Interview: Sour Apple Gallery

One day while shopping, a store caught my eye with promises of geeky goodies. Upon entering I found myself surrounded with endless nerdy items. Imagine if The Little Mermaid collected Star Wars, superheroes and Doctor Who; you would have this shop. While browsing the goods numerous pieces of art caught my eye. Beloved characters painted onto comic panels that they are featured in? Fantastic! From Spock to Slimer, your geek interests are covered. As I inquired about the art, the very kind man behind the counter explained that he created the pieces. David Lizanetz is easily one of the most unique artists I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. Unfortunately, he no longer operates from this shop. However, his art lives on and multiplies.

With his one-of-a-kind art geared towards geeks, I jumped at the chance to interview him.
Interview: Sour Apple Gallery
TGL: You’re an amazing artist, would you like introduce yourself to our readers?
David: I am David Lizanetz, and I do fan art. For the fans!

TGL: When did you start creating art?
David: I’ve been doing art since I was a kid, but professionally since 2000. The pop culture art I’ve been doing for about three years. Before that I did more decorative art like landscapes and abstract paintings. My background is Fine Art.

TGL: What has been your favorite piece to create so far?
David: I’m a big Superman fan and he was the first character that I painted. It was so much fun that I just wanted to do more. He was my first and my favorite.

TGL: Explain a little bit more about the comics behind the paintings that you do. Do you use actual comic panels?
David: They are real comic panels from comic books. I try to find the old ones, where the pages are a little yellow, and the newsprint quality not the glossy ones of today. Just because it gives a cooler look, to me, I like that kind of vintage quality. I started doing that because after going to conventions, I never saw anything like that. I thought ‘I wanted to do paintings, but have it be unique and different from what I’ve seen. A cool background would be to use comic book pages and then paint the character on top.’ So, that’s what I did and it turned out really cool.

TGL: Do you re-purpose old comic books?
David: I do, I try to find ones that are beat up. It’s like recycling, so that’s another cool part of it.

TGL: You have an original line of CANimated Critters, tell me a little bit more about this project.
David: I just wanted to do something for kids and adults. I came up with these guys called CANimated Critters. Their bodies are inside the can, the can is their shell. They live in the future when there’s nothing left to use to protect themselves. Almost like hermit crabs, they’re these mutated creatures that use old cans as shelter.

TGL: I’ve seen on the Facebook page that you have a villain lined up for them.
David: His name is Modevio, he works with his brother. They try to capture the critters to use their cans to build their castle. To make their castle stronger they need metal and aluminum, which they take from the critters.

TGL: What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
David: Of course I like to draw, and I love to play with my son. We love to watch movies and play with action figures. It’s probably my favorite thing to do.

TGL: In the zombie apocalypse, what would be the best art supply/tool that would be useful?
David: To defend myself? I guess I’d have to use a staple gun. Sometimes I make my own canvases, so I keep a staple gun handy.

A big thank you to David for allowing us to do this interview with him. It was an absolute pleasure.

Want to keep up with Sour Apple Gallery or buy prints? Follow these links: Facebook, CANimated Critters, Etsy

We’re giving away some Sour Apple Gallery prints for the holidays! Win Spider-Man, Darth Vader, Batman/Joker AND an original CANimated Critters print. All you need to do to is comment on this post letting us know who your favorite superhero is!