Vladimir Zimakov
We have long been admirers of the work of our second artist in this series. Vladimir Zimkov's body of work traverses a myriad of mediums, from linocut to silkscreen, and many others. He has collaborated with some of our favorite presses including Centipede Press, Suntup Editions, The Conversation Tree Press, Mad Parrot Press and has even released a project under his own imprint, Wild Pangolin Press. As an Associate Professor of Art and Design and the Director of the Wedeman Art Gallery at Lasell College in Newton, Massachusetts Zimakov not only crafts captivating visual narratives but also nurtures the creative talents of future generations. Join us as we delve into the creative mind of this prolific artist, exploring his blend of traditional techniques and contemporary vision.
Q: You are originally from Moscow and moved to America during very formative years in your childhood. What was that transition like for you and how do you think your earliest years in Russia and the move influenced your trajectory and overall artistic influences?
My family moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan when I was 12. I remember being fascinated by the American culture. I’d frequently take bus trips to the University of Michigan central campus, where my mom worked, and go to the university library. There, I would spend hours in the art section and check out anthologies of Batman and Superman comics. It was a whole new world for me. Also, it was a rough time, since I entered Junior High. This can be a traumatic experience for most and knowing very little English at the time didn’t help. All the while, I really missed Moscow and its environment. So, I started to create detailed ink drawings of the buildings and scenes that I remembered from Moscow. I don’t think that I was aware of it at the time, but art was my way to deal with old and new realities.
Q: Can you tell us about your earliest experiences with art and how your journey to being a full-time artist evolved? Who were the most important people that encouraged you and what artists did you look to for inspiration in your early years as an aspiring illustrator?
During the high school years, we moved quite a bit and I ended up switching schools three times. By the time I got used to the new environment, we would relocate. It was interesting. At some point, I stopped worrying about trying to fit in and became a careful observer, something that’s quite crucial for any artist. I also had amazing friends and teachers along the way. The Arts Magnet High School in Dallas was a key starting point for my art career. Surrounded by fellow like-minded friends, I decided to pursue an illustration degree and was accepted to the Kansas City Art Institute. I was doing a bit of everything there, things ranging from massive stage backdrops to small etchings, photography and sculpture. Professor Steve Mayse introduced me to 3-D illustration, a completely new concept. During my junior year, I studied in New York for a semester and met a renowned Russian artist, Mihail Chemiakin. After finishing college, I spent 3 years in upstate New York apprenticing with him. This was such a unique and eye-opening experience. Besides working with Mihail and doing my illustration assignments, I was exposed to thousands of books in his studio, something that solidified my passion for book art and illustration.
Q: You have an instantly recognizable style and aesthetic that lends perfectly to works in the gothic and weird fiction spectrum, where you have done a sizable amount of work. How did you begin to develop this style and how have you refined it over time to get it where it is today? Can you talk about your favorite mediums to work with as well?
After my apprenticeship with Chemiakin, I enrolled in an MA program at Central St. Martins College of Art and Design in London. The Communication Design major presented multiple options and at that point, I decided to focus on book design, letterpress printing and printmaking. My goal was to figure out how books were created and designed prior to all the technological advances of the 20th century. St. Martins had a great letterpress studio and lots of metal/wood type to experiment with. For my final project, I made a limited-edition book based on a short story by Nikolai Gogol, The Diary of a Madman. It was dark, absurd, mystical – everything that I was drawn to. One of the illustrations for the book was noticed by an art director at Penguin Classics and was used for the cover of their edition of Gogol’s short stories. This opened the door into the professional illustration world.
I think that my influences are apparent, especially in the early projects. I look up to artists like Lynd Ward and Leonard Baskin, among many. From that initial inspiration point, one must find new visual approaches and create a unique vocabulary. Our practice is very much like developing a language, creating a unique form of communication. Then you have to draw people into it, and make them understand it.
I love working with black-and-white imagery, sometimes with a splash of color. It all starts with a drawing and then becomes either a linocut or a charcoal drawing (more recently, also a painting or a 3D structure). It’s great to be able to move around – a linocut technique relies on very rhythmic and dramatic movement. A charcoal drawing is different – it results in smooth tonal transitions and there are very few contour lines. I like working with both, depending on what the project needs.
