RESPECTABLE STREET: Icon For Hire, SkyDxddy, Keith Wallen, Ana Eclipse
REVOLUTION LIVE: Robb Bank$
NSU ART MUSEUM: Mini Muse Free Art Making
CRAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: The Brenda Johnson Band
8/2
REVOLUTION LIVE: Taking Back Sunday, Citizen GRAMPS GETAWAY: Dj Medley Vinyl Fridays
PROPAGANDA: Weird At First, The Slimers, Mad Mellow, The Big Skandal
ARTS GARAGE: The Art of Laughter with Headliner Kyle Grooms
CRAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: Unlimited Devotion
NORTON MUSEUM: Art After Dark –Jazz Friday- Electric Pique
ITHINK: Slightly Stoopid, Dirty Heads, Common Kings, The Elovaters
8/3
THE PEACH + MELODY AVE: Art Walk & Spence’s Birthday ft Spred the Dub, Joey Tenuto Band, D-Gens, Bryant Thomas Band, DJs: Spence, Eric Ivan, Kranz, Darren Simonson, Karaoke w Ken Lantern
REVOLUTION LIVE: Linkin Park Tribute, Lavola
Radiohead Tribute
PROPAGANDA: Born Beneath, Fuakata, Ambush, Open Nerve, Silenmara
BANYAN LIVE: Emo Night Karaoke w/ Live Band
ARTS GARAGE: Yacht Rock
CRAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: Jeffrey James Gang
GRAMPS: Musiana
8/7
RESPECTABLE STREET: Belmont, Lil Lotus, HourHouse
CRAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: Mischief Band
8/9
REVOLUTION LIVE: Drew Afualo ft Two Idiot Girls
PROPAGANDA: Rude Television, Sandman Sleeps, Corvallis, Dark Waters and Stars
ARTS GARAGE: Forever Janis
NORTON MUSEUM: Art After Dark –Doghouse Theatre/ Comedy
GRAMPS: Weekend Nachos
8/10
RESPECTABLE STREET: Psycho Social
PROPAGANDA: Battle of the Bands
ARTS GARAGE: Betty Fox Band
THE JOINT: 808 Life Decade ft Icey & Dynamix II
CRAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: 56 Ace
BANYAN LIVE: Taylor Swift Party
ITHINK: Stick Figure, SOJA, Little Stranger
8/11
NORTHWOOD WAREHOUSE: Beats & Brunch
ITHINK: Ms. Lauryn Hill & The Fugees
8/13
LUCKY’S: Open Decks
8/15
RESPECTABLE STREET: Cold Moments
PROPAGANDA: The Hot Ones Challenge. A free event where we allow guest to try season hot sauces for the show. Next up is season 25.
8/16
REVOLUTION LIVE: Welcome to Destruction, Hairdaze
RESPECTABLE STREET: Take This To Your Grave
GRAMPS: Anemoia, The Lab, Delusion Bay
PROPAGANDA: Deska Fest
ARTS GARAGE: Eric Johanson
CRAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: The Flyers
NORTON MUSEUM: Art After Dark – Celebrating Native American Heritage/ Rose. B. Simpson. Musician Roberta Rust. Film – Without A Whisper
8/17
CULTURAL COUNCIL for PBC: Jazz Series ft Evette Norwood-Tiger Jazz Ensemble
RESPECTABLE STREET: Disco Never Dies
PROPAGANDA: Kink Night
ARTS GARAGE: Nina Skyy – Forever Whitney GRAMPS: Era’s Party
ITHINK: Earth, Wind & Fir, Chicago
CRAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: Havoc 305, Flamingo Flea vendors and live music by Joshua Diaz of KIDS
8/18
REVOLUTION LIVE: BFB Da Packman
8/20
REVOLUTION LIVE: Homixide Gang
8/21
ITHINK: Train, REO Speedwagon
8/22
CRAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: The Love Cats
PROPAGANDA: Transmute DnB monthly
ITHINK: Dan + Shay
8/23
RESPECTABLE STREET: Hellfire Gala
REVOLUTION LIVE: Down South
OLD SCHOOL SQUARE: Never Stop Believin’ (Journey Tribute)
