By: Meredith Taylor
Art and community in the age of Covid/social media have transformed drastically in the last year. Some artists are thriving and creating like never before while others are withdrawn and quiet. As I started to write this piece, I began thinking...if not FOR art, I would not have made it through this time in the manner in which I did. And I assumed others felt the same. What brings us comfort? What stimulates us visually and mentally? How can we connect or reconnect as a community? Obviously I am not the only creative who has missed human connection and the enhanced experience of galleries, face to face art focused discussions, and live music.
So, as it looks like we are finally coming to at least the beginning of the end of this life changing experience, what better way to reconnect to our community than a safe and supportive place to share our stories, inspiration, experiences, and art than a revived forum and all around local artist collective. Thus why The Parlor was created. We want to provide said safe space for artists BY artists. A place for interviews, discussions, collaborations, and growth. I wanted to start this series with my favorite Birmingham artist: Byron Sonnier.
Since his move from the Cajun town of Lake Arthur, Louisiana to The Magic City in the early 2000's, Byron has made endless contributions to our community through his music and art. To say we were excited that he agreed to let us interview him was an understatement. And his answers honestly blew us away. Byron and I corresponded through email and Instagram messaging for the content of this interview:
So I guess my first question has to be...how do you do it all?? As someone who loves to do everything and yet always struggles to say yes/no to everything, what’s the secret? How do you balance it all?
Like a lot of people who are compelled to be creative, my work is my own form of therapy. Whether facing past trauma, failed relationships, the insane state of the world, or the vulnerability of just being human, the only way I’ve found to deal with anything is by staying as productive as possible. I feel off when I’m not working on something. I’ve also come to realize over the years that the creative process doesn’t always involve physically making something. Any time I spend outside of the studio, I’m observing and absorbing something for the next piece or series of pieces. Even when I’m resting or traveling, I’m still looking for something to spark an idea. That’s probably the closest I come to any sort of balance. I like doing occasional commission work because you never know what might come out of a project. I’ve often used rejected commercial ideas for personal work because it still came out of my mind, no matter the reason.
You’re from Louisiana originally? Tell me about growing up there and what brought you to Alabama, specifically Birmingham.
I grew up in the small Cajun town of Lake Arthur in South Louisiana. Most of my family is still there or within a few hours from there. Having that cultural background has shaped every aspect of my life. I didn’t realize how much so until moving away. People would joke about me being Cajun or pronouncing something different and I would laugh alongside them. But deep inside I knew it was something bigger than a marketed flavor, an accent, or punchline. I started reading up on it and learned that we are one of the most misunderstood ethnic groups in the world. In some ways we don’t even understand ourselves. You can find pages and pages of people arguing about it on facebook. Arguing with each other about who they are. Older folks terrified of being identified with anything other than white. I’ve been diving deep into that in the past few years and hope to channel more of that into my work. One way I’ve found to connect with it is to make a traditional Cajun / Creole Mardi Gras costume every year. I feel a deep and indescribable kinship with the universe when putting together and wearing those costumes. I originally visited Birmingham on a roadtrip with some friends from New Orleans in the late 90s. I was immediately drawn to how sparse and post industrial it was. I visited a few more times and in the year 2000 I found myself looking for a change and a good place to hide. It was perfect for that.
I love the mystery of your paintings/art. They aren’t “offensive” so to speak; but as someone who was raised in the religious south, I can see a heavily religious/anti religious influence. Your art puts me mentally in the headspace of driving through random backwoods of Alabama and seeing a ton of rural churches etc... which I think is the most obvious reaction but what else is in that statement? Can you expand more on your influence and when you started really finding your voice in this project?
I’m not exactly sure how it all came about but I was doing a lot of photography when I first moved to Birmingham. Mostly polaroids and vintage camera stuff. I started driving the backroads which I had always done in Louisiana. I had the opportunity to rent a studio space for $50 a month. I started really paying attention to all the roadside signage and tried to replicate some with paint on scrap wood. I did a few with exaggerated church names and crosses. I expanded it to revival tents, preachers, and snake handlers. Two of those early religious pieces were bought by the pastor at a Baptist church who was randomly (mistakenly) at one of my first shows that had paintings. When I found out they were hung inside the church property, a switch went off in my head. His connection with those pieces meant way more than a collector or some hip art entity. I knew right then I wanted to expand on that theme. To try and express my ideas using recognizable symbols, but ones that aren’t often seen in modern art. Religion will always cause a reaction in people. Especially in the deep South. Some good and some bad. I think the mystery for some people is not knowing where I stand on it. And the truth is, I don’t know either. I will always have the connection to folk Catholicism that comes with Cajun culture and on the other hand the “question everything” mentality of punk rock. So there’s a push and pull there that’s probably evident in my work.
You also have these rad textiles and blankets. Very unexpected but so cool. What goes into the design and work behind something like that?
