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Meet George Bangs of Terriffico

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Today we’d like to introduce you to George Bangs.

George, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I started off–I think like most people studying art & design–admiring the work of creative titans like Tibor Kalman, Paula Scher, Massimo Vignelli, and all the obvious art history greats (whoever comes to mind). But when I started coming out the other end of my college degree, I realized that the value in replicating tried and true aesthetics wasn’t really worth doing. It’s definitely a recipe for a certain level of success, but there’s a greater creative risk/reward/freedom that comes the contemporary and new. We’re so lucky to be living in the age of postmodernism where everyone is at the center of their own cultural venn diagram bringing all of their experience together. That experience is so incredibly broad with The Big Flat Now that we live in.

When I came back to Denver from college, I started at a small studio that was built around really rigid creative habits and structures, so I didn’t last too long there. It was a stressful four months of bringing unwanted ideas to the table until I was let go. Which fortunately turned into the best parts of my creative life so far. Walking out on my last day was the most cathartic relief. Now, suddenly, I had all this free time, and I could finally put my effort into making things with intention and purpose.

Friends helped me out immensely during this time, introducing me to so many great people that I had admired. (Extra Vitamins, Dateline Gallery, Lane Meyers Projects, Sierra M Barela, Ben Siekierski, Marsha Mack, Matt Pevear, so so many people there’s no way to fit a comprehensive list here). I definitely feel like I’m bragging here but I feel so completely lucky, I can’t just not mention them.

I started picking up freelance work and putting time into making art day after day. The way I work now and the places I go for inspiration are completely thanks to the people I spent time within that period. I started focusing on TERRIFFICO as an art and apparel outlet and a way to combine all the things I do. Last year that manifested in a couple pop up shops at Buffalo Exchange Boulder (and hopefully a couple more this year too).

Then for all of 2019, I’d been working on advertising in Boulder until COVID-19 recently cut that short. It’s a weird spot to be in now. There’s not one clear path forward, but I’m back to working on art and illustrations nearly every day, and I’ll have some very exciting things to share soon 🤞

Has it been a smooth road?
I still go through periods of doubting myself, there are feelings that I’m not doing as well as I could be or as well as others are. I just try to remind myself that me a year ago would be blown away by the things I’ve managed to do. If I can take a break from imagining the future, my current life starts looking pretty great.

Human beings–and any animal–really aren’t designed to be happy, we never live at a sustained high of happiness. We move from one problem to the next and experience bits of happiness as we overcome them. If you stop planning to reach the nonexistent happiness plateau, it becomes a lot more satisfying to ride out the challenges.

Chuck Klosterman has a piece of writing comparing the immediacy, stress, and high stakes of a wild wolf’s experience to the structured and safe lives of human beings. The wolf’s life is harder but it’s also arguably more directly analogous with what it truly means to be alive. The hardship is the value. Not sure if that makes sense but it feels like a relevant parable.

We’d love to hear more about your art.
I’m definitely most known for my drawings. Fun and weird schoolhouse rock + psychedelia kind of stuff (at least that’s what I’m going for). The second priority is applying those drawings or drawn scenarios into art objects or apparel. With everything that I put up, there’s usually a planet positive, people positive element. I want to push a message of active engagement and positive impact, I don’t think artists can talk up ethics enough. I don’t think it needs to be on the nose all the time–that gets a bit hollow and preachy. But I think it should be a consideration that informs what you make.

I also want to impress an appreciation for well-made things. Nearly all the apparel on my site is put together in the US, which makes it easier to make sure it’s ethically made, and it’s a lot less waste in terms of shipping.

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I love the smaller spaces in Denver. And right now there are a lot of good ones for music, comedy and art. Denver has a pretty unpretentious crowd of creative people, which makes it super easy to connect and appreciate. And for a modest city, there’s an insane range of talent. People are doing really gross things, and really beautiful things, and sometimes they’re the same things. It’s great.

Unfortunately, that’s tied to my least favorite thing. There’s been a creeping commodification of Denver’s creative culture that we’re already starting to see the results of. It’s manifesting in price prohibitive apartment complexes, chain restaurants and the steady evacuation of artists and musicians from the neighborhoods being marketed as arts districts. The developer mindset is that these are the natural progressions of a growing neighborhood, but if prices aren’t kept down, and locally-owned galleries and venues aren’t preserved, these developments will end up cannibalizing the culture that they’re trying to capitalize on.

Pricing:

  • My shirts and apparel range from $5 – $40 and I keep them up at terriffico.biz

Contact Info:

Image Credit:
Matthew Pevear. George Bangs.

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