20 | October 7, 2020 | MALIBU SURFSIDE NEWS LIFE & ARTSmalibusurfsidenews.comGuerin Swingcomes full circlePOSTED TO malibusurfsidenews.com3DAYS AGOFrom street art tohigh-end designand back, he’smaking the mostof the strange neworder.SCOTT STEEPLETON, EditorFor all its heartache,the pandemic has led a lotof people to turn their attentioninward, to assesswhere they are and perhapschart a new course towhere and who they wantto be.Guerin Swing, a wellknownname in the Malibuarts scene, is doing justthat as he explained duringa recent interview withMalibu Surfside News.Whether it’s creatingunforgettable corporatespaces, doing commissionartwork for private clientsincluding rockers TommyLee and Slash, or helpinga company with branding,the 50-year-old BeverlyHills native, who’s beensteeped in art since thefourth grade at The BuckleySchool in ShermanOaks, has been successfulas can be in just about everythinghe does. (A paintingof fish he did early onmade it all the way to theWhite House.)A hyperactive boy whopainted all day, couldn’tsit still and didn’t fit in,Swing eventually excelledin all the arts. He landeda job as the assistant artdirector for Screamers,an L.A. rock magazine in1987. He moved into streetart, commercial art andlater design and decorativepainting, the latter beingquite lucrative ventures.Along the way, he’sdone off-road motorcycling,modeling and surfing,including helping kidswith special needs anddisabilities catch wavesthrough a Ventura-basednonprofit called A Walk onWater.He’s also worked withsome of street art’s biggestnames, including his newcollaboration with Kelly“RISK” Graval on paintingsfeaturing the Hindudeity Ganesh (an imagethat Swing has used fordecades).All this requires energy,and Swing’s would putthat of people half his ageto shame.The father of three —4-year-old Seven, 16-yearoldScout, and 29-year-oldCharlie McMullen — hasalso been known as aworkaholic.“If you asked, ‘Want togo to the North Shore andgo surf for a week?’ I’mlike, yes,” he said at theNorth Hollywood home ofGuerin Design Inc.“At the same time, (I’dbe) sick to my stomach.”Strange as it may seem,the lockdown changed allthat.“All we hear is, ‘Don’tleave the house! You’rehaving a time out!’ I’mlike, now what?”Swing with a print of Robbie Conal’s “Gag me with a coat hanger.” It was a gift fromConal’s guerilla volunteers after a chance meeting late one night in Hollywood whenSwing was just 18.SCOTT STEEPLETON/SURFSIDE NEWS PHOTOSThe answer for the designbusiness was to cutback on decorative paintingand doing more FF&E:furniture, fixtures andequipment.For Guerin Swing theartist, the answer was comingfull circle, in a sense,to the imagery, if not theshenanigans, of his earlierdays.“I’ve kind of just takenmy regular style that I’vebeen doing and put bothmy street art and a morecontemporary, personal arttogether and look what’shappened.”What’s happened? He’sbusy as can be in a waythat doesn’t bring on theprevious anxiety.“It’s actually been thegreatest thing that’s everhappened to me, to actuallyhave time to have atime out, or do somethingthat you’ve always wantedto do.”Think fine art with agraffiti bent — and withoutthe politics of, say, aPlastic Jesus or Sabo, twoL.A. artists whose sensibilitiesrun liberal andconservative, respectively.“I’ll be honest. I believein both sides. We’re so dividedright now, especiallyon social media — especiallyon Facebook — yousee one side that’s saying,‘I like this guy’ and theother side is just attackinghim,” Swing explained.“So what I’ve seen, andI’m kind of illiterate onthis, is that … you’re notreally talking about the politicalagendas.”“When you talk aboutRepublicans and Democrats,I like both,” he said.He chuckles at people’sassumptions of him.“People always say tome, ‘Oh, you’re an artist,so you must be a Democrat,”he said. “Then I’mlike, well, I like guns. ‘Oh,he must be a Republican.’I like a little bit of everything.And I think fromtalking to a lot of people,that’s the way it is.”“The reason I stay awayfrom political stuff is I justdon’t think I’m personallyinformed enough to go andput my mark everywhere.”He may stay away frompolitical art, but Swinghas respect for some ofthe biggest names in thegenre, including his favorite,Robbie Conal,who started papering LosAngeles with his guerillaart in the 1980s. Swingbumped into Conal’s volunteerarmy late one nightand was hooked.Such is his passion forConal’s work that on thewall in the main hallwayat Guerin Design hangs aprint of Conal’s “Gag mewith a coat hanger,” featuringthe likeness of formerSupreme Court JusticeWilliam Rhenquist in theartist’s signature gnarledstyle.“I got this when I was18,” Swing said pointingto the piece. “I was walkingin Hollywood and theywere putting them up. Iwas walking on Franklinand I’m like, ‘Hey, whatare you guys doing?’ Iknew about “Contra Diction”(a 1988 Conal piecefeaturing President Reagan)and I was like, ‘CanI have one of those? Can Ihelp you guys?’”They obliged and gavehim one.While the message at thetime escaped him — “I wasa kid. I didn’t even knowwho William Rhenquistwas,” he said, the GuerinSwing of 2020 takes in“Gag me” and says, “Thisguy’s tracking.”Impressed as he waswith Conal’s work wayback when, Swing didn’tgo the route of using a lotof words in his art. “I amthe worst speller,” he saidwith a laugh. “I’m notworried about the message,I’m worried abouttechnique. I’d make theC like bitchin’, then I’mlike A, O and then I’mlike, ‘Oh, God … I spelled‘coat’ wrong!”Nor did he take any greatinterest in doing the spraypaintgraffiti art that a lotof his friends were doing.“I’ll be honest withyou. I looked at graffitias a waste,” Swing said,knowing how some wouldtake offense to that way ofthinking. “To me, it’s like,you’re going to take spraypaint, spend long-termdoing art that potentiallycould be buffed over?”Instead, he’d use quartsof paint to “attack” billboards— and his favoritetarget was any featuringAngelyne, of which therewere many.“Angelyne, back then,Please see SWING, 23
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