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Kozyndan Kozyndan are made up of Kozy and, uh, Dan, a pair of illustrators based in Los Angeles. They collaborate on much of their artwork producing often amazingly complex images, which you can buy in their shop, which is handily divided into low-priced stuff and high-priced stuff. Dan is American and Kozy is Japanese and the combination of their cultures produce something which is totally unique, in particular the Panoramic artwork which combine actual locations and surreal, made-up events.
 PIXELSURGEON: How did you two meet?
KOZY: We met in college - in painting class
DAN: where else would we meet?
What was it about each other that you thought, hmmm, we'd make a good creative team?
DAN: I don't think we ever thought about it. Just kind of happened - we'd been together for a few years before we ever collaborated on anything.
KOZY: The first time was very casual. Dan liked a drawing I did and decided to scan it in and color it in the computer.
DAN: The rest is history I guess.
Kozyndan is like a single entity, rather than two separate people: is that impression deliberate?
DAN: It wasn't deliberate. We wanted to have an e-mail address that our friends could write to us both at. We picked kozyndan@hotmail.com It kind of stuck after we started making art together and so we started signing our work that way and got that website and it has just taken on a life of it's own.
KOZY: We started hearing people pronouncing it wrong and thinking it was some Eastern European guy, and it sounded so mysterious and we kind of liked that - maybe he is our alter ego of sorts. Koz-en-dun.
How would you describe your work?
DAN: Uhhh...
KOZY: You gotta ask the hard questions don't you?
DAN: We like to make stuff that people will buy and hang on their wall and then, six months later, they still are discovering things in it they never noticed. With the Panoramics we are taking very real places and inserting absurd things - we like absurdity. The world today is absurd - the whole Western notion of what life is all about is pretty absurd, so that is kind of a central theme to us. We aren't saying whether the absurdity is a bad thing or not (we are ambivalent about the consumer culture we are a part of) - it just is.
KOZY: We want to make stuff that will make people smile a bit. These pieces so far are not so deep - we have been restraining ourselves, though some of our... frustrations we have with what we see around us peep through from time to time. There is some sort of a theme of conflict between the industrialized world and nature. We prefer animals and the natural world to people any day, yet we are wholly sucked into the modern technological world. This kind of just shows up in our work from time to time - it's not a conscious thing. Typically we just think of something that is funny to us, but then looking back at the completed piece it usually has something to do with man's careless disregard for this hunk of rock we live on.
How do you work together? What's the process?
 DAN: Depends. Mostly we beat each other up and whatever the blood stains look like - that's what Kozy starts drawing. She does the really detailed intricate drawings. While she is working on the backgrounds I am supposed to be figuring out what the characters are doing (although I am usually just watching TV or something though). Then she takes my character sketches and redraws them in her style, adds more of her own and I composite all the characters into her original background.
KOZY: Then we put the image on two computers and just start painting. We sit back to back and just pick areas to color until everything is just about done, then we join them in one file and finish it out.
What set-up do you have?
DAN: Gear talk! We have a G4 Tower Dual 1 Mhz with 1.25 gigs of RAM, a G4 powerbook 867 Mhz with 768 megs of RAM, a trusty old G3 blueberry 400 with a little RAM and a big ass hard drive. We also have a Windows PC that we use as a coaster to set drinks on.
How are you getting on with Mac OSX?
DAN: I like OSX - lots of bells and whistles, maybe a little too complicated.
KOZY: Our G3 runs OS 8.6 - runs perfectly - less glitches than OSX
DAN: OSX is so complex that it is bound not to run absolutely perfectly, but it sure gets the job done, and does sooo many more things than older operating systems, so overall we dig it.
Do you think illustration is a good way to make a living, or do you ever think, Damn, I wish I worked on Wall Street and drove around in a huge SUV?
KOZY: Yeah - we have no social skills. We couldn't work real jobs in a company - that's why we started doing this.
DAN: If kozyndan doesn't catch on and keep going along so swimmingly, we are going to be working in McDonalds or something. Luckily, things are almost going well enough for us to buy an SUV though and we don't even have to sell our souls to Wall Street and the big corporate machine. We'll probably get some kind of hybrid car though - better on the environment.
