Multi-faceted man:“I like being diversified in as many things as I can find to mess with.” He loves drawing and painting, but he also likes “hacking old instruments and making them more useful. I got a microphone that’s a telephone, a switchboard that’s made out of a hairdryer… bringing oddity to common things. A lot of the things I build from necessity, and part of it is like completely not necessity. I’ll make something just to see how I can use it — I feel like an adult that has a lot of toys.”
Strange Fancy: That’s the title of his new e-zine, which is currently a mini-portfolio of Mahoney’s own drawings — assured, compelling images that incorporate everyday objects in evocative ways. “I kinda like placing stuff in a place that’s not exactly common.” The zine will eventually link to other artists’ portfolios, and he’s been talking to Bob Devin Jones about doing a show at Studio@620.
Circle of friends:“I’m deeply interested in how an artist works — it’s really strong when artists get together and create good events. I got friends from really wide-reaching mindsets — people that professionally hula hoop; fire dancers, friends who play accordion on the street.”
He plays the street, too:“That’s one of my sources of income — I play my synthesizer on the street on Beach Drive near Vinoy and on Central. Sometimes I don’t make any money, sometimes I do well.”
Mixed reactions:“With images, a lot of people don’t respond as quickly as they do to music. A lot of people will see images and feel like they should think a certain way about it, but with music I’ve noticed people can either feel that they like it or feel that they don’t.”
What’s next: A junior at USF St. Pete, he’s hoping to enter the school’s entrepreneurship program. “A lot of artists aspire to do one thing for the rest of their lives. I haven’t found any one thing that I can see myself doing forever.”
Painter/DJ/musician/ inventor, 24, St. Petersburg
by David Warner