by AR Kinsella
Hi! You’re Joshua Paulsen, AKA Icaruvs! I’ll start with the question my spell-check is prompting me to ask, which is, why the v? And as long as we’re on the subject, why the Icaruvs moniker?
“Oh poor Icarus, if only someone had screamed ‘stay weak!’ as he flew up to his demise he may of steered towards orion. Then again, he might not of been stillborn either.” - Tar Hymnote
I dig your drawings. Last year you told Waste Division’s inimitable MK Teske that you had just moved from working exclusively ballpoints and charcoal to incorporating colored pencils as well. How’s the new medium been treating you?
“One has to be careful what one takes when one goes away forever.” - Leonora Carrington
I’m trying to give each artist a controversial political question this year. Really stir the pot, y’know? Here it is: Some people say that the president sucks wet diarrhea ass, while others say that he sucks wet diarrhea ass. Where do you come down on this tendentious issue?
“Go back to bed America.” - Bill Hicks
Some of your work includes this warped text, a lot of which to me feels like it’s somewhere between Black Metal album cover and Ralph Steadman. It rocks. Can you talk a little about using text in visual art? Does it feel different than the drawings from a production standpoint?
“Sad notes those ones. Drifting from one alphabet to the next like a vagrant, knowing that the only thing it's worth is if the whole damn machine functions together and just as well, each letter with its own mind.” - Irenaeus Zov
There are recurring references to the Roman poet Ovid on your instagram. What’s that about?
“Hiding places there are innumerable, escape is only one, but possibilities for escape, again, are as many as hiding places. There is a goal, but no way; what we call a way is hesitation.” - Franz Kafka
I also noticed you hashtag a lot of your posts “outsiderart”. Do you consider yourself an outsider artist?
“By drawing I can erase the daunting world.” - Nick Blinko
My cat won’t stop shitting in the palm plant. Any advice?
"Very well, very well, I'm prepared to be silent. I'll be a silent hallucination." - Behemoth
Finally, can you give us a self-portrait, whatever that means to you?
I realize today that nothing in the world is more distasteful to a man than to take the path that leads to himself.“ - Herman Hesse
