On the Mark: A Conversation with Artist Mark Miremont
By Myriam Gurba

To call Mark Miremont a dynamic artist would be a gross understatement. Someone whose creativity spans the gaps between film, music, literature and photography, at times blending these genres to create new ones, deserves recognition as an iconoclastic force. His audience alone is enough to make any artist jealous, with photographs being shown at galleries around the world, films screening at Sundance and music videos on MTV. Miremont collaborations read like a list of "who's who" within their respective genres, working with musicians such as Toad the Wet Sprocket, models like Julie Strain and producers like Nick Wechsler. Boundlessly energetic, Miremont has no plans to put down his camera or pen, and with the impressive body of work he has already generated, there can only be more to look forward to. To find Mark Miremont online, please visit his Web site at www.Markmiremont.com.

TooSquare: You're very multifaceted as an artist -- creating videos, filmmaking and taking photos. When did your interest in the arts begin and what was the attraction or appeal of creating art for you?

Mark Miremont: I really can't recall a time when I wasn't creating. Looking back, I've always done it. I don't see how people can get through the day without creating something. To me, it's like breathing. I just love doing it and need to do it and it's life to me.

TS: As a photographer and filmmaker, you seem to prefer the visual arts. Why this preference as opposed to the written word or music?

MM: Truth be told, I do write. Before 1999, I spent more time writing than anything else. Most of what I have to say with words to this point in my life has already been expressed in the four screenplays, three stage plays and miscellaneous jottings-down that I'm sitting on.
The plan now is to live as hard as I possibly can, then use these new experiences for new writing. Later down the road I will do something with them, probably under a pseudonym. Right now, I'm focusing on photography, short portrait films and hard living.

TS: A lot of your photography celebrates female beauty, especially in the tradition of pinup and cheesecake-style imagery. What drew you to this style?

MM: Well, I adore women and people are drawn to their passions. And for me, nothing … nothing has ever been accomplished without the inspiration of a woman. There is nothing more beautiful in the world than a woman's smile. And as far as any relation my work has to pinup-style, I'd say that that is simply because there are certain poses I find flattering for my models and these are often used in pinups for the same reason.

TS: The pinup has become an American icon. What does this icon mean to you? Why do you think mid-20th century cheesecake is currently experiencing a strong revival?
MM: Pinups are a celebration of beauty and femininity. Beauty and femininity are always in style. People are just wising up.
TS: Because some of your models emulate Bettie Page, I'm curious to know what your opinion is on the Bettie Page mania that swept the country in the last few years? Do you think this "mania" is on its way out any time soon? Do you think that her renewed popularity has made her a bit of a cliché?

MM: Bettie Page will never go out of style for the same reasons (as the pinup). I actually had occasion to edit some correspondence she wrote for a DVD collection of the films she made. She wrote in little cursive writing on perfumed pink stationary. I handled the letters like they were the lost sea scrolls! I'd love to shoot her like I did Maime Van Doren. Hell, I'd love to shoot her with Maime. So obviously, I don't think she's cliché.

TS: A lot of your work also seems influenced by the rockabilly culture.

MM: I have always loved rockabilly and I always will. I grew up on it -- Link Wray, Elvis, The Stray Cats, James Dean and Studebaker Hawks. You can go anywhere in the world -- Japan, Russia, Germany, England, Mexico … anywhere -- and you will find rockabilly fanatics into the music, art, clothing, tattoos, furniture design and cars. These things are fundamentally blue-collar America. A lot of people say that jazz is the only uniquely American art form. These people need to put on glasses and get their atonal asses to a rockabilly show. Some of the best rockabilly music ever made is being made now -- 50 years after the scene began. If you look at most contemporary Jazz … well, it just makes you wish Miles Davis were still alive.

TS: How do you view your role in this culture?

MM: I don't see myself as having a role in it at all. I just dig it. I don't actually think that my work is part of the culture except in that some of my friends/models are into the scene and it comes across in the styling sometimes. There are a lot of good photographers doing purist black and white photos of the scene and doing retro-pinup stuff and that's cool and probably more appropriate. I'm just doing my own thing and not really beholden to it.

TS: You participated in the Sundance Institute as a filmmaking fellow. How did that come about?

MM: Well, I was a first year grad student at the School of Film and Television at UCLA and I had just started directing music videos. My reel ended up on the desk of the great film producer, Nick Wechsler (Sex, Lies and Videotape, Drugstore Cowboy, Little Odessa, Quills, Requiem for a Dream, etc.) because he also managed several musicians at that time. He liked my work and asked my rep if I had a script or wanted to do film work. It was good timing because I had just finished the first draft of what would later become The White Ocean. He asked me if he could show it to the good people at Sundance, they liked it, and they asked me if I wanted to go to the June Filmmaker's lab. So it just fell in my lucky lap.

TS: What was it like?

MM: It was a great time! I was the "art-film guy" there that year, doing the "weird film in black and white that had no narrative." But everyone was very supportive. I directed Lothiare Buteau (Jesus of Montreal, Black Robe, I Shot Andy Warhol) and J.E. Freeman (Wild at Heart, Miller's Crossing) in scenes from my script and I partied with Terry Gilliam, Tom Noonan and Quentin Tarrantino, and got some trout fishing in… It was a great experience and it really helped.

TS: You seem very interested in philosophy, linguistics and art theory (i.e., Derrida, Wittgenstein, etc.). Do you incorporate these things into your creative process? Do you think art theorists are just frustrated artists?

MM: I think Philosophers of Art are just trying to analyze what is fundamentally irreducible. And I think most artists working on theoretical grounds are frustrated philosophers. Real art doesn't need to be, and can't be, reduced to theory. It IS and that is enough. Art speaks and we should be content to listen.

TS: You were schooled at UCLA. Do you think this has helped or hindered your creativity?

MM: Of course some professors don't get what you're about and you feel limited sometimes, but hey, that's the real world. You owe it to yourself not to listen to things that don't speak to your heart. I was always a misfit in school, but I loved learning. I certainly don't think going to school has anything to do with inherent talent. It can, however, put you on a fast track to craft and expose you to new ideas in a structured environment.

TS: Have you gotten a lot of support from other photographers and filmmakers? Do you feel like there is a strong community of like-minded artists here in California?

MM: Sadly, no, not really. I've had AMAZING crews working with me on the film side. And collaborating with musicians on music videos is rewarding but aside from Sundance, no. Other filmmakers and photographers seem pretty wrapped up in their own work here in California. I've gone out of my way to help other filmmakers … even produced a feature film for a friend that became a mess even though it went on to screen at the Sundance Film Festival. When I lived in L.A., I got a storefront at the Pantages Theatre, fixed it up and really wanted to start my own little version of what Coppola tried to do with Zoetrope in the '70s. But it didn't work just like Coppola's dream didn't. I guess most artists are islands. It's a shame. So now I have friends who are great artists, but I don't work with them!

TS: Who would you like to collaborate with in the future?

MM: Oh God, there are so many.

TS: If you could spend one night with a bygone Hollywood glamour girl, who would you choose, why and what would you do with her?

MM: Just one night, huh? Well, if it were just one night, I'd have to say Marilyn Monroe. Why should be obvious, and I don't think I could tell you what I would do. I'm a gentleman.

images on this page copyright Mark Miremont- modernpinups.com