At what age did you decide to become an artist?

I had never decided to be an artist until I was sixteen. I drew pictures like everyone else starting around kindergarten. Dinosaurs, airplanes, and dinosaurs. When I was sixteen and on the wrestling team, I broke my finger during a match, and I couldn’t draw for at least two weeks. It was the most excruciating period of high school for me. I realized right then that I was going to be an artist.

How did your parents react when you told them you wanted to be an artist?

They were concerned. They were both gym teachers and had no clue how to raise an artist, but they supported me as best they could.

Who are your favorite artists?

I have many. I have some that I originally liked and felt influenced by. I don’t remember the name of the artist who illustrated a version of Frankenstein in the early eighties, but it wasn’t Bernie Wrightson’s. The art teacher that my mother knew from the high school I eventually attended gave it to me when I was in fifth or sixth grade. It wasn’t the John Buscema Conan the Barbarian art I preferred, but it grew on me as did the concept that I could make a living illustrating books. I eventually found Brad Holland, Baron Story, Bill Seinkiewicz, Ralph Steadman, Jack Davis, Simon Bisley, and many others! Painting has a slew of other influences like Lucian Freud, Phil Hale, Degas, Manet, Titian, Goya, and many others. 

Who is your favorite artist whose work is unlike your own?

I love the colors and compositions of Paul Klee. 

Art book you cannot live without?

My Lucian Freud (1996).

What is the quality you most admire in an artist?

Consistency. 

Do you keep a sketchbook?

I keep all my sketchbooks! I have at least one sketchbook in my bag that I carry everywhere I go. I have many shelves full of filled-up sketchbooks. 

What’s your favorite museum in all the world?

The Met. I’ve seen some memorable shows there.

What’s the best exhibition you have ever attended?

Jenny Saville at Gagosian Gallery when it was in SoHo sometime in the nineties. I was walking around looking for a new coffee shop to fill out one of those sketchbooks when I came across an open garage door the size of a semi. I peeked inside and saw these amazing giant canvases depicting nudes. The color wasn’t very complex but it was perfect for the subject matter. Taken in as a show, it was mind-blowing for me. I wanted to paint on that scale so badly!

If you were not an artist, what would you be?

I would have been a psychologist of some sort.

Did you have an artistic cohort that influenced your early creative development?

My cohort was my animosity for the place I grew up. Not anger, just a disappointment that people couldn’t accept something different. It made me leave, and it made me grow.

What is one thing you didn’t learn in art school that you wish you had?

I wish I knew I was supposed to make friends with my instructors, so they would give me the extra knowledge/help I could use later. I was so juvenile when I was in art school!

What work of art have you looked at most and why?

This is hard to say. I look at Phil Hale‘s work whenever I come across it. I don’t refer to the same one every time.

What is your secret visual pleasure outside of art?

I like walking through urban environments.

Do you listen to music in your studio?

I listen to jazz when I paint. During baseball season, I listen to games on the radio.

What is the last gallery you visited?

Harmon Projects in the Lower East Side.

Who is an under-rated artist people should be looking at?

Well, I think he’s pretty rated, but George Pratt? He usually isn’t the first artist to come to people’s lips, but if he’s mentioned, it seems there are always a few people who will gush over his work. Of course, relative to the company I seem to keep.

What art materials can you not live without?

Pencils.

Do you create art every day?

I mostly draw every day and paint several times a week.

What is the longest time you went without creating art?

A month? 

What do you do when you are feeling uninspired?

Read. Go for walks in areas I haven’t been or been to in a long time.

What are the questions that drive your work?

Who’s paying?! Kidding. I’m always asking myself, Will this image be memorable? Why would anyone want to look at it? Is this funny? I think art can tell more about the artist than they want to share. An artist needs to be self-aware and that is what I try to be with everything I make, whether for an illustration or for myself.

What is the most important quality in an artist?

Being open-minded but having the discipline to know what you do and where those two things meet. 

What is something you haven’t yet achieved in art?

Retirement.

What is the best thing about art in the era of social media?

I think it’s the ability to put your art out there and get feedback/accolades from total strangers.

FRED HARPER will be teaching a five-day workshop Caricature Without Going Too Far, February 5–9, 2024, at the Art Students League of New York.