Wrong Brain Celebrates New Dover HQ March 4th

Since 2003, the Wrong Brain arts collective has strived to provide opportunities to all things new and weird in DIY art and music.  The organization that began as an afterschool art club now regularly produces their signature zines, quarterly craft fairs, gallery shows and musical events and represents a growing throng of artists, musicians and supporters throughout the seacoast.  With an ethical compass set to true north, Wrong Brain is set to open the doors of its new headquarters/gallery/artspace/venue in the Washington Street Mills in downtown Dover, NH.  I sat down with founder Sam Paolini to discuss the organization’s roots, ethics in the art world and the endless possibilities of the new Headquarters.  

Wrong Brain will celebrate their opening on March 4th with performances by Fucko, Choke Up, Lilith and Kid Coyote AND new artwork from Beth Wittenberg, Scott David Chase, Adam Gouveia and Sam Paolini.

How did Wrong Brain get to this point?

So it was first birthed when I was 15 and in high school.  I didn’t have any art classes at the time so I started an after school art club because I felt a lack of alternative art in high school.  Even when I took the art classes it was boring -the same old art history.  So I just wanted to meet with other people who had different things to show, like we would watch anime or look at Juxtapoz magazine or just do collages.  I went to College and discovered zines and fell in love.  Dropped out of college, moved back to Exeter, NH and there was just nothing.  So I started a zine, just as another outreach kind of thing.  I wanted to see what other people were doing and give opportunities to them, but I also wanted to create opportunities for myself at the same time through meeting people and sharing ideas and publishing it.  So it was a zine for years.  We started the holiday bizarres in 2011 and it was the same thing.  I saw a hole where I needed a craft fair where my demographic would come and buy things.  Seemed like other people wanted that too so it just worked out.  Then we were able to raise money through that and more money, more opportunities and more outreach from the community.  We started doing multimedia shows -we’d do a (Wrong Brain) zine release and we’d have poets read and live art and it just gained momentum naturally, I guess.  Last year with Cody’s (Poet, Wrong Brain contributor and friend) death, there was an incredible outpouring and outreach from people that he touched and people that just wanted to support Wrong Brain.  So all of a sudden we had all these donations so we had to become a legitimate organization to cash checks.  So that’s how we got legit, I guess, yeah, cause we have the money.

Is there an ethos that drives Wrong Brain?

It’s always been, for me, kind of a selfish thing because I want something that I don’t see in the community available so I create it because I want to do it and it just so happens that other people want to do it too.  So it’s always been creating opportunities where there’s not for alternative or underground art and for emerging artists, musicians and writers too.  Where you can’t just do your first set of drawings and have them displayed in a gallery in Portsmouth or really any other commercial way or have them published in a real magazine so we need the little guy -a stepping stone.  So I like to think of it like that too.  

What are you most proud of with Wrong Brain?

I’m most proud that people, especially with this space and since Cody’s death, I’m most proud that people are willing to help for no personal gain, they just want to give and they want to help -sending checks or showing up with coffee when we’re cleaning HQ and showing up with a pick up truck to lug out all the trash and take it to the landfill just because they appreciate what we’re doing.  That makes me proud, that makes feel like I’m doing something right.

What opportunities will the new space bring to Dover?

I’m so excited, I’m giddy about it (laughs) We’re going to have a place for workshops and classes and discussions -a general community area where the artists who have studios here and Wrong Brain and also outside people can come to us with an idea and we will have a place to be able to do it.  Whereas last year, finding a venue was the biggest struggle -somewhere that could house so many people, we can make noise, there’s so many things that go into finding the right venue and now we have it.  So we can do performances and discussions and we can also do gallery shows, installations, we can have residential artists so that if there’s somebody in the community or Wrong Brain who’s, for example when I was doing the children’s Museum and I didn’t have a space, if I have a big project we can lend our giant walls for a month or two or however long.

What are you working on now personally?  Or is everything just going into Wrong Brain right now?

Yeah, I am so broke and I can’t even… first of all, I don’t really have a place to do it.  I have a drawing table in my bedroom, but it’s so hard to work when your comfortable bed and TV is right there (laughs)  So this is pretty much the only thing that’s in my head right now.

How important is it for you to agree with the ethics of art organizations that you support?

Anywhere you spend your time or money or energy, you’re showing that person or organization that they are worthy.  I think with art specifically it’s such a piece of your soul.  I mean, you know, if you’re spending money at Walmart you’d kind of say “I’m selling my soul,” but if you’re doing that with art and your putting it in an organization that you don’t agree with then you really are selling your soul to the devil.  That kind of thing.  

How important is it for Wrong Brain to reach that expectation, ethically?  

The whole point of Wrong Brain is that we’re an organization that supports the little people.  So if we do something that those people don’t agree with then we’re dead (laughs).

Professional Art is usually some combination of expression and marketing/promotion.  Where is your comfort line regarding this conflict?

I’ve been having this discussion with some Wrong Brain members about a logo and I hate the idea of getting a logo because it feels like a big cheesy stamp.  And if we take that step what’s the next step after that?  The logo means that you’re branding it, I don’t think that Wrong Brain should have the image of a business because we’re a community that supports artists and I want this to be about everybody.  Everything is so different that if you put a logo on it you’re creating an image that represents all of them and how can you put one image on every artist or musician?  So, even though I know that Wrong Brain has to and we’re a thing and we have to tell people that and they have to recognize it so I’m still in the logo battle.

