People Who Can Draw And Paint

SICKBOY

Sickboy is an awesome artist. You may well know him from his brightly coloured temples that dress the walls and, his trademark target, wheelie bins around London. He’s had his head down over the summer though as he’s been busy creating his latest show called Heaven & Earth, due to open on the 4th Nov in the Truman Brewery, which, as well as his own work, features collaborations with other artists such as EINE, Anthony Lister, Will Barras, D*Face and a whole bunch more.

Hello Sickboy, how are things with you?
It’s 8a.m. and 5 shots of coffee in, I’m feeling pretty crispy.

Tell me more about what’s going on in your show. Will there be wheelie bins?
Yeah, there will be four wheelie bins filled with empty bottles of beer within the first hour.

Heaven or Earth?
Earth seems to have a lot going on at the moment. It’s a pretty sustainable environment with the odd warlord, discarded mattress’ and victorian picnic areas with a la carte parchment cakes.

What was it like working with all the other artists? The list of collaborators have very varied styles.
Great. I’m super happy to get all these people together and honoured to have them involved. I’m excited to unveil the results.

In your video there are a few nuns watching you work. Do you find nuns a bit scary? I do.
But not as scary as one time when I had to sit next to a monk on a plane. I found that really unsettling.
I kind of think they’re pretty chill. I went to Valencia once and saw a gang of them on mopeds, laughing. It dispelled any fear I had attached to them. Unfortunately, I can’t help you on the monk thing.

What’s next on the horizon?
A lot of travelling and painting. I’ve been cooped up in the studio for far too long. I’ve watched summer pass by my window, so will be trying to catch it up on the other side of the world during winter, and hook up with some active acquaintances on the way.

Pictures: Viktor Vauthier

ANTHONY LISTER

Anthony Lister is one of those Australians. He’s also a fantastic artist. And he has excellent hair. Although not being very far away from him for most of December, I actually only properly met him up close, to his face when he was over in London for his ‘Fan Boy’ show at Pictures On Walls earlier this year. It was a good night. You should have been there. He left London to fly back home, then almost immediately turned around and flew to LA for a show. He does a lot of shows. Because people like his work. Because it’s very good. Which makes him very busy. So this interview is a short one.

Hello Anthony, what’s going on?
Sitting in my studio directing picture painting.

Where are you right now at this exact moment (to a 1 mile radius)?
Just that.

Did you really have a stroke face once? What went on there?
Yeah, I woke up and my face was limp. I think I must’ve had a bad dream.

How’s your work going?
It’s great thanks. I’m working on a painting of two fat cops drinking milkshakes.

How do you create your pieces? Is it in a flurry of anger and emotion or do you come up with them gradually?
Gradually usually with a flare of controlled flurry.

How do you like them apples?
Not so much today.

Sorry this took me so long I am getting a cramp trying to catch up.

CLAW

Born-and-bred New Yorker Claw is something of a graffiti legend. Renowned for her signature three-nailed claw, which she threw up across the most dangerous parts of the city throughout the nineties (along with her partner in crime Miss17), she’s moved away from graffiti a bit with her new couture label Claw Money and is fashion director of the Shepherd Fairey-founded Swindle magazine.

Is it just embittered old school writers who say graffiti has changed and it’s not as good as it used to be? The way each generation of everything says that. Or has the scene kinda reached saturation point so the talent is hidden by the masses?
Graffiti is notorious for ‘eating its young’, as they say. The older writers
throw some serious hate around, especially to the new generation. We need to embrace the toys of today – as they will be the kings of tomorrow!
The kids need guidance, I know I did… My mentors were dropping pearls of knowledge and I was scooping it all up. Each one Teach one!

Are today’s artists as dedicated as you were?
Unfortunately I am not as up as I should be on who is doing what, where and so on. The only way to really make a name for yourself is to do the work, though the internet can give you instant stardom – which I see is becoming the motivation for a lot of the movement today. But of course there are the stand outs – such as my girls Miss 17 and Utah killing it with their usual alpha wolf style.

