Hard Rock Magazine Interview - (4/2002)
(Originally published online per Hard Rock Magazine)

Enter the world of Mike Bohatch's "Eyes Of Chaos", guaranteed to be some of the most twisted and thought provoking artwork you'll ever see His artwork will move you an keep you wondering "how did he do that?" Well, we tried to get inside the mind of this "Master Of Mayhem" and tap into what makes Mike Bohatch tick.

1. Mike, your work is simply amazing before we talk about your work, can you tell us what is it you actually do and how did you get into this field?
   Well Torch, it's like thisand thanx for the kind words, basically what I am in a nutshell is professional illustrator of horror related images. Now this sort of spans into the terms, gothic, darkwave, surreal, horrific, mixed media..etc.. but what it all comes down to is, I provide visual realization with an emphasis on dark subject matter. My artwork has been published in a variety of magazines, book covers, video covers, comics, posters and CD cover art and packaging. So the medias jump around a bit nut the general approach is the same. On the flipside.and this is a more newer area that is starting to pick up is the area of motion graphics. Yunno, Film, television, seques, segments. Intro-title type stuff. Im gaining interest in that field but my time to devote to it is very limited because of its time-consuming nature. Which can take up to 40 hours for just a 1-minute piece. Again. That area is very dark natured, kinetic, freaky type-moving images, but a lot of fun too.
   
   
2. How would you describe your artwork? To me its very dark, but doesnt contain a lot of gore
   Yes, youve nailed it on the head. Once in awhile I venture down that road but really Ive always found images that disturb without having to use gore to be really intriguing and a challenge. Sort of the thinking mans road to horror. How I like to compare it is the movie Dawn of the Dead was a great film but its scare emphasis was on the methodology of shocking gore to get a reaction, where as Halloween, The Exorcist, Sevenhad little or no gore and were very effective as stand alone frightening films. That is sort of the mentality I like to strive for. I like to touch on the different subject areas of myths, human nature, creatures, meta-physics, emotional content and just surrealistic concepts.
   
   
3. Its not very often where artwork has moved me like yours You really fill your work with a lot of emotions, where does this come from?
   I suppose it comes out of trying to understand human nature and also making an attempt at either illustrating a concept or finding a clever way to produce something that would otherwise deem itself as disturbing to someone. At the end of the day, its passion that inspires me to create. I really do enjoy this stuff and consider it both a challenge and what I love to do in my spare time. Basically its work, and then when Im done with work I do the same thing only now I call it fun. I guess its just part of my obsession Really though taking an idea, say like fear, anguish or madness and illustrating that into something visual, something tangible is a great enjoyment for me.
   
   
4. Im a little out of touch with the graphics, what kind of styles or procedures to you use? Is this stuff done digitally, by hand?
   My technique - well in its simplest form mixed media sums it up. Now with that, I have many years studying and experimenting with electronic and computer generated imagery as well as taking the time to study the non-digital mediums as well. From all of that I have found bits and pieces that I like and use in a combining way to produce a hybrid of the 2. Where-as some of my pieces are very much influenced by the collage techniques. others are very digital using techniques practiced in physical art. For instance, I may paint random acrylics for base and scan that in or create small paper collages and scan that in. Then maybe the focal element is part photography and part digitally enhanced. Or maybe Ill create a clay figure, photograph it and add human characteristics per digital embellishing. It kind of changes all the time based on what is needed to make a piece work. I sort of stopped thinking about it after a while and just gather what I think itll need to complete the piece.
   
   
5. I think a lot of people take the CD artwork for granted, youve worked with bands, how important is the CD cover in todays music world?
   It's been said before, but presentation is everything. Of course not really everything, but at least that first impression that makes you go hmm, now this looks interestingwonder how it sounds. So in terms of marketing and selling if youre not a household name youll need something to leverage peoples interest a bit. Something to make them stop for even a second to get some reaction from them. Hopefully that reaction entices them to lay their money on the table to actually purchase it. Same thing for movie art, if the cover really sucks. Youre more likely to walk over and rent the safe Jurassic Park sequel than to take a chance on a potential crapper.
   
