broken fingers club ebook

Brock Caron has a very distinct and authentic style. He has done work for Volcom, Hotel Vegas, Mohawk, American Sharks, and BeerLand, to name a few. Warbin Collective also recently published an article on his work. This book is an examination and appreciation of Brock’s installation piece: The Broken Finger’s Clubhouse. This book is not only intended to display Brock’s work, but to explore the artist’s background, style, ideas, points of view, and more.

I have known Brock for about 6 years. I’ll never forget the first time I met him. I was living in a super dumpy apartment on East Riverside, in Austin Texas. The place was so sketchy that we were able to build a skateboard mini-ramp that took up our entire living room, with no complaints from staff or neighbors. One night we had a bunch of friends over to skate the ramp and party, and Brock showed up to hang. He was a super nice and personable dude right off the bat. Within the first time I met him I realized what a skillful artist he was. He kindly asked if he could paint a few things on our ramp. And of course, his work was

really great. From that night on, Brock has remained a good friend of mine. It’s been really awesome to have seen his artwork and style evolve over the years to what it is today. I am really honored not only to have the opportunity to create this book, but also to have Brock as a friend.

/cheese

-Nathan Hostick

Portrait of Brock Caron, April, 2013Photo: Ryan Smith

Chances are, you’ve never heard of The Broken Fingers Club. If you have, you might be a little put-off by what you’ve heard. The Broken Fingers Club is an underground group that started in the early 1920’s. The group still exists today, and consists of artists that are influenced by graffiti, skateboarding, punk, and DIY culture. But don’t be afraid of these guys, though they are a little rough around the edg-es, at their core they are decent enough people.

The Broken Fingers Club started in the 1920’s as a group of poor, dirty coal-miners and labor group workers. They identified themselves by

wearing grimy coal-covered denim jackets, with an image of a mangled hand on the back. The group was highly regarded within the mining community, but feared and rejected by the surrounding community. The B.F.C.. did not let this alienation affect them; in fact, they used it as a vehicle to fuel their love for boozing, and their strong bond within the club.

The B.F.C. has come quite a way since the 1920’s. Although the basic ideology remains the same, the group has taken on a few more ways to express themselves. The group shows an affinity for graffiti, skateboarding, boozing, rock-n-roll, living fast, and most importantly, their artwork. The club still remains very underground, and are super selective of their members. The group also still identifies themselves by wearing dirty denim jackets, with a mangled hand on the back.

Brock Caron has taken on the task of re-creating the Broken Fingers Clubhouse, as a full-scale installation piece. The structure is an incredible combination of wood, particle board, Masonite, nails, screws, and more, to create a space worthy of Broken Fingers Club members.

The movements of the tag are evidenced in color and aerosol spray, and are combined with a grimy, graffiti, punk, DIY feeling. The space is really in-teresting because there is not a single plane without color, artwork, texture, or grime. Much of the art-work and subject matter references the BFC’s affinity

for skateboarding, boozing, punk rock, and DIY art. The installation is a very interesting juxtaposition of dirty/grimy subject matter with lots of beautiful color and artwork that anyone can appreciate.

BFC JacketPhoto: Ryan Smith

Untitled Poloroids

Broken Fingers Club Portrait, 1920’sPhoto: Unknown

The Broken Fingers Club Founder, 1920’sPhoto: Unknown

The Broken Fingers ClubhouseInterior

Broken Fingers ClubhouseTexas State Gallery, Winter 2012

Broken Fingers ClubhouseTexas State Gallery, Winter 2012

The Broken Fingers ClubhouseInterior Detail

Broken Fingers ClubhouseExterior Detail

NATHAN: To start this interview out, can I get you an-other Beer?

BROCK: haha, Sure. *crack* *crack*

NATHAN: It seems appropriate for a Broken Fingers club interview, that you’ve been drinking all day. Explain what you’ve been up to today.

BROCK: Drank whiskey, played pool with my dad, drank more whiskey, played more pool, drank beer, drank wine, thats about it. *laughter*

NATHAN: Sounds like a pretty solid day. State your name,

city of birth, current city of residence, and age.

BROCK: Brock Caron, born in long beach California, moved to Austin in 1990. Raised in Austin. I’m 25 I think? Something like that.

NATHAN: So what made y’all move to Austin? I mean, obviously you were pretty young.

BROCK: Crime. Living in Long Beach, it was shitty and gang filled in the 80’s.

NATHAN: So why was Austin your destination?

BROCK: There was no crime in the 80’s; it was just beau-tiful and green. That’s why my parents picked Austin.

NATHAN: So how did you start getting into art?

