Dave Pollot takes vintage thrift store paintings and transforms them into contemporary art. By blending in recognizable pop culture elements, into otherwise classical, seen-before-paintings, he creates unique juxtapositions of eras and art.

TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOU, THE PERSON BEHIND THE WORK WE SEE, WHERE ARE YOU BASED AND HOW OLD ARE YOU?

I live just outside of Rochester, NY with my wife and two dogs. We absolutely love being upstate - we're close to the Finger Lakes and it's an easy enough drive to the city or anywhere else in the state we might like to go. I'll be turning 41 in October, although my wife likes to remind me that I'm the youngest I'll ever be, so I should never skew my age toward my next birthday. I enjoy a nice New England IPA, spend way too much time in my own head, and recently became obsessed with Pickleball.

CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT WHEN AND WHY YOU STARTED YOUR PAGE?

My wife has always been an avid thrifter, and although I never really enjoyed second hand stores, my desire to spend time with her led me to tag along on a number of thrifting excursions. On a visit to a Goodwill back in 2012, we joked about how funny it would be if I were to paint something into one of the pieces of artwork there, and about a week later she came home with a couple of thrifted backgrounds. I tried painting into one and was instantly hooked. It wasn't until 2014 that I created an Instagram account as another platform to share my work. I don't really know why it took so long for me to adopt Instagram - it's the perfect platform for artists.

Reflective, *Nostalgic, Evolving*

Dave Pollot

What does your art focus on?

Most of my work (since late 2012) involves finding unwanted objects - usually at thrift stores - and using oil paints to add familiar elements of contemporary life into them. It actually started as a joke between my wife and I, but quickly morphed into an exploration into the evolution of discrete pieces of art through the use of popular culture as a shared language. I'm fascinated by the idea that you can change the meaning of a piece of artwork without really changing its aesthetic and bring it back into contemporary favor. Each painting is a bit like a mirror, reflecting its meaning back to the viewer through his or her individual perception, but more generally speaking, I think that my work challenges the idea that any one piece of artwork is without a place. Especially if it can be retrofitted to reflect a more culturally relevant set of ideas. It also questions who (generationally or otherwise) can claim ownership of the popular culture of a given time period - it's sought to introduce a younger audience to older artistic styles, and a potentially older audience to a broader set of pop culture.

Besides your computer/phone, what is the one thing you cannot work without?

Music or podcasts! I need to be listening to something when I paint, so generally if I'm working on something that isn't hyper detailed then I'm wrapped up in a good podcast. Otherwise I'm usually listening to music.

Your work gets a lot of attention on social media, how does getting online recognition changes the way you perceive and produce your art?

As with so many other professions, I think that being an artist is a sine wave of peaks where I feel super confident set against valleys of feeling like an imposter. Social media amplifies this by making the peaks higher, the valleys lower, and the path between them steeper. I try very hard not to let the reaction to any given post (positive or negative) have too much power over me, but it's definitely a struggle. My wife has been great about reminding me that likes are not a good indicator as to whether or not a painting is good or bad. At the end of the day, it's important for me to feel good about the work that I create, so I always make that my objective.

Can you name 5 movies that shaped who you are as a person, or left a big mark on you?

Great question! So, I guess I'll start by saying that movies (and TV) have always been a huge part of my life. I grew up on the most amazing movies of the eighties, but also found something to love from nearly every generation. My wife would tell you that I'm encyclopedic, and often laments the fact that I'll take any opportunity to make a reference to something that she's likely never seen. So much of my work references the movies and television that I love, and despite the amount of time I've spent absolutely lost in them, I don't think that there are any five that I could point to as having a direct impact on who I am. Collectively however, they've absolutely shaped who I am as an artist (and, in fact, that I am an artist at all).

Your favorite music tracks right now (old or new):

Lately, I've been rotating between three playlists. One is an 80s playlist - The Cure, Depeche Mode, Crowded House, etc., another is a collection of punk and metal bands I loved in college, and the last is a collection of songs from one of my all time favorite musicians, Andrew McMahon.

Who is your dream collaboration?

Bob Ross - He's a legend.

Anything you would like to say to our Plastik audience?

It's probably been said by many others before me, but art and life are often about finding a good composition. Right now, we're all struggling to make sense of the chaotic and uncertain world around us - The extreme voices are the loudest and so they're the ones we typically hear, so I think it's especially important for all of us to be as educated as possible and think before we react. Stay positive.

interviewed by philippe ghabayen

Dave Pollot - NEO RENAISSANCE