Studio Visit & Interview with Jason Mecier and Adam Ansell
By John Vochatzer
Adam Ansell (left), and Jason Mecier (right).
Ahhhh, these two guys!!! Holy smokes, I don’t even know where to begin with this dynamic duo. I first got lured into their strange, magical and oft HILARIOUS little world around a year ago when I stumbled upon Adam’s wild and applaudably crude paintings on Instagram. Posting under the alias “Grumpa Pop,” he shares his art along with anything from low-resolution photos of mannequins and stuffed animals, to snapshots of forgotten 80s and 90s pop-culture lore, to the increasingly iconic homemade music videos of him mock-dancing whilst showing off his extensive wardrobe. It’s not always evident how all of this content relates, but somehow it works together as a cohesive package—strung together with a whole lot of absurdist charm and just a tiny thread of nostalgia. I soon discovered that Adam’s partner of 25 years was Jason, who’s assemblage-art portraiture of celebrities compiled of trash has received quite the renown itself over the years—resulting in regular media headlines and even culminating in a career spanning art book of his work.
The further I travel down the Jason & Adam wormhole, the more these two have not only become a couple of my favorite artists in the Bay Area, but also without a doubt my favorite mini internet celebrities. The most recent installment of their ever-flowing online hijinks is “Your Pillow Guy”, a surreal, John Waters-esque spoof of My Pillow Guy, devised to sell Jason’s new line of throw pillows and other merch printed with his celebrity trash art. Accompanied by Grumpa Pop and friend and performer Ruby Vixen, Jason has developed quite the persona for himself in creating these little DIY infomercials—complete with a rhinestone studded robe and a catchy, if slightly unnerving, theme song. If these videos don’t make you want to buy a Liza Minneli made-out-of-garbage pillow for your sofa, then I don’t know what will.
The “Granny Pooper.”
Recently I had the great pleasure of visiting Jason & Adam’s home and art studio in The Mission District, and I must say that this 3-bedroom flat was quite the work of art unto itself. The place gave me total Beales of Grey Gardens vibes, but with every room stylized as an homage to a different place and time. Foremost there’s the bedroom, which looks like a Reno honeymoon suite taken straight out of some 80s made-for-TV crime noir. Adjacent to it we have the “Satanic Men’s Club” living room full of everything from their dead grandparent’s art and antiques to a Lawrence Welk organ and a taxidermied marlin. Then there’s the “Granny Pooper", a Victorian bathroom with the signature crimson damask wallpaper & candelabras, and sitting right across the hall from it is the 90’s computer hacker arcade room. Lastly there’s their art studio in the front of the house, split down the middle dividing Jason’s and Adam’s sides. Jason’s, naturally, is the kitschy and carefully organized junk shop of yore. Adam’s side, with its decade’s worth of caked up paint, reminds me of the photos of Francis Bacon’s famously messy studio—only transposed in some sorta wack-job Looney Tunes universe.
Adam’s side of the studio.
What I took away from my little visit to their home was something that was already becoming all too apparent: I had found the Bay Area’s force-to-be-reckoned-with super artist couple if there ever was one and it was now my destiny to publish the DEFINITIVE interview with them. And while they may not quite fit the mold of the traditional “San Francisco eccentric,” these two are definitely the types of individual characters that make SF such a rich place to be and I’m very glad to have met them. Thank you, Adam and Jason, for being you.
Interview
Hey guys! Wow, your house is fuckin’ awesome and it might be the coolest house I’ve ever been to. Each room is like a different time capsule from a bygone decade. Can you tell us a little bit about this magical place in your own words?
Your Pillow Guy pillows in Jason & Adam’s bedroom. Available for purchase at Fabulosa Books.
Adam Ansell: We’ve been comfortably trapped here in this charming Mission District flat together for 25 years, filling every inch of the place. Our styles easily collide; Jason the packrat and Adam the minimalist. The result is an eclectic collection of stuff that’s been compiled and curated between the two of us for over two-and-a-half decades, that’s the magic.
Jason Mecier: Most of the house is put together nicely, but the art studio is the “anything goes” room.