BROCK: Cause I had a dad that smoked weed and did stu-pid comics! *laughter*

NATHAN: Just for the record, what is your dad’s name?

BROCK: Keith Caron. He did underground comics about dildos and weed. He also did stuff for wide world of skate-boarding.

NATHAN: Damn, that’s awesome! My next question is about your dad, so we’ll save some of that stuff for the next ques-tion. You started getting into art, your dad influenced you and got you into art. Around what age did you start getting into art?

BROCK: Forever.

NATHAN: I know your father is an incredible artist, how has this influenced your artwork?

BROCK: It hasn’t. *laughter*

*Brock’s Dad chimes in*KEITH CARON: It hasn’t, it really hasn’t. *laughter*

BROCK: It has to a certain extent, but me and my dad’s style are completely different.

KEITH CARON: We challenge each other, but we’re like yin and yang, we have totally different styles.

BROCK: I definitely got into different art because of my dad, like when I was younger and kids were drawing anime, I was drawing R. Crumb. You know, like people would be drawing dragonball Z characters, and I was draw-ing this fuckin’ stressed out horny dude. *laughter* When I was a little kid, this whole ceiling of the garage (Keith and Brock’s Studio space) was covered in blacklight posters of Disney characters fucking each other and shooting up heroin, and pissing on everything.

KEITH CARON: God, you remember that? *laughter*

BROCK CARON: He also showed me Fritz the Cat when I was way too young to watch it, but it’s basically 1970’s animation that opens with an African American, New York style cat walking down the street. He’s wearing bell bottoms and smoking a joint. He goes to this party that’s an orgy between all of these other animals, and they were all shoot-ing up heroin.

KEITH CARON: Yeah, we used to watch this stuff, but

Brock Caron PortraitPhoto: Ryan Smith

Frozen Coral SnakePhoto: Ryan Smith

I didn’t care, because I used to do all of these off the wall cartoons. We would just sit there and have fun. It wasn’t really nasty to us, it was just funny animation. It was like nasty art, it wasn’t like a porno movie. *laughter*

NATHAN: Where did you go to school and what for?

BROCK: I started school at UTSA. I found out that there was not an essay requirement to apply at UTSA, and they had a 99% acceptance rate. I went to UTSA for photojour-nalism or something, and then hated San Antonio. I got into graffiti in San Antonio, left San Antonio, and came back to Austin. Went to Austin Community College until they kicked me out because I couldn’t take any more classes, so then I went to Texas State to just draw. I was a Drawing major.

NATHAN: So San Antonio is where you got into graffiti art, how did that come about?

BROCK: Well it started in High School I guess, through skateboard friends, and mutual friends, and then it picked up more when I moved to San Antonio. There was this San Antonio festival called clogged caps, so we started going to clogged caps graffiti festival, started to meet more people there. I started painting more. But San Antonio is where me and my friend Ben found out that the San Antonio graf-fiti scene is nothing like the Austin scene. In Austin you can just go and paint, and everything is cool. And then we went to san Antonio, and we were like, oh, lets go paint this spot. That’s where we learned that the graffiti writers in San Antonio were actual gang members. And they just jumped the shit out of us. And beat the living shit out of us. Then we got back to the apartment, and were like fuck that. but we still kept painting. Got jumped a couple more times, and eventually left San Antonio. It definitely taught me the rough side of graffiti.

NATHAN: So what are some of your favorite mediums to work with?

BROCK: India Ink, One Shot, and Spray Paint. I don’t really use too much acrylic. If I have to fill a color space, I use spray paint. One shot, or pin stripers paint. It sounds weird, but anything that uses a lot of chemicals, because it’s more fun that way. I like them because they’re all really durable mediums.

NATHAN: So what are some other areas of artistic influ-ence that you draw from?

BROCK: Photography a lot. Pop Culture I guess, I mean the humor part of it with pop culture. Pop culture, and super weird paparazzi stuff is real funny. Definitely music too. That’s the more emotional side.

NATHAN: List a few bands that you feel have an Influence on your artwork.

BROCK: Definitely coming from a punk aspect, Black Flag, Descendants, Big Boys (because they’re Austin legends, and artists), Dead Kennedys, Sleep, Bongripper, Black Sabbath. It’s kind of a mix. So I have the heavy music which I love, and I kind of mix that with Ernest Tub, Loretta Lynn, Hank Williams, Townes Van Zandt. So its a mix between the punk and the hardcore, the outlaw country. That stuff mixed with abrasive punk music, which is weird, because they don’t really get along at all. But thats kind of why, depending on what I’m listening to ill be working on a different style. I didn’t really listen to calm music when I was working on the Broken Fingers Club Installation, that was all very fast paced music. But If I’m doing really calm illustrations of old people about to die, sleeping, Ill listen to Hank Williams, and Skip James, and stuff like that.

