and music.

Tek:Your work seems to show an extensive background in traditional art.  Is this true?
tech13: Well, growing up I used to always draw whenever I had spare time and this was mainly before computers so thats how I had to get by. I used to draw some of my favorite cd cover logos and such, and I was really into it at the time.

Tek: Were you drawing your own inserts for commercial cd-s you'd bought?
tech13: At the time, I just mocked the covers and tried to reproduce them by hand. Keep in mind this was back in 1989 or so but around 1994 I started making my own inserts for cassete tape compliations that I made. This was before I knew Photoshop so I did everything on CAD because that was the program I was most familiar with - because I used it everyday at my job. It was really exciting back in those days going through all the effort it took to measure the pages and such. I was always excited to make another one. Later on when cd-r's became poplar I started doing cd covers and learned photoshop.

Tek: I think you're probably one of the only designers well known in the skinning community who started on AutoCAD.  What was the job you were using CAD with?
tech13: I graduated in 1994 after going to a vocational school for Engineering Drafting, I got a job at a Land Surveying Company doing CAD work. I am still in the CAD working field but I now work at a Civil Engineering Company.

Tek: Do you think coming from CAD to Photoshop has influenced your style?
tech13: Of course...although I may not like to admit it CAD has had a big influence on my art direction in photoshop. A lot of my images have geometric shapes and such which you might know I use a lot. and they all came from my cad work

Tek: There's also a great general sense of technical precision, although your work has grown more organic over the past months.
tech13: Yeah that's true.. I have been devolping a gritty style over the last 6 months or so.

Tek:   Is there a conscious influence involved in the move toward 'grit?'
tech13: Well my main influence toward the "grittyness" look comes from an artist I look up to a lot, Dave Mckean. I also have lots of problems accepting my work and being satisfied with it. I feel that in my mind that I could do so much better and sometimes it gets frustrating, I think I will always be into the gritty look tho.

Tek: Are there other artists, either traditional or digital, who you see as influences or favorites?
tech13: Not really. I don't really get into many peoples stuff in the "community" except for maybe pixelphreak. Dave Mckean pretty much does it for me. If some of you arent familar with him I highly suggest you check him out. http://www.dreamline.nu/

Tek: I actually wrote for the article board on one of Pixelphreak's sites for awhile.  That one has kind of dissipated now.  Is Pixelphreak still active?
tech13: I still talk to him every once in awhile. He is having some problems lately with his sites but I hope he gets back in it real soon because he is someone to look up to. His Typography skills I would kill for.

Tek: They are excellent.  I just took a quick look at Dave Mckean's site - very impressive.  You've been involved with other artists before in various groups such as Siere.  How did that relationship begin?
tech13: Actually, my first group was CIA, and I joined that way back in November of 1994. I was introduced to the art scene by an artist that went by Chainsaw Design. I was amazed to see that there were other people into the same things I was into. I was in that group for about 4 or 5 months and it really helped me to get started - and I met a lot of new artists that I could associate with. I joined Seire after that 'cause me and Spot got along really well, and it seemed to be going in a better direction than CIA was going. I met lots of great people along the way and finally decided to quit the artgroup thing for awhile.

Tek: Other than meeting some great people, do you think the art groups have been a positive experience for you?  Is it something you'd recommend?
tech13: Well, I have lots of my own opinions on artgroups. I am trying to get back into one right now thats a little top secret at the moment. I've had ups and downs with artgroups. A lot of people know that I had many problems with Seire and its just something I'd like to forget cause it looks as though it will never get resolved. If someone asked me if they should join an artgroup or not I would probably say yeah go ahead and join but watch how much you get involved with it because the more I got involved, the more I had problems. It helped me out greatly as a digital artist, but it didnt help me on stress sometimes.

Tek: Can you go into any of the problems you experienced?
tech13: I just got too invloved at times and trusted some people maybe I shouldn't have, and it caused quite a bit of problems with my viewings on the community in general. A lot of the community is helpful but once you get a little well known, people like to stab you in the back and it just starts to not be fun.

