By Stephanie Eisemann, News Staff

If you’ve ever walked down Newbury Street and seen a former Mass Art student painting designs worthy of Converse in his underwear, you’ve probably encountered Landon Richmond, better known by his art brand Know No Truth.  Richmond recently participated in the Boston Comic Con for his third consecutive year selling art, and his dark and often controversial work has made quite a splash amongst the locals.

Painter, filmmaker, and model for Maggie Inc., Richmond’s journey to his blooming success was not an easy one.

“My first memory was drawing,” Richmond said. “I drew Godzilla using green, yellow, and red crayons. He was destroying a city while dancing in a river of blood. I was instantly attracted to the darker side of things, like monster movies and natural disasters.  I was a pretty strange kid, and everyone around me would never let me forget that.  Since then art has been a constant in my life, in some capacity or another.”

The name Know No Truth stemmed from a particularly frustrating night as an artist, when he spilled a bottle of ink. In the spilled ink he drew a creature with a human top and worm bottom when suddenly the infamous phrase “know no truth” stormed his brain and he wrote it on the desk.

“Know No Truth as I see it is accepting no conclusions and always looking deeper.  No matter how hard you look, there is always more detail,” Richmond said. “There is always more to learn, see, taste, feel, and experience.  Soon as you accept anything as truth, the exploration dies.  The whole notion and philosophy of Know No Truth is essential to understanding my art.”

His passion carried him through irritating jobs and adversity until Richmond found himself in a 2D design class at Mass Art, one that would change his life.  After struggling at the school and having a terrible time with a particular assignment, he handed in a subpar project and his instructor informed him he was one of the worst students she had ever had.  Recovering from the emotional experience in the men’s room, Richmond saw the words “everything will be okay” scrawled on the stall door which prompted him to walk out of the bathroom, and school, to begin his independent career as an artist. He started by selling art on Newbury and Mass Ave Wednesday through Sunday until October 31st and running a gallery in a Florida mall during the winter. Richmond will soon run an actual storefront on Newbury, opening this upcoming spring.  “It’s poetic because I began selling art on the sidewalk of that street, and soon I will have a store there,” Richmond said.

He has drawn inspiration from many of the known greats, including: “Michelangelo because no one ever got as close to perfection as he did, Francis Bacon because of how apologetically dark he was, Dali for how ethnologically weird he was, Alex Pardee for his business model, Marilyn Manson for showing me that even the weakest can spread their wings, and Ralph Steadman for teaching me that chaos is a useful weapon,” Richmond said.

Be forewarned, however; Richmond’s work is not for the faint of heart.  “I would describe my work as a confrontational approach to the dichotomies of black and white to further understand the shades of gray that is life. I’m interested in the human condition,” Richmond said. “By that I mean the set of emotions everyone has such as joy, sorrow, anger…what invokes those emotions and how they are dealt with are very different for everyone, but we all have those feelings. An awareness of one’s emotions is crucial to being worth a damn.”

To understand and appreciate his work requires a great deal of thought, as well as the ability to face emotions that are difficult to confront, but important to identity. “In our current age of overwhelming distractions people stick to first impressions strongly, and judge a book by its cover,” Richmond said.  “I also think a lot of people are stupid, but that might be stupid of me to think.”  Still, the stupidity and negativity doesn’t stop Richmond from creating and hoping that some of his patrons will get the meaning of abnormal, sometimes gruesome, pieces.

“Ideally I like to provoke people, whether it’s to offend or inspire people,” said Richmond. “I want to put a visual representation to a feeling in someone’s head they can’t put a picture to, and I do it in a confrontational way. People either face what’s shown to them or run from it.  It is true thought that if you run from anything, it will chase you.”

As for his self-advancement, which took him all the way to Boston Comic Con, Richmond advises being proactive. To secure his spot he “simply sent an email with an application, and a check.  Asking will get you far.  Asking with a check will get you further. Obviously I had an extensive portfolio and a large merchandise ready to sell which probably also made a difference,” Richmond said. “I was also invited to the Baltimore and New York Comic Con, but scheduling conflicts caused me to wait until next year for those two.”

In terms of being a BCC vendor, Richmond explained the third time’s the charm and the people at Boston Comic Con were generally more positive towards his work. “When people see my art they act in extremes, they either love it and think it’s beautiful or hate it and think it’s repulsive…I grew up collecting comics, and I think a lot of people who enjoy comics had similar backgrounds as me,” Richmond said. “Comics speak to the rejected and weird in a lot of ways, and in all the best ways.”

Vendor booths, however, are not the only appearances Richmond makes.  He has also done live art performances.  He did a performance at the Estate in Boston that included two professional belly dancers, two amateurs with goat skulls, and the disembowelment of baby dolls “Eve” and “Kill.”  He heard the crowd chanting while backstage and asked himself if he really had it in him to make it.  Answering the question once and for all, he carved the word yes into his chest with rusty scissors. Instead of sitting and painting, he likes to make his appearances a performance, and an exciting one, where people experience not just the work he creates but the energy.

After being sued for $25,000 for accidentally hitting an audience member with his paint cup (a suit that was later dropped) that monthly performance was cancelled.  He is unsure if his next performance will be as controversial, and when he appeared at the Wonder Bar in Allston in June, he toned down the act, only including fake blood, glitter, and bandages.

Fans can check out his work at Farmer Horse Coffee, where he is currently exhibiting, and also at the Allston Village Street Fair on September 25th.

To see more of his work check out The Huntington New’s photo gallery here.

Photo courtesy: Landon Richmond