NATHAN: What are some artists that you admire or find inspiring?

BROCK: Keith Caron *Laughter* Gotta say the dad Influ-ence for sure. Besides that, R. Crumb. Real big one. Barry McGee, when it comes to like graffiti and fine art world. For the longest time i was really into Mike Giant, and Jeremy Fish, and the heavy hitters of the contemporary art world, but lately I’m not as much into them. I’m not really into like, you know people will be like, “I love Picasso”, or “I love Mondrian”, or whatever, But I never really cared about it, Like I don’t care about like high art.

NATHAN: Or I guess you could say fine arts, or modern art?

BROCK: Yeah, Like modern art. Fuck modern art.Modern art was stupid. And its like, you know the old dudes, they painted realistic and amazing. Like Heronomous Bosch, he painted awesome scenes of hell, and stuff like that, but it doesn’t really influence me. I’m not the kind of artist that has a stack of books. I’m not like “oh, these are my references” or “I’m gonna try and oil paint like this” or “ I’m gonna try and oil paint like that”. I’m just gonna fuckin draw. I get way more influenced by King of the Hill than I do by modern art. *laughter*

NATHAN: Haha, I like that, Mike Judge rules. At this point we’ll delve straight into The Broken Fingers Clubhouse.So explain to me what the broken fingers club is as a group.

BROCK: It’s a mythical gang, essentially becoming a mo-torcycle gang, but it started as factory workers, and coal miners, stuff like that. That’s how it started. Hard working

labor forces. And then eventually, over many years, they’ve evolved to where they are into art, and do what they do now.

NATHAN: Approximately how long has The Broken Fingers been around?

BROCK: In reality, Its only been around for a year. In it’s actual mythical history its been around since 1924, when the first broken fingers club was formed.

NATHAN: Is the Broken Fingers Club super private? How does one get into the B.F.C. gang?

BROCK: I wouldn’t say its super private, I guess if people were to get into it, its just like don’t be stupid. Don’t beg. Like one of the big things is don’t be a beggar. Work for what you have, and if you work for it than you’re in.

NATHAN: So do they keep to them selves? Are they so private that they’re going to track me down and kill me for conducting this interview?

BROCK: No. Not at all. The whole thing with the B.F.C. that I want to do, If I have more space, is create Infinite clubhouses. I’d like to create histories of mythical gangs and their clubhouses. So its like, start with the Broken Fingers Club, and what I want their enemies to be are a gang of 90 year old cat ladies, who live in the same sized clubhouse, but its like wallpapered in cat embroidery. So build one of those. Then go on to build a super Houston ghetto hood-rat gang to be their rivals. And within like 10 or 15 years, have a gallery space with all of these mythical gangs, that takes up a city block.

NATHAN: That would be incredible if you could get that all together in one space. I feel like that needs to happen.

BROCK: Yeah, because gang culture to me is funny. It’s like, growing up in California, and looking back at Califor-nia, it was all gangs. But then, whenever I listen to hard-core music it’s like, wasn’t much different. There’s weird little groups there. In San Antonio I ended up joingng weird little groups there like Friends Stand United, or Pitogres, or GAMC. Like all of those San Antonio hardcore crews. Because those are essentially like gangs. And then there’s your graffiti crew, which becomes a gang itself. And then we have friends that ride motorcycles, which is not really a gang, but they name themselves as a certain group, and use that name for some stupid reason. The name has no reason behind it.

NATHAN: Well, the broken fingers crew seems pretty fuckin’ rad. I’m tempted to join just for the kickass denim jacket. I might have to join just for that.

BROCK: You should, you should do it. One of the main influences that got me into the broken fingers club for sure, is first I saw this thing called Street Market in L.A., which was barrie McGee and Steve “Espo” Powers. They built this city block that was completely fake. Fake stores, fake signs, fake inside window. I was like, man that’s awesome. That’s a good way to kind of build art. And then it’s like, kind of combine that, and thinking, it’s a new way to focus art. And then I saw this guy Jay Howell, and he did the cartoon Bob’s Burgers for a while, and now he’s doing a show on Nickelodeon. And like, he did this thing called forrest city rockers. And I like shows on the History channel, like Gang Land or random stuff about the Hell’s Angels and stuff because it’s awesome. And he made this one motorcycle club that was the forest city rock-ers, which was like 40 or 50 members, but there was only 1 motorcycle, so everyone else ran behind the motorcycle. And I was like man that’s awesome. Motorcycle gangs are hilar-ious because they can be like super serious. And a bunch of my friends started riding motorcycles, and anyone can be a

motorcycle gang, all you need is 2 or more people. *laughter*

NATHAN: The clubhouse refrences graffiti, skateboarding, punk rock, and a real DIY attitude. There are also sev-eral refrences to alcohol consumption, pill usage, airsol can huffage, and drug use. It seems like the Broken Fingers Club might be kind of a rowdy bunch, Is this accurate?