Q: Using relief forms of printing can be very manual and time-consuming, but also offers something you really can’t get with offset printing. How did you settle on linocut and other forms of relief printing as your principle medium and what do you think it offers that other forms of illustration don’t? How do you create depth with the limitations of relief printing, particularly when you are not using color?
It's interesting how relief printing became my main medium to work with. For one of the projects during my freshman year in college, I made a 4x8 foot woodcut. There wasn’t a press big enough to print it, so I made the impression by hand using a small spoon. After 6 hours of doing that and successfully turning the project in, I was left with a case of carpal tunnel syndrome and decided to step away from carving for a while. Some years later, while at St. Martins, I injured my right-hand finger right before a big project was due. I could not draw, but I could carve using the palm of my hand. In a way, this was a calling and I have been perfecting the linocut technique ever since.
Ultimately, what really draws me to relief printmaking is the precision of the mark. You plan the composition for hours and then you get one chance to get each cut just right. Once the mark is carved, there is no turning back. There is also a clear sense of completion. You can rework a drawing or a painting for weeks – the lino is done with the final cut of the carving tool. I love the fact that I am always playing with and controlling the rhythm of the composition with longer, shorter, curvy and straight lines. There is also something very rewarding about the fact that with printmaking, you are making multiple impressions. A print is more accessible but still feels very unique and personal.
Most of my prints are done with two plates – the main image in black and a ghost print underneath it (a lino that I run through the press several times before printing the impression for the final). I have discovered that by accident and loved the illusion of depth that it creates. It’s also great to work with limitations – with a drawing, you can get hundreds of shades, with a two-plate print, there are only two. Can’t help but bring up the music analogy – in a way, it’s similar to a two-track recording of a song, and some of the best music out there was done that way.
Q: You have been commissioned for projects of varying scale, from cover jobs for mass market publishers to smaller publications like Something Wicked This Way Comes from Centipede Press or the recent project with Conversation Tree Press and their weird fiction series. Do you find that these projects differ significantly as the size of the project increases or decreases or is your approach the same? Does the way you interact with the publisher change?
This is at the core of what keeps me excited about what I do. Every project is very different and I have been really lucky to work with some amazing art directors and printers. The main difference is that sometimes you get more and sometimes less artistic direction, but that does not necessarily depend on the mass market or a small press publisher.
In my experience, it’s not about the edition size of the book. It’s very much about serving the narrative and doing justice to the text. Sometimes we are trying to capture the whole essence of the book in one image; sometimes I am breaking the narrative into multiple scenes. Every project has specific goals and every art director has a unique creative vision.
Q: One of my personal favorite projects of yours was you collaboration with Mad Parrot Press, where your participated in the wonderful letterpress version of The Wind in the Willows with Chad Pastotnik of Deep Wood Press (who we will be interviewing later this year). How did this collaboration form and should we expect future collaborations?
Working with Chad and Jim on The Wind in the Willows was so rewarding on many levels. It presented me with an opportunity to illustrate something that was out of my comfort zone – a beloved children’s classic. We started talking about this book a few years after I met Chad at the CODEX book fair in California. I’ve sent him some initial drafts of the main characters and they aligned with his vision.
Chad is an incredible printer and I have learned so much from him in the process. I am happy to call him a good friend and can always rely on his word of advice. I do hope that we can collaborate on more projects in the future.
Q: As if you didn’t already have enough going on, you also created the Wild Pangolin imprint to publish your very own project. This was called Haddock’s Eyes and based on a poem by Lewis Carroll from the novel Through the Looking Glass. How did this project present itself to you and at what point did you know it was something you wanted to devote yourself to at the level you did?
Working on my own projects like this is quite different from working with a publisher. Basically, I oversee the whole production and experience – I am the art director, designer, illustrator, binder and typesetter. This is very liberating, but it also presents multiple challenges every step of the way - from what to illustrate/emphasize to what ink and paper to use for printing. I try not to rush those projects and there are no deadlines. The main goal is to achieve the best possible results, while experimenting with a variety of possible approaches. It’s based on intuition and what feels right. I would often restart or revise whole sections of the book, redoing months of work. With my own projects I also try to work on something that I would not normally get a chance to work with under commission.
