An Interview With Nunzio Barbera
Interview: Volksradio Moos
VM: Tell us a little bit about what you do
N: I am a visual artist who works in mixed-media. At the moment I am working with collage, painting (acrylic), paint markers, craft paint, sharpies, many different lacquers, and pencil, watercolor and ink sketches. Incorporating these materials into my “mixed media”. Done with school. Majored in printmaking and painting at West Virginia University, never graduated. Majored in painting at Shepherd College, also in West Virginia and also never graduated.
VM: What was the worst critique/review/feedback you were ever given and how did it make you feel?
N: That would have to have been at WVU, for the worst critique. My painting instructor told me my work was too poster like. I thought all great art made it to posters so what was this guy talking about? My professor liked to paint “L”s over some expressionistic background, all he painted. Was not a fan of surrealism. So I always got “D”s or “F”s. Even though I would sell these to friends and had hours upon hours invested in them. So I painted a piece I knew I’d get an “A” on. I painted two over lapping tic-tac-toe boards and put the primary colors in the squares, he loved it. It took like ten fifteen minutes to do, wouldn’t have wanted to say I painted it, yet I got an “A”. I stood up, told the professor how full of shit he was and walked out of the class. Got an applause from my classmates.This is why I left WVU.
The worst feedback I ever got was a “Frowny face” as a grade. Shepherd College I did a masturbation installation. I posted collaged porn all over the men’s and women’s bathrooms. They were sealed and very glossy. In the men’s room I had wash rags dipped in elmer’ s glue so they were all crusty like a cum rag. And their was targets painted on the collages which lined the floors and walls.
In the ladies room I had the collages minus the targets, and obnoxiously large cucumbers dipped in Vaseline. The back of the restrooms doors had a pack of cigarettes on them with a note that Read “Cum Again”. The art dept. was pushing interactive art and installations so I figured I’d give them both. My grade = “Frowny face”.
VM: How did that experience change or not change the way you feel/felt about your art?
N: No effect. I could care less. First and foremost I create what I like to create. I am my own worst critic. I toss sketches out left and right. Paint and repaint works also. Some of my works have up to 6 separate paintings underneath of them. I never know when to stop either.
VM: What did you do about it?
N: Kept on, keeping on.
VM: You live in a place where not much happens, but your work is so full of images. Where do you find all those images?
N: I’d say it comes from “Pop culture”. What I see on T.V. and just the crazy ass TWISTED VISIONS in my head. Style comes from skateboards, punk rock, Dali, Tattoos, video games, JUXTAPOZ, my brother, PEPPY. I truly believe he guides my hands sometimes. Puts images there for me to see, then I “Grab” them and pull them out for the world to see.
VM: You were a long-time a non-practising artist, can you tell why you started again with making art?
N: My younger brother, Joseph A. Barbera. “Peppy” past away a year ago in April. His spirit actually came to me as a glowing green orb. This was maybe a month or so after his passing. He told me “Nunz, don’t know what you’ve been waiting for, Get up off your ass. You only need like $50 bucks to get moving!” So needless to say I stayed up all night drawing and painting, till I could go to the store and buy a few things. Mostly shit from wal-mart. Only place really around me. Got paint markers and sharpies, some india ink and posterboards. Started fooling around with layers and lacquers. Thought what better way to layer than actually layer. That’s where the collage element came into play. I felt quilty using others images so I started TWEAKING them. And played photoshop on my own, manipulating the images and tying on my own without the help of some program.
VM: Do you have people/artists that have inspired you and your work?
N: TOO many to name since being on here. But I will name some, that got me here and influenced me as started back up. Dali of course. Robert Williams, Pushead, Mad Mark Rude, Glenn Barr, old punk flyer art and album art, H.R. Giger, Alex Grey.
Music and dreams, The Sub-conscious mind! 
VM: What are your plans in the future?
N: To keep on keepin on producing art in as many different ways as I can come up with. To get the hell out of the small ass trailer I am living in. ( I know a West Virginian hill billy in a trailer, Hard to believe) And to start Showing my work in a gallery setting. I want to start an animated series. Maybe skateboard co. eventually. I don’t know just want to be able to eventually be able to support my family through my art. That would be the one thing that would make me happiest.
VM: What would you like to say to the other underdogs out there?
N: Do it yourself and for yourself first. Don’t be afraid of someone not liking your stuff. Stay true to your work, don’t bend and compromise your style to make others happy. And if your are passionate about what you create and are enjoying making it than you are doing something right. And really we are all underdogs. Not too many alpha dogs among us all any more.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/TWISTED-VISIONS-The-art-of-Nunzio-Barbera-II/111945672165367?ref=nf
http://nunzio.artspan.com/
