Name: Jeff Stark
Age: 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.