First of all, there doesn’t have to be marketing in art, you only have to market art if you want to make money off of it.  Or even if you just want to continue making art and you just want to get money for supplies.  For me, you make it and after that if you want to sell it, you can go into marketing.  The problem for me personally, is when I begin to thinking about marketing before I start to make the art.  If I have a show booked and I need to make a whole bunch of work, the problem is ok, I’m spending this much money on supplies, what if I don’t sell any paintings?  What paintings have I sold in the past?  Then you get into that mindset where you’re painting things that you think might sell.  That’s a huge personal struggle, I think probably for a lot of artists it is.  I think I’ve found ways to avoid that or alter it by doing merchandise type things where I can do sellable items that people can afford, but also have artwork on them that I like to make and that they like to buy.  And then big paintings or things like that, I don’t have to think about anybody else, I can just make a big painting because who’s gonna spend a thousand dollars on blood and boobs in neon colors?  (laughs)  It’s hard to find that customer in this area.

When it comes to Wrong Brain, marketing is important to do marketing for events.  There’s no need to do marketing unless we have an event cause we’re already a thing, like, we give our zines away for free, people can pick them up wherever they want, but we do need people to know about shows so that they come and pay 5 bucks so we can pay the bands because they’re artists and they’re baring their souls and lugging their gear.  I don’t think there’s any need for Wrong Brain to do too much commercialization, because the point is not to make money, but create opportunities for artists to show their art.  Things like the Craft Fairs -the Holiday Bazaar and the Spring Bazaar, those are consumer events, we want to give an opportunity to professional or even hobby artists and crafters, to make money.  It’s not like that for everyone, some of the vendors, it’s their first show, they sell things that took them 20 hours for like 5 dollars because they want to see if somebody will buy it.  Is that considered commercialism?  When it comes to Wrong Brain that line is always moving depending on what we’re doing at the time.

What’s your take on Portsmouth’s new “Tiny Bit Huge” branding/slogan campaign?

I’m mostly confused.  I don’t see the connection between the logo and artists.  From the video on the campaign or whatever, it just seems like it’s for businesses.  They say that they’re gonna have this thing on the website where you use their logo and put your icon in, but as an artist, what would I do with that?  Am I going to put it on my website?  I imagine it more as like, you print it out and stick on the window of your business.  I don’t know, I just don’t get it.  I’m trying really hard -I read all those comments and all those posts from everybody, and the article and I get, I know, I really believe they have good intentions, the organization.  I don’t think they’re doing anything wrong.  I just think it’s misguided.  Who’s going to get this money?  $10,000 to get a website and pay videographers?  The other thing that was weird, was that I was reading the “rewards” or whatever and you can pay $400 and you’ll be the first one featured in the video on the website.  

So it’s pay to play?

That’s what confused me too.  How is that supporting the arts?  I thought the videos were focused on the artists in the community and already you’re kicking it off with “You’ve got to pay to be the first one?”  I also don’t really want to piss anyone off, but it’s hard because I’m in two positions -I’m an artist, I’m Sam, and then I’m also the representative of Wrong Brain.   

So my first thing was that I was confused.  When I think of the Portsmouth arts community, I already think money and I already think commercial galleries and I already think tourism.  It’s that and the Button Factory, that’s what I think of.  So it didn’t make sense to me why they’d need to create a slogan to attract more of that.  I was talking with Adam (Gouveia) about it and we were just trying to figure it out and he’s like, “What if Wrong Brain got 10,000?  Can you even imagine what we could do with 10,000?!”  Wow, that’s so much money and you’re gonna create a website?  

What would you folks do with $10,000?

First of all, we’d definitely buy some equipment that could be made available for free or for really cheap for anybody who wanted to use it.  Like a Xerox copier, or a silk screening something or other; a computer or video camera where if you had a video idea we could help you do that.  Funding projects for artists and musicians, like painting the skatepark, it would be awesome if we could pay all those artists to paint the park rather just giving them the paint and asking them to do it for free.  Other public projects, events, festivals, we could pay so many bands and musicians you know?  It’s just endless!      

It’s clear that the “arts” are increasingly come from those people with privilege -resources, time, access to markets, etc-  Is it dangerous if that’s what it takes nowadays?

It’s about point of view, I guess.  If you’re living a comfortable life, you’re making comfortable art and I don’t think that represents culture as a whole.  I think that’s a huge problem with Art History in general, you know, the Guerrilla Girls (feminist arts collective that fights sexism and racism) and how we document ourselves in history is through art and culture that has been represented in museums and huge places that are run by pretty much rich white men.  Culture is represented by art and the people who make it, so if we don’t have art coming from all kinds of people then we’re not going to grow because you need to see other people’s points of view in order to understand them and ultimately love them.  So yeah, it is dangerous ‘cause rich art is boring anyway (laughs)   

How does Wrong Brain provide avenues for everyone’s expressions?

First of all, when we publish zines, we do an open call -anybody can submit anything and we fit in as much as we possibly can into the zine.  We have a permanent gallery wall and rotating shows at Johnny Boston’s in Newmarket and anybody submit art (it just has to be able to hang on a wall)  The craft fairs are relatively cheap to get a table, it’s like $30 and for the amount of people who come that’s a pretty good price.  We also do a pop-up gallery at (craft fairs) which anybody can submit art for no fee and we also don’t take a commission on sold artwork.  We do all the work for you and if you want to make a donation that’s great but a lot of people are just selling $15 pieces and they spend 15 hours on it.

Once we have this space set up, it’s going to be a community center.  So anybody who has an idea or needs a place to work, we’re going to have open studio nights by donation and we are also open to anything you want to pitch us.  Please do it, we have the space and the volunteers to make it happen.  The more people that are running things through Wrong Brain, the better.  The whole point is that anyone can use the name Wrong Brain and use the resources and use us and the money to make their own ideas realized.