Author: Jack Butcher & Evan Pydych
At first glance, Spencer Elden looks like another young art student living in Northeast Los Angeles. The 20 year old Eagle Rock native sports a Led Zeppelin t-shirt, paint stained jeans and multiple tattoos. Nothing about him suggests his relation to a pop culture legend. Most may not recognize the young man now, but show a photograph of Elden in a swimming pool from 20 years ago, and people the world over will instantly remember him.
In 1991, Elden, only a few months old at the time, became the cover baby of “Nevermind,” Nirvana’s breakthrough album that shattered conceptions of pop music and helped define the 90s. Music fans of all ages could say where troubled guitarist and vocalist of Nirvana Kurt Cobain was in his early 20s, but few could recognize Elden today as easily as they could Cobain.
“Did you see that thing on CNN?” he asks, referencing a recent interview he did for the news network. The world knows Spencer Elden as a baby, and now he is ready to reintroduce himself as an artist and forward thinker.
Regardless of his relative lack of fame now, the Nirvana baby has grown up and is a part of the evolving art world he helped shape. His “studio rat mentality” of spending all his free time working on his artwork was ingrained from a young age. His father was an art enthusiast, and Elden now works in his former studio. However, it was not until three years ago that Elden began to hone his artistic talents.
Upon leaving military school, which he attended to graduate high school early, he worked on a collection of sketches. Within a short time, he began to intern for Sheppard Fairey, founder of clothing and street art company “Obey Giant,” where Elden’s job creates stencils and backgrounds for the artist while he pursues an education at the Pasadena Art Center College of Design.
Elden’s relaxed attitude carries over to his artwork. Rather than beginning a piece with a specific idea in mind, he prefers to have the image create itself. The final picture then becomes a spontaneous work of art. Experimenting with a variety of media, including ink, clippings of other pictures and most recently water colors, Elden does not constrain his art to one specific style or theme. In fact, he rarely uses traditional canvases, preferring slats of plywood and paper. He also has done several murals, which can be found at locations in and around the Eagle Rock area.
We talked to Elden about his viewpoint on “Nevermind” these days. “It’s starting to fit the situation well,” Eldin suggests. “There’s a lot of people who relate to the album.” To him, a baby swimming towards a dollar bill on a fishhook is a representation of drowning in financial distress, something most young adults encounter in striving for a decent, if not, basic living nowadays.
As to how an album with such a dismal attitude can become one of the most revered of its time, one explanation is the Generation X. Born in the 1970s, the youth of Generation X came to feel lost in the aftermath of their parents’ heyday. Fortunate for the often-labeled “Generation of Slackers,” they were among the first to embrace the blissful venting that Cobain aptly spearheads for them. Two decades later, Nevermind’s potency is as strong as ever to young adults, providing a reminder of the frustrations experienced while growing up.
As a 20 year old, Elden continues to listen to Nirvana. He feels that their second album has stayed relevant due to the listener’s ability to identify with the angst and defiance in the music. Plenty of other bands, however, spark his interest. Lately, he has been enjoying bands like The Kills, The Foals and the Dead Weather.
For Elden, life may still be full of complications and doubt, but he has his eyes firmly set on tangible goals. Elden wants to start his own environmentally conscious clothing company.
His vision extends beyond the world of art, incorporating sustainable architecture and energy solutions as well. He would like to use shipping containers to create houses, utilize solar and steam powered generators and go as far “off the grid” as possible.
Check out Elden’s work at vampiresoneday.wordpress.com and osofksyshop.tumblr.com, and look for announcements on upcoming shows.
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