Daniel Andersson Boe is an artist whose personality is as enigmatic as his work. His colorful illustrations create an almost electric sense of motion that attacks the eye. Under the god name Semiotext, his imagery has been featured in numerous shows in his home city of Gothenburg, Sweden. His writing and illustrations have been featured in several Fanzines, and at the Interstellar Expo in Berlin.

Semiotext on DeviantArt

Which artists have most influenced your work, and who are your favorite artists?
Hard to say actually. I’ve groped the Pop out of everything I’ve seen so far. But Basquiat stands out, of course. I quite like Baseman as well. Pick up a Juxtapoz and they’re all there. Grant Morrisson, Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman and Peter Milligan’s Comic Books are also worthy answers to the question I think.

Describe your creative process. Do you start with images or ideas?
A few years back I always did these sketches and went from them. Tried to get the end result as close to the mental representation as possible. Now…I just start to wail at the Canvas and the Stuff appears by itself. I think both methods have their advantages but I like the direct action stuff right now.

What tools do you use in your work?
I use what I can I guess. I have this big iron fork which is seriously amazing when it comes to fucking up surfaces. Really great results every time. I have a few buckets standing around filled with stuff like that. Just reach in and get busy, you know? Otherwise it’s the standard tools, paint/brushes/canvas/paper.

Does inspiration come to you or do you actively seek it? If so, how?
Ah, inspiration. Well, I think that everything is inspiring. It can be pretty tough at times, not be able to relax in any deeper sense. It’s always something. A word on the radio that triggers a response when combined with the view out of a window, a light switch that looks like a robot-dog in a certain angle etc and then it’s back to work. So to Speak. I recommend getting stoned in Night Time-Rome though. That city is filled with Pokemons. Its a really remarkable Sight. And sure…a brain-boost of sorts is “always” a good thing. Loosen the restraints. Let the Unicorns run Free.

When did you begin practicing your art and how did you learn?
I have always drawn pictures but I guess I started to paint a little more for real when I was 14 and read about the Dada-movement in Paris in the 1920s. They got me all hot and panting those brave men and woman. I had to join in. Pretty simple stuff. Everybody has Housegods of some sort or un-other. Mine were Man Ray and Tristan Tzara at the time. Franz Kline and the rest of the Abstract Expressionists came later. I also went to art-school for 5 years which in retrospect seems really fucking tedious and perhaps even somewhat meaningless although I had some really fantastic Times between assignments and “classes”. Learning to paint is god damned easy but you have to do it. Not talk about it. This is a fact thats always puzzled me when talking to people who seems to say that they want to paint but can’t because they can’t. What does that mean? When did anyone learn anything by not doing it? Anyway.

Is there one piece that is special to you, or that you particularly enjoyed creating?
I really enjoy mine and Emily Brown’s collabs. We have a really good thing going when we work together on a piece. Sometimes we work in shifts, so when I sleep she paints and vice versa. This is really a new way of approaching a canvas for me. To not know what to expect when it’s time to work, to see my darlings helplessly trashed remains every time I wake up and still be able to trash them some more. Invent new spirit-animals together with someone who is as die hard as I seem to be. This particular one started as a pretty ordinary canvas. We both had to be a bit sneaky to be able to paint together at all as I was in a relationship and Emily looked really fucking threatening to my partner. Which of course…made our sittings a bit sexy,dark and forbidden. Bad Strategies, Body/Mind Chemistry and 10 000 Paint made us. And we, in turn, made this: The History is quite Visible from Over Here. But then Again…I was in the thick of it.

The lines in your images convey an almost manic sensation of movement. How do you bring a line to life?
I try not to kill it which is what happens to lines when they get short and stubby. Pointy. [Dead Lines are a brilliant thing. Got this sudden urge to do some dead lines. How does a climactic excess of such a thing look like?] I usually don’t lift the pen from paper or brush from canvas until the Lines put down properly. Big circles are a favorite start and then I just narrow in on something interesting and bring it out in the open.

Some of your images look as though the canvas was splattered or burned. How did you prepare those images?
Some are splattered allright. We/I usually use coffee [with milk], soy sauce, ink and cigarette ashes. The reason for using stuff like this is the Chaos it provides. It’s impossible to control the process. One can try to make sense of the splatter with a big fork for example but gravity and other hocus pocus usually does it’s own thing. We’re along for the ride BUT we have final cut. So I guess we’re on even ground. No Preparation exactly. It’s just one of these things that suddenly happens. You should really see my apartment floor and walls. Hideous Fucking Beauty.

What can we expect from you in the future?
Show’s yeah. I’ve got this show in Berlin the 3′rd of November. One on Gallery Red Spot in Los Angeles…the 4′th I think. I have been asked by a gallery in Oregon and one in Texas one in Canada and one in etc if I would like to Join Up in november/december/january but I’ve lost track of loose commitments a long time ago, especially those made over Myspace. Thinking about taking Sweden. Boring country but it’s close and easy to do. Perhaps the rest of Scandinavia, Germany, Italy, Spain…etc. Tokyo. The Hunt is On, You Know?