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January 13, 2004
Profile: Justin Tolentino
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...
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.
Posted by marc at 8:01 AM in |
