Underground Art Union Featured Artist: October 2007

Mister Primly is the collaborative team of brothers Corn and Tom Pribyl. I became familiar with these Texas artists through MySpace and had made plans to attend their show in Dallas. With great anticipation my wife and I headed out only to be run off of the road by a gigantic Texas thunderstorm. Cruel fate.

The brothers have created a colorful and vibrant collection of art that makes light of the stern and sober religious icons infused into their psyche during the days of their youth.

Their great sense of humor is evident in the art they have created, betraying the fact that they may not take themselves too seriously.

Crack a beer and a smile—meet Mister Primly...

Left to right: Corn & Tom Pribyl

Mister Primly
as interviewed by the Underground Art Union

Underground Art Union: Who are the Primly Brothers? Tell us about where you live.

Corn: The Primly Bro's. are Tom and his brother Tim (a.k.a. Corn). Tom lives in Dallas and I've lived in Austin for the last 20 years, although I grew up in Dallas. Tom is a painter, motion graphics artist, and animator. I was retired from the art scene until this latest show.

UGAU: What experiences did you have growing up to light the creative spark within you? Were your parents artistic?

Corn: Cartoons, comic books, plastic models, national lampoon, and mad magazine just to name a few influences that sparked our attention. When I was a kid, I would draw by copying from cartoons and comic books. It wasn't until high school when the art classes influenced me to draw for myself. Also, while in summer school I met a nun who could draw. She was the first person who taught me perspective.

My brother was in college and his artwork influenced me a lot. I was always encouraged by him, regardless of how terribly stupid my work seemed to be. My parents were huge backers of whatever we wanted to do with our lives. Mom could draw a little bit, and dad was an electrical engineer.

Tom: My brother and I influenced each other a lot growing up. We were always scheming up things in some creative fashion or another. I started playing guitar, so Corn started playing drums. Corn would make weird gifts for his friends, so I would end up making weird gifts for his friends. Corn would make a drawing. I would turn it into a painting.

UGAU: Your work has a lot of focus on religion. How did this come about?

Corn: We grew up in a catholic family, although neither one of us believed in what we were being taught. The pieces we did for this show were because of our religious background. You cannot escape your own history. Why not exploit it? These are, and were, the only pieces you will probably see from us that are strictly based on growing up in this religion. All other past collaborations have not been.

Tom: Well, we might not have totally believed it, but I was terrified that Jesus was going to come into my room some night when we stayed at our grandmother's house. My grandmother collected newspaper clippings of visitations and Jesus and Mary sightings and they were like ghost stories. I couldn't imagine anything scarier than to have Jesus pop up in your room and light everything up with his heavenly glow. If you grow up catholic, it's always there, so I wouldn't be surprised if we create more pieces that are religiously-themed.

UGAU: How would you describe your art?

Corn: Silly. I don't take things too seriously. I'm always try to get people to laugh at what I do. What they get out of it I don't know. The work is not meant to offend or cause controversy. Just to make people crack a smile.

Tom: Stupid. We spend tremendous amounts of time and energy making things that are frivolous and kitschy.

UGAU: How much of your work is collaborative? Who does what? Do you sometimes clash in concept?

Corn: My brother originally started the oil paintings in the early nineties and I had done an original paint by numbers religious clown for his birthday in 1996. After years of talking about it, we decided to put on a show. Collaborating with him is extremely easy. We just pass work back and forth, via the internet, until the idea is set. As far as painting them, whoever has the time is the one doing the work. Although some of these pieces are started by both of us, usually they are finished only by one. The only time we've clashed, is when to stop painting. I would say it's finished and he would push for more paint. We respect each others work enough to know what the others idea is. So clashing is rare.

Mister Primly is a concept in itself. It's a suggested correction in a computer program to our real name. Mr. Pribyl = Mr. Primly. So we took that correction and spelled out mister.

Tom: Mister Primly is a collaborative name for collaborative work.

UGAU:Tell me about your creative process.

Corn: Talk, draw, paint. Talk, draw, paint. It's just that. A process. There is no formula really. We've both been creative throughout our lives. We just put that creativity to canvas. Collaborations are great. One person influences the other. Thank goodness neither one of us have inflated egos. I think that's why it works.

Tom: The first part of the creative process is getting ourselves off our lazy asses. That's the hard part. It's much easier to sit around in bars and drink. Once we get to work, the creative process is kind of like telling jokes to each other. I'll try to come up with something that I think will surprise Corn or make him laugh. He'll take that idea and throw it back at me with his own quirk attached. Back and forth and back and forth until we can't take the ideas for a particular piece any further.

UGAU: Who/what are some of your influences? What current artist do you admire?

Corn: Music is my biggest influence. I couldn't work without it. I am not really influenced by artists in general. I don't admire the artist, I admire their work. And no one specifically turns me on. I am all for anything that anyone can produce, but some just catch my eye more than others.

Tom: I've always been a big fan of Donald Roller Wilson. And I always wanted to be a painting equivalent of The Residents.

UGAU: What's in the future for the primly Brothers?

Corn: Don't know. Will just have to wait a see what comes up next. No specific plans at this moment. Any future collaborations will be under the name Mister Primly. Will go back doing individual work for awhile until something else comes around.

Tom: Beer.

Left to right: Corn & Tom Pribyl

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