q) How would you describe your work to someone who has never seen it?
a) Someone described my work once as “it's all a bit funny but a little melancholic as well” I thought this sounded quite good and kind of summed up my work a bit.
q) How did you start in the arts? How/when did you realize you were an artist?
a) I guess I have always been interested in art from when I was very young in school. I was never into academic subjects growing up. Though now I appreciate them a lot more.
q) What are your favorite art materials and why?
a) Tip Ex and pencil or pen. Because you can always make an image with these ingredients. black on white, or white on black. You can keep going until you are happy. And they fit in your pocket.
q) What/who influences you most?
a) ….Colour is something that interests me. Outsider art. Children’s drawings. Music and different ways of composing music. People. In fact, most things influence me, it is to hard to narrow it down.
q) Describe a typical day of art making for you.
a) This depends on what I am doing. Have some breakfast, play some music. Think quite a lot, perhaps a little too much. Then some drawing maybe. I spend quite a lot of time playing with ideas and images on the computer. Break this up with some food and getting out of my room. I often spend a lot of time recording ideas for pieces of music as well.
q) Do you have goals, specific things you want to achieve with your art or in your career as an artist?
a) At the moment I am a bit unsure about this, so no, not at the moment.
q) What contemporary artists or developments in art interest you?
a) I tend to be more influenced by things that have already past. History. But it is all history eventually I guess.
q) How long does it typically take you to finish a piece?
a) It’s either very short or very long. Usually I take quite a while finishing things, it’s either a day or a year. So lets just say 6 months.
q) Do you enjoy selling your pieces, or are you emotionally attached to them?
a) Yes, though there is usually a few things that I become attached too, which I tend to keep.
q) Is music important to you? If so, what are some things you're listening to now?
a)Very much so. Recently I have been listening to Outkast a lot, ESG, the Lounge Lizards, Talking Heads. I also compose music at home and I like to play with people when I can.
q) Books?
a) Books.
q) What theories or beliefs do you have regarding creativity or the creative process?
a) It is important. It is the most important thing perhaps. Playfulness is important. I do think that everybody creates beautiful things when you look at them in the right way. It is to do with everything about the individual and how they live I think. Nature uses good creative processes as well.
q) What do you do (or what do you enjoy doing) when you're not creating?
a)Watching films, listening to music. Lying on the floor. Thinking. Drinking. Sinking… And then Dancing.
q) Do you have any projects or shows coming up that you are particularly excited about?
a)I am planning out a new project at the moment involving eating food and composing music, As well as small projects to do with people’s personalities. I am also meant to be writing a play.
q) Do you follow contemporary art scenes? If so, how? What websites, magazines, galleries do you prefer?
a) I don’t really follow any art scenes. Though I like hearing about them.
q) Ask yourself a question you'd like to answer, and answer it.
a)
Q: You talkin’ to me?... You talkin’ to me?
A: No, you’re talkin’ to me!
q) Any advice for aspiring artists?
a)Be productive. Keep making things, unless you are interested in not making things.
È uscito il nuovo numero - Mutazioni Nuovi linguaggi si insinuano nella realtà. Nuove forme di contaminazione percettiva si infilano nel nostro immaginario, ne ridisegnano i contorni. Il linguaggio pian piano si adatta, a volte lucido, a volte distorto, si sforza di diventare chiavistello della quotidianità e non semplicemente un suo riflesso astigmatico. Allora:
fai diventare più grandi i tuoi occhi!
fai diventare più grandi i tuoi occhi!
fai diventare più grandi i tuoi occhi!
Scarica il nuovo numero e comincia a crederci! O darai sempre ragione a loro. A chi rimane un immobile sguardo. In questo numero: ALE+ALE, Alessandro Bavari, Franco Brambilla, Mirko Canesi, El Gato Chimney, Fulvio Di Piazza, James Kalinda, Simone Lucciola, Orticanoodles, Ozmo, Paco, Paper Resistance, Vacon, Ezio Vecchi.
a)Most of my time is spent at APHQ, a rather leaky Victorian building in South London q) How would you describe your work to someone who has never seen it?
a)I call myself a stencil artist (other people may use more colourful language), my paintings are mainly doodles about stuff that annoys, amuses or intrigues me... apart from Biggles who's a pigeon with a dark past and a murkier future
q) How did you start in the arts? How/when did you realize you were an artist?