In the front room of your house is your guys’ shared art studio. It’s really cool seeing both of your very different styles of work combined in this single space. What’s it like sharing a creative space with each other? And what do you guys’ think of each other’s art?
JM: Well I hog up most of the space so no complaints there. We can both work together at the same time in there, but we bump into each other. Generally we take turns. I work more during the day, like a job, and Adam paints more at night when he’s feeling it.
AA: I fell for Jason a million years ago, he was on stage with a cast of 20 and as far as I’m concerned, the most compelling actor on stage. I went to one of his art openings and his portrait of Buffy St. Marie killed me! With the pom-poms! And the Fringe! Plus he looked extra cute that night dressed in a pale yellow kitty-cat sweater.
Jason, tell us about the trash. You’ve got quite the collection of random stuff you create your assemblages with, and it sounds like you get the stuff from literally all over the place. What’s this process of collecting like for you?
JM: I used to collect things like Charlie’s Angels merchandise and vintage food packaging, then I started gluing them into my art pieces. Also just finding things on the ground, going to SCRAP and Thrift Stores. Friends and fans now save me their special things. We’re invested in each other’s success as much as our own, it’s one-in-the-same.
A picture of Linda Evans.
Adam, you mentioned one thing that has been fairly constant for you and your process over the years has been working with free or cheap materials including left over house paints and such. How have the materials you work with affected the work that you create? Do you think art can benefit from scarcity and limitation?
AA: I try to keep it simple. I always play with whatever’s within reach. I improvise. I make do with what’s around, allowing the urgency, the immediate time and place, the process, the feeling, the randomness to take hold and manifest. In NY I would always find discarded house paint and wood and window panes... many paintings on windows. Here in SF, for years I only painted on found wood with rejected colors $5-per gallon at Last’s paint on Mission (now gone). There’s always paint and wood around somehow. Even as a teenager, my friends and I would order pots of coffee at Denny’s for hours smoking cigarettes and drawing on the table with sugar and cream, if yellow’s needed, use the mustard.
JM: Same here. I learned from my Grandma that I can make art out of anything I want to, and that there are no rules. She would rather paint on the back of her cigarette cartons, than buy a canvas.
AA: It’s all about limitation and editing. Editing is cool! There may seem that there’s an infinite amount of resources and ideas; I think all art has boundaries, and is functioning within limitation, like that most of us are merely human.
You guys met in 1997 and have been together since. What were the early days of the Jason/Adam duo like? And what kind of art were you doing back then and what were your impressions of the art scene in San Francisco in the 90s?
JM: In the 90s I was performing in a theatrical rock band called “ENRIQUE” (co-founded with D’Arcy Drollinger of Oasis Nightclub and “Shit & Champagne” fame.) We were world famous in SF! We also did musicals which is when Adam and I first got together. I was working on “bean and noodle” portraits of popular 70’s TV stars and had shows all over the city in galleries, restaurants and hair salons.
Jason & Adam, circa 2002
AA: A lot of time’s gone by, right? In ’97 I was a waiter at Bruno’s on Mission and 19th, which was hip at the time. On Valentine’s Day the hostess came up during service, telling me some cute guy’s outside. There’s Jason with flowers and a little heart charm necklace and a card that read “You’re Special”. OK. Simple. I like it! That Thursday we made our first date, now it’s 25 years later?
JM: After 5 years of stalking him, i guess he finally got the hint.
You mentioned after being here for so many years, this idea of “holding it down” in San Francisco as artists. As many know, trying to survive in SF as an artist has become increasingly hard over the past 10+ years. How do you feel about this city nowadays? Do you think it has a future as an artist’s city?
AA: I love San Francisco. I think of it as a metallic city and me a magnet. I think it has about as much potential to be an “artist’s city” as it ever has, which, I dunno. I do know that this is our city and we are artists who live here, and our plan is to continue to do so.
Jason, where did the idea for celebrity trash portraits come from? Most of the work you do tends to be commission work. Are there any favorite pieces you’ve done or any that have led to particularly memorable experiences?
Farah Fawcett made out of trash.