Selecting the right project is never a forced process. I always look out for things that I might like to tackle and have a list of possible ideas. With Haddocks’ Eyes, and The Diary of a Madman before that, it came very naturally – one night I stumbled upon a text and it was clear that this was something that I could reinterpret in a unique and interesting way. Lewis Carroll’s Haddocks Eyes is written in a form of a dialogue between two people. The text leaves so much room for interpretation and working with typesetting.
The approach was very similar to staging a theater play – creating scenes and props; inventing characters; controlling their voice, intonation, and mood with typography. One of those projects where it takes 3 minutes to read the text, another hour or so to jot down initial ideas, and another 4 years to complete.
Q: When you decide to accept a particular commission for a small/fine press project, what are your first steps as you try to wrap your head around a piece of work and capture it? Do you try and isolate yourself with the written work or is it a more collaborative project with other individuals involved in the project and accomplishing a combined vision?
Some of the main questions that I personally think about are what are the key scenes in the book? What is the atmosphere that we are going for? What can I add to the text, without distracting from the main point of the book? What can I do that I haven’t done before? Sometimes I briefly discuss this with the publisher, then read (and oftentimes re-read) the book and go to the drawing table to create the initial sketches. Some images come very easy and naturally, while some require many edits and further dive into the text.
Once I share the drafts with the publisher, we have a discussion of what works and what might be done differently. So, it is a collaborative process and there is always open communication. What I try to isolate myself from is looking at the illustrations that were already done in the past based on a particular book. At least at the initial draft stages. Since I have worked on a lot of classics, sometimes there are hundreds of visuals that are out there and that might distract from coming up with a unique perspective on the text.
Q: On top of being an illustrator and collaborator with different presses, you are also an associate professor of art and director at a gallery, how do all of these pieces fit into your passion for art and how do you balance the different roles?
All of those things are a part of one whole creative journey and are closely related to one another. I lecture about things that I experiment with in my studio – printmaking, typography, composition, illustration, and design. Being a gallery director allows me to be connected with the broader artistic community, discover amazing artists, and observe the latest art trends. Helping to set up or curate an exhibition is very much an artistic practice. There is a system that I developed over the years to balance all those tasks. I normally teach and do my gallery duties during the day, then work on my own projects/commissions during the night. The summer and winter breaks at the University are set aside for completing major illustration projects, starting new series, and generating new ideas.
Q: If you could pick one piece of literature to illustrate that you think would fit well with your style, what would that be? Why?
Picking just one is tricky, I already have quite a long list of things I’d love to work on. I really hope to be able to do any major novel/collection of stories by Charles Bukowski. I think that the linocut approach can reflect this quite well. But there is so much more to figure out. His writing is funny, sad, raw, sentimental, outrageous, rude, tender, and atmospheric. How would you capture that? I would welcome this challenge any day.
Q: We know you are working on a few projects like the weird fiction series with The Conversation Tree Press mentioned above, but is there anything else you can tell us about that is on the horizon? Are there any personal or commissioned projects you can talk about in their earlier stages?
I have started the Wild Pangolin Press with the intention of tackling absurd, nonsensical, whimsical and curious topics. The summer is upon us and, as I have mentioned, that’s the time to experiment and get new ideas going. Too early to tell what they will be or what will click. I am circling around something based on fairy tales by Oscar Wilde, newspaper clippings from 1890s personal absurd poems and a narrative for a wordless graphic novel. There is also a stack of unused ideas for prints, paintings, stop-motion animations, and 3D structures. Let’s see where we are in a few months!
This interview was done in a series of communications back and forth and we want to thank Vladimir for his willingness to be a part of this series and collaborating with us on one of our broadsides. If you want to check out a selection of Vladimir's past projects, you can take a look at his portfolio on his website https://www.vladimirzimakov.com/. For updates on potential new projects from Wild Pangolin Press, follow here. To stay up to date on the breadth of everything he is working on, you can follow him on Instagram.
Interview by: Zach Harney of the Collectible Book Vault
*Photography by Yegor Malinovskii for Born of Man and Woman
Wow, perfect contrast. Very moody and your work just breathes NOIR!
Congrats to the winners of the broadside giveaway:
Ben Bosco
@Kristie.left
Thank you everyone for joining in, really appreciate it!
amazing work! really enjoyed the interview
Loved the illustrations in Something Wicked.
Fantastic interview, as always!