I’m excited for this new addition to our artist interview series! Darius Chanthavong creates compelling portraits in multiple medias that have been catching my eye all year, most notably this bloody yet determined Roman Reigns piece called Fortitude. Darius answered our questions just a few days before Roman Reigns’ heartbreaking leukemia announcement, but instead of asking for an update, I thought it poignant to read the thoughts of an authentic fan and talented artist written before we learned that Roman has cancer. Take a look at our previous fan artist interviews here, here, and here.
Spectacle of Excess: Why is wrestling art? And why does it make such a good subject for art?
Darius Chanthavong: ‘Art’ is such a broad, encompassing label. Whether it is Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa or Duchamp putting a urinal in a gallery, if the subject is provoking emotion or thought, I believe it can be considered ‘art’. Thinking about professional wrestling under that idea, it is very difficult to argue that it isn’t otherwise. So, what makes wrestling art is obviously the spectacle: they perform, we react—we laugh, we cry, we gasp, we follow the stories being told with rapt attention. Some take the content at face value while some go beyond by interpreting and expanding on elements that make the phenomenon interesting to them. The various ways people absorb wrestling obviously produce works of many kinds, whether it is music, drawings, graphics, essays, and so on and so forth. The sheer number of performers, promotions, and storylines provides something for everyone and leaves little behind. Wrestling is far more complicated than people in tights pretending to hit each other, though enjoying that in and of itself isn’t less of a preference either.
On Queen and Empress: Flat line art drawings take far more time for me to complete as opposed to my paintings, oddly enough. This piece garnered the attention of both Asuka and Charlotte and despite the ridiculous length of the former’s neck (even as it is craning), it is one of my better works. Asuka is my favorite woman wrestler and ever since she was announced to arrive in NXT, I fell in love. Even as Kana, she is fearsome and ruthless, all the while being an explosion of vibrant color and charisma. I want to show as much in this work with my subjects of choice. I had my doubts with Asuka going up to the main roster, but I was hyped for her match with Charlotte at WrestleMania 34 regardless. The match didn’t end the way I had hoped, but it was still enjoyable and arguably one of the best matches on the card. I wanted to make sure my portrayal of both Asuka and Charlotte showed their elegance as both royalty and very talented, intimidating individuals.
SofX: Is there a difference between fan art and “real” art?
DC: What constitutes “real” anyway? I mean, I get it. I understand what you’re asking, but at the same time, I find no real difference between the labels. Fan art can certainly have different signifiers from perhaps just a basic portrait study or figure drawing, but for the most part, I feel the terms go hand in hand. Art is, of course, subjective to the individual, but I believe if someone puts enough passion into a piece of work, it doesn’t make it any less “real”—even if they are drawing a subject from popular media.
On Return (To Society?): Dean Ambrose was out with an injury for what seemed like an eternity. When he returned, I immediately created work of him. While some don’t enjoy his style of wrestling or his receding hairline, Ambrose is a very special wrestler in my heart. He is the one whose antics pulled me in and dug in its claws, forever damning me to a life of loving professional wrestling. He is the first wrestler I’ve ever met in person (drove 6+ hours to get to his meet and greet!) and is also the first who ever gave me recognition for my art. I gave him two paintings. This prompted him to tell me about “making out with Barbie to show a little blood” (Barbie being the barbed-wire bat that was gifted to him by Mick Foley) and that he would show them off to everyone at the arena for Smackdown Live later that night. Dean Ambrose has huge significance to me as a fan so being devasted about his injury and then reveling in his return yielded much tear-stained fan art.
Whenever I think of Dean, I think of jagged, sharp lines and angles. Red is quite prevalent in my perception of him as well as I often think about him in contrast to Roman Reigns, with the Red Oni Blue Oni dynamic they have on screen as brothers, allies, rivals, etc.
SofX: Who are your favorite artists in general? What artistic periods or movements resonate most with you?
DC: Claude Monet and Eugène Delacroix are artists I highly revere. The way Monet captures vestiges of light—how it moves and changes—and somehow recreates that in a still painting is fascinating to me. The lesser-refined brush strokes he applies to his works heavily influence the way I go about painting both digitally and traditionally. I think it looks a lot more interesting than definitive figures in a specific space. Delacroix has a talent for emphasizing the subject and making them glamorous, in a sense. As far as art movements go, obviously Impressionism and Romanticism are my favorites, the latter for its glorification of emotion and reality, rather than the lofty, more classical forms of art. I try to incorporate a little of both movements into my works when I can.
SofX: What do you think of the idea that wrestling is a “spectacle of excess”?
DC: Wrestling is the overindulgence in various things that are fantastical in nature. Wrestling has taken elements from other performance arts and combined them into a form that checks the metaphorical list in all things a spectator could ever want at a show they have willingly gone to see. People are so willing to throw themselves into that suspension of disbelief to enjoy themselves for a moment—professional wrestling is a perfect fit for that no matter who you are, in my honest opinion.
On Fortitude: Roman Reigns is my absolute favorite subject. Everyone is probably tired of hearing about him, or hearing about how people feel about him, but I am on the side of “absolutely love and adore and respect” him. Not only is Reigns a conventionally attractive person, but his ongoing story in the WWE really gets the gears turning in my head. I’ll admit I must do a lot of mental gymnastics to see why Roman is handled the way he is, but sometimes you push all that technical bullshit to the side and just enjoy yourself.
My paintings of Roman Reigns are often the ones I spent more time and care on because achieving his likeness is a favor to myself. I use a loose, textured brush in Adobe Photoshop and just go to town. The art is created with no goal in mind; I feel it before I think it, and if the result is nice, then up onto social media it goes. I know, it’s not the most riveting or helpful art advice.
This piece was created in response to the ending of WrestleMania 34. I won’t go into how Brock Lesnar makes me feel but seeing actual blood gushing out of one of your favorite wrestlers doesn’t exactly make you happy (me, at least. I won’t speak on anyone else’s behalf). Other words that come to mind are ‘resilience’ and ‘perseverance’, as Roman isn’t one to exactly back down or ever learn to stop trying, really. Even if he isn’t a textbook lawful good hero, I think it fits that you should be cheering for this guy—I know that’s an unpopular opinion, but what do I care what other people think? I’m not going to let anyone else influence why and how I enjoy certain aspects of wrestling. It’s fake, remember?
SoX: So you do know it’s fake, right? 😉
DC: That is what makes wrestling so amazing. If it were any more ‘real’ than it was now, I wouldn’t stomach it. I hate UFC and I don’t care to watch boxing. I’m not invested in the cartoonish personalities of real people, only the cartoonish personalities of fake people. It makes it a lot more tolerable knowing I don’t have to worry that that is how wrestlers treat each other and other people in reality… as far as I am aware of or care to know.
Follow Darius on Twitter or Instagram (@QU4DZER0) and take a look at their store here!
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