ZINESTER Interview with Russell Ouellett

Getting ever closer to the big day. We still have a few interviews to share with you. Say hello to Russell Ouellett!


When did you make your first zine, and what was it about?

It's embarrassing but I my first zine was a mammoth full letter-sized 50 plus page ode to marijuana appropriately titled, "From Weed to Weed."  I made it some time in the mid-nineties and still have the original somewhere... maybe I'll print a fresh run for all the cannabis aficionados in ABQ.

Please tell us about the zines you’ll be tabling at ABQZF.

For ABQZF I found a love pink suitcase that I've been slowing filling with whatever zine-ish stuff I can find in my studio.  I'll have a bunch of poetry zines and some little zine journals. 

What do you say when someone asks you,  "What are zines?"

Zines are DIY or even better DIT (Do It Together) self-published magazines printed on computer/copier paper that usually present some useful yet banal information, challenge the status quo, self-promote, or are simply l'art pout l'art.


Name three influences in your life that have affected your work, or even how you work.

That's a tough question for me.  I'm mostly inspired all the time in a vicious cycle of desperation and re-inspiration, especially by the anonymous anarchist artists taking REAL Bullets and Machetes fighting the white power hegemony, while I sit cozily in my tower of privilege... But If I have to name names I'm going to say, "today I'm super inspired by LA funk musician and Stones Throw recording artist DAM-FUNK, Swedish collective Teenage Engineering, and the Navajo Nihígaal bee Iiná."


Do you have a zine crush? If so, are you willing to reveal the object of your zine affection?

My zine crush is on a bunch of zines I just picked up from the Taala Hoogan peeps at a local fundraiser for those affected by the Gold King Mine tragedy/spill.

What's the most challenging thing about zine making? What do you enjoy most about the process?

Getting the pages lined up in order... it makes my brain seize up and sometimes leak out my ears...


Why are zines important?

Making zines is a relatively cheap, self-reflexive practice that is usually a healing way to go about your daily life.

Thanks, Russell!