I’ve always been very into camouflage patterns and hunter orange. I like how universal it is. You’ll see it worn by someone in the tiniest country town (probably out of necessity) and also on the streets of any city (maybe out of necessity). It’s the whole function vs fashion thing but it's a bit blurred. I decided to take a stab at designing my own. It was one of the most challenging things I’ve done. It was all drawn digitally for printing but I’d like to eventually have it made into fabric for clothing.
At what point do you look at a piece of work and feel like you communicated what you were trying to say successfully?
It’s always a fluid process for me. Rarely do I have an exact idea or message from the jump. The process can be somewhat chaotic and I like it that way. There has to be plenty of room for chance and happy accidents. I keep an ever expanding library of images and symbols. Mostly lifted from old religious ephemera that I collect. I jot down possible titles constantly. Sometimes the meaning in a piece doesn’t emerge until a title is added. I’m always looking for relationships between dissimilar elements. I like when the image / objects and the title are from completely separate worlds, a juxtaposition.
Ok...so I love GT...I know you and Scotty, I don’t think I’ve ever met Mark. But sincerely amazing music. I’ve seen you guys compared to the Japandroids, which is so insane and accurate. What/who got you involved in the punk rock/DIY scene?
To be honest, I never understood that Japandroids reference but it’s also hard to hear what you sound like when you’re so deep in it. My family moved to Baton Rouge, La when I was 13. I had already been into skateboarding for a while but was introduced to punk and graffiti literally in one weekend by a girl I was hanging out with the summer before ninth grade. Her and her older brother had moved there from New Orleans and they pretty much introduced me to everything. We went to some backyard DIY shows and I was hooked. I got a guitar and was in a band within a few months with people from that scene. I eventually went on to book a ton of DIY shows and had my own space called “The Hot House” for a few years.
Speaking of the DIY scene...if not for cave9 and bottletree and the Birmingham DIY scene...I personally don’t think I would have had the “ya I can do this on my own” to go for my own business? Do you feel the same? How did working at/with bottletree shape your path?
The DIY scene for sure influenced my willingness to try literally anything with art, music, and life in general. It was awesome to discover that Birmingham had a strong punk scene after moving here. I booked some shows at Cave 9 and ended up bridging the gap for a while after it closed with Magic City Wholesale. I met so many awesome people during that time that are still doing super cool and creative stuff. I was very lucky to have been able to work at Bottletree for the last six years of its existence. It was definitely born out of that same DIY spirit. Nearly everyone involved was an artist or musician with no business experience, so in a way it was just a big crazy clubhouse.
(Follow up from previous question) my favorite show at bottletree was without question Godspeed you black emperor...what was your just blow away moment?
It would be impossible to pick one. I feel like that happened a few times a week for me. So many great shows and people came through. It was truly a magical time for underground music in Birmingham.
So back to GT, are there any future plans/albums/tours in the future? I can’t imagine how much Covid has impacted performing artists this past year. How have you guys dealt with that?
We recorded a second full length album back in 2017, released a single from it, toured a bunch, and then went on hiatus. Scotty moved to the west coast for a bit. To be honest the break was nice. As much as I absolutely love traveling and touring, it really starts to wear on everything and everyone else in your life. Scotty and I met up recently and talked about getting the record out and trying to play again. So hopefully that happens. I did all the artwork, layout and photography on it so It’ll be cool to see it come to fruition.
I think what Eric Wallace and his staff are doing at The Firehouse is so amazing for our community and would love to see something like that for makers and visual artists etc. It’s actually a massive long term goal for me to create something like that. Could you see yourself ever teaching or contributing in some way to something like that? I’m genuinely just curious. A lot of artists I know “can do, but can’t teach.” I think it definitely requires a certain personality.
I really admire people that can do that. I’m extremely introverted so I don’t think teaching is for me. I do however recognize the importance of handing down and encouraging younger people in the DIY music or art scene. I get super annoyed with older “ex punks, ex graffiti writers, ex whatever” who shit on anything current. I rarely listen to anything recorded before like 2010 and I’m old as dirt. There is so much good stuff out there and I’m constantly inspired by it. Memories are great but letting it cloud the present is extremely shortsighted and boring to me.
Our editor and I are obsessed with animals and we were wondering if you could be any animal, what would you be, and why? This tells a lot about a person I think.
Wow, that’s really tough. I feel like an aquatic bird would probably suit me best. Preferably one that’s not hunted. Maybe a pelican. LOL.
So graffiti/street art is a heavy influence for me and I have immense respect for those who actually work with it. Can you tell me how you got involved and what you love about it?
I started writing in 1990 while in Baton Rouge. The girl I mentioned earlier was a writer and in one of the first graffiti crews in New Orleans. She taught me the essentials. I eventually met another artist in Baton Rouge around ‘93 thru skateboarding. We started concentrating on painting freight trains mainly because it was so easy at the time. We started our own crew and that became my world for a very long time. Legal graffiti did not really exist in the South at the time but there was a permission wall on the West Bank of New Orleans. We linked up with some writers there and made trips to paint on a regular basis. Those are still some of my closest friends and all are still doing some sort of creative work. I read a book around then called “Bomb The Suburbs” that mentioned a graffiti scene in Alabama. It was fascinating to me that these little scenes existed in all these small southern cities. I met DAZE at the NOLA wall at some point and that was my first connection to the scene here. Like any subculture, there’s good and bad that goes along with it, and I’ve had plenty of bad, but I wouldn’t trade those experiences for anything.