PROPAGANDA: Beach Mirage, Camp Blu, Day Lilly, Smokeyy
ARTS GARAGE: The Motowners: Ultimate Motown
CRAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: Light The Sky
ITHINK: Thirty Seconds To Mars
NORTON MUSEUM: Art After Dark – David Lucca Salsa. Curator Conversation:Dragons, Commanders of Rain, Laurie Barnes
REVELRY POMPANO: Flamingo Flea’s Fresh Squeezed
8/24
REVOLUTION LIVE: Cults, Bnny
RESPECTABLE STREET: The March Violets, Rosegarden Funeral Party, Astari Nite
RESOURCE DEPOT: Adult Workshop
PROPAGANDA: Comedy Night
ITHINK: Megadeth
ARTS GARAGE: The Motowners: Ultimate Motown
CRAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: Southern Blood
8/25
REVOLUTION LIVE: Crown the Empire, Dark Divine, Capstan, Oni
8/26
CULTURE ROOM: Ladytron
REVOLUTION LIVE: Libianca
8/27
REVOLUTION LIVE: Allen Stone
8/28
CRAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: An Evening Of Billy Joel with Andrew Klein
8/29
PROPAGANDA: EC Underground
8/30
REVOLUTION LIVE: Blink-180 Deux, Live from 05, Beeline
OLD SCHOOL SQUARE: Caribbean Chillers –Official Jimmy Buffett Tribute Band!
GRAMPS GETAWAY: Dj Medley Vinyl Fridays
ARTS GARAGE: Paquito D’Rivera Sextet
ITHINK: Imagine Dragons
CRAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: Dejavu
NORTON MUSEUM: Art After Dark –Brett Staska. A Community Portrait/Collaboration with the City of West Palm Beach Inside Out Portrait project
8/31
HARD ROCK LIVE: Janes Addiction, Love and Rockets
REVOLUTION LIVE: #1 Zeros, Not Nine Inch Nails
RESPECTABLE STREET: Emo Night Respects
PROPAGANDA: Death of a Deity ARTS GARAGE: The Dirty Doors
CRAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: The Chili Poppers
9/1
MIAMI BEACH BANDSHELL: Italo Miami, Disco Connection (Skate Night)
9/3
REVOLUTION LIVE: JPEGMAFIA
9/5
MIAMI BEACH BANDSHELL: Dread Mar-I
9/6
RESPECTABLE STREET:
BUMBLEFEST 8 featuring World Destroyers’ Pleasure Club (LA), Starcleaner Reunion (NYC), Lo Fives (Philadelphia), SheHeHe (Athens), Siichaq (JAX), Bebe Deluxe (JAX), American Dream Survivors (Gainesville), Rude Television (WPB), Kenny Moe (FTL)
9/7
RESPECTABLE STREET:
BUMBLEFEST 8 featuring Dion Lunadon (NYC), Psychic Death (ATL), Fiona Moonchild (Seattle), forceghost (Augusta), ISYA (St. Augustine), Akasha System (Tampa), Severed + Said (JAX), Justin Depth (Tampa), Night Foundation (FTL), Zippur (FTL), Mr. Entertainment and the Pookiesmackers (Hollywood)
JANES ADDICTION
by olivia feldman
Molding psych, funk and heavy metal into a fiery rock ‘n’ roll whole, Jane’s Addiction came roaring out of late-’80s Los Angeles and helped define what alternative rock could be even before Nirvana got all the credit. Back on the road for an international tour, the original lineup of lead singer Perry Farrell, guitarist Dave Navarro, bass guitarist Eric Avery and drummer Stephen Perkins is together for the first time since 2010.
Jane’s Addiction emerged from a ragtag scene that rejected the spandex and power ballad pageant of the ’80s, and forged a look and sound all their own: Farrell’s flamboyance and androgynous caterwaul, Navarro’s fierce, hooky guitar work, and a cannonade of a rhythm section in Avery and Perkins.
