December 1, 2008
Sten: The A's To Our Q's
Hometown: Rome
Where do you now live?: Rome
Where would you most like to live?: I fear any thing is not Rome, then Rome.
Who was your first "hero" in life?: My cousin, he’s called Leone “Lion” and he was 4 older than me.
What is your favorite thing to do on your day off from work?: Fishing with Lex on the Tevere river.
What is your favorite color?: Red
Who (or what) do you love?: I love Beatrice like Dante.
Who and/or what are some of your influences? I like everything is printed since the print was born. So I like Piranesi, Dorè and the daily newspapers. And I love the stuff of Bast and Faile. I admire the way of JR of pasting up the same poster over different planes and surfaces; in that way the poster became the wall. But influences mostly comes by Alessandra and by the churchs of Rome.
Wooster: What other artists do you most admire?
My favorites street artists are Blu, Giotto, Swoon, N4t4, Bergognone, Gaia, Rello Rocca, Gentile da Fabriano, Madame Archer, Raffaello, Vhils, Lex.
Wooster:How would you describe your art to someone who could not see it?
I mostly work in black and white my stencils and my posters remember the prints in black and white. I work mostly with half tone, dots, points, pixels., lines, I called this way of cutting stencil “hole school”. I like the mix between the abstract pattern that you see in a close view and the realism you can note by a far view. I do mostly portraits of anonymous persons and of a girl I know.
Wooster:What do you fear the most?
Twin Peaks
Wooster:What is your greatest ambition?
To be a champion of “calcio” like Roberto Baggio.
You can see more of Sten's work here.
Posted by marc at 6:54 AM in Interviews | Recommend this! |
| November 26, 2008
Slinkachu: The A's To Our Q'ds
Age: 29
Hometown: Devon, UK
Where do you now live?: London, UK
Where would you most like to live?: I love London, but i wouldn't mind spending time in other big cities such as New York. I love Barcelona too.
Who was your first "hero" in life?: Fictional hero: Doctor Who. Real life hero: Probably my Dad.
What is your favorite thing to do on your day off from work?: Meeting up with friends and drinking and chatting.
What is your favorite color?: Grey
Who (or what) do you love?: Looking at the stars on a clear night. I can't do that in London because of the light pollution, but recently i was in the middle of nowhere in South Africa and the sky was incredible - it blew me away.
Who and/or what are some of your influences?: Everyday life. I love people-watching. I like to imaging what kind of lives the strangers that i see are living. I am a bit of a cynic though - I like to think everyone has skeletons in their closets.
Wooster: What other artists do you most admire?
Cartoonist/illustrator Chris Ware, concept artist Ralph McQuarrie, Edward Hopper, David Lynch, Mark Jenkins, Hellboy creator Mike Mignola, director Hayao Miyazaki - all for different reasons. And I'm always pleasantly surprised when artists that i meet turn out to be really nice guys - Herakut, Blek, Dolk, Nick Georgiou and loads more.
Wooster: How would you describe your art to someone who could not see it?
I enjoy exploring how people live in big cities. My work is installation and photography - little plastic people, stuck down on the street in different scenes and then left there. Hopefully the images have some kind of narrative and emotion.
Wooster: What other talent would you most like to have?
I would love to be able to speak more languages, but i don't think my brain is wired that way. I hope i am around to see the day when you can just inject some kind of nanobot in to your head and suddenly be able to understand everyone else.
Wooster: What do you fear the most?
Illness and old age. Getting older is fine but I would want to be healthy. The problem is, I love chips way too much.
Wooster: What is your greatest ambition?
One of my greatest ambitions, since i was very young, was to write a book. I've just had my photography published in a book, but i would still love to actually write one some day.
You can learn more about the art of Slinkachu here.
Posted by marc at 7:34 AM in Interviews | Recommend this! (18) |
November 25, 2008
Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada: The A's To Our Q's
Age: 42
Hometown: My family left Cuba when I was three and settled down in North Plainfield, New Jersey. I grew up going to keg parties in the woods and listening to hard music (Black Sabbath, Rush, Pantera, Bad Brains…) I remember it all as an adventure. I was cutting class all the time and moving from crazy thing to do to crazy thing to do.
Where do you now live?: For the last six years I have been living in Barcelona, Spain. Barcelona is really cool. Unique mountains and hip beaches surround it. Barcelona has Roman walls, Romanesque churches, Gothic palaces and architectural marvels of Catalan Modernisme all within a city with modern infrastructure. Your health care is covered and you don’t have to get up at 5 in the morning to move your car for the street cleaner.