You and Miss17 would go and paint in what you called Jock Spots, are there any really memorable places where you were kinda crapping yourself and thinking ‘this is waaay dangerous…?’
Every night! We would be bugging – but the desire to paint was stronger than the fear factor, or we would never have gotten up! I drive by some of these spots and often think how things could have gone badly. We are some tough chicks, so we are ready (at least in our minds) for anything.

What do you think of graffiti being used to sell everything from cars to vodka?
Graffiti, and ex-graffiti, artists have infiltrated the creative workforce, so it is only natural that the aesthetic would become prevalent in advertising, fashion and fine art, just to name a few. It is a quick way to visually define a product as ‘urban’ or ‘hip-hop’, even though that is completely limiting to us, as the community. Graffiti is so much more global than ‘urban’ and ‘hip-hop’ – it is the bridge that brings cultures together.

Do you see your Claw Money as a kind of extension of graffiti – you’re reaching so many pairs of eyes with people wearing your work? They’re throw ups on people…or do you think fashion was always where you were ultimately going to end up?
T-shirts are the new billboard! And people pay money for them! Double whammy….. You cannot subsist illegally if you want to really grow as a person and/or an artist, so I had to evolve into something legit. If I could I would be in the tunnels right now painting a masterpiece almost no one would ever see! But alas, I have bills.

You do a bunch of things – running Claw Money, Swindle, collaborations with people and brands… Is this huge output of work a kind of methadone to sedate a writing addiction formed 20 or so years ago?
I have always been the kind of person who has 10 million things going on – when it wasn’t work related; it was painting, partying, shopping, babysitting and hustling.

Where do you want to go with Claw Money?
I really like to do different things. Today I might be making clothes and  two years from now I might start making furniture – or designing housewares. I consider my life a journey of artistic endeavours and am luckily to have a fan base that wants my products, whatever they might be… so stay tuned – lots of unusual and unexpected surprises in the not so distant future.

New York now. New York early 90’s. Which is better? Honestly. Why?
The 1990’s hands down! That was a time when real New Yorkers lived in NYC, there was grime and grit, hip hop was an underground NYC secret and living here was affordable… Ahhhh the good ole daze!

Pictures – Claw’s Facebook
(From an original interview for Huck Magazine)

RICHARD RYAN

Richard Ryan looks like a bon viveur. He’s based in Stockholm in Sweden and his work is amazingly colourful. He used to be a pretty damn good photographer, but decided he wanted to be more artistic. So he merged art and photography and came up with these excellent silkscreened images. He makes smoking look cool.

Well hello there Richard. How are you? What are you up to?
Hi there, I’m very fine thank you, I just caught a cold because of the schizophrenic Swedish summer weather that really can’t decide whether to stay warm and cosy or windy, chilly and rainy. It changes within minutes and then you suddenly catch a cold.
If you mean what I’m up to at this very minute? I´m preparing my Midsummerseve party clothes (Creme white smoking jacket, black and white paisley bow tie and crimson red shirt with white collar).

Me and 15 friends will leave for the Grand Hotel at Saltsjöbaden for a great party.

You’re from Santiago and live in Stockholm – how did you end up doing a series of prints on London?
London and British culture in general has always been a great source of inspiration, it was a thrill to choose a project like this because I did not know if my interpretations of British culture would be recognised by the British or if I would end up with something purely understood by Swedes as something only reminding them about British culture and London.

Do you have a favourite part of London?
I did spent most of my travels to London around the city centre, strolling along Bond St, Savile Row, Hyde Park, St James Park, the Kensington area and so on.

What has the rest of 2011 got in store for you?
Things are evolving pretty fast for me right now, later this autumn I will start to work on the Rome and Venice edition.
Also I´m suppose to have a exhibition in New York in September.

Where can we see more of your work?
There are several ways of course, visit me at my showroom in Stockholm, buy work here or just visit the new website.

