By The Elusive illustrator opens up about his craft, why he loves small town life, and Riff Raff
Where did you come from?
I was actually born in Fort Collins, and moved around a lot as a kid to Denver and Castle Rock, all over really.
So you have lived all over the Front Range?
Yeah — But I have always come back to Fort Collins because it’s the place I like the most.
Why is that?
I think I like it the most because it’s not super crowded like a busy city, but it’s not as small as a rural farm town. It’s like right in the middle between the two.
You have lived in Fort Collins for a number of years now and you have been around to watch it grow and blossom?
Yeah — it’s crazy to see all the development here, these new buildings I never would have thought to have been a thing.
Do you think it’s changed the feel of the place at all?
For the most part, I think it still has the same vibe that I’ve liked about it. Its slowly turning into a big town, but I think its going to be 10 or 20 years before I don’t like it anymore.
Being in a small town vs a big city, how and where do you hear and find out about new stuff? Where do you find new art to take in and digest?
Originally it started when I was really into the punk and skateboarding scene. It really sparked the initial interest in art. But for a long time now it really has been the internet and media, constantly looking on the internet and watching videos of artists make art. That’s where the main thing is, the main way I view art is electronically.
Does that affect your artistic style?
Yeah, before I was interested in more electronic stuff, I was really inspired by the movie “exit through the gift shop” — I was really into Street art, at a time when that came around, but then I realized that Fort Collins isn’t the town to do street art in, its so small and everyone knows each other. People figure out “oh that’s you” — it’s not like Denver where there is so much space to cover. So that’s when I decided to keep my stuff on canvas or do it electronically.
After knowing your work, and now meeting you in person it’s pretty crazy how consistent you are stylistically even in your outfits you wear daily compared to your work. Is that intentional or more just natural for you?
You could say it’s intentional, I’ve always been a big fan of hip hop — I’ve worked with Riff Raff in the past. Around the time he came out, I was wearing like all pink fuzzy stuff. I was kinda inspired by how weird people like Riff Raff and the soundcloud rappers nowadays are. Honestly, that inspired a lot of my art as well. The amount of songs people like Riff Raff or lil’ B would come out with — they would come out with like 40 songs every month or two, and I was like “I want to do that with art.” I want to put out mixtape after mixtape pretty much.
So you want to match that level of prolific —
Yeah and I think the way that I present myself with clothing and stuff is inspired by that generation. I’m almost marketing myself to people when I walk around.
But its not necessarily something you are doing for your art?
Its not for my art, its something I would definitely do regardless of my art for sure.
How were you linked up with Riff Raff?
Someone told me I should draw a picture of him and send it to him, so I drew a picture and tweeted it to him and he messaged me and said “hey we should make that into a shirt” and then I met him backstage at one of his shows to just like confirm with him and talk to him about it. It ended up getting make and he ended up wearing it on Viceland on TV and on the cover of bluntique magazine, and he’s worn it on stage.
Has that led to anything? Have you noticed a bump from that?
You would be surprised, I thought that once that Riff Raff shirt came out that that would be it for me and it would just be smooth sailing from there and everyone would just buy all my stuff. It gave me a new level of respect, and it got me some more followers on Instagram, but really most people would think that it gives you more than it actually gets you. I did it for him for free for him to like wear it and stuff, but it wasn’t like right away I got gigs, like now I use that Riff Raff Image in my portfolio, I think residually every time someone sees that there is a better chance of them wanting to work with me.
Its not like Riff Raff is subtle either, even if you don’t listen to his music he is pretty recognizable and eccentric.
He is kinda an odd person as well, I kept trying to make him other stuff but he wasn’t feeling it, he just wanted that one shirt. He still retweets my stuff sometimes, but he just liked that one design. He is very eccentric for sure.
Post Riff Raff times for you, where does your primary means of making money come from?
I would say 95% of my money comes from freelance graphic design stuff, and I use Twitter and that’s where pretty much all my money comes from. Cover art, logos, flyers, anything like that — and the other 5% is from murals. I don’t have that much merch out right now, but the main way I make money through my personal stuff is murals.
Where are some of these murals? Do you travel for them?
Most of them are pretty much Front Range. I have one big one in Loveland right now, there are two in Fort Collins, one is outside of Vert’s Dispensary. I have a couple of indoor ones as well.
How connected do you see the Front Range as being as far as the arts scene is concerned?
As far as the arts scene is concerned, I would say they are pretty connected — I see a lot of artists who move to Denver or Boulder but they still do art stuff in Fort Collins. I’m trying to reach out more to Denver, like I mentioned I don’t like big crowds and big cities and stuff. So sometimes it’s not even worth the money for me to go down and do some sketchy thing for a mural.
Interesting, it seems like we keep going back to this theme of you wanting to be a recluse, is that a goal in the long term?
I’ve always liked the mad scientist vibe, one of my favorite musicians is MF DOOM —
There it is again, its that same theme of “I want to be separated from the art.”
Exactly, the person who just stays out of society and builds their craft and then just presents it.
Do you think you are building toward a career where you have the name “Mike Mcpuff” but you could basically be anywhere at any time?
I think I’m already there, I think that freelancing graphic design stuff is what allows me to do that. If I don’t like what someone asks me to do, I don’t have to do anything for anyone.
It seems to me like you really a homebody, and that you are structuring everything you do in life to continue down that road of a Banksy, MF DOOM, type of elusive existence.
Yeah, honestly there was a time when I was really social, but I kinda got turned off to that when I started to see so many of my friends get addicted to heroin or do too much molly, just like super fried — its never like we would hang out and do art, we would go over to a house, drink, and watch skate videos. Now I still have friends, but I don’t like culture.
You don’t like culture?
One of my favorite quotes is by Terence Mckenna who said “culture is not your friend” and he also says “create your own culture” — I want to see more people instead of on a Friday or Saturday night they want to go get drunk and party or whatever, they want to make stuff.
What are your thoughts on screens and tech kind of “killing” creativity?
I would actually argue the opposite, because of the internet people are now interacting with more art than ever. If the internet wasn’t around, and I just listened to what local people were saying about my art, I’m not sure I would still be doing it. But because I got so much love on the internet, and because I was able to look up other artists and see their process. People have this very, stereotypical thought that looking at a screen all day is bad, and to an extent I agree — you have to balance it. I make sure to go on a walk every day, that kind of thing.
Where do you go from here?
I definitely want to do some bigger murals, I think I really want to zone in on what I have been doing and make my paintings better and better — my goal isn’t necessarily “oh I’m going to move here when I’m 50” — each painting I do I want it to be like “this painting is my new favorite” I don’t really care about being rich, I just want to have enough to do my art and travel for murals. What makes me feel good is knowing that I’m making really good pieces of art. I would rather have that than thousands of dollars in my bank account