Where would you most like to live?: I want to keep shuttling back and forth between Barcelona, NYC and Buenos Aires.
Who was your first "hero" in life?: I never looked for hero figures as I was growing up. Now as an adult I realize the incredible effort that my parents put into raising my two older brothers and I. My parents are my heroes.
What is your favorite thing to do on your day off from work?: I like to spend my free time with family and friends. I had the awesome luck of talking an intelligent, creative and beautiful woman into being my best friend and wife. We have great little kids together and I love to spend time with them. Actually there is no delineation between our creative life and our family life. When Ana has to travel to do projects, or I have to travel to do projects, the rest of the family usually comes along.
What is your favorite color?: My oldest son has hazel eyes that are a golden green.
Who (or what) do you love?: I love the fact that I have learned to appreciate the moments in life when things are good.
Wooster: Who and/or what are some of your influences?
I started hanging out in Manhattan at the age of 16. In my early twenties I helped form the art group Artfux. Blue Man Group was just starting out at the Astor Place Theatre. They threw really cool parties and the atmosphere around them was really creative. Tompkins Square Park in the East Village was called “Tent City” then and Alphabet City was a free for all. Johnny Swing had a studio in a former gas station at Second Street and Avenue B. He was bolting and welding sculptures made from found metal objects all over NYC. Stephen Marsh and his industrial junk-rock trio Wisdom Tooth were playing out a lot. It was all really colorful and fun. I was surrounded by theater, music and art that was breaking barriers and it all made it seem natural that I should want to do the same.
Wooster: What other artists do you most admire?
I admire artists from different periods because of how they have impacted me at different times in my life. Leonardo da Vinci, Jean Giraud, Marcel Duchamp, John Heartfield, Ana Mendieta, Chris Burden, Barbara Kruger, Mark Pauline, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Joseph Beuys and Anselm Kiefer are each a little part of me as an artist. With my contemporaries I would have to say that Swoon, Blu, and Marc Jenkins have impressed me not only with what they say with what they create, but also because of who they are as people.
Wooster: How would you describe your art to someone who could not see it?
My art is usually found within the urban landscape. City textures are my favorite background for my work. I like to work with ephemeral materials. One of my directions is to create large charcoal portraits of anonymous people on inner city walls that fade away with the wind and rain.
Wooster: What other talent would most like to have?
If I had another lifetime to devote to something else I would probably be an archeologist.
Wooster: What do you fear the most?
How the lack of empathy from governments hijacked by corporate greed, communist and right wing dictators, religious fanatics and all other types of oligarchs could leave this world for my children.
Wooster: What is your greatest ambition?
I would like to be able to continue creating artwork until I am old and feeble.
Posted by marc at 7:58 AM in Interviews | Recommend this! (26) |
November 24, 2008
John Fekner: The A's To Our Q's
Age: LVIII
Hometown: NYC
Where do you now live?: Queens, NY
Where would you most like to live?: Tough question. Definetely a tossup. Quebec, Canada, Lund, Sweden or Old San Juan, PR.
Who was your first "hero" in life?: Sherlock Holmes
What is your favorite thing to do on your day off from work?: Laughing
What is your favorite color?: Warm Grey
Who (or what) do you love?: Inner peace, family and friends. Individuals with the strength and courage to persevere in the face of adversity. Intuitive minds making new discoveries and sharing with others. Being in the immediate now. Uncontrollable things like blushing and breathing.
Wooster: Who and/or what are some of your influences?
It's amazing how a few words from someone has the power to dramatically affect another person's path. One afternoon I was driving my professor Dongkuk Ahn to the train station and I said, "I like the way the light is on a cloudy overcast day." He replied, "Then why don't you put that into your artwork." Well, I took his advice, but did the exact opposite; I began putting my work outdoors.
Conceptually, Jasper Johns' stencil and number paintings/prints made a strong impression on me. I reconfigured his concept of a 'target' to my own 'single word' poetry, symbol and icons within a site-specific outdoor location so that the work existed in its' own isolation as a target, allowing the viewer to focus in on the experience of being at that particular location whether it was a highway, a dump or an abandoned lot. That was a very deliberate choice on my part. Similar to deciding on what specific musicians I wanted to work with during a recording session because of their own distinctive coloring of a musical phrase.
