Typewriter interview with Erik Winkowski

10 questions for the artist about finding images, playing music, and making things by hand

Aug 04, 2026

∙ Paid

Do you have any advice for people who want to be more creative? Collaborate with a five-year-old.

Hey y’all,

Erik Winkowski is an artist, animator, filmmaker, and amateur musician. Paper Films is a place he shares short films, fragments, and visual experiments from his studio practice and life. (His pieces “Zinemail No. 1” and Zinemail No. 2” are two of the most interesting uses of the Substack platform I’ve ever seen.) This typewriter interview was conducted via the magic of the United States Postal Service. (For a plain-text version with links, see the P.S. below.)

Do you see yourself as part of an artistic lineage? Who would you place in your creative family tree? All roads lead to MATISSE David Hockney Tal R Milton Avery John Baldessari Jockum Nordstrom

A lot of your videos feature music you make -- what's your relationship to music? When did you start playing it? What song makes you happy? I started making music during Covid. I took piano and guitar lessons as a kid but hadn't played in decades. I thought I'd just make a little background music for my animations, but it turned into a bit of an obsession. From 2022-2023 I recorded a new song nearly every day. It's just so much fun. Honestly, it taught me how to play again in my visual work as well. My expectations are so low when it comes to music that I can let loose and enjoy the process regardless of the results. [My happy song is] "Don't You Just Know It" by Huey "Piano" Smith.

What do you do for exercise? Do you detect any emotional, spiritual, or creative benefits? Walking around with a camera always puts me in a good mood and gives new images.

Tell me about the importance of the hand and making things by hand in your work. I always used to draw my hands as a kid. I have old sketchbooks full of drawings of my hands. I think my best work comes from my hand - not my head. AI has pushed me further in this direction. Prompting leaves me cold, but give me some paint and paper and my hands start moving the materials around and pretty soon I'm feeling my way to new ideas. Even though much of my work is digital, it always starts with traditional materials and my hands.

Do you have any hobbies? Do you collect anything? Natural objects Art Books Art Supplies Weird Words

John Waters says he has "youth spies" that keep him up-to-date on culture. Do you have any youth spies? Not really. I think there's something to be said for being out-of-touch with current culture. I feel it's one of my jobs as an artist to find my creative soul mates. Sometimes I find them in my contemporaries but I'm just as likely to find them in an art history book. For years I tried to stay on top of trends in the art and design world. There was an endless parade of cool stuf to keep up with, but very little of it nourished me as an artist. When I finally stopped keeping up, I found that I was able to discover my voice.

I "smoke" a cigarette pencil when I'M in the studio. Do you perform any silly rituals when you're at work? I like to listen to the same songs again & again & again & again & again....

Describe your perfect day in New Orleans 1. Bicycle ride on the levee 2. Lunch: Half & half po' boys with Crawtator chips, root beers + friends 3. A nap 4. Make a little art 5. Make a little music 6. Crawfish boil 7. In bed with a book by 9:00 ZZZZ

Big thanks to Erik for being the 25th participant in this series of typewriter interviews.

Follow him on Instagram and subscribe to Paper Films!

Shout-out to paid subscribers who buy me the time to do all the email coordinating, typing, snail-mailing, scanning, transcribing, and editing that goes into these! You can make more of these happen with a click of a button:

xoxo,

Austin

Here’s the plain text of our interview with links:

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