Justin Tolentino - The Vitals:

Age: 25
Hometown: St.
Louis MO. u.s.a.
Where do you now live?: St. Louis, MO
/>How long have you been creating street art?: since I was
about 16 so about 10 years
What did you do last night?:
Painted till it didn’t work. had a beer at sleazy bar… watched my friends
house burn down… ate white castles… and watched a movie…
What
is your favorite thing to eat for dinner?: Sushi
Who is
your favorite fictional character?: Tony Montana
What do
you currently have in your pockets?: Bag of stones chap stick zippo
halfa pack of camels receipts from bars… and a stack of my stickers…
/>If you were given “more time,” what would you do with it?:
Paint even more and try to hang out with the friends that I dont get to see as
much…
Who do you love?: The women who don’t love
me…

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Justin Tolentino - The A’s to Our Q’s:

Wooster:
How did you get started in creating art for the street?

/>Justin: I started watching friends of mine scrawling their
names on the walls and I liked the idea of everyone being able to see my art…
plus, I was heavy in to the St. Louis hip hop scene and that was just another
aspect that I wanted to master… I was always good at drawing but my hand
writing was terrible… so I tried to focus on pieces and characters as opposed
to tags and throwups… When I went to college I had a lot of freedom, plus I
met a lot of writers that were down to go out and paint… It became an
addiction going out and painting every night on freights and all over Memphis,
TN… In college I wrote with Roar, Jeva, Paus, Pro, Avoid, and Codak just to
name a few… I have continued to put this feeling and attitude in my work ever
since…

Wooster: What other street artists do you
most admire and why?

Justin: I really admire Barry
Mcgee, Mike Giant, Dave Kinsey, and Shepard Fairey for their persistence and
creative drive…

Wooster: What’s your favorite
city, neighborhood, or block, to post and/or to see street art?

/>Justin: Vancouver and Chicago

Wooster:
What inspires you now?

Justin: Automatic
drawing, by allowing the viewer to make the image with their mind as opposed to
me forcing it in their face by being iconic…  Cy Twombly, Alexander Calder,
and Alberto Giacometti…

Wooster: What are you
currently working on?  Can you give us a sneak peek?

Justin:
My art work is consistently changing im becoming more abstract with my
handling of the painting… The characters I use are becoming less obvious and
part of the entire painting instead of a separate layer that creates space.  The
newer work is also more about color than the previous work.

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