Most of my major influences during my twenties came from a number of different artists, writers and composers including Daniel Buren, Robert Smithson, Art Povera, Tennessee Williams, Pierre Boulez, Paul Klee, Gordon Matta-Clark, Guerilla Art Action Group, Carson McCullers, Brian Wilson, Marcel Proust, Diane Arbus, e.e. cummings, D.H. Lawrence and The Who.
Wooster: What other artists do you most admire?
Over the last couple of years, a bunch of extremely talented artists have emerged on the streets today from all parts of the world and they're raising the bar about what painting is all about! It's like somebody put a firecracker in an art history book and blew it up right on street. The colors are vivid and the scale of the work is dramatic. It's better than most gallery-driven art which tends to be extremely dull, overworked and sofa-friendly. Outside will always remain a punk movement, but indoors it always gets a bit tricky. Art is, and will always be, about the 'feel'. Like a great jazz combo, when they're playing live, they're fantastic; but within a recording studio, their performance tends to be a bit neutralized by the surrounding.
Back to the question. There are tons of individuals I admire: Dylan, Yoko Ono, Richard Artschwager, Richard Long, Lee Quinones, Robert Moog, Laurie Anderson, Alicia Keys, Rammellzee, Saul Bass, Stewart Brand, Tom Robinson, Noc 167, John Huston, David Byrne, Julia de Burgos, Wim Wenders, John Coltrane, Wendy Carlos, Bebe Barron, Omer Avital, The Last Poets and Don Leicht. Don has an inspirational work ethic. Here's a guy who's making art every chance he gets. He's had double bypass heart surgery, kidney dialysis hooked up to a machine three days a week for six hours a day, and a kidney transplant and now living with extreme leg pain.
Wooster: How would you describe your art to someone who could not see it?
A tapping on the brain and a slight brush across the heart.
Wooster: What other talent would most like to have?
Perfect pitch.
Wooster: What do you fear the most?
A 'sad news' call in the dead of night.
Wooster: What is your greatest ambition?
Scoring a three-goal hat trick; making art that simultaneously affects the viewer's mind, heart and gut. Not an easy thing to accomplish for any artist, whatever their choice of medium might be.
You can learn more about the art and influence of John Fekner here.
Posted by marc at 6:49 AM in Interviews | Recommend this! (9) |
November 23, 2008
Davide Zucco (aka Rekal) : The A's To Our Q's
(click to enlarge)
Age: 27
Hometown: a little city in the middle of the mountain called Belluno. North East of Italy
Where do you now live?: temporarily in Belluno
Where would you most like to live?: I am in love with NY
Who was your first "hero" in life?: I would say Indiana Jones as well
What is your favorite thing to do on your day off from work?: Have fun with friends
What is your favorite color?: Turquoise green / water green
Who (or what) do you love?: My girlfriend and all of my friends. I love to watch ice hockey on tv while eating pizza. I can finally do that in Italy!
Wooster: Who and/or what are some of your influences?
Barry Mc Gee, Clayton Bros, Yoshitomo Nara, Hyeronimus Bosch, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Coil and most of everything Mother Nature and human being.
Wooster: What other artists do you most admire?
(Taylor McKimens)
Royal Art Lodge, Marcel Dzama, Taylor McKimens, Andre Either, Os Gemeos, Walton Ford and I could go on and on...
Wooster: How would you describe your art to someone who could not see it
I would say the topic I explore is the conflict at the meeting point of opposing forces: good and evil. life and death, light and shade, wonderful and terrifying. My work can be seen as translation of universal concept such as the harmony of nature and the struggle between good and evil into allegories. the figures are often metamorphic, they mimic the fascination with hybrid and tragicomic in the reconstruction of a personal mythology inspired from popular culture and nature. A critical mass which finds its own imagery, fears and fantasy, just like an ancestral culture regulated by nature's rhythm and determined by its laws.
Wooster: What other talent would most like to have?
I'd really like to DJ. I think it should be great to see all of the people in front of you to dance and have fun because of your music. It should be gratifying and a lot of fun.
I'd like also experiment doing my own music.
Wooster: What is your greatest ambition?
To be able to give something to think about to people and hopefully inspiration to something positive.
To see more of Davide's work, and to check out his new book 25 Drawings, go here.
Posted by marc at 8:11 AM in Interviews | Recommend this! (7) |
November 22, 2008
Rene Gagnon: The A's To Our Q's
Age: 37
Hometown: Fall River, Massachusetts
Where do you now live?: East Freetown, Massachusetts
Where would you most like to live?: Anywhere on the pacific coastline of Costa Rica.
Who was your first "hero" in life?: My Uncle Louie.
