Originally posted at Lifelounge

To celebrate the upcoming Semi-Permanent, Lifelounge has joined forces with the SP team and will be bringing you a bunch of interviews with some of this year's speakers. First up is Leif Podhajsky, a Melbourne-based artist, designer and Creative Director.

Semi-Permanent: You’ve said to express themes like “connectedness, relevance of nature and psychedelic experiences” through your art. Could you give an example of a personal psychedelic experience?
Leif Podhajsky: When I say "psychedelic experience" I mean "the perception of aspects of one's mind usually unavailable to ordinary waking consciousness, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ordinary restraints" – an unknown experience. It always conjures up images of the drugs and hippies and I am trying to remove my work from that as I'm interested in these altered states of mind and the knowledge and wisdom one can receive from these places.

Personal experiences of these altered states happen all the time, anytime my mind stops thinking so god damn much and actually lets me appreciate a single moment as being special. I realise I am breathing, I am able to experience a gamut of emotions love, hate, pain, happiness and that this is pretty fucking great once we stop to see it for what it is... Or you could take a dose of DMT and totally blow everything out of the water. But I can’t think of any words to clarify this one…


SP: What are your top five favourite album covers?
LF: 1. Free, Free (1969). Cover by: Ron Rafaelli of the Visual Thing Inc.
This is one of my all time favourite covers, a silhouette of a women made of stars leaping across the sky, along with the beautifully restrained typography reading "free" gives the cover a floating dreamlike quality.

2. Santana, Abraxsas (1970). Cover by: Mati Klarwein
Speaks for itself, any cover by Mati Klarwein is mesmerising, there is so much going on with this one doesn't know where to look first, really great collage style composition and use of colour adds to the confusion. Miles Davis' Bitches Brew is another one of his great album covers.

3. The Rascals, See (1969). Cover by: Rene Magritte
I love the dark tone of the ocean and the negative space in this painting by Rene Magritte, with the sky magically encapsulated in the cut out bird. I am glad they didn't ruin it by putting any type on the cover also.

4. CAN, Monster Movie (1969). Cover by: Wandrey's Studio
The Marvel comic character Galactus on the front makes me think of the singer Malcolm Mooney with his raw, powerful and repetitious vocals. The colour palette adds to the surreal image of the floating futuristic knight hovering above the mountains holding his mask or face in his hand with void where it should be... and because I love CAN so bad.

5. Black Mountain, Wilderness Heart (2010). Cover by: Jeremy Schmidt
I am a big fan of the cover of Black Mountain's In the Future record, and Jeremy Schmidt the keyboardist from the band has done it again with what looks to be an amazing cover for there yet to be realised new record. Its a reflection of a shark in the windows of a building and just looks so surreal.


SP: The cover of Tame Impala looks great, what is the story behind that cover?
LF: I got contacted by Modular out of the blue one day, and asked if I wanted to come up with some ideas for Tame Impala's new album artwork, I jumped at this so quick as I am a fan of their work. The funny thing was I contacted their manger about eight months prior asking if I could do some artwork for them but she misplaced my email somehow… So when I called Kevin (Parker) to discuss concepts I mentioned this and they dug up the email from the trash-bin most likely. I guess this sort of showed I was pretty keen to work with them and actually liked their music.

I really wanted the artwork to reflect the dreamy flow of the music and its reference to old psych but with, like the album, a very fresh approach. I submerged myself into this world and pretty much thought of nothing but the artwork for about 6 weeks, it got kind of unhealthy. But I am super happy with the results. What came out of the process I think captures the records mood, this acid tinged landscape that wafts into infinity sort of pulsing back and forth reflects the musics ability to put you into this headspace, a sort of timeless, weightless void. I met the guys at a Pond gig when they where in Melbourne not long ago and they where all such great people. After the gig we all did a DJ set which got pretty loose, we played a lot of the music I was listening to whilst creating the artwork and this was a really special way to end the whole creative process for me.


SP: Your work has been displayed all over the world. Is there one place in particular that can connect with your work, better than another place?
LF: Only the place I mentioned in the first question... I don't think there is one physical place where my work is better received over another, more the individual person that connects with it, but I do find that Europe and the States seem to be the places where most interest is coming from.


SP: What exciting projects are coming up?
LF: It's all a bit hush hush at this point, but it involves some work for a very special record company in the UK. Also a few more exhibitions coming up. I have been doing some art for a friends new music endeavour, called Young Magic. He is creating some totally mind blowing sounds, and it is always a treat working with a like minded soul. I’m also getting worked into a frenzy about creating some motion/video and some sculptural installations very soon! There’s never enough time…


SP: What importance do you place on you and other designer/artists sharing your life experiences with the local design community in a forum like Semi-Permanent?
LF: It's an integral part of the creative process, sharing your experiences benefits the whole community, it helps establish new ways of thinking and developing outcomes across the whole creative society. Personally, I love the really humanistic value of talks like Semi Permanent, we often forget that people whom we hold in esteem didn't just magically appear where they are, there’s a history of ups and downs which have shaped them into who they are, and its these that give the real essence of their practice or profession. I am blown away and humbled just to be asked to speak at such an amazing event.

More at leifpodhajsky.com and semipermanent.com.