Donny Miller

Donny Miller has a giagantic cock.  But it's his poignantly cynical artwork that he's most known for.

Recently he compiled some of his work into a hardcover book titled Beautiful People with Beautiful Feelings.

A California native, Donny lives in Los Angeles.


I’ve always had an affinity for your work, be it the cheesy clip-art or the cynical one-liners… to use the analogy of a song, what comes first in your work?  The lyrics or the music?

Right, cheesy...I write the lyrics almost always first. Then I get Paul or George to play a little something. Ringo adds his special thing to it.

Cheesy, meaning more like tongue-in-cheek, which I guess is something else entirely. But really, The Beatles? I always thought you’d be more of a Stones guy.  Or Steely Dan.

Cheesy means of poor or shoddy quality.

And if it weren’t for The Beatles, The Stones, especially, wouldn’t even have made the music they made in the 60’s.  They were trying to be The Beatles really hard.  Have you ever heard the White Album?  That’s the best album they did in my opinion.  It’s so far ahead.  It’s timeless.  The bands around now couldn’t make that album if you challenged them.  I’m a 60’s and 70’s music buff.  I know a lot about this era and in my opinion they’re the only eras that have lasted.  You look back on the 80’s and laugh, the 90’s were a joke except for a few bands. I’m really hard on bands.  I love music from the 80’s and 90’s, but the 60’s and 70’s were the best for me.  That’s what made songs by Kurt Cobain so good.  He was trying to say something.  Give it a little meaning.  Most music is just the music and the lyrics are secondary.

But then I like that new song by Christina Aguilara.  It’s catchy.  Your mind says two things when it hears a song, Yes or No.  And you really don’t have much control over it.  These are guilty pleasures.

There are two kinds of music.  Good and bad. Buddy Rich.

I’m also into jazz a lot.

Can an art book change the world?

Define change.  You know, I have a law degree and I’m a master of the English language.  I will fuck you and everything your uncle worked for.

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OK...  Well, how was your book tour?  What cities did you hit?

Incredible.  I went to 10 cities: Costa Mesa, LA, Long Beach, San Francisco, Portland, Denver, Chicago, Newport Beach, San Diego and New York.

It was great.  I love traveling.  We've sold 90% of the 1st edition at last count.  Great for 2 months of hustling.

What’s the best part of traveling/hustling?

Traveling-I like running from plane to plane and I kind of like bumpy rides.  It’s terrifying, but it’s fun, too.  I also like checking out different places on the globe.

Hustling-I’ve become very good at it.  It’s sales really.  It’s all language.  How you put it.  I have a knack for it.  That’s where artists fail a lot.  They don’t have the right sales approach.  You have to have the right sales person and if someone asks you about a piece you better know what to say.

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You were living in a storefront in Manhattan for how long?  What was that all about?

Press.  People were more like, "What the fuck is going on?"  So was I.  It was so incredibly hot there.  Inside it was like 125+ degrees.  I got a fan and it was still ridiculous.  I woke up once and didn't know what was going on.  They had painted it the day before I got there.  It wasn't even done drying.  Too humid.
It was like 8 days.  I left and all of that, I wasn't doing like a do nothing stunt.

You seem to be good at self-promotion, getting yourself out there, be that through myspace or your personal website or Manhattan storefronts … but what’s the real secret?

I sell enthusiasm.  Any good salesman knows how to do that.  You just have to be in a good mood, well rested, sincere and willing to talk to people.  I've read PT Barnum books.  I really cite him as a major influence.  Enthusiasm is the one thing I think many artists lack.  You have to sell people on something to make them want it.  That's what Andy Warhol did.  But what was better, and something I do as well, is I get other people to do it for me.  That's the best selling.  Having an agent of information.  Could be a friend or whatever.

You have to be personable.  I try and be super cool with people and when you do that two things happen, you get things done, but you also get people trying to take advantage of you right away.  Then you can walk away from them sooner.  I could be a cock and play a game with people, but I don’t have time for that.  I’m not a game show host.  Or maybe I am.  Who knows?

Let’s talk about your website.  I really enjoy the “How to Become an Artist” suggestions, but what’s up with your cock?

I've already checked off all the items on that list.  I remember you wrote an article on me [The Prattler, '04] and ran a picture of my cock.  My cock is doing pretty good.  I got a new pair of diesel jeans and they're kind of tight because they're 32's and my cock looked obscene in them.  So, many women have no problem

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staring at a man's crotch.  Especially older women, because they don't care anymore.  They just want to gum a cock to death.  Lot’s of older women eat full size gummy cocks.  

What’s the difference between “high art” and “low art”?

No real difference anymore.  Low art goes for 10's of thousands.  What's low about that?  At some point, it's all high art.  But more than anything it's all commercial art.  If you refused to sell a piece, then it would be art in its purest form.  I'm going to do that.

What’s your connection with the skating community?  Do you skateboard?

Yeah, don’t skateboard as much as I'd like.  I've worked for as either an art director or creative director for Etnies, Vans Shoes and Skateboarder magazine.  So, I've been around it forever.  I grew up around all those guys like Ed Templeton, Mark Gonzales, Jason Lee, Skippy, Aaron Devine, Lucero, Justin Regan, Jamie Hart, Ricky Barnes, Jimmy A.  The list goes on and on.  Steve Robert.  I just got off the phone with him.  He was in Rubbish Heap.

There was one summer where I got really good.  I fakie ollied a really big fire hydrant and 360 nollied the Huntington Bench, for the old timers out there.  I used to do hurricanes like 30 feet.  I loved doing that trick.  You could haul ass and lock in forever.  Such a beautiful and destructive trick.  Graceful.
I saw Aaron Devine do one like forever and I was like, I'm going to do that.

I remember seeing Jason and mark filming the Blind Days video and jason nose grinded the length of the "Something" View Middle School (all the schools in Huntington Beach usually have a "view" on the end of them) bench and then Mark backside nose blunt slided half of it.  Everyone got quiet.  He didn't like the way he came off and didn't put it in the video.  It didn't matter, it was the first one I had ever seen anyone do.  It was probably the first one ever done.

He can ollie using the side of his board.  Like not using the tail or the nose.  The side, the rail.  Maybe he should call it a trollie.  He does it to grind on benches.

Future Magazine?

Who knows.  I'm not being cryptic, but I honestly don't know what's going on with it.

What’s the future of Donny Miller?

Some more living.  New books.  I wrote a movie and I’m managed by a company called Anonymous Content.  They produced Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind.  I’m getting into making films.  That’s what I’m doing now.

What’s your movie about?

It’s Los Angeles film noir.  It’s about a man who dies in a car accident.  It all takes place on Wilshire Blvd.  It’s my ode to Los Angeles.  I love LA.  A lot of people think LA is shallow and they’re dead on the money.  I wrote a book about those characters.  But LA is more than that.  If people can’t see past the shallow people, then they’re shallow themselves.  There are a lot of layers to LA.  There’ve been a lot of things that happened here.

Website

http://www.donnymiller.com

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