Tell me everything about working with APT and the short documentary Monograph?? That’s an incredible accomplishment.
That was a very unexpected opportunity and I’m so grateful that it happened. I was nervous as hell and said “like” like 150 times and even teared up at one point during the interview. Somehow talking about my work and life out loud made it way more real and permanent. The folks behind that are great though and I really loved the edit. All of the episodes are amazing.
You do some advertising/marketing illustrative art...and I stumbled upon some work you did for the history of Alabama barbecue??? That’s so amazing. As someone who has a forever love of southern BBQ and has worked at several local spots in my twenties...this was personally interesting to me. What is in your opinion the best place to get BBQ in Alabama, and or what’s your favorite sauce?
I’ve produced paintings for a few design firms over the years, but that project was super wild. It was amazing to learn that history and it definitely changed the way I think of BBQ and food in general. I remember my initial designs being a little too on the nose or political on the issue of race. I don’t recall exactly how, but I did have to tone it down for the final piece. Regardless, it’s a really great and eye opening article. I’m an on and off again pescatarian so I usually seek out BBQ spots that have fish. Birmingham is full of great spots but my favorite in Alabama is Top Hat in Hayden.
My absolute favorite thing to do solo is put head phones in and go to the art museum and just soak it in. I am such a visual person, in every definition of the word. I think we are so lucky to have such a great resource in the BMA...have you been in the last couple of years? And if so, what is an exhibit that spoke to you?
I was able to visit in February and caught the Jacob Lawrence exhibit. It was amazing. I always find something powerful there and it's a great way to escape the world for a bit. I really love the Wedgewood collection and the way it's displayed. They do a good job of switching things up so it always feels fresh. Even just seeing a work in a different spot in the building can give it new context.
Who are some local artists that you feel like should get more exposure or who have grabbed your attention lately?
It’s kind of hard to say right now because I haven’t seen a whole lot of work in person but there’s some younger artists that I keep up with on Instagram that I really like. Stevan Mark is doing some super cool stuff. It feels personal, raw, and loose in just the right ways. I like Sara Roberson’s work a whole lot. Her drawings are insanely cool. Doug Balous is always doing inspiring work. Janice Kluge, who I worked for as an assistant, probably taught me more about the practice than anyone else and her work is amazing. My overall favorite local artist is Joe Minter. He’s considered an outsider, or folk artist but I’ve come to really hate those terms. Art is art and I hate that institutions and academia feel the need to label someone’s hard work in that way. I’ve had many conversations with him over the years and he is one of the most focused and intentional artists that I’ve ever met. When people visit me from out of town, I always take them to his house because it's by far the coolest thing in Birmingham.
If you could go back in time and have a genuine discussion with any artist or inventor of the past, who would it be and why?
Definitely Louis Bourgeois. She made work up until a week before her death at the age of 98. I went to a retrospective of her's in Rio de Janeiro and was completely blown away by the number of mediums she worked in. She tried everything. I love how dreamy and surreal her pieces are but somehow remain relatable. She talked in interviews about blurry childhood memories, hidden emotions, and that her work was largely therapeutic. All things that I relate to heavily.
So currently, my medium has been polymer clay jewelry, which is something I never saw myself doing but ironically it’s the most I’ve ever felt myself as an artist. I guess what draws me to it, is that its three dimensional color. Is there a medium or outlet you would love to see yourself try in the future? Or a collaboration you would be interested in?
As much as I like painting, my ideal means of expression is sculpture and installation. I feel the most comfortable and impactful by arranging objects. If I had the choice, that’s what I would focus on. I love transforming a space. My studio is only big enough to put together smaller versions of what’s in my head so in a way I’ve extended these ideas to my whole living space. I also want to do more textile stuff like sewing and quilting.
Lastly...what is something you feel like our local art community desperately needs/deserves? And do you have any future projects you would like to discuss?
I think the museum and other big institutions (UAB, etc.) could do a better job of including local artists in exhibitions. I would love to see more gallery spaces. I would love to see gallery spaces that weren’t just focused on selling. I’d love to see an art festival that had nothing for sale. These days there is so much pressure to sell work just to earn enough to survive that you can easily find yourself throwing things at the wall to see what sticks. It definitely affects the work and people’s perception of what art is. It gets so watered down. There are people that have become famous that do nothing but post on Instagram. Follower counts have become currency. I use technology as much as the next person, and it’s become somewhat of a reliable way to generate income, but I think a balance is needed. That only comes with more space and opportunity to show physical work. Our community definitely needs and deserves that.
To see more of Byron's work or to check out what else he has going on:
