Alan Hurley
EVENT: Hurley's mural painting of a cute robot-human couple graces the wall outside Lipstick Traces, where he's having a show next month. He also painted a while-you-watch mural at Melting Man last week.

Were you working toward a theme for Melting Man? "The chemical formula for nerve gas. They asked me just to show artwork, and I didn't have anything on hand that I wanted to show--just old stuff from last year. I'm racing to get stuff ready for my show next month and I didn't want to show any of that new work."

So you did a mural--in the spirit of the robot-couple one. "That's why I decided to do this--I had a really good time painting outside during the day. I had a lot of weird interactions with people, especially on that street; it was weird, it was fun."

Did you paint the Melting Man piece outside? "I painted it during Melting Man. It wasn't nearly as entertaining as working out on the sidewalk. It was more like, 'Wow, that looks good'--generic stuff like that. A lot of people taking pictures."

What kind of work will be in your next show? "I'm trying to get coloring books printed. I'm still working on it."

What kind of work are you interested in? "Before I painted I did a lot of silk-screening: not commercially but homemade--wax paper, spray glue--and making T-shirts and things. I think it's pretty obvious in my painting that I come from silk-screening."

You have that flat aesthetic. "Yes, that's why. I was always thinking in terms of, 'How can I cut that out of wax paper and paint over it?'--for so long that I still think that way even though I don't have to."

Robots? Nerve gas? "I can't explain it. It just comes out."