BROCK: Oh yeah. They’re super rowdy.

NATHAN: How would you describe the members?

BROCK: The members actually, for current members drawn out, are a mix between humans and weird mutant dudes, and half mutant half rabbit, and half human half dogs. They all hang out, and they all shoot guns, and ride motorcycles, and drink a lot. But in the end they’re all family. They still go and hang out, and meet up and have dinner or lunch togeth-er, or have picnics together. But I mean, the funny thing is that actual gangs do that. It’s always funny for me to think of the B.F.C. as being really ruthless, but very very friendly. And when I was deciding how the group acts, I was thinking of like the Houston hip-hop scene, compared to the DIY, punk/hardcore scene. Because its like the DIY punk/hardcore scene prints their own vinyls, makes their own CD’s, screen-prints their own shirts. But then it’s like, ghetto, dirty Houston hip-hop scene makes their own CD’s, Prints their own shirts, and gets it out there themselves also. So it’s two groups that do the exact same things, but they would never get along. I always thought that was funny.

NATHAN: So your installment is a re-creation of the Bro-ken Fingers Clubhouse. Building an entire clubhouse as an exhibition is a really cool, and unusual idea. How did you come up with this idea?

BROCK: From seeing the Berry McGee, ESPO Powers thing, I kind of decided right off the bat. Because being a drawing major, a lot of the people that are drawing majors have their thesis shows, or exhibitions, that are just drawings. The way you’re supposed to run your thesis is youre supposed to work on this project or idea for a year. I didn’t want my project to be like “oh, ive been working on this for a year straight, here’s some shit in a frame” I was like that’s really boring. Im gonna put a lot of time into this, fuck that. So I just built it. I didn’t even know how to build shit when I first started. I kind of just threw the walls together. It was all inside this garage, so it was really cramped. I wasn’t going to base my thesis on screenprints that took a day, or a drawing that took me 30 minutes, I wanted something way bigger.

NATHAN: The clubhouse appears to be built with a bunch of different materials, what all did you use to build it?

BROCK: Particle board, 1x2’s, 2x4’s, sheet metal, nails, screws. We shot it with a shot-gun and other pistols to make holes in it. A lot of spray-paint. Its super flamma-ble. I didn’t want to buy a bunch of wood stain to make it look dirty, so I used turpentine, mineral spirits, mixed with oil based paint really thin. I put that all over the walls. So its just spray-paint and turpentine soaked all into the walls. And then I screen printed wall paper, and wheat pasted it all over the walls. I did separate screen prints for each piece and separate wood-cuts for the outside.

NATHAN: I love the use of colors in your exhibition. It’s a very interesting clash of bright and vibrant colors with dark and grimier color. There’s not a single area of solid color. Can you attribute this to anything, whether it be the mediums that you used, or the concept that you’re trying to create?

BROCK: I feel like a part of it’s the medium. Normally I don’t use acrylic paint, and I don’t like to mix paint, I kind of work with the paints that I have. And the beginning of the year, when I was figuring out my thesis, and I knew I wanted to do something like this, I ordered $400 worth of spray paint, and they were all random colors. So I was like, this is my palette, no matter what, because I have $400 worth of it. So I went with that, then its like, have every-thing black, then I got oops paint from Home Depot. I’m not that good with colors honestly. That’s why when I do draw-ings, I don’t use too much color. But I know I like colors that pop out. My favorite part about spray-paint and color, is the small part where the colors mix or spray off, which looks really cool from close up, but from far away, you cant really tell. I like drips and all that stuff. So there’s a lot of that in there.

NATHAN: I really appreciate the unusual juxtaposition of such a grimy, dirty subject matter, but such a beautiful handling of how you’ve portrayed the clubhouse. I think that contrast is something that anyone can appreciate, whether it be some art snob dickhead, or a street artist, or really any-body. That is one thing that I really enjoy about it.

