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ZAK SMITH: No. (Pauses, then smirks). Okay, you can't scientifically disprove it, so maybe there's a God. But if there is, he's definitely a jerk. So it's either I don't believe in him, or if it turns out he's real, I have a bone to pick.
When did you lose your virginity?
Fourteen.
Do you consider your involvement in porn an extension of your art?
Not at all. Sometimes I make pictures that are about the porn business, the way Cézanne made pictures about apples. But the apples weren't his art. His art was painting. I've answered that question so much, that I'm convinced no one ever reads these interviews.
Do you consider yourself lucky? Because a lot of men would envy your position.
Yeah, I'm lucky. I feel it's important to point out that I'm lucky because I wouldn't want people to think I'm one of those artists who thinks they're successful because the art world rewards quality. Because it doesn't. I make good work, but the fact that I happen to be successful is just per chance, because they're unrelated things.
What's more important to you, sex or art?
Sex.
But what if you were stranded on an island, and you could either have all the sex you wanted, but could never make art. Or you could make art all day, but never have sex?
Depends on the person on the island.
What's the ultimate compliment to you? Is it when someone is praising your art, your writing, or your fucking?
I think compliments are kinda cheap. If you do anything in public, you're going to get compliments, and you're going to get insults. A real compliment isn't what is said, it's who says it. So, if it's someone whose art you really appreciate, and they like your art, then that's a meaningful thing. If there's someone you really want to have sex with, and they want to have sex with you, then that's a compliment, I guess.
Whose art do you like?
Historically? I like Bernini a lot. I like a lot of '60s photographers — William Eggleston, Robert Frank. People working today? I like Philip Ross, Nick DiGenova. I don't really like a lot of traditional mainline oil painting — like I think Velàzquez was good at oil painting and Vermeer was, but other than that, it's kind of a useless medium, like colored mud.
When did you become involved in the porn industry, and did you just do it for kicks? Were you a horny guy who just wanted to get laid?
2006. Uh, all of those are the same options, as far as I can tell, right? I mean, yeah. This director had seen the "Gravity's Rainbow" drawings I did and said, ‘It'd mean a lot if I could use your art in my movie, but it's a porno movie, blah, blah, blah.' And I said, ‘Sure, you can use it, and it would mean a lot to me if I could have sex with all the girls in the movie.'
I was describing you to a friend, as a modern-day Toulouse-Lautrec. Do you agree?
I guess if you wanted to draw a broad historical equivalent, sure.
Is acting in porn just a side gig? A vocation? A hobby?
I get paid, so it's not a hobby. It's a very occasional job. I get to be choosy, because I have a whole other job.
Do you work on your art every day?
Yes. If I'm awake, I'm working. Unless I'm doing this [eating].
How would you categorize yourself within the art world? I'm having trouble coming up with the exact word. You seem interested, but then not — I don't know how to depict that.
Well, I like art. I don't like the business of art at all. I think that it's the emperor's new clothes. The only reason that no one says it is because those people who are turned off by it, just don't care. Like all these people in this restaurant don't say, ‘Here's the reasons I don't look at contemporary art.' They just don't look at it. And I think that's a real problem culturally. But within the art world, it's a self-selecting group. There's a bunch of worthless crap and if you like worthless crap, then you're in it. You don't even go in the galleries, and it doesn't bother you. It's a lot like porn. I mean, you don't know anything about porn. You probably stereotype it, and it's probably accurate, about what porno movies are like. You don't watch it and you don't go there. So if someone was trying to make a different movie that you might like, they would never reach you anyway, because you're not even in the store. It's the same thing in the art world. They're both crippled industries in that way. They can only produce more of what the people who are already buying it, already like. Like the people who are buying art now who got reputations as good collectors, have those reputations as good collectors because they bought a bunch of Andy Warhols. So, unless you make art that's like Andy Warhol on some level, then you're pretty much not considered a real artist. So you're not in the big money system. And I think that's not true of a lot of other industries.
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