It’s easy to see why Kozy might have a passing interest in Japanese illustration, but what’s the attraction for you, Dan?
DAN: Yellow fever
KOZY: Dan likes anything Asian.
DAN: Well Americans kind of suck, so I just gravitated towards something else. I don't know, Japanese stuff is irresistible. It is pretty common for artists to be attracted to things going on outside their own culture. This isn't the first time Western artists have been so obsessed with Japan. That being said - we don't think of our art as very asian at all. Something else.
KOZY: Very... kozyndan
Were you interested in Asian stuff before you met Kozy, or is it a case of embracing her cultural heritage?
 DAN: I liked it on a very surface level before I met her - watched a little anime (mostly because I was a teenager and loved the idea of seeing sex in a cartoon), liked the food, liked the cool gadgets. But I knew nothing really about the culture or people before I met her. My appreciation and reservations with the culture come from a slightly better (very slightly) understanding of it than I had before meeting her.
Your panoramics are really detailed and engrossing. What was the thought process behind this series?
KOZY: It wasn't very well thought out at first. I just did a drawing of our apartment and Dan colored it. Then he suggested we do something outdoors and so we did, and we added some things that weren't in the photo reference dan shot. Then on the third panoramic we really took to the idea of adding characters that shouldn't be there, and quirky little things.
DAN: Then on about the fifth panoramic the concept really started to take shape. Although I am not sure exactly what it is. It is actually pretty open ended. Some are (or will be) just silly, some are social or political observations, some have a linear sort of narrative or idea... it will make more sense to people when we get towards the end of the project.
Will all the Panoramics work as a unified whole in some way?
DAN: They are just a series of images - each one if different and usually has something to do with whatever is on our minds at the time. There are recurring characters though, and if Kozy lets me I am going to do a silly narrative that will continue through some of the Panoramics.
KOZY: They are not connected to one another, but they really need to be viewed all together to I think to get the full scope of the project. We hope to publish a huge book at the end of the project collecting all the images with overlays that describe different details in the pieces. We want to make a crazy book that is a meter wide!
DAN: Who knows if we'll be able to pull it off, or sucker some publishing company into doing it though.
Is it true Hawaiian girls have more fun?
 DAN: I don't know - but I think the title was a little ironic for me. I think of Hawaii as another culture attacked by the Imperialistic desires of the US - manifest destiny and all that. The girls in the photos - I imagined that they thought they could become stars, famous or something. In reality the photographer was probably a dirty old man who started this "Modeling Agency" to see girls naked.
If you see Hawaii as an aspect of American Imperialism, what's your take on the Iraq conflict?
DAN: Let's just say that we all know that a huge portion of the extra $87 BILLION dollars Bush just asked for is going into the pockets of Haliburton (who it was recently revealed is going to make a lot more off the rebuilding than originally thought)...
KOZY: The whole thing makes us sick - their corruption is absolute and blatant.
DAN: Ashamed to be an American right now.
Do you think Al Gore would have handled things differently if Jeb Bush hadn't thrown things in Tallahassee? Or is this more of a general feeling about Government?
DAN: Yeah - he would have handled things much different I think. I think most of what has happened is because of the people who are influencing the Bush administration (The PNAC specifically). No administration before this has lied so blatantly and in such a huge way - the level of evil is really up there with Hitler frankly, no lie. The only difference is that our government has such a mastery of how to control the media in order influence people. You should hear how brainwashed many people in this country are - it's truly sad how ignorant and uneducated we are, and how easily fooled we are. Because of this, the Bush administration has been able to wreak havoc around the world in our name, spending billions of dollars doing so, while our education, healthcare, and social systems waste away. It's just sad. If Bush wins the election next year - we are leaving the country.
On the flip side, though, there are plenty of good things about being an American, such as Twinkies, right?
DAN: Uhhh... no. Those things will kill you.
Why bunnies?
 DAN: Next question.
KOZY: We bought some bunnies for ourselves as an Easter present. They were just kind of there, running around so we started drawing them.
