There’s something almost suspiciously inviting about the work of Nick Sirotich. Our artist of the month incorporates a bright color palette and sugary-sweet graphics that tuck a focused political message inside a “Trojan Horse,” in his words, of cute iconography. His eye for design is impeccable, capturing your attention and moving it around the composition with age-old techniques such as the rule of thirds and the golden ratio. But don’t take the pleasure of viewing an aesthetically balanced image at face value; there are layers of meaning yet to unpack.
Born in 1987 in Buffalo, New York, Sirotich moved to Florida at six and was raised here. He is now based in California’s Bay Area, although to a Floridian hearing him describe his present circumstances — a diverse but challenging artist economy in a region where everything costs a fortune — it might sound like he never left.
“Living out here is wild,” Sirotich tells PureHoney. “It’s been a continued source of inspiration and a place with a vibrant community and enough appreciation for the arts to patch together a survivable career, despite the cost of living. It’s also a place with the most obscene wealth inequality of anywhere I’ve ever been. It’s a mixed bag. I can’t imagine living somewhere else anytime soon, and I don’t know if I’d be able to become this version of myself anywhere else.”
Oakland and San Francisco are where Sirotich developed his primary style:“[A]n evolution of the same basic idea for most of my career: tight, expressive line drawings with flat, primary-heavy, bright colors, and minimal gradient. I’ve always been really drawn (pun) to that aesthetic as it feels very direct and doesn’t forgive errors well. It’s a challenge.”
As his work has grown to tackle more serious subjects, “I think that it operates as a Trojan Horse to some extent to draw people in with something that looks sleek or cool or cute,” he says. “Then it hits you with an uncomfortable message, an impossible-to-ignore injustice, or a call to action. The work can be kind of eye-catching and bold, and therefore it’s a quick delivery system for ideas.”
Sirotich’s delivery system has worked so well, in fact, looked so sleek and smooth that now he is contending with accusations of using artificial intelligence to create it, which he does not appreciate. “I’ve essentially worked in the same style for over 20 years, and when it’s accused of being aided by AI in any way (which of course it’s not), it devalues the work,” he says. “I’ve been told to change my style because it can be confused with AI. I loathe AI; it’s so tacky and destructive, and it’s being forced into everything.”
But he won’t be changing his style any time soon; it’s baked into his legacy. “I’ve made political art for maybe a decade so far, but I think it really picked up around 2020 when I painted a small mural of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd in San Francisco,” he says. “I’d always been engaged in political and social issues personally, but hadn’t really used my art to contribute to causes I supported. Since then, I realized I had something I could put to use and try to help the communities and causes I care about.”
He takes a more playful approach to his live portrait drawings, a for-hire practice at parties and the like that he calls the Human Photobooth. “People book me for a few hours, and I draw a portrait of one of their guests every 5-10 minutes,” Sirotich says. “It’s a unique and novel idea that people really seem to love.”
His portfolio also spans popular music. “I grew up around super talented musicians, so gig posters and album covers were huge influences on my art,” Sirotich says. “I’ve worked with bands, venues, and performers for much of my life, and they bring the coolest projects. I’ve done gig posters for NOFX, Kaskade, Flogging Molly, and many more. I’ve done album covers and single-release illustrations for Wiz Khalifa, Pleasures, and BFB DaPackman. I’ve worked with venues around the Bay and beyond. Music and visual art are so interconnected that it only makes sense to collaborate.”
Follow Nick Sirotich at nickelopsus.com ~ Kelli Bodle
