| Blake Nelson Boyd | |
|---|---|
Blake Nelson Boyd in 2009 by David Gamble. |
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| Born | 1 October 1970 (age 41) Slidell, U.S.A. |
| Nationality | American |
| Field | Conceptual art, installation art, painting |
| Training | Memphis College of Art, |
| Works | Tears of a Clown, Blood Christ, Destroyer |
| Awards | Pollock Krasner 2007-8 |
Blake Nelson Boyd (born October 1, 1970) is an American film actor, comedian, and visual artist who lives and works in New Orleans, Louisiana and London. Boyd was mentored by Andres Serrano and Andy Warhol Factory manager Billy Name in the 1990s. Boyd's visual art takes many different forms of expression including painting, photography, drawing, sculpture, video and installation.
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Boyd was born and raised in Slidell, Louisiana, a small town just outside of New Orleans. His mother is an elementary school teacher, who left the family when Boyd was eleven. His father is the owner of a construction company and left Blake to his own devices from his teenage years onward. At the age of sixteen Boyd started to paint, with the ambition of showing professionally, and began his apprenticeship with an established local artist that lasted fourteen and a half years. He dropped out of Memphis College of Art in 1989 for financial reasons and then apprenticed with a local artist for fourteen years. At twenty-one Blake met his first significant mentor, New York artist Andres Serrano, who, knowing Blake's appreciation of Andy Warhol, introduced him to Taylor Mead. This friendship expanded to include other members of the Warhol Factory, including Billy Name, Ultra Violet, Allen Midgette and Robert Heide.
In the summer of his sixteenth year Boyd took the money from his garage sale and flew to Los Angeles to be discovered for film. There he met, and photographed, another of his heroes, Johnny Carson. This was the first of Boyd's celebrity portraits but, unfortunately, not the beginning of his film career as he intended. In recent years Hollywood has come to Louisiana and Blake has appeared in the short-lived TV series K-Ville and the feature films Deja Vu, Tribute and Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant (in which he is credited as Mr. Afraid of the Ground Man). Blake is currently in talks with an established actor/writer/comedian about a TV series based upon Blake's childhood, growing up in Slidell, Louisiana.
In the mid 1990s, Blake custom made a rabbit head that he wore to events in New Orleans and New York, dressed as a rabbit, inspired by "The Space Bunny", a story he wrote in 1978.
In the late 1990s Blake created the character Andy Clone, as whom he performed, dressed as Andy Warhol, in New Orleans, New York City, and Pittsburgh. The character referenced Andy Warhol creating a robot of himself. Following Warhol's death, The Warhol Foundation did not permit the robot to make appearances feeling that it was too morbid. Blake created Andy Clone to continue Warhol into the 21st century. Billy Name has claimed that Andy Clone was cloned from one of Andy's wig hairs.[1]
In May 2005 Blake took out a two-page advertisement in 'Art in America', a personal letter to Matthew Marks. Some critics appreciated it as art, while others missed the point and did not pick up on Boyd's background of performance and comedic commentary.
Blake has improved his technique since Johnny Carson, 1987, learning from his mentors Andres Serrano and Billy Name. His first portraits were taken using the strip photobooth machines and, following the disappearance of the chemical based equipment, he has recently been using with Polaroid film. This medium has also died out. Historic portraits in these media include Bryan Batt, Sir Peter Blake, James Carville, Patricia Clarkson, Tracey Emin and Brad Pitt.
Blake is working on a trio of documentary photographic projects based upon his home state of Louisiana since Hurricane Katrina. "Louisiana Cereal" is the first of the series, and has been underway for over two years.
The August 2007 National Geographic magazine cover "New Orleans - Should it rebuild?", along with romanticized devastation themed art collections and a National and International perception that New Orleans was still underwater even two years later, prompted Boyd to undertake a positive art project. "Louisiana Cereal" is a photographic portrait documentary of over two hundred personalities vital to the rebuilding of the region.
Disney World opened on Blake's first birthday. His grandmother, Frida Boyd was a secretary at Disney World and his two uncles (just a decade or less older than Blake) worked there in their teenage years. Blake visited this personal "mecca" every year until he was a teenager himself. Disney imagery is a recurring theme in Boyd's work. His paintings reinterpret Disney icons and he has been photographing celebrities in Mickey Mouse Ears since the early 1990s.