When I first met Cynthia von Buhler, I was topless and covered in white paint. As a cash strapped nineteen-year-old, I stumbled upon her ad on Craigslist hunting for human statues, and soon I was posing as Pauline Borghese at the most debauched absinthe ball of my life. In many ways, Cynthia von Buhler could be credited as setting me down the road of Professional Naked.

Raven haired von Buhler has had a career so broad, and glamorous, as to defy description. While von Buhler is best known as an award winning fine artist and illustrator, she has also danced in music videos as Bettie Page, ran experimental record labels, run galleries, and sold pieces of herself (literally) in a fine art vending machine that has toured the globe. Most recently, she’s been hard at work doing the art for Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley’s “Evelyn Evelyn” book project, as well as focusing on her own children’s book series “Who Will Bell the Cats?”

Von Buhler was kind enough to share insights on technique, career diversity, and how she came to live in a castle.

You’ve worked in so many disciplines- from installation artist to model to rock label Impressaria to comics creator. Tell me about the thread that connects your many types of artistic expression.

CVB: My surroundings, my body, what I do, and what I choose to create are all part of my art. I like to incorporate as many dimensions into my work as I can; I’m not satisfied with a 2-D surface. I like to look at old paintings in museums, but I prefer modern art museums because there, things break free of the canvas; there is sound, depth, texture, and movement. These elements are key to my work- In my art I’m trying to make what you see in a traditional museum break free and come to life.

To do this, I work with volume, mass, and even time. I incorporate electronics or living animals into my paintings to give them a performance component. The common thread holding all of my varying styles together is that I’m constantly trying to break free of the flat surface. I have a desperate need to breath life into my art. Sometimes I have to deal with parts of my art decaying, dying, or breaking– but isn’t that what life is all about?

I am working on a series called “What I am Now You Will One Day Be.” The final piece will be when this statement is written on my gravestone. When this happens, even my death will have become my art.

You’re the artist for Jason Webley and Amanda Palmer’s “Evelyn Evelyn” comics project. How is it going, and what’s your process like working for Jason and Amanda?

CVB: I am enjoying this project so much! I knew Amanda from my Boston days. Everyone always said that we were similar– we aren’t afraid to do and say what we feel, and we are comfortable using our bodies for our art. There are two Cynthia von Buhlers. One is outgoing, wild, outspoken and insane. The other is private, quiet and thoughtful. The first Cynthia is like Amanda and the second is like Jason. I’m Cynthia Cynthia, the human contradiction.

This is the first time I am publishing my drawings. Normally I paint, sculpt, or use some other medium, but for this project I’m just drawing.
It is so great to get back to my first love. I have been drawing since I was born. I was probably finger painting in the womb. It comes very easily to me.

I have been given a great deal of freedom to do what I want on this project. I work very closely with Jason: he tells me his ideas and then I show him mine. Usually I surprise him and take it one step further than what he had envisioned. Jason is a fabulous collaborator. He has strong creative vision but he is open to new ideas. He likes to play art ping pong, and I love doing that with someone whose vision I agree with 100%. Amanda is an amazing, open and trusting collaborator. She says, “Do whatever you want” and is always there to chime in with a “RAH!” or a “That is fucking awesome!” Not only does she trust our understanding of the story and characters, but she is a wonderful cheerleader. That kind of support is really necessary when you are doing such an intense amount of work in a short period of time. Shawna Gore, our editor at Dark Horse, has also been a pleasure to work with. She has given us complete freedom and tries to keep us on track. It must be a bit like herding cats for her. I’m making circus freak posters of all four of us. Neil said that he should be “The Latest Man in the World.” I think that we were all a bit guilty of that on this project.

I post my ideas on a private web blog for everyone involved to look at. I’ll probably put up a public version of this blog to show my process after the book comes out. Through research for and creation of the pictures in “Evelyn Evelyn” I focus a lot on my intense love of innocents, whether they be animals or children, and my disgust for the cruelty they endure. I will show all of this in the blog when I make it public.

I did this with But “Who Will Bell the Cats” and it has been very popular. You can see that blog here: butwhowillbellthecats.blogspot.com

You’re currently focused on illustrated books- both the “Evelyn Evelyn” project for DarkHorse and your extremely feline series of children’s picture books. What made your interests turn towards publishing?

CVB: I have been doing publishing for years– in fact, my major in college was children’s books and my minor was fine art. I spent years doing thousands of illustrations for magazines. THOUSANDS. I do not exaggerate. I can show you the boxes and boxes of tear sheets. I was even doing it back when I was in college. I remember once in class a teacher said to me, “Oh, I saw your illustration in the Boston Globe. I lined my bird cage with it.” This sums up why I no longer want to do editorial illustration. It is too throwaway. Books are lasting. Books get turned into films. Books are forever. Books are even better than sex.

The “Evelyn Evelyn” story feels like a children’s book to me. This project has opened my eyes up to graphic novels and how through this medium I can write the children’s books I want to write without any censorship. I was obsessed with comics as a child, but they also seemed flimsy and disposable to me. A graphic novel is different- it is a hardcover book! I have many ideas for graphic novels now. This is just the beginning.

I adore making children’s books, but I’m always incorporating creepy elements into sweet stories. I liked books with edge when I was a child, but now everything has to be politically correct. I want to make children’s books with as much sadness, death and fear as sweetness, love and comfort. The books I loved as a child had both good and bad. It’s odd how we try to homogenize children’s books, yet we allow children to play violent video games and watch horror films. The fact is that children like sadness and it is healthy to show them these aspects of life through books. This way they are learning about bad things in the world and how they should, and could, react to them. Children have these emotions as much as adults, maybe even more so. To say that my books are just about cats is not looking into the deeper aspects of the simple stories. There is a bubbling cauldron of emotion encapsulated into the few simple lines I write and illustrate.

I hear you collect homes for fun. As a real-estate poor New Yorker, I’m intrigued. Tell me more.

CVB: It all started when I bought a large Victorian in Boston. No, wait, maybe it started with the dollhouse my father made me as a child? Hmmm. Anyhow, even though I had no money and I was a freelancer I hustled a bank into giving me and my boyfriend at the time, Adam Buhler, a mortgage back in 1995. I bought this amazing place and decorated it like the Addams family house. It was nicknamed “Castle von Buhler”. When Adam I got married I took that as my last name, even though he was Jewish and obviously did not use a “von.” This got me hooked. My current husband, Russell Farhang, has joined me in my house collecting obsession, and I have been buying and selling houses and commercial loft leases ever since Castle von Buhler. I’m an amazingly good hustler. I can make money and houses fall from the sky. I can’t explain it all here. Perhaps I should write a book? “How To Live Like a Rich Person On An Empty Bank Account.” Would you buy that book? Renting out the spaces for film and photo shoots helps too. Go here for more info on that: www.cvbspaces.com

Find out more about Cynthia von Buhler at http://www.cynthiavonbuhler.com.

Words and interview by Molly Crabapple.  Images courtesy of Cynthia von Buhler.