   
6. When designing a CD, do you design it for that size or do you just create an image and shrink it down? What Im getting at is that some work loses so much detail when shrunk to that level, how do you manage this?
   Ya, good point. Its that funky square size that you have to get into a mind-frame of creating in. I often mentally and intentually create many of my images already formatted ready to go for CD releases. Plus, its easier for the bands to visualize the cover if its pretty close to finished state, then its a matter of where to put the title and logo. But of course there are also many images that are were created in a vertical or landscape format that might work better on a video, magazine or book cover. And of course theres always the potential request to take vertical piece and re-composition it a bit to work on a CD cover, which Ive done many times. So the general rule is to keep a lot of your original material that you used in case you have to move things around for a particular size. Its really the artists call as to how they work and manage around these sorts of things and what they anticipate will be the media it appeals to.
   
   
7. What are some of the bands youve done covers for and which are your favourites?
   I've done covers for Forsaken, Down Factor, Mangled, Beneath the Sun, Insision, Dew-scented..etc. As far as favorites, Im assuming you mean favorite art, in which I really like the Forsaken pieces and the Beneath the Sun pieces. I mean all the art done is special to me in its own wayso its hard to say. Each is based more on what is needed for that particular project and what works for their offering of music. Variety makes the world go round.
   
   
8. How about musically? What kind of stuff do you listen to?
   Honestly, Im not that heavy as my art dictates. When I work, I listen to Gary Numan, Collide, Razed in Black, NIN, Manson, and a lot of darkwave stuff. To me, it really fuels my attitude to produce. I like a lot of Goth sort of stuff as well, but not if its too depressing and slow. John Carpenter movie soundtracksperfect for the dark inquiring creative minds. I appreciate the heavy stuff, but it can be distracting to work to which is sort of a paradox I suppose because many of my clients are really heavy. But great stuff none-the-less.
   
   
9. You're a fan of horror (obviously) what are some of your favourite films?
   That's an easy one. I'm an avid movie watcher and film is a great medium for inspiration. So my top films up to this point are: Seven, Event Horizon, Hellraiser (all of them), The Cell, The Bone Collector, , House on Haunted Hill, Blade, American Psycho, Dark City , Jeepers Creepers, 13 Ghosts, Ghosts of Mars.shall I go on?.I realize most of these are fairly new.but I also love many of the older horror movies from the 70s and 80s such as Shining, Halloween, The Fog, Amityville, Phantasm.. There something about that era that was truly frightening in the horror arena.
   
   
10. You also have on your site, http://www.eyesofchaos.com/ a HUGE selection of Movie box art, can you talk about that collection?
    Oh yes, A great passion of mine. I included it on my site purely for nostalgic reasons and sort of a tribute to the great number of movies and movie art that have been introduced over the years. I actually started collecting clippings of new releases way back when I was about 12, some sort of odd fascination that sort of brought me to where I am today. I was always collecting something back then, but this collection was sort of isolated from more traditional type collections. I would like to get a majority of the great horror films movie art into 1 collective source, as I have started on my site. I dont know it just seemed like a very personal and respectful thing to do.
    
    
11. So how does a band or film company get ahold of you if they'd like to hire your services?
    Well it all begins with long ventures over barren and frozen terrains until you meet the Wizard of the North who will confuse you with ancient puzzles youll have to solve. No really, just drop me an email at: Mike@eyesofchaos.com and let me know a bit about your project and its detailssimple as that .. all inquires welcome.-What are you working on now, do you have some stuff coming up you can talk about?
    On the current burner are a number of exciting projects. 16:9 Productions has contracted me on to produce a film called Eyes of Chaos, in which they are creating a art/horror film based on my art and myself in a original presentation filled with gothic influences, surreal imagery and a artistic film-making in a non-traditional documentary sort of way filled with great music and special effects. Its scheduled for release in 2003. I am also co-writing the material, supplying visual embellishments and producing all the marketing art in conjunction with its release. Other projects include production design on a film called Sasquatch" as well as production art and possibly some visual work on a series of hauntings documentaries. Im also involved with a tv show being shopped at the moment called SOSTV, It promises to be full entertainment experience with the addition of new-age artistic darkness incorporated into the segues. As far as the printed world, I will be introducing soon a special printed art card series that I will be selling and further down the road this year I will be putting together my first art book called Eyes of Chaos: Mike Bohatch : The Dark Visions. So a lot to keep me busy. Also stay tuned for more CD packages being released and publications Ill be introducing my art into.
    
    
12. Any parting words or something you'd like to add?
    Yes, stay true to your passions, support the areas you believe in, work hard or more importantly work smart and keep an open mind into the aspects of the unknown regions that we tend to forget about to never get too far-gone to believe in the amazing. Support your local film-makerrent a horror movie today.