With 1988’s Nothing’s Shocking and 1990’s Ritual de lo Habitual, Jane’s Addiction went on a roll that looked unstoppable. From the thundering “Mountain Song” and the plaintive “Jane Says” to the punchy “Been Caught Stealing” and the vertiginous “Stop!,” each new single’s opening riff seemed more instantly iconic than the last.
But recurring tensions between Farrell and Avery over matters creative and not triggered a break-up that also begat a cultural phenomenon — the Farrell-founded Lollapalooza tour, which began as the band’s long wave goodbye. Jane’s Addiction returned to album-making with a 2003’s Strays, minus Avery but with a solidly hard-rocking core still intact (although 2011’s The Great Escape Artist made less of a comeback splash).
Now that Farrell and Avery have (again) reconciled for reunion-tour purposes, fans can see them in their founding glory and wonder if they’ll ever make another album together.
A video from the band’s 2024 Pinkpop festival set in the Netherlands — about a month into the new tour — shows them getting along pretty damned well. Farrell, looking almost ethereal, has lost some upper register but is still capable of soaring rock-star wails. Perkins rumbles behind the kit, Avery slowly dances a circle on stage, and Navarro plays with wild yet clean strokes. You can almost feel Gen-X fans rejoicing through the screen. Jane’s Addiction with special guest Love and Rockets play 8pm Saturday, August 31 at Hard Rock Live in Hollywood. janesaddiction.com
LOVE & ROCKETS
by abel folgar
What happens when your gloomy goth rock band calls it quits, but three-fourths of the lineup is still super chummy and into lots of different kinds of music and maybe even underground comix by Chicano siblings? Love and Rockets, that’s what happens.
Formed in 1985 after gothic powerhouse Bauhaus disbanded, leading members Daniel Ash, David J and Kevin Haskins to explore new musical directions branching from their gothic leanings into numerous blends of postpunk and psychedelia. Love and Rockets were among the top acts of the alternative music scene, bridging the poppy ’80s with the grungier ‘90s.
Named after the underground comic book series by the renowned Hernandez Brothers, the band’s distinct sound set them apart from contemporary acts vying for visibility in the century’s last decade – a feat cemented by the commercial breakthrough of their 1989 self-titled album featuring the hit single, “So Alive,” which reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the U.S.
They continued to explore diverse musical styles in subsequent albums, including 1996’s Sweet F.A., incorporating elements of glam rock, electronica and folk. Despite disbanding in 1999, they’ve kept fans satiated with occasional live reunions. Sweet F.A. is also the latest in their reissue series and comes paired with a double-CD set, My Dark Twin, on Beggars Arkive compiling the band’s recording trajectory during that era.
While Sweet F.A. marked a return to guitars for the trio after 1994’s heavily electronic Hot Trip to Heaven, the challenging sessions included a fire at producer Rick Rubin’s L.A. mansion, where gear and recordings were incinerated. The final product was a literal phoenix rising from the ashes.
The expanded edition, remastered at Abbey Road Studios, includes four previously limited-edition tracks from Love and Rockets’ vinyl box set, and companion discs featuring unreleased versions and unheard tracks from the fiery F.A. sessions. Highlights include collaborations like “U. O. ME” with Throbbing Gristle’s Genesis P. Orridge, who suffered minor injuries escaping the fire, and “California (Have A Nice Apocalypse!)” featuring Chuck Prophet and Bruce Kaphan
Love and Rockets play with Jane’s Addiction 8pm Saturday, August 31 at Hard Rock Live in Hollywood. loveandrockets.bandcamp.com
STARCLEANER REUNION
by david rolland
In the decades since Stereolab emerged, there haven’t been many acts that you could say are reminiscent of their distinctly airy yet intricate style of Europop. That all changes when you hear the beautiful work of Starcleaner Reunion, who will be making their Florida debut as Bumblefest headliners. Five New Jersey high school friends who moved to New York City, Starcleaner Reunion have a bit of Stereolab’s multilingual streak, although Spanish, not French, is their second language on tracks like the trippy “Que Dices.” But the Francophone influence is there.