JM: Well, Farrah Fawcett for example, was one of the first where I was just pretending every thing I was gluing on belonged to her. Then it struck me to really ask people for their junk. Phyllis Diller was the first. I saw online she was a painter and it had her address listed so I wrote to her. Two weeks later I got a box of her stuff in the mail. And she never stopped mailing me stuff! I have about 20 small boxes... personal stuff like prescription bottles, pine cones from her lawn and her eyeglasses. After that I just started asking anyone i could get ahold of—through agents, PR people and friends of friends. It’s great now that I’m sort of known for doing this, so people commission me to do things that are already on my back burner.
Im pretty stoked to have my Hugh Hefner portrait in the Playboy Mansion. And we went to Elvira’s house. My art is in many celebrity homes, Ripley’s Believe it or Not Museums, and featured in music videos by Pink and Pitbull as well as TV shows like Glee, CNN and Martha and Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party.
Adam, on top of your art you have also work in theatre production and have your own group “Adam’s Theatre Group” at the Castro Senior Center. It sounds like you’re doing some really great work there and I can’t wait to come check it out. Can you tell us a little bit about it?
AA: My mission is to build a bridge between the arts community to folks who have previously been ignored within the arts. We’re starting to develop a new piece over at the Castro Senior Center, 110 Diamond, Tuesdays afternoons at 12:30. Come check out what’s up. I graduated SF State with a degree in theater, and since then I’ve been cultivating my ability to coax original experimental performances that resemble plays from any group of people, from preschoolers to transgender seniors in recovery. The painterly performances draw on my varied artistic background, which includes theater, installation, writing, fashion, music, and painting.
JM: Adams Theater Group is such a treat for the audience. If you ever have the chance you should go, the shows are few and far between. Its like his paintings and collages come to life and put on a crazy show for you. Adam style.
What are some of your guys’ biggest inspirations? What gets you excited about art and excited to make art?
JM: We both are impulsively compelled to create artwork for our own personal satisfaction above everything else. We can’t help it. I’m generally first inspired by a subject, and then by all the found objects I chose to represent them.
Painting by Adam.
Alright, let's talk about “Your Pillow Guy.” Jason, you started printing your celebrity trash portraits on little pillows and now there is this alter ego called “Your Pillow Guy” that stars in these funny commercials on the internet. Who is “Your Pillow Guy”? And why are people so drawn to him?
JM: Thanks for asking.Your Pillow Guy is a ficticious nutty salesman who sells pillows featuring the amazing artwork of Jason Mecier.
The famous Your Pillow Guy robe.
During Covid there was a lot of self reflection, and Your Pillow Guy is what popped out of me. I wanted to prove to myself that I still have what it takes to shake my ass on stage, hit those high notes, and kick! So I made a song and video with my talented friends (Music & Video by Evan Henkel featuring Ruby Vixen and Adam Ansell) to promote the website and bring affordable high quality merchandise into the Your Pillow Guy era. If you are reading this, you must go watch the YPG video on YouTube immediately. The Your Pillow Guy Universe awaits you.
Adam- you have quite the internet presence yourself. Your Instagram profile “Grumpa Pop” features you dancing in these homemade music videos that are interspersed with posts of your art as well as other content that is quite random and sometimes humorous. Where did this “Grumpa Pop” persona come from? And where’d ya get all the sweet dance moves?
AA: Ha... shlepping around on bi-lateral hip and shoulder replacements... you should have seen me in my hey-day, backflips and all! Since you’ve inquired so specifically about Grumpapop, I wrote a poem that I gather was maybe about me, so I took the title for myself…
JM: It started out during the Covid lockdown, I took pictures just to document Adam’s outfits everyday out in the empty city then that progressed into the dancing stories we see now.
Last question: what’s next for you two? Anything coming up that you’d like folks to know about? And what would you like to be working on if given the resources and opportunity?
JM: You know I used to have tons of big dreams and crazy art ideas. Now I’m trying to just be happy where I’m at and to make sure to keep all the doors for opportunity open.
AA: Continue being a playboy—a boy who plays.