a)I was always visual, ever since I can remember I looked at a lot of things every day. A couple of years ago when I'd had enough of producing pretty pictures for other people I decided to do some for myself
q) What are your favorite art materials and why?
a)Card, belton and fire. Card because the simplicity and immediacy of a good stencil is second to none (not that I've got there yet), belton because of the smell and fire because you haven't got a clue what the finished image will look like
q) What/who influences you most?
a)Life, me and things I see, hear and read
q) Describe a typical day of art making for you.
a)Get up, check it's sunny, grab some stencils and any card, paper, wood or canvases lying around, pop some cans in a bag and sit in my back yard spraying away... later I'll add a few beers into the mix
q) Do you have goals, specific things you want to achieve with your art or in your career as an artist?
a)Do a picture I'm really happy with and other people think is really good
q) What contemporary artists or developments in art interest you?
a)Adam Neate, Banksy, Mark Demsteader, Herakut and Hush. If it is a development in art, I'm not sure, but the changing role of street and urban art from outside galleries to inside them
q) How long does it typically take you to finish a piece?
a)Varies drastically, typically five tabs and two cans of Nelson Mandela
q) Do you enjoy selling your pieces, or are you emotionally attached to them?
a)Selling was never my intention, but when people asked if they could buy one I had to deal with my capitalistic greed... I feel really humble knowing people around the world have one of my pictures in their home
q) Is music important to you? If so, what are some things you're listening to now?
a)Music's not really important... probably because I was a heavy metaller in my formative years
q) Books?
a)They have pages with writing on
q) What theories or beliefs do you have regarding creativity or the creative process?
a)Do it because you love it, believe in what you're doing and never expect anything in return
q) What do you do (or what do you enjoy doing) when you're not creating?
a)Wild nights out, long walks in the countryside and quite nights curled up on the sofa with a good bottle of wine... this is for a dating site isn't it?
q) Do you have any projects or shows coming up that you are particularly excited about?
a)Upfest '09 last week was fantastic. I really enjoyed it and met some great people. At the end of this month my first screen print will be in a show in North London, it's called Secret Blisters and is being put on by Print Club London (www.printclublondon.com/postershow2.php). If you're not doing anything on Friday 26 June amble along and see what you think
q) Do you follow contemporary art scenes? If so, how? What websites, magazines, galleries do you prefer?
a)If I had a life I wouldn't answer this question, but there's a certain forum called banksy.info that keeps dragging me back. All sorts of art stuff is discussed, it's pretty much like sitting in your local with some mates gradually getting drunker and drunker, whilst the conversation gets better and better. I think I was born inside it
q) Ask yourself a question you'd like to answer, and answer it.
a)Do you like Marmite? Yes
q) Any advice for aspiring artists?
a)Enjoy it
q) Where can we see more of your work online?
a)I was born in the year of the dragon, My name is Castro Edward Smith,
I am part english part japanese and part philipino,
q) Where do you live and work?
a)I work outside and I don’t work because my art is play,
I try to never work in doors as I see the artists as the one who escaped the office space.
And I think as artists we are lucky to be, and we must take every chance to be outside as others don’t have this chance so we must live it out as much as we can.
q) How would you describe your work to someone who has never seen it?
a)I’d say that little of my work is connected to each other, I have other names and other art
that you will never guess is me. I think I am a tool like my pen or paper and the situations create the pieces this is why I try to create as little as I can in the bedroom so the environment is never the same.
So I guess my art is environmentaly and socially created
q) How did you start in the arts? How/when did you realize you were an artist?
a)I am realy not too sure , I think like anyone we evolve in life through music taste art or anything, our choices change and we molt our shells, I always used to draw, at first it was monsters and myths animals too as they are closely related. H R Giger was my first inspiration I was very young perhaps 11 or 12, from there my art was dark but I slowly developed it too more abstract pieces, this stage of my life was also into old school hip hop as they were the only cds my brothers had.I went to the philipines when I was 15 and saw these colourfull jeepneys, jeeps used as buses that america left in world war 2. They are so beutifull you should check them out on google or find book is you have the time. When I saw them I think maybe thats when I decided.
q) What are your favorite art materials and why?
a)In my left pocket is my sketchbook and my right a few pens, thats all you need when your out. Even when I’m out clubbing or at house partys I’ll draw people drunk or fuse them with objects around me, I draw out in the rain and anywhere because whatever happens in the moment is forever in the soul of the piece I do no matter how good or bad it is,
crayons and chalk is also amazing they draw on anything!!!! I don’t use them enough however
q) What/who influences you most?