What is your favorite thing to do on your day off from work?: If there are waves, surf, if not, drink beer and paint.
What is your favorite color?: Today it's red.
Who (or what) do you love?: Who: My family. What: Life.
Wooster: Who and/or what are some of your influences?
The graffiti movement of the late seventies and early eighties is probably my greatest influence. The over the top use of color and the scale of the work is something that has stayed with me. When I attended college (my first exposure to fine art) I discovered the abstract expressionist movement, I found I had a strong connection with the artists of this movement especially with their notion of making it more about the act of painting than the painting itself. More recently the street art movement has impacted my work greatly. When I discovered Wooster Collective in 2004, I changed, and so did my work. When I began researching the artists involved with Wooster and
other urban influenced artists on the internet I was like,"Holy shit, I thought I was the only one using old school graffiti and spray paint in my studio work." Ignorance is bliss I tell you. So, rather than naming names I truly believe every artist I have been exposed to since then has influenced my work to some degree.
Wooster: What other artists do you most admire?
I admire any artist that dedicates their life to creating, from the many successful urban influenced gallery artists to the 15 year old kid bombing his neighborhood with stickers he stole from the post office.
Wooster: How would you describe your art to someone who could not see it?
Imagine there is a man in a canvas walled room. Loud music begins to play which makes the man act a fool. He begins running around exploding spray paint cans, tagging, and squirting liquid paint through ketchup bottles. He doesn't care much about the color he uses as long as it contrasts the last color. The man hears a voice calling out - red, violet, light blue, green. The voice is the man's own voice. When the voice subsides the man is finished. Take the canvas walls down and put them up in a gallery. This is my art.
Wooster: What other talent would most like to have?
I wish I could sing. Well, I can sing. I guess I mean sing in tune.
Wooster: What do you fear the most?
Death.
Wooster: What is your greatest ambition?
I'd have to give you two, one I have no control over and one that I do have control over. I'd like to earn a living from my art or be a college painting professor. Although I'd love for both to come to fruition.
You can see more of Rene's art here.
Posted by marc at 10:15 PM in Interviews | Recommend this! (9) |
Gaia: The A's to our Q's
Of all the young artists we've met in the past few years, few have impressed us as much as Gaia. At only 20 years of age, the depth and level of commitment that Gaia brings to his work is remarkable. We're pleased to share with you his A's to our Q's:
Age: 20
Hometown: New York City
Where do you now live?: Baltimore, Maryland
Where would you most like to live?: I'll always love New York but Baltimore has such a kind and open atmosphere that I haven't found anywhere else. But New York most definitely has the best spots.
What is your favorite thing to do on your day off from work?: Ride bike and peruse the local farmer's markets.
What is your favorite color?: Red
Who (or what) do you love?: I love the excitement of a new project and of being apart of a community of artists who are united and bound by their passion for their work. I love the independence that my bike affords me. I love to constantly reconsider my beliefs.
Wooster: Who and/or what are some of your influences?
My peers and the people that I live with offer the most valuable critique that I could ever hope for. I am forever indebted to the dialogue we have established and the possibilities that they introduce to my work. My primary influences currently exist amongst the formative teachers, students and topics experienced in art school.
(Collaboration between Gaia and Deep)
Wooster: What other artists do you most admire?
Of course, Swoon will always be an artist whom I deeply admire. The scope of her installations, street work, and social projects seems boundless. Kiki Smith's exploration of the body, of humanity's relationship with nature, the diverse media she employs is also a strong inspiration within my life. These two artists in particular were the impetus for my getting up in the streets.
Wooster: How would you describe your art to someone who could not see it?
My emotional relationship with the important people within my life is what inspires the content of my work. My art is deeply personal and cathartic. I try to maintain an honest articulation of both my frustrations and felicity in each piece. Whether it is the celebration of a burgeoning young boy who I once babysat or the valediction of a person who lives in my past, I want to express a feeling that can be fundamentally understood by the viewer. I am very interested in communicating these passions on the street and in an attempt to relate to others through the imagery.
I put my work up in order to reactivate a space and reconsider our modern notion of property and domain. By applying my work to a surface or installing an environment in an urban setting, I am establishing a new significance and understanding of a particular space.
Wooster: What other talent would most like to have?
I want to know how to weld, work with radio, wire electronics. I am actually teaching myself how to mold and cast a pig head as I am writing this interview for my collaboration with the brilliant fibers and installation artist Rachel Lowing.
Wooster: What do you fear the most?
