by @ecolemanphoto
When the Texas legislature is in session, there is a not-small chance of running into artist Amitai Plasse. He’ll be inside Austin’s capitol building, drawing on an iPad from a seat in the public gallery while nearby lawmakers spar over bills. The finished piece will be a picture of democracy in action: comic-style portraits of legislators at work, surrounded by their own words from the day in the artist’s energetic hand-lettering.
“I’ve always been politically aware, but there was an opportunity to be more politically engaged when I came to Austin,” Plasse, originally from New York, tells PureHoney. “Maybe it’s because the capital is here, and you can walk into a committee meeting or a floor hearing and sit, draw, and observe.”
It’s a marked change of setting and subject matter for our artist of the month, a commercial illustrator and animator who used to sketch people on New York City subway trains. While Plasse received a formal art education from Parsons School of Design in Manhattan, he found daily inspiration and a stylistic niche in his 30-minute subway rides to and from school.
“I’d look around and see who caught my eye,” Plasse recalls. “How do I get this down as quickly as possible? What’s interesting about what I’m seeing right now?” With riders coming and going at every stop, “You have just moments to catch people interacting or an interesting character sketch,” he adds. “It’s about capturing the essence of that quickly, its energy.”
After leaving Brooklyn for Austin in 2011 to accommodate his growing family and chart a new course for himself, Plasse first turned to his adopted city’s world-famous music scene for new material.
“I’ve always loved music, and I used to see a lot of live music when I was younger, but it’s so much more accessible in Austin,” he says. Touring and local bands provided constant and varied opportunities for Plasse to work in his preferred creative style: the “quick sketch” of people and surroundings in constant flux.
”It’s the same, catching the vibe of the motion,” he says of his transition from commuters to bands. “The whole idea about drawing live music is like, I call it ‘gonzo.’ The idea is that you’re in the midst of what’s happening, not a disconnected observer. It’s about how you feel when you’re there. I’ll try to be in the midst of what goes on. I’ve been kicked in the head, and people have landed on me. All sorts of stuff happens. But you get a certain energy from being in the middle of everybody that you can’t get anywhere else.”
He’s still sketching live shows. But after raising three kids, Plasse has developed an interest in Texas education spending. “I feel like many people aren’t connected with what goes on in our government,” he says. “For example, people who get mad at certain issues go to a protest. Usually, protests happen after legislation occurs. People would say they went to the protest, and I’m like, ‘The bill has already been passed. You sitting out there and screaming — like, our governor does not give a shit.’ “
Plasse’s sketches transform run-of-the-mill hearings into entertaining, informative tableaus. ”People who wouldn’t pay attention to how the government works can see my sketches and become more engaged,” he says. “I think a lot of us grew up watching Schoolhouse Rock! That connection between art and the workings of government has been gone. Maybe I can illustrate a 30-second excerpt of a meeting and affect change instead of blasting out on social media – after the fact – that I’m angry but not really doing anything about it.”
Lately, as he’s thought about politics, this longtime punk, rap and metal fan has been listening to old Reagan Youth albums. The interest in public proceedings grew out of a panel he sketched at SXSW featuring former CBS News anchor Dan Rather talking about distrust of the news media.
“Rather said that people don’t understand civics anymore. They don’t learn it,” Plasse says. “How can you make a decision and be connected if you don’t understand how the government is supposed to work? To me, that was a call to action: How I can help facilitate the understanding of how government works.”
Visit Amitai Plasse at gonzoviz.com and on Instagram at amirocks73 ~ Kelli Bodle