a)everything around me, if I don’t feel inspired il still draw till i atleast get one thing I like sometimes I’ll go through 50 or 60 pages before this happens. I remember one day I was out all afternoon drawing but it was all rubbish. Then it started to rain my hands were cold but I was creating better things faces in the rain etc
q) Describe a typical day of art making for you.
a)My perfect saturday may start with a 12pm start if I’m lazy and sleep in, I listen to music that is usualy downloaded because i cant afford the music I want but i get it anyway , the beauty of the internet is its free, downloaded music trancends social class and this is how art should be too, as if art is not cheap what are we doing but creating the social barriers we are fighting against.
q) Do you have goals, specific things you want to achieve with your art or in your career as an artist?
a)All I want to do is please my creativity, draw outside and influence as much as I can in a positive way, I have great respect for volunteers, A painting you leave is nothing compared to what you can leave as influences to other people.
q) What contemporary artists or developments in art interest you?
a)Graffiti is the most interesting development to me, It has caused the freedom of art to the street. Although it is villainised by law I think it is a right thing depending on how it is done.
It is free art for every class of person and fullfills the full soul capacity of the piece as it is in the street and seen by all. The moment of it being created is forever engraved in the street. There are advertisements all around us that are created just because some people have the money to rent the street space graffiti artists fight this............well some
the evolution of graffiti to street art is very important
q) How long does it typically take you to finish a piece?
a)I work on pieces at different times and come back to them,
some of my larger street pastes take seconds to draw and take ages to paste up and create
q) Do you enjoy selling your pieces, or are you emotionally attached to them?
a)I am it is hard as an artist to not be emotional attached but I do think that art should not last forever , you should not keep your art , some of my best things were given away I think this is because the capacity of a piece is fullfiled and it helps me create a better piece.
Sometimes I wish I could take my street art away with me but it is best on the street , there it can fullfill its purpose. After all art created for yourself is useless and egotistical to me.
Serve your purpose as an artist and create for others
q) Is music important to you? If so, what are some things you're listening to now?
a)Music is so important to me I change so much through music. It is such an important influence as with film or any of the art disciplines. Right now I am into POST HIP HOP such as busdriver or Deadelus, I am also into jazz alot and Amon Tobin who combines classical and electronic. I would have too much to write about music, almost as much as art
q) Books?
a)This is my greatest regret in life , at a young age I would pretend I could read well but i could never stay concentrated, I know I have missed a great deal. However the internet again provides! I download audio books right now I am listening to Audrey Huxley the doors of perception and a scifi novel ENDERS GAME which is very good!
q) What theories or beliefs do you have regarding creativity or the creative process?
a)I dont drink or take drugs not because its wrong or anything simply because it brings me MOMENTARY SATISFACTION . The law that holds our society up is flawed , LIVE BY YOUR OWN MORALS and understand them before you set them ! What law can make it right to kill a man by joining the army? what law allows alcholhol but not drugs? Wake up early look at the sun , be outside. Live in society against the social walls that are created by money. Make your art cheap or free make your music cheap or free to those who cant afford it. live by ideas ,
most importantly practice what you preach don’t be an artist who stays indoors all the time,
talking about possibilities and theorys, live life in the now.
I was once told a story where a father and son where fencing, the father blinded the son in a match oneday but the son never told the father in hope that his father would live a happier life. We should do this for everyone
q) What do you do (or what do you enjoy doing) when you're not creating?
a)music and dreaming although I try not to sleep too much I live on 6 hours sometimes,
I also play games too much, strategy ones with friends
q) Do you have any projects or shows coming up that you are particularly excited about?
a)So many but most are just stuck in my head! tihngs I want to do and create, it’s hard to do everything and yet I know I can do so much more if I did 15 hours or more of art eachday,
one day I will I just need discipline!
q) Do you follow contemporary art scenes? If so, how? What websites, magazines, galleries do you prefer?
a)I do all of these i suscribe to juxtapoz and hi - fructose , i look online for artists who dont get into magazines like myself, You can simply notice trends of art by looking at friends work etc
q) Ask yourself a question you'd like to answer, and answer it.
a)Do you regret anything? nothing at all for I am a different person with everychoice I make, Too regret the past is to regret your self and things around you, you can never be at peace this way.
q) Any advice for aspiring artists?
a)Keep wax crayons in your back pocket.And draw on anything when u feel like it