DAN: We did some art from those drawings and it just kind of took off - the work came out good, people liked it.
KOZY: We are really cat people though.
DAN: Bunnies are bastards - troublemakers. I think that's why I don't mind using them though - they look cute, but you better keep your eye on them or else your computer will stop working and your art will be eaten.
Well there's a chance the cats will eat the bunnies...
DAN: God I hope so!
KOZY: Shut up!
What did you think of London when you came back in 2001?
KOZY: Loved it.
DAN: Bloody loved it.
KOZY: Can't wait to go back.
DAN: Someone give us a show in London! Seriously, growing up where I did (Orange County) places like London are a revelation. Where I grew up you are hard pressed to find any building more than 60 years old. So to go and walk in streets and in buildings and under bridges that have stood for so many hundreds of years is really awe inspiring. Londoners probably take it for granted by now - but it is really amazing and makes you feel alive and part of something.
Any plans to come to the UK again?
DAN: No definite plans - but if someone will give us a place to crash I am sure we can arrange it!
KOZY: We'll get back at some point in the next year or two I bet.
What did you think of Japan?
 DAN: Japan was a total sensory overload - particularly Tokyo. Too too much to see. Totally insane and fun (if you have some money to spend). We also spent a lot of time in the countryside - which is the total opposite completely serene and quaint. The people in Japan are wonderful - totally polite and fun loving and lively, not at all like Americans. It was culture shock but it was exactly how I imagined it too, so it was great. The only problem I had was the rampant consumerism - even worse than here in the US. But I am unfortunately addicted to consuming useless pretty things myself, so I shouldn't complain about it.
What kind of useless pretty things do you collect?
KOZY: Some toys, design books, magazines, video games we never play, stickers, t-shirts (although we usually get those for free these days), childrens' books, and the microchips from our printer's ink cartridges.
Who or what inspires you?
KOZY: Each other. Nature. People who do their own thing.
DAN: Dorks, freaks, geeks, and nerds. Nature, cities, sex, food, drugs, technology, music, definitely music. Each other. And George Bush (Did you ever hear that Elvis Costello song? What was it... "Tramp the Earth Down"...?)
What about musically; are you music-has-to-be-playing kind of people, or there-must-be-silence people?
DAN: Music has to be playing constantly while we work. Usually we listen to dublab - the best thing for long hours of working because they play such a huge variety of music and it is all so damn good!
KOZY: Yeah - music is our lifeblood.
DAN: Bjork, Matthew Herbert, Nina Simone, Notorious BIG, Max Tundra, Daedelus, Dntel, The Postal Service, Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Takagi Masakatsu, Pepe California, Caetano Veloso, Akufen... so much music we could never name all the stuff we like...
And what about other designers or illustrators? Who's floating your boat right now?
DAN: Mostly our friends - Jordan Crane, Flo Zavala, Ben Loiz, Chris Ware (creator of the Acme Novelty Library), Cody Hudson, Koji Morimoto, David Wiesner (children's book illustrator), Deth P. Sun, Travis Millard, David Choe (a tough guy to know, but an insanely good artist), James Jean.
How do you see Kozyndan developing?
KOZY: Hopefully we will be able to just go out and tackle any kind of idea or project that comes to mind.
DAN: We set out to be illustrators only, wanted to do children's books or picture books for adults (neither of which we've really done yet), but we have been making more and more income from doing our own stuff, so we are just kind of doing whatever piques our interest. It may become a full fledged brand of products if we decide to take any backers up on their offer, or maybe we will go back to doing mostly freelance illustration (we still take those projects if we have time, so hopefully people will keep contacting us about it), or maybe we will keep doing more and more shows. We probably have about five solo shows in the next year if all goes as it should, and hopefully we can come do one in the UK soon as well...
KOZY: So - we don't know where it will go - we just want to be able to travel and not be tied down to an office from 9 to 5 every day. So far we have been able to do that so we are happy with the direction it is going in.
Because we always like to end on a morbid note: If you were both hit by a bus tomorrow, how would you like to be remembered?
DAN: As kinky sex freaks.
KOZY: That's stupid - we're stupid.
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