Tek: Probably your most public association is now with Razorart.  Would you say it's basically your site?
tech13: No. It is officially owned by 3 people. Me, Theremon and Thredz. They all contribute a great deal and I wouldn't choose anyone else to work with. We have a good staff too. Everything is going great and razorart and it is basically my main focus. I always wanted to start and art and music based site because most of my inpiration comes from music as well.

Tek: Definitely great company :)    In some ways Razorart is almost like a Rolling Stone or a Spin combined with digital art and skinning.  Could you take us on a quick tour of Razorart's features?
tech13: Yeah. Basically Razorart.com is a site based art and music and features many things. Each month we have a featured section for 3 areas. We interview at least 3 bands that are usually underground bands that no one else or not many people have heard of. I have discovered lots of great music out there that people will never hear on the Top 40 charts, so I like to think razorart has a good influence for people to find out about new bands. We also feature a new artist each month that we think has some great design skills and is someone people should look up to or recognize.

The third featured section is the skinner. We do a new skinner each month that we feel has some great talent and like to give as much exposure as we can to them. We also have a wallpaper section where each month we feature a new theme and wallpapers are done according to the theme. Each issue the new theme is released for the next issue so people can work on walls for a month in advance.

We also have reviews for games, cds, dvds, and new movies. Most of these reviews are done from supporting people in the community. I would like to think of razorart as a good source for the underground art and music scene. We just released some new features where people can sign up to be a member and it allows them to comment on anything on the site and also automatically puts them on the street team where they can send in their own reviews of basically anything they want to review in the games, cds, dvds, and new movie areas. We have more features coming up to make things even easier so stay tuned.

Tek: It's a really amazing site, and accepting 'help' from people across the internet is a great way to use this resource.  When I visit your old personal site, tech13graphics, I see the single word 'perfect.'  Can you tell us what that signifies, and do you have some plans for that site in the future?
tech13: My personal site...i knew this one was coming :) A few weeks ago I had a different "quote" on the site and it said "wonderfully beautiful in a depressing way." "Perfect" means just about the same thing. I have decided to shut tech13graphics down permanently. I don't know exactly why, but I feel it's time to move on. "Perfect" implies that the rat race is over and it feels good. I have other projects lined up in the future but like I said earlier, razorart is my main focus. I really want razorart to exceed any levels I could even imagine.

Tek: Are all your works available at razorart?
tech13: No. I guess they will get buried where I left them. I will still be doing artwork and hopefully it will be better.

Tek: Your older and current work is excellent, so I'll be quite anxious to see where the future leads you :) Do you have a personal interest in skinning, or will you continue to concentrate on wallpaper and fine art?
tech13: Well, I will still do wallpapers and cd covers of course but I have dabbed a bit into skinning with my good friend malform. We are just doing some skins for a theme of some of our favorite bands. Its pure fun right now but who knows, we might make it into something later on down the line.

Tek: Do you have a relationship with any bands now?  Dave Mckean, who you mentioned earlier, has done album covers for Tori Amos and FLA, among others.
tech13:Yeah. I have some connections with some of my favorite bands such as 16 Volt and Hate Dept. Also through many interviews for razorart I got to talk to some of my other musical idols. I also talk to the guys from chimaira all the time.  Its really exciting talking to some people I really look up to.

Tek:16 Volt's great :)  How do you make connections with bands?  Do you find their emails, or is it through some other avenue?
tech13: Well, most of the interviews were done through the mail and I talked to the people that way. I started talking to Eric from 16 Volt because there was a possiblity I was doing the h3llb3nt cover. Time was a big issue in that so it sorta fell through but now we talk on a regular basis and its just like my other online buddies. Jeff from hate dept contacted me cause he really liked some of my cd covers and we're pretty good friends now as well.  Thredz and myself are doing the artwork for the new Chimaira cd cover so I talk to those guys mainly about that. I got into contact with them from a razorart interview.

Tek:That's fantastic - cd covers can be a great thing to get into.  Perhaps we'll see your calendars next to Roger Dean's someday :)
tech13: hehe :)

Tek: To go in a different direction for a bit, I'm curious what your computer system's like.
tech13: Its actually pretty old and I'm about due for a new set up. I am on a Dell Pentium II 400mhz with 128 mb ram, 17 inch monitor, ati 8mb video card, 13 gig hd. Nothing sepcial but it still works.

Tek: hehe :)   And are you strictly Photoshop now, or do you use other tools as well?
tech13:I still integrate CAD of course but Photoshop is my main tool.

Tek: I know that you're enjoying the early years of married life - do you have any children yet?
tech13:No. hehe..I plan to keep it "kid free" as long as possible :)

Tek: You said you work at a civil engineering company.  What sort of work do you do there, and how do you juggle the time between work, family, and art?
tech13: My job is boring. I've done this for almost 9 years and its getting old. I draw up subdivisions for housing developments mostly. I live an hour from my job, so a typical work day for me is about 11 hours. Then I come home and spend some time with my wife and work on the computer when I need to. It can be tough at times especially having a site like razorart where I try and keep it active and yet have enough time for my wife.

Tek: I think a lot of people in the community are having a hard time devoting the hours they'd like to the things they really love.  It reminds me of the old Rush album subdivisions, with the CAD drawing of some Canadian subdivision on the back cover.
tech13: hehe gotta love rush :)

Tek: hehe..  yep, the Tool of the eighties :)    Do you have a standard routine for your art?  What's the creative process like for you?
tech13:Usually it involves me screwing around with photos I took until something looks cool. Sometimes I spend the most time on typography. It could take me days just to get the font right.

Tek: I'm a font-head too.  I could delve through font sites for hours, burning up the hard drive.  I think people thought I was nuts when I got very excited about my discovery that Sobe drinks was using Morpheus as their standard typeface..  hehe
tech13: hehe

Tek: What catches your eye when you're holding a camera?
tech13: Mostly, things with lots of texture. The last pics I took were of my hand. I tied my hands to an old basement ceiling and it was close to a lightbulb with a harsh glow. Most people think I am weird or whatever but its all about the art. I've bound my head in wire before just to get a certain look I wanted. It may be weird for some but I find it exciting and take pride in taking my own photography and then add my art to it.

Tek: Many of your photos feature images of yourself.  Do you see it as an exploration of self, or is it just the characteristics of the physical image?
tech13: I take pictures of myself a lot because I feel I am the only one that can actually get the feeling across in a picture the way I am looking for it to. I use pics or scans of me in almost everything I've done. Its just my nature I guess :)

Tek:To wrap things up, what would you like to hear people saying about you and your work now?  In 5 years?
tech13: Well, I would like people to of course say good things about me but people always have their opinions, even if they don't really know me. I would like to be respected for my work, and more than just a  "that looks nice." A lot of my images have so much more in them to see if people would take the time to look. In five years...hmmm. Its hard to stay remembered after 5 years in this community but I hope I am. I hope I made an impact on some people, and I hope they can see where I am coming from.

Tek: I think that, given the depth of your work, people will definitely continue to be aware of you in the future.  For those who don't see beyond the surface of your pieces, is there anything you can tell them which might point them in the right direction?
tech13: yeah..pay attention to the words, and realize most of the time it isn't just jibberish and it's all connected somehow. I don't do my art just for the "coolness factor" I try to achieve something I want, and not to focus of what I think others would think is cool.

Tek: Excellent.  And I can say from personal experience, it -does- pay to take a deeper look, in all aspects of life as well.  Thank you very much for taking this time to talk with me!  Is there anything else you'd like to cover?
tech13: Not really...Just stay tuned because I have lots of things in store for the future. :) and thanks for interviewing me :)

Tek: My pleasure!

Thanks Michael for taking time to talk to Teknidermy.