When I began my first block nearly two years ago, it seemed an impossibly difficult endeavor to establish myself in the New York street art scene. It just didn't seem feasible and I felt as if I was being left behind. There was a sense of urgency that I would simply remain in obscurity if I didn't get up hard and consistently. But flickr gave me a palpable sense of who was paying attention to my pieces on the street and that there was a momentum that was building.
That original sentiment relates persists in what I fear most now, and that is to be forgotten. I so want to be apart of this unbelievable movement in contemporary art that exists on the street. I am afraid of fulfilling the belief that I am just "a flash in the pan" or the possibility that I be reduced to a trendy hype. I strive ever day to maintain a trajectory in my work that has longevity so that I do not turn out to be another burn out or maybe more applicably a one hit wonder.
My calling is with the interaction of people and right now I find that on the streets. I am forever beholden and thankful to the artists who have come before me and truly blazed a clear and focused trail for me to follow.
Wooster: What is your greatest ambition?
I feel like my work is fundamentally traditional in medium and subject matter. My pieces' true function is when they are situated on the street otherwise they are relatively static. While there is an extensive and rich history of street art and graffiti, for it is arguably the largest and most accessible artistic movement in our history, I still believe that the streets are a pertinent genre and are extremely contemporary.
My greatest ambition would be to find a balance between my very formal practices of approaching fine art with pieces that function and are relevant in the real world. Each ambition fulfilled serves a platform for subsequent growth and opportunity.
You can see more of Gaia's artwork on his Flickr page here.
Posted by marc at 8:06 AM in Interviews | Recommend this! (11) |
November 21, 2008
The Dark: "The A's To Our Q's"
Age: old enough to know better but still young enough to try it.
Hometown: Dawson City, Yukon Territory, Canada
Where do you now live?: Vancouver B.C. Canada
Where would you most like to live?: Paris, France
Who was your first "hero" in life?: This one is tricky. I'm finding myself debating the merits of the "hero" in North American culture, how the idea of a hero has become perverted and maligned, we no longer have a sense of the original intent or meaning of the word. Not unlike many initially positive and unbinding social constructs it seems to have become a method solely by which to propagate product; to create desire for that product unbeknownst to the consumer. More recently the product has been removed from tangibility, it now resides as ephemera, particularly useful when populations need to be convinced of or swayed towards certain ideologies. I am thinking specifically of the onslaught of comic book superhero movies that have been accosting every man woman and child in the last 6 or 7 years. The all rely on the same formula, the use of an underdog, a freak accident or occurrence beyond their control, the never ending countdown, the false humility..ect..ect. I suppose what concerns me the most is that these scenarios are played out with such frequent repetition and magnitude that the effect they must be having on the children and youth of today is incalculable. Anyway.....never really had any heroes, if I had to name one it would be Eric Blair. His work got me through some really hard times as a teen, and still amazes me with its almost prophetic accuracy.
What is your favorite thing to do on your day off from work?: I don't take days off.
What is your favorite color?: i know its not a colour..black.
Who (or what) do you love?: Kaia, animals, children who aren't afraid ( harder to come by these days...;{....) old folks who aren't angry, the forest, riding my bike really fast, making a good piece of art (rare), Europe, film cameras, making music, singing, playing piano, dreaming ( if they are good dreams) old blues, boy sopranos, being inspired, anything antique that is mechanical, hand tools.....ummm...lots of stuff..hahhaha!
Wooster: Who and/or what are some of your influences?:
The Renaissance, David Hockney, Caravaggio, Attila Richard Lukacs, Rick Owens, Chuck Close, Arvo Part, Eric Satie, David Lynch, Gus Van Sant, James Dean, Bernini, B/W film photography, Carl Jung, Carlos Castaneda, George Orwell, Shakespeare, Jimi Hendrix, William Blake.... there are so many. too many.
Wooster: What other artists do you most admire?
Currently ..Elbow Toe and Conor Harrington...sooo far ahead of the curve. These ones you might have to Google, but its worth it...Office Supplies Incorporated, Graeme Berglund, Jeff Petry, Todd Duym, Meghan Patterson, Ronan Boyle, Tom Anselmi.
Wooster: What other talent would most like to have?
I guess I'm pretty lucky in that department, I have pretty much all the ones I want. I do regret not taking ballet lessons when I was a kid, I think it's absolutely beautiful. I'd like to be able to dance like Baryshnikov. That would be really cool.
Wooster: What do you fear the most?
The power of my mind.
Wooster: What is your greatest ambition?
To be written into art history and be an inspiration for the generations to come.