“Our friends in France are a huge inspiration as well,” guitarist Neil Torman tells PureHoney “Musique Chienne/Userband, Jazz Lambaux, Sticky World and the community at Cyberrance to name a few are making such vibrant and unique stuff, both musically and visually.” New York itself is another source of inspiration. ”Being able to hear so much live music all the time and seeing a really good show always makes me want to go home and write something new right away,” Torman says.
2023 saw Starcleaner Reunion release a five-song EP, Club Estrella, and a double-single “Ribbon Le Chou”/“Moss on my Brick Wall.” They plan to put out another EP before the New Year. “Typically someone will have a rough idea for a song and send over a demo, then we’ll flesh it out in person with everyone adding their own parts,” Torman says of the band’s creative process. “We’ll tweak it as needed until it’s feeling right. Some songs evolve a lot from the base idea and some change very little. We record everything ourselves,” Torman adds. “Drums get recorded at our rehearsal spot and basically everything else is done at our apartments. We’ll meet up at someone’s place for an afternoon and track guitars in the living room or set up a vocal mic in the closet.”
Bumblefest, along with being Starcleaner Reunion’s first proper festival, will coincide with Torman’s birthday. He promises that after an overdose of birthday cake, “I’m sure the energy will be up.”
Bumblefest 8 is Sept. 6 and 7 in downtown West Palm Beach. bumblefest.com
WORLD DESTROYERS’ PLEASURE CLUB
by david rolland
You probably won’t hear anything in 2024 quite like the self-titled debut album of World Destroyers’ Pleasure Club. Featuring members of Black Angels, Dead Meadow, Death Valley Girls and Grooms, it vacillates positively between alien and accessible, a world-music vibe dosed with post-punk and free jazz while sometimes hinting at an alternate-reality Talking Heads. You can experience this unique sound in person when the Los Angeles quintet makes its South Florida debut headlining Bumblefest.
Band founder Neight Trion tells PureHoney an origin story as unexpected as the music: The idea for World Destroyers’ Pleasure Club came to him over a series of dreams while recovering from a brutal fentanyl addiction. ”This vision has increased in clarity and when its working at its best is like taking dictation, albeit requiring a lot of work to interpret and actualize it,” the singer and keyboardist says by email.
After finding four likeminded souls from around L.A., Trion began writing songs influenced a bit by personal favorites such as Leonard Cohen and Mark E. Smith though he emphasizes that World Destroyers’ Pleasure Club are trying to do something new. ”Our self designated genre is Polywave. The goal is forward and now,” Trion says. “Not to try and pretend we are in some other era, omitting the contributions of the countless poets and artists since whatever preferred decade one wishes to re-create. The metamorphosis is nowhere near complete, who knows what this will look like next year or five from now? We are committed to building a life-long relationship with those that hear and resonate with the signal we are sending.”
Trion sees the boundary between audience and performer blurring at Bumblefest, inviting the curious to “come with us and contribute in whatever way they want to toward the communal transformation we seek.” It’s possible, he says, that new listeners will realize they already belong to this Club. “We would love it if the listed members of the band, associated artists, collaborators and allies were too many to list in any publication,” Trion says. “Lets mark our brief moment here at the edge of possible extinction with a joyful sound and the pursuit of the ecstatic.”
Bumblefest 8 is September 6 and 7 in downtown West Palm Beach. bumblefest.com
DION LUNADON
by tim moffatt
Rock ’n’ roll is a catch-all for countless musical styles that revolve around a backbeat and guitars. It’s been dissected, stitched together, morphed, revived and re-done in a thousand ways, for better and sometimes worse. Yet Bumblefest headliner Dion Lunadon keeps finding electric new combinations, and he’s nowhere near done.
“I just love rock ’n’ roll, and I don’t think there’s much good stuff out there,” the New Zealand-born, Brooklyn-based bandleader tells PureHoney. “There’s a lot of cheese.” Lunadon is incinerating the mold off by “trying to stay creative and try things that people haven’t done,” he says, “like playing guitar with a chain.”
