Anchorage Daily News

When not churning out comic books, art books and comic strips, Jim Mahfood takes his bodacious graffiti-inspired funk art to the streets on T-shirts, album covers, fliers and skateboard decks, not to mention late-night mural performances in which live art mixes it up with hip-hop and pickup lines.

"If you're diverse and do a little of everything, people will eventually see what you do," said the 33-year-old artist from Los Angeles. "Some kids only know me through comic books, but they eventually learn I do advertising art, live art, all kinds of things."

Painting for the party crowd lets him get back to his artistic roots, with music as a major influence. Mahfood describes his drawing style as founded in funk and hip-hop.

"Hip-hop has music, a dance form -- break dancing -- and spoken word as rap," said Mahfood, aka Food One. "Its visual art form is graffiti. This stuff we do at nightclubs just takes that idea and replaces spray paint with paintbrushes, markers and oil sticks to make paintings live inside the club without it being considered graffiti."

In a more traditional vein, Mahfood worked for Marvel Comics on various Spider-Man titles and the subversive "Generation X Underground Special" before getting his big break as the illustrator for two comic books based on the movie "Clerks." Filmmaker Kevin Smith penned the stories.

Moving to the City of Angels has turned into a great career move, said Mahfood, who grew up in the Midwest and went to school at the Kansas City Art Institute. The vigorous art and music scene affords him plenty of venues for painting after long days at the drawing table.

"I don't do it to generate huge sums of money," Mahfood said. "It's a break from sitting at my studio working on comic books and T-shirt designs. In the nightclubs you can lose yourself to the night, the moment, with a cold beer in one hand and a paintbrush in the other. Now that's heaven."

The artist's satirical, subversive style really shines in his comic books series, "Grrl Scouts"; his graphic novel, "The Further Adventures of One Page Filler Man"; and his comic strip, "Stupid Comics," in the Phoenix New Times.

A few years ago, he even illustrated a cover story for the New Times called "The Passion of El Cristo," an absurd, bittersweet send-up of Arizona's immigration laws.

Politics and irony aside, Mahfood merely wants to get his art out to people who might not otherwise see it. Live mural performances do exactly that while letting him relax.

"I like the idea of people who wouldn't normally buy art wanting to buy one of my paintings because they experienced it being made at the club," he said. "I've had real jocklike guys, guys you'd never expect to see in a gallery or reading a modern comic book, buying my art. It's a weird connection for a moment with a stranger who you wouldn't normally think would buy art."

The idea of a stranger buying and hanging one of his paintings and then telling friends about the experience at a dinner party appeals to him, as does the simplicity of the work itself.

"I've been doing live art for 11 years now," he said. "I've seen it grow and spread all over the country, with crews and kids doing their own version of it. The reason why anyone can do it is that there's no groundwork, no requirements. You can tape a piece of paper on the wall and draw with crayons and it would be live art."

He does want to see it evolve, though, and maybe even involve real people as his canvas.

"We want to get them to strip to their underwear so we can paint on human bodies," he said, "rolling the paint over their stomachs and backs, letting it dry, and then going in and doing line work and details."

Sort of like a temporary tattoo fueled on Red Bull and funk or an art buzz where everything pops and nothing lasts.

Find Dawnell Smith online at adn.com/contact/dsmith or call 257-4587.

The artist at UAA

JIM MAHFOOD will do a presentation and workshop this week at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

His multimedia presentation will cover everything from the original mini-comics he did with friends in college to techniques, processes and finished pieces today. Hear him out and see his work from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday in Room 150 of the Fine Arts Building at UAA.

During his workshop and performance the next day, he wants to do live mural paintings to music much like what he does in nightclubs but without the booze. People can saunter by for a look or stay as long as they want. He'll paint from noon to 7 p.m. Thursday in the Student Union Gallery.

"Our event will include a DJ spinning music, so it will be a laid-back live mural event," said Sarah Olsen, the assistant manager of the gallery.

Learn more about Mahfood's work at www.40ozcomics.com and myspace.com/mahfood. To find out details about his UAA visit and upcoming shows, click "Art Gallery" and scroll to the event listing at uaa.alaska. edu/studentlifeandleadership/activities.

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