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October 24, 2003
Profile : Jeff Stark
Name: Jeff StarkAge: 31.
Where do you live? Brooklyn.
How long have you been creating street art? One year.
What did you do last night?
Explored the Croton Aqueduct in the Bronx.
What do you currently have in your pockets?
Always the same five things: wallet, keys, a marker, lipshit, and my brain.
How did you get started in creating art for the street?
I started doing street art to impress a girl. I'd never done anything on the street, or even made images before, but I've been interested in what amounts to urban folk art and participatory culture since I moved to New York. The way I see it, street art fits in with all that. New York City is the most democratic art gallery in the world.
What other street artists do you most admire and why?
Revs is the best. I get excited every time I see a new piece, and I'm always looking for old stuff that I might have missed. He's been reinventing graffiti for something like 20 years, with wheatpastes, roller tags, the underground diaries, and most recently his steel tags. He wouldn't admit to it, but I think he's the link between old-school graffiti writers and the new-school street artists.
Swoon is my favorite in New York right now. (And, hey, thanks for including me here.) She's full of ideas, limitlessly energetic, and fearless. She's really thinking about public space and what it means to work on the street. If you've only seen her cutouts you're missing out. I also like whoever is doing the little steel boxes, Erika DeFreitas (who is crocheting sweaters for telephones), all those Toyshop kids, and Darius and Downey. Outside New York, I'm inspired by all the French pochoir artists, especially Blek le Rat and Nemo, Banksy in England, and whatever the fuck is going on in Melbourne.
What's your favorite city, neighborhood, or block, to post and/or to see street art?
My favorite neighborhoods is Gowanus, Brooklyn, followed by Red Hook. They're both still as industrial as all hell, and they have those huge old buildings. Dumbo has the most creative work concentrated in the smallest area. And Williamsburg is kind of its own fascinating little microcosm, just because it has so many people who are up there and nowhere else.
What inspires you now?
Looking at the city. Plus work that is really specific to its place (like what Dan Witz does). I'm also into the ideas of Crimethink, the self-sufficient squatter scene in Europe, and Naomi Klein's thoughts on public space. I've recently been poring over books about the old masters, and that's fun; rich people don't deserve their lock on fine art. In my own stuff, I'm obsessed with record, or capturing little moments and watching the way the world will change around them. And charcoal. Charcoal is so beautiful.
What are you currently working on? Can you give us a sneak peak?
I'm learning how to draw, and no, you can not: Right now it all goes into the trash.
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