That chain he rattles on the cover of 2023’s Systems
Edge isn’t just a photo prop, and it’s just one key to Lunadon’s solo output. Think overdriven amps, sinks of reverb and a ton of swagger. Think Link Wray, black leather and badmoon-rising vibes. It’s a parallel world to the one Lunadon occupied as singer-guitarist in The D4 and bassist in A Place to Bury Strangers, though all share that unbridled, soulful, undefinable spark.
Leading his own project “means digging deep and trying new things musically and otherwise,” he says. “It was the same with the other groups but this is a little different as it’s such an insular endeavor.
Lunadon’s solo outings only seem to double down and dive deeper into the mysterious well of youthful recklessness that has been his hallmark since relocating to New York in the 1990s. Which is to say that his new mini-LP, Memory Burn, teed up by the singles “Zenith Forever” and “Goodtimes,” feels new by being utterly bad-ass rock ’n’ roll.
Imagine that: Short, sharp shocks, mainlined into a sonic artery, are what we need to feel that thing that makes extreme music vital to the human condition and amplifies our capacity to have mind-blowing experiences. “My favorite bands are the ones I witnessed that changed my life,” Lunadon says. “I’d like to do the same.”
Bumblefest 8 is Sept. 6 and 7 in downtown West Palm Beach. bumblefest.com
PSYCHIC DEATH
by tim moffatt
Atlanta is known as the home to Outkast, Black Lips and Mastodon, a diverse mélange of groundbreaking groups that helped to define a slew of southern sounds. So it shouldn’t be surprising that a band like Bumblefest headliner Psychic Death would emerge from the A-Town shadows: The city has a history of nurturing strange, dark and exciting acts.
“We are spoiled when it comes to music here,” Psychic Death drummer James Cramer tells PureHoney. “There are so many great bands, and so many great places to play.”
To the question, “What do they sound like?” Psychic Death merit the best possible response: a shrug and a smile that elicits curiosity followed by a tirade of adjectives and name-dropping that don’t quite hit the mark. (See below!) Description with enthusiasm beats sounding like any other band every day of the week; use hand gestures if you have to. What do they sound like? They sound awesome!
Psychic Death straddle death rock, post-punk and darkwave, although they’re a bit too upbeat to be considered goth. Live, they are tight, terse and thrumming with an intensity that feels explosive. On record they sound like Joy Division and Rozz Williams-era Christian Death squaring up for a knife fight under a full moon. Jangle guitars, new wave synths, and blown-out reverb rattle your skull enough to loosen your fillings.
This dedication to kicking out the proverbial jams most likely got them the attention of Die Slaughterhaus Records, Atlanta’s self-styled “least professional D.I.Y. label,” which is putting out Psychic Death’s next record. Die Slaughterhaus has been the springboard for many diverse bands out of the southeast such as the Coathangers, Dinos Boys, Ladrones, Gentlemen Jesse and his Men and a continuing CVS-receipt-length list of talent that embodies The Atlanta Way.
Cramer cautions that “gentrification is constantly threatening the venues we have” in Atlanta “but our music scene is so strong, it affords us constant opportunity and inspiration, and I don’t think we would be the band we are right now without it.”
Bumblefest 8 is Sept. 6 and 7 in downtown West Palm Beach. bumblefest.com
LADYTRON
by abel folgar
The aughts were marked by many things, and as America rebounded from harsh global realities after 9/11, musical tastes at the indie level turned less angsty to provide a lit-up stage for the showy electroclash movement that would dominate the decade’s first half. Whether they were or even saw themselves as an electroclash outfit, Ladytron’s success at the time is unquestionable.
Formed in Liverpool in 1999 around the time of the Y2K scare by Helen Marnie (vocals, synths), Mira Aroyo (vocals, synths), Daniel Hunt (synths, guitar), and Reuben Wu (synthesizers), Ladytron’s blend of electropop, synth-pop and new wave caught the ears and spirits of club culture in a singular way.
And that might be the sole reason they survived the electroclash bust, after the significant cultural impact of their third album, 2005’s “Witching Hour,” which revitalized interest in electro-pop and influenced a new wave of electronic musicians with a darker, more experimental sound and standout tracks like “Destroy Everything You Touch.” Their haunting vocals and layered, atmospheric synths on songs exploring technology, dystopia, and human emotion kept that edge above others well into the next decade with well-received albums in 2008 and 2011.