BROCK: That’s definitely something that I was trying to go for. Because I’m really jaded when It comes to fine artwork, like I hate it. I go to art shows and I go to art openings only because Im into art. But you’ll meet somebody who’s an artist, and its like, you can tell when it’s the artist, be-cause they try and act like the weirdest person in the room. Or the loudest person in the room. Or the most arrogant person in the room. And I get real annoyed by it. Its like they can’t just chill. But it’s like, I think my influence from college, when it comes to fine artists, were the artists that weren’t super weird, or super loud (besides R. Crumb) like Ed Templeton, and Berrie McGee, and Margret Killgallen. I’m still annoyed by weird art dudes, and I see them all the time. Or the people who try really hard to show that they’re

an artist without just making art. You can just make art, and then you’re an artist. You don’t have to be weird about it.

NATHAN: So we know that the the broken fingers club has kind of a dirty, punk, DIY attitude. This ideology is evident in the art of the clubhouse. What techniques did you use to push these ideas further?

BROCK: Definitely the screen printing. A lot of the paint-ings on the outside took longer than some of the stuff on the interior. A lot of it, as bad as it sounds, was done when I was drunk and listening to music, and was like, “oh I’m just gonna spray-paint these walls, I’m gonna make it look real-ly fucked up.” I would take the screen-printing screen and shove it against the wall, an hit it over and over again, and screen print directly on the wood. It was just dripping ev-erywhere. I’m not a very clean artist, so I think that helps when it comes to the griminess of it.

NATHAN: What are the approximate dimensions of the clubhouse?

BROCK: 8' by 8' by 8'.

NATHAN: Would you say that the B.F.C. is an extension of your own philosophy or ideology?

BROCK: Yeah, I would say so. Especially the whole DIY as-pect of it. You always have fun making up a life that you’d want to live but never would. So it’s one of those things where I would never want to live in a small shack with a motorcycle gang, but I bet it would be awesome.

NATHAN: So I noticed that you have several re-occurring characters within your exhibit. Do you care to explain these characters?

BROCK: They just kind of show up I guess. The rabbit character I’ve been drawing for years. He’s like a dude I see in my dreams, or if I eat mushrooms. Then the other ones, I draw because I’m drunk and it’s funny. I live with a bunch of cats, and they throw up a lot, so its like, I’ll draw a cat puking. I draw a lot of dudes with beards and mous-taches, because beards and moustaches are funny. And also because I cant draw the chin. *laughter*

NATHAN: So the broken fingers exhibition was on display at the Texas State Art Gallery during the winter in 2012. I heard a rumor that someone went into the clubhouse and shotgunned a few beers. Sounds appropriate for the space. Is this an accurate story?

BROCK: Yeah, it happened. They also found somebody that was asleep inside of it. It may have been because it was towards the end of the semester, but I think it’s awesome.

NATHAN: Do you have any further plans for the install-ment?

BROCK: It was featured in the Warbin Collective article. I’m submitting it to Grey Duck right now. I am going to submit it to a few other galleries. The way I figure it, after a year or two, Im just going to set it up in the middle of nowhere, and go back month to month, and document it’s own destruction. And that would be another project in itself.

NATHAN: If a gallery wanted to reach you, or if some-one wanted to reach you for commercial work, do you have a website or contact that they can reach you at?

BROCK: Yeah. [email protected], or www.cargocollective.com/brockcaron

Portrait of Brock CaronPhoto: Ryan Smith

Untitled Poloroids

Page 10Broken Fingers Club, 1920’s

Photo: UnknownPrint by Brock Caron

Page 10Broken Finger’s founder, 1920’s

Photo: UnknownPrint by Brock Caron

Page 8Broken Fingers Jacket

Photo: Ryan Smith

Broken Finger’s ClubhouseTexas State Gallery,Winter 2012

Page 12Broken Finger’s ClubhouseTexas State Gallery, Winter 2012

Page 13Broken Finger’s ClubhouseTexas State Gallery,Winter 2012

Page 13Broken Finger’s ClubhouseTexas State Gallery,Winter 2012

Broken Finger’s Clubhouse

Interior Detail

Page 15Broken Finger’s Clubhouse

Interior Detail


Interior Detail


Interior Detail

Broken Finger’s ClubhouseInterior Detail

Page 17Broken Finger’s ClubhouseInterior Detail

Broken Finger’s Clubhouse

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Interior Detail

Brock Caron PortraitPhoto: Ryan Smith

Page 23Frozen Coral SnakePhoto: Ryan Smith

Designed and Edited By Nathan [email protected]/

First Edition.Printed In Austin, Texas.

April, 2013

Artist: Brock [email protected]/

cargocollective.com/brockcaron

Photography: Ryan Smith [email protected]

ryansheasmith.tumblr.com/

Typefaces: AA Typewriter, B.F.C. Switchblade Carving.

broken fingers club ebook

Documents

underground group

broken fingers clubhouse

group of poor

labor group workers

brocks work

dirty denim jackets

authentic style

mangled hand