You can see more work by The Dark here and here.
Posted by marc at 8:02 AM in Interviews | Recommend this! (13) |
November 20, 2008
Dan23: The A's To Our Q's
Age: 36
Hometown: Szczecin
Where do you now live?: Strasbourg
Where would you most like to live?: close to the sea, on a shore
Who was your first "hero" in life?: Melvin Van Peebles
What is your favorite thing to do on your day off from work?: listen music
What is your favorite color?: the whole rainbow
Who (or what) do you love?: the nature
Wooster: Who and/or what are some of your influences?
Mankind, anyone being able to do the worst and the best at the same time. A few passionated ones, being better, provode me insipration to paint and become someone good as well.
Wooster: What other artists do you most admire?
I could quote hundred, but I have Andy Goldsworthy in mind for his poetry, Moretti for his amazing drawings. C215 for doing so generous art, and for sure my idol James Brown.
Wooster: How would you describe your art to someone who could not see it?
I am mainly painting portraits of people who inspire me through their exemplar lives and actions I try to catch their humanity and energy. I show my works through different ways (gallery, streets, press) and I also use different techniques. I recently launched a blog www.cheval23.net so that i can present who is hidden behind the portraits I paint
Wooster: What other talent would most like to have?
Without any doubt to play music. Music is the ultimate art, that does not need any translation
Wooster: What do you fear the most?
That I could not hear anymore, this could deprive me of listening music
Wooster: What is your greatest ambition?
To believe in human beings
Posted by marc at 9:15 PM in Interviews | Recommend this! (18) |
Escif: The A's To Our Q's
Age: 28
Hometown: Valencia
Where do you now live?: In Valencia, but I try to travel as much as possible.
Where would you most like to live?: I really like a lot of cities. Every city has its great things, and I would like to live in many cities. In fact, it´s what I try to do. A bit in Valencia, a bit in London, a bit in Mexico D.F, a bit in Palermo....
Who was your first "hero" in life?: I don´t really remember, but it's possible that it was He-Man…Master of Universe!!! Jeje!!!
What is your favorite thing to do on your day off from work?: When your work is something that you like a lot, sometimes it´s difficult to see the difference between work and free time. In my free time I try to paint in the street and draw in my sketchbook. Also I like travel and see new places and meet new people.
What is your favorite color?: Sometimes white ... sometimes grey ... sometimes blue...It's always changing.
Who (or what) do you love?: I love my parents and my friends .... but especially I love the luck that I have had in this life; it's given me so many beautiful things.
Wooster: Who and/or what are some of your influences?
I'm increasingly influenced by many things of my daily life .... Formally I have been influenced by artists like Dibo, Os Gemeos, Logan, Herbert, San or Blu, amongst other greats. More than admiring their work, I admire them as people... Really great friends.
Wooster: What other artists do you most admire?
Conceptual artists have influenced me very much, such as Mauritzio Cattelan, Santiago Sierra or Teresa Margolles. It's not that our work is aesthetically similar, but in some way their work is present in mine, more and more.
Wooster: How would you describe your art to someone who could not see it?
My art is an investigation of daily life... I like to begin with personal concepts, investigating different techniques, and creating a parallel universe full of recognizable symbols.
Wooster: What other talent would most like to have?
I'd like to learn how to do so many more things... to learn to dance well is top on my list.
Wooster: What do you fear the most?
I am afraid of many things ... but mostly the disease or death of my relatives and friends. Life not always is how we would like it to be, and sometimes we have to face it.
Wooster: What is your greatest ambition?
My major ambition is to be happy with what the life brings me in every moment. I believe that it´s necessary to fight to appreciate the present and not to depend always on the arrival of a better day.
You can see more of Escif's art here.
Posted by marc at 7:16 AM in Interviews | Recommend this! (7) |
November 19, 2008
Kelsey Brookes: The Q's To Our A's
If you've been to our house, then you know that Samantha, our fifteen month old daughter, has the best art collection of the family. Her room explodes with energy from the numerous paintings that hang on the walls. Two of our favorite paintings in Samantha's room are by Kelsey Brookes. And the reason why we love them so much is because there's a spiritual quality to them that reminds us of being back in India. Kelsey's paintings make you feel good, and we want Samantha to wake up to this positive energy each and every day.
Recently Sara and I wanted to learn more about Kelsey so we asked him to give us some Q's to our A's.