Fast-forward to 2019 and a return to form with a self-titled record and a new crop of fans — found on TikTok via a viral uptick on their 2002 track “Seventeen” — and the band’s back in the electroclash convo, albeit with hints of revival in the mix. But as their latest album, “Time’s Arrow,” suggests, it’s no revival if you’ve continued to exist and evolve.
Continuing a legacy of synthpop innovation, blending dream-pop, New Wave, and gothic influences, the album is their first without Wu, who departed to concentrate on his artwork. It features instantly replayable tracks like “City of Angels” and “Misery Remember Me” that delve into themes of identity, connection and fragile cultural memory.
Praised for its lush compositions and futuristic soundscapes, “Time’s Arrow” proves that Ladytron’s staying power always resided in their ability to grow, regardless of the hype that propelled them into a flash-in-the-pan genre that never quite suited them.
Ladytron play 7:30pm Monday, Aug. 26 at Culture Room in Fort Lauderdale. ladytron.com
DREAM PHASES
by david rolland
No one can accuse the Los Angeles band Dream Phases of false advertising. These Bumblefest headliners play psychedelicinfluenced rock that can indeed be dreamy and suffused with melodic harmonies, but they’re not afraid to startle you out of your reverie with buzzy guitar solos.
Dream Phases started as singer-guitarist Brandon Graham’s solo passion project. “I was primarily working as a side touring and session musician for other groups and I had built up a collection of tunes that I wanted to release,” he tells PureHoney. Graham quickly realized he wanted to play these songs live as well and wrangled together a group of cohorts including his brother Shane Graham on drums.
An early biography cites a constellation of favorite West Coast bands, from The Beach Boys to Autolux. ”We pull from a pretty diverse source of inspiration and influences, music obviously being the primary one; however we are also immensely influenced by other art forms such as film, photography and illustration,” Graham says. “From the beginning we’ve been heavily influenced by a lot of ‘60s-‘70s music and culture, but lately we’ve been drawing from more contemporary things as well as some of our childhood ‘90s influences.”
They just released their third album, Phantom Idol, which features a dozen new songs, some of which came together as spontaneously as a dream. “’Turn Away’ was written together between Shane, Keveen [Baudouin] and myself from a total improvised jam. I came up with the bass line, then Shane started with the Krautrock influenced beat followed by Keveen with the lead guitar riff. Then I came up with the vocal melodies and we collaborated on some of the lyrics. The song was written and demoed in under two hours.”
Just as you wouldn’t expect a recurring dream to be identical each and every night, don’t expect exact replicants in concert of what you hear on their albums. “We tend to expand a few songs and jam a little more,” Graham says. “Live we are a bit more high energy and psychedelic than our studio recordings. We often work with visual artists for an immersive experience.”
Bumblefest 8 is Sept. 6 and 7 in downtown West Palm Beach. bumblefest.com
CARLOS CHAVES
FIONA MOONCHILD
by tim moffatt / sean piccoli
Seattle-based Fiona Moonchild is touring, at last, in support of a debut album that came out in late 2021 and has, for reasons too numerous to mention, not gotten the extensive live workout it deserves. “It’s been a strange go-around for this release,” the Bumblefest headliner told PureHoney in a missive sent in July from the South of France, where Fiona was working on new music and trying out a recently acquired bass clarinet that had become a new obsession.
Her summer schedule included a rock ’n’ roll sailing tour on Spain’s Cantabrian Sea playing drums with Sonny and the Sunsets. From there, it would be back to the U.S. for a string of live summer and fall dates. “I’m finally getting out on tour and seeing if the road will rise to meet my wheels,” Fiona said.
The album, Sweets of Reason, gestated during the Covid pandemic and grew out of Fiona’s work as a touring collaborator with fellow Pacific Northwesterners including Scott Yoder and Doglob. From there, she began assembling her own songs in her bedroom, and migrated to sessions made possible by winning the annual Crybaby Studios Musicians Grant in Seattle. Further production happened, of all places, on an extended sea cruise — where a pattern of music-making seems to have been set — down the Pacific Coast.
