We recently connected with Elliot Strunk and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Elliot thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you feel you or your work has ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized? If so, tell us the story and how/why it happened and if there are any interesting learnings or insights you took from the experience?

I would say that I’m often misunderstood by the business community when it comes to being creative, although things are slowly getting better. Many people don’t recognize that just because graphic design is an applied art, that doesn’t mean there’s a large amount of creative thought that is part of the process.

However, this work is done for other people and I wanted something more pure that I only create for myself. How I want, when I want and where I want.

My art is made using found objects and ephemera. Cardboard from a case of cat food. Trash found in a parking lot. Preselected colors from completed paint-by-numbers kits. There is no master plan. What gets used is left to chance. It comes via mail, traveling, whatever I stumble upon and whatever is left behind by other people.

Also, I don’t take commissions. It’s too hard and I’m too selfish.

Elliot, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a North Carolina transplant from Cleveland, Ohio, with a BFA in Graphic Design from Ohio University. I’m fortunate to have been recognized for my design work and have taught classes at Salem College and Guilford College, currently advise my alma mater’s fine arts school and at High Point University here in North Carolina as well.

I also co-host a design and pop culture podcast called “Two Designers Walk Into a Bar.” That’s a fun creative outlet where I leverage my interest in collage for each episode’s artwork. Even though they don’t look like it, these are 100% digital.

I began my collage work during Covid slowly and gradually. It was something therapeutic. Working with my hands, getting away from screens.

As I began to build a library of work, I wondered what I could do with it. I approached a local co-op gallery to learn about showing art and also connect with the local arts community more deeply. That has allowed for a nice cadence in terms of both creating and showing work, and has led to collaborative shows with other artists as well as my own solo shows around the area.

I’m trying to not put any pressure on myself, just to go at my own pace in terms of output. I’ll have bursts of activity, then channel my energy somewhere else for a time, then return. I have been approached for commissions and realized I’d be really bad at it. My early attempts to meet the criteria of other people brought the work too close to my day job. As I mentioned earlier, I have to keep something for myself.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I love being a thinker and maker, having the ability to take something that’s an abstract thought in my head and translate it into something tangible that can be shared with other people. It’s very empowering and something I took for granted for most of my life, thinking that anyone could do it if they simply applied themselves. Not true, of course. A.I. may be bringing us closer to that reality in some ways, but I’ll still take a pen and cocktail napkin (or maybe some scraps of printed “trash”) as my concepting tools of choice.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

I really like the storytelling and inspiration found in biographies and documentaries. Two of my favorite movies, “Pollock” and “Basquiat” are, obviously about the lives of two incredible artists. “Beauty is Embarrassing” about Wayne White and “Crumb” about, well, Robert Crumb, are great. “Beautiful Losers” is another documentary that resonates with me because I grew up skateboarding and steeped in the DIY ethos being celebrated. Oh, and “Exit Through the Gift Shop.” How could I forget about that? (Sorry, Banksy.)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mixed-results.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mixed_results_collage/

Image Credits

All artwork by Elliot Strunk / Mixed Results