Enjoy:
Age: 30
Hometown: Denver Colorado
Where do you now live?: San Diego California
Where would you most like to live? Inside of a wave
Who was your first "hero" in life?: The first hero in my artistic life was Picasso followed closely by Basquiat. In my life outside of art my parents were and still are.
What is your favorite thing to do on your day off from work?: Surf
What is your favorite color?: I have 8 favorite colors right now! they look like this
Who (or what) do you love?: Love its self, Curiosity and Creativity.
Who and/or what are some of your influences? I am constantly surprised by and absolutely enthralled with Hindu art especially from Tibet. I love the art of Heinrich Kley and I love quilts. Giuseppe Arcimboldo's paintings are a continued source of amazement. Traveling, surfing and hallucinations too.
Wooster: What other artists do you most admire?
There are so many and for so many different reasons. Here is the incomplete short list; Giuseppe Arcimboldo and Heinrich Kley (as I have already mentioned but they deserve a second mention I think). Indian and Tibetan folk artists, Quilt makers from around the world, CocoRosi, Folkert De Jong, Raquib Shaw, Andre Ethier, Swoon, Dave Choe, Antony Micallef, Paul Insect, Banksy, Andrew Schoultz, Lister, Kill Pixie, Faile, Maya Hayuk, Os Gemeos, Clayton Brothers, Yang Shaobin, Aurel Schmidt, Gee Vaucher, Alex Grey and so many more.
Wooster: How would you describe your art to someone who could not see it?
Figurative art depicting various forms of the human body deconstructed and loosely put back together using animal parts surrounded by psychedelic and spiritual patterns,
animals and colors. Do blind people get visual hallucinations? The art would be way easier to explain if they did.
Wooster: What other talent would most like to have? Mediation and Music
Wooster: What do you fear the most?
Losing my mind
Wooster: What is your greatest ambition?
Losing my mind
Notes on Creaton:
Everything in the universe comes from something more fundamental than it self, united with accident and out of this union creation and novelty are born.
As a crow is attracted to shiny and colorful items it finds in its environment our human consciences can work in a similar fashion. As I sift though my environment separating artifacts of beauty from the ordinary, these relics settle into my unconscious. They dance within my subconscious as they freely associate with one another and through a combination of recollection and accident, they migrate once again back into my active conscious when I paint. Painting is the spark that my unconscious needs to liberate its new patterns. Random and seemingly thoughtless marks are visualized as animals and matter, all that is left to do is place the paint where it asks to be placed. I am a crow adhering to the universal laws of nature.
Notes on Conscientious and Painting:
Conscientious has 2 states of being in this world, aware and unaware. Awareness is the state you are in at the moment if you are reading this unaware is what you were before and what you will be after you are aware. These paintings represent
the only exception to that rule. Creation exists beyond the scope of physical parameters and universal constants, unseen by tangibility and rationality. A place where rules are fluid and dynamic, forever changing in accordance to the unknown.
These paintings are a product of this place this limbo between 2 worlds. When I close my eyes these paintings are what I see.
Notes on Introspective Conscientious:
Introspective Conscientious is the humans minds evolved ability to take images from the real world pull them into there minds, divide them into parts and start turning those parties into abstractions. Was art born when Introspective Conscientious
was evolved?
You can see more of Kelsey's work on his website.
Posted by marc at 6:13 PM in Interviews | Recommend this! (9) |
November 18, 2008
The A's To Our Q's: Edina Tokodi (aka Mosstika)
For the past year, Sara and I have been working day and night on a book project for TASCHEN entitled "Trespass: A History Of Unauthorized Public Art".
In the course of doing research for the book. we've had the pleasure of meeting and learning about new forms "unauthorized public art" that we haven't showcased as mich as we should have on the Wooster site.
One of our obsessions of late has been the "guerrilla gardening" movement. And one of the most influential artists in this scene is Edina Tokodi (aka Mosstika).
We're thrilled to share with you her "A's to our Q's":
Age: 30
Hometown: Kecskemet, in the middle of Hungary
Where do you now live?: Brooklyn, NY
Where would you most like to live?: in Europe somewhere close to the Sea
Who was your first "hero" in life?: Johnny "Tarzan" Weissmuller :)
What is your favorite thing to do on your day off from work?: Keep develop my craft and simply just not think about work. also reading, and watching a good movie
What is your favorite color?: green, blue
Who (or what) do you love?: Pityke and my Family. and I love to go swim or jogging early in the morning :)
Wooster: Who and/or what are some of your influences?