The music is a melancholy fever dream, with wistful melodies and Fiona’s distantsounding voice wreathed in guitar and synth. A product of both Covid confinement and seagoing freedom, Sweets of Reason hums with introspection and romance, and rides along on a snappy, steadying backbeat.
“I have an insanely good backing band with my best friends,” Fiona said, noting that her touring ensemble includes Yoder, the glitter-folk balladeer whose own crew of glam misfits are regular visitors to South Florida. “This year and beyond has been me doubling down on doing the only thing I love, touring and playing music. The moon is calling to me and I have to follow.”
Bumblefest 8 is Sept. 6 and 7 in downtown West Palm Beach. bumblefest.com
ARIS MOORE
by kelli bodle
With a focus on the beauty and the terrors of growing up, PureHoney featured artist for August 2024 Aris Moore has created a menagerie of haunting portraiture. The way that Moore’s faces — human and animal — swim toward you out of a flat white sea of background can be unsettling. For ‘90s kids it might recall Stephen Gammell’s illustrations in the children’s book series, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.
Part of the reason for the figures’ ghostly visages is Moore’s use of erasure. “Erasing faces and bringing them back again is how they become who they are supposed to be,” More says in an interview. “They gradually reveal themselves after being pushed in and pulled out of the paper. I have always loved that drawings are actually in the paper, not resting on top of it.”
These inscribed faces know no age, and stare unabashedly out at the viewer, much like children when disturbed while at play. Their gawky bodies twist and turn at odd angles, inspecting you as much as you inspect them. Their curiosity reflects’ Moore’s fascination with the pathways between childhood and adulthood that we all must traverse, particularly the peering eyes. Even as a small girl, Moore was drawing.
“Drawing became an important part of my days when I was little, so I think my childhood is still very much with me when I draw,” she says. “I can’t imagine anything that could be more fascinating than the process of growing up. I have spent my adult life teaching and raising my own children. I think spending so much time in the company of their honesty and raw emotion has kept me in touch with mine. I am always drawing with the breadth of my whole life.”
Her unique way of seeing isn’t restricted only to people; Moore portrays an animal kingdom, too, of creatures strange and familiar. Frogs are a recurring subject. “They were so unlike everything else,” Moore says of her childhood fascination with the amphibious hoppers. “They are fairly easy to find and catch and are so full of character. Their eyes being so large in relation to their bodies and their natural grin make them seem lighthearted, trustworthy and safe.”
Moore outgrew frogs as pets if not as portraits. “Now, I have an amazing Siamese cat named Theo,” she says. “I would have more animals for sure if i wasn’t living in an apartment. I have also had rats, dogs, a rabbit and a bird throughout my life.”
“It’s interesting, too,” she adds, “I feel like the animals in my life have somehow been older and wiser than me. I know that I nurture and take care of them but I have felt the same from them, and looking into their eyes I have felt such a knowing comfort. I have always assumed that animals know more than humans do.”
Moore’s artistic journey has seen a fascinating evolution in terms of scale. From the early confines of sketchbook pages to the expansive canvases of her graduate studies, each size offers a different landscape for her characters to inhabit. “I like the immediacy and coziness of drawing in small sketchbooks. It feels more private and like playing,” she says.
In contrast, larger works demand more planning and carry a weight of importance that she is learning to approach with less seriousness. This ongoing exploration of scale reflects Moore’s playful yet profound relationship to art.
Moore acknowledges that in her roles as artist, teacher and mother, she tries to hold to the innocence and simplicity of her childhood beliefs. “Those were sweet times, before I fully understood loss, loneliness and the suffering that was all around me,” she says. “I thought family was a constant. I didn’t realize how fragile it was.
“I thought that if I behaved everything would be okay,” Moore continues. “I thought it was going to be easier being an adult because I could have dessert whenever I wanted. How could I have known the beauty that my kids would bring into my life that would be better than dessert and that drawing and spending time in nature would still be my peace?”
Find the artist at arismoore.bigcartel.com, Instagram @arismoore
