ALEX J CUTLER IS A JUNKYARD JESUS

Chatting about life and work with Alex J Cutler @alexjcutler
Images and Words by Khalilah Pianta @k.hllywd

I had some ideas about how I wanted my story with LA-based artist Alex Jerre Cutler to go, but things rarely pan out as planned. So instead we shot “The Birth Story of Junkyard Jesus”, played “Big City Vagabonds” while a bum called us losers, and tried to find some part of what's left of the Wild, Way Out West...- Khalilah

"I feel like a kid who never quite grew up from playing cowboys and indians, building forts and blowing shit up. I have intentionally protected these parts of myself to keep a certain perspective on the world. The part of me that did grow up, however, has seen some shit, done some shit, and can't look away. “ -Alex

Cutler's work is an interpretation of the dynamic currents of American culture and the lingering grit of the American west, exploring  themes of deviancy, risk, masculinity and the unforgiving reality of nature. It’s at once serious and irreverent, like putting an M80 in a fort you spent all weekend making.

"There is an awareness of grandeur, and idealism as a fleeting notion, and it is left open as to whether this is being celebrated or scrutinized.  This is the new landscape of the west as a state of mind, where the physical borders have been established the boundless frontier and wild spirit runs free in all its vibrant shades of hope and despair."

It was a strange and beautiful day. Being with Alex me brought back to my inner child, someone i'd abandoned prematurely and long ago. I was a visitor to a reckless world but I got the sense that Alex is a resident: living a reckless life, painting from the inside out, and sharing small truths through sentimental musings and dry-witted wisecracks.

Alex is currently making paintings for a show opening early December at the WerkArtz space in DTLA. Check his stuff here
Words and images by Khalilah Pianta check her stuff here