I'm influenced constantly by various experiences, meetings, readings; even by walking on the streets. What inspires me the most however is to encounter various media, artworks, or other people. It's the sincerity in a creative piece that I value the most; that it's made with heart and hand.
On the other hand I grew up in a very inspiring milieu. My parents and my two sisters are all creative persons, either in an artistic or in a practical sense. Very early on, it became natural for me to approach things in this way.
Wooster: What other artists do you most admire?
There are several landscape and environmental artists I like a lot, such as Goldsworthy, Christo, or James Turrell. There are some contemporary designers who influence me too, like Tord Boontje whom I especially admire.
Wooster: How would you describe your art to someone who could not see it?
I work with plants and other living or organic materials such as hand-made paper, sand, etc. I try to bring nature closer to city dwellers both with my street art pieces and with my site-specific indoor installations.
Wooster: What other talent would most like to have?
I would love to be able to play music.
Wooster: What do you fear the most?
If we don't pay much more attention we may cause irreversible harm to our environment in the close future.
Wooster: What is your greatest ambition?
Certainly, my greatest ambition is to create more and more complex works that allow me to explore the diversity of and possible connections between (organic) materials and, still, to remain close to the nature.
You can learn more about Mosstika here.
Posted by marc at 8:31 PM in Interviews | Recommend this! (20) |
Alexandros Vasmoulakis: The A's To Our Q's
Age: 28
Hometown: Athens
Where do you now live?: Berlin
Where would you most like to live?: Here I am fine
Who was your first "hero" in life?: Michael Jackson.
What is your favorite thing to do on your day off from work?: Cycling.
What is your favorite color?: Always changing
Who (or what) do you love?: My love!
Wooster: Who and/or what are some of your influences?
Alexandros: Talking with people and listening to bizarre personal stories. My work is first of all human-based and I am interested in realizing deeper how weird creatures we are.
Wooster: What other artists do you most admire?
Alexandros: Theo Jansen is by far my favourite one. I think that the great art has to include numerous approaches to the main aspects of life. Jansen does it perfectly!
Wooster: How would you describe your art to someone who could not see it?
Alexandros: That's a bit awkward! I would say that through my work I try to investigate our troubling nature. And even if this investigation can never conclude it is interesting to see how far it can go.
Wooster: What other talent would most like to have?
Alexandros: Music composition! What I like is that music touches and moves deeply a really wider audience than visual art does. Of course that's the point!
Wooster: What do you fear the most?
Alexandros: Losing the ability to do what I want. Secondly to lose my passion for that.
Wooster: What is your greatest ambition?
Alexandros: Still searching..
You can see more of Alexandros's art here.
(A note from Wooster: Be sure to watch the video of Theo Jansen above from the TED conference. It's amazing)
Posted by marc at 7:37 AM in Interviews | Recommend this! (33) |
C215 - "The A's To Our Q's'
Age: 35
Hometown: Paris
Where do you now live?: Paris - Belleville
Where would you most like to live?: Morocco
Who was your first "hero" in life?: Indiana Jones
What is your favorite thing to do on your day off from work?: To know it I should stop working some day
What is your favorite color?: Blue
Who (or what) do you love?: my 5 years old daughter Nina
Who and/or what are some of your influences?
Ernest Pignon-Ernest is my main reference, being the first French street artist in history, and doing amazing stencils and silkscreened posters outside already in the 70's.
What other artists do you most admire? I am a big fan of the portraits of Stéphane Carricondo, from the 9th Concept crew, I love James Jean drawings and the watercolours of my very good friend Dan23. In the streets the best for me is for sure mister Banksy.
Wooster: How would you describe your art to someone who could not see it?
C215: I am for one year traveling the world to paint contextual stencils in the streets, mostly by day and without any authorization. I like to paint portraits, but also animals and complete streetscapes. You can find my works on tagged doors, rusty mailboxes or int he corner of your street. I like to interact with locals, where ever I go, cutting ad hoc stencils for each trip : Brasil, Israel, India, Morocco or Poland streets can not be hit in the same way. I try to express with stencils something not so easy to get with such tools : to provide feeling and emotions to the passing by people.
Wooster: What other talent would most like to have?
C215: I would love to play piano, but I am quite dyslexic
Wooster: What do you fear the most?
C215: Losing the use of my right hand or my both eyes (losing all this at the same time i would be very unlucky !)
Wooster: What is your greatest ambition?
C215: To teach my daughter my technical skills if she could be interested and make her proud of her father when she will be older
You can see more of C215's work here.
Posted by marc at 6:25 AM in Interviews | Recommend this! (29) |