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Words: JR Hevron

POP Rocks! is an art and music performance series organized by psychedelic artist Jess Pfohl. The next installment of the music and art series takes place this weekend at the Baltimore Hard Rock Café. In addition to an exhibition of collaborative artwork by Jess and photographer Michael Weintrob, attendees can expect performances by Some Cat From Japan, Eric McFadden, Wyllys, Tom Hamilton’s American Babies and a showcase of Baltimore bands.

I talked to Jess about pulling the show together, the future of the POP Rocks! series and painting a Rocks Off! cruise boat in 2011…

J.R. Hevron: You started the POP Rocks! Series last December with a show at Sullivan Hall in New York City with Scott Metzger’s Heroin. How did that come about?

Jess Pfohl: I wish I could take credit for the whole premise of what I’m doing, but it’s inspired by what Andy Warhol had with the Velvet Underground. Andy had an appreciation for the relationships between rock and roll and pop culture and powerful artwork. He wanted to create a marriage between the three and make it into a lifestyle. When I finally decided to show my work, it felt appropriate to do it in the most Andy fashion—and that’s why I asked Scott to put together the band Heroin [which played the music of the Velvet Underground].

JH: What is your artwork like for this installment?

JP: For this exhibit, photographer Michael Weintrob and I teamed up. It’s exciting because he’s such a wonderful photographer. Over the past couple of months, He sent me over 200 images to pick from. I took those images, blew them up, took all of the color out of them, and then painted my day glo on top of the images.

It’s all inspired by Warhol’s screen printing. I think that if Andy were alive today, he would have progressed into high-res printing, enlarging images, layering images and things like that.

READ ON for more of J.R.’s chat with artist Jess Pfohl…

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