Daniel Martin Diaz

What's your name & what are you doing later today?

I am the artist formerly known as Johnny crap, or Zen. Now  I use my real name, Jonathan Bergeron. I will most likely listen to some music and paint a little once my son is in bed.

How does having a show affect your production and routine?
 
Well, I have to say that I've been kicking my own butt lately to push every painting a little further and I also started doing bigger pieces. All the art for the show was done in the last 3 months, actually most of them in the last 2 months. I do tend to procrastinate quite a lot but in the last 2 months I didn't take too much time off. With a 2 year old kid, my gig doing bands merch and MMA shirts for Dethrone Royalty plus the show to work on, I didn't get a chance to get out of the house much. It's been good though, it gave me a chance to make my technique grow and and create my own world using that little calavera dude that I came up with 2 years ago.

Your style evolved quite a lot from your pin up/hot rod days, have you seen a difference in your audience because of it?
 
I am always surprised how many "Kustom Kulture fans" followed me into the new stuff I started doing. When you do the pinup/hotrod stuff you are kind of expected to keep working in a certain style, reworking on the same ideas that other Hot rod artists  work on but to still make it you own. I just kind of got tired of that. I wanted to allow myself to work without contraints. I still get emails from people who saw my stuff in back issue of Old Skool Rodz or The Horse Backstreet Chopper and they tell me that they also like what I am doing now.
I am also still in touch with other artists still working in that style and they still buy my art now.

You've done quite a lot of music posters as well. Is that just a hustle, or has to do with philosophical/lifestyle choice of yours?

It's something I always wanted to do growing up. When I was about 14 or 15 I would come to Montreal, I was raised in Beloeil (20 min south of Montreal), and I would tear show posters off telephone poles to stick on my bedroom wall. Then, when I moved to Montreal at 20yrs old , the poster scene was pretty much dead. All the posters were basically really bad computer posters. No one was drawing for a poster anymore. I managed to do some for the Jailhouse (R.I.P), a punk/R'N'R venue on Mt-Royal and then about 9 years ago I started doing some for Greenland productions. From there I got to do some merch for local bands, then merch for bigger bands like Slayer and Black label Society, some album covers, did paintings for Ozzy, Metallica and Peter Gabriel. So I guess music brought me to to what I do now. That and skateboard culture.

What's it like to paint commissionned jobs, as opposed to projects of your own?
 
Commisionned jobs are usually more for the money than the pleasure to paint. I decline most these days unless I really like the general idea and that there is some room to experiment. I already do commisionned work in the form of band or mix martial art shirts, that allows me to paint whatever I want the rest of the time.

Do you consider your work accessible, money wise and creatively?
 
I like to think that it is accessible. Of course people need to have an open mind as far as the subjects go and money wise, well, I see a whole lot of dirt out there being sold at pretty high prices so yes, I would like to think that it's affordable for all the efforts that I put in a painting.

You're a family man too. how do you maintain a balance? How does freelancing balance with that?
 
It's hell. If I could I would only be a family man and maybe paint one or 2 pieces a year but then my painting wouldn't be affordable anymore, haha. Nothing beats taking your son to the park but since I also gotta pay the bills I have to find time for everything.

So people say that being an artist is the strongest liberty you can choose in our times. Do you agree?
 
I love working for myself. There is a huge sense of achievement that comes with it. I don't think that I would ever be able to go back to a regular job now that I know what it's like to be my own boss.

If you had unlimited funding, what would you create?

A theme park.

Any shoutouts, promo beefs?
 
First of all I have to say that I owe a whole lot to Kary, my partner in life and mother of my little dude Joey. A huge thank you is in order too to everyone at Yves Laroche Galerie D'art for giving me and Chris Ryniak a show and finally Klim and Scott from Bigshot Toyworks for working on "Misfortunate Travellers" resin sculpture that will be released at our show.

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 Thanks Jonathan! And a big thank you to our friend Louis (louiscoupal.com) for the interview!

 Jonathan Bergeron
"Warlord"
24" x 20"
Huile sur panneau de bois