STIK

If you’ve walked round east, middle and north London and not seen one of Stik’s characters up on the walls then I don’t believe you. His talent of making the simplest line drawings express an enormous amount of emotion is unsurpassed. An artist who’s lived on the streets, and not on the streets he’s exhibited on the streets (obviously) and not on the streets (which is good news).

Hello Stik, what are you up to right now?
Putting the finishing touches to the Lava show in Carnaby Street, really big canvases that zoom right into the face, I’m experimenting and letting go with my gallery work, it’s exciting. Just been down to Brick Lane to repair a piece of graf. The street art tour turned up while I was doing it which was funny.

Where did your infamous character stem from?
It’s a shorthand way of expressing emotion. A written form of body language. It is an ancient symbol for the body, I just put in some more feeling.

Do you have a favourite piece? I like the one on Pitfield St you did – I kinda want to live in that building.
Apparently its all falling down and full of pigeon poo in there, but the front of the building does look great. I’ve taken on that lovely turquoise colour, you’ll see plenty of that in the show.

Do you start with the legs and work up? Or the head and work down? Or the belly and make them giggle?
Tee-hee… Head first then body, legs, arms then the eyes last of all. The eyes define the piece, that’s why I leave them to the end. My show at Lava is all about the eyes.

KELSEY BROOKES

Kelsey Brookes has a life that will make you probably jealous. Unless you are a full time artist, you live in San Diego, and if at any point you don’t fancy doing any painting, you go across the road to the beach and surf and surf and surf a bit more. Because that, very briefly, sums up what he does. He’s got a bit of an obsession with naked ladies, tigers and bears and his style is really very distinctive.

How are things going with you my man?
Going well all things considered. Just coming off one of the best winters for surf I think I have ever seen down here in San Diego. I have my first museum show coming up in a couple of weeks time (MCASD) which is exciting. So yeah…..going well.

What can you see out of your window right now?
A Spanish-tiled roof and a little grove of palm trees and my dog chasing some birds. Maybe I need to feed him more?

What are you working on?
Museum show in June. New Image Art (LA) show in July and a solo show in Berlin this November.

What’s the worst thing to accidentally kick bare foot in the dark: a surfboard, or a cat?
A hungry tiger.

Is life on the West Coast as cool as the photos people take on their hipstamatic iPhones make it look?
Life here is just like life everywhere else in the modern western world. We just have a higher risk of skin cancer.

Are there any goth surfers? I guess waterproof mascara would be a must.
I have never met any, but I’m sure they are out there. Everything you can think of exists somewhere. One of the great things about being a painter is you can paint into existence almost anything you can think of.

Been anywhere interesting lately?
El Salvador for a surf trip. I went to Las Vegas last weekend. What a nightmare that was. We went out there to see “Cirque De Soleil”, which was amazing but everything else in that town is the opposite of amazing.

If you had to choose one to survive extinction, what would it be – bears or tigers?
I would like to save that answer until I am confronted by one of those creatures in the wild.

Where’s the best bar in San Diego?
The best bar in San Diego is whichever one is closest.

IAN STEVENSON

You will have seen Ian Stevenson’s wonderful world on things like E4 or in toilets of trendy bars or at big art shows or in skips or on bits of rubbish. Spans quite the range of showing his stuff off doesn’t he? His stuff will make you smile and occasionally wince, and he has a magic beard.

How are you?
Good thanks but I’m still looking at this world with a confused look on my face.

Do you like big butts? Please don’t lie.
No thank you, they intimidate me.

If your art was writing a lonely hearts ad, what would it say?
I want you to need me.

Do you know what my favourite ever lonely hearts advert was?
Was it?… “I could fill that hole in your life” or “I’ll only hurt you when you’re wrong”.

No, it was in the Streatham Post and said ‘Hairy man seeks woman’. That was my favourite one.
What things are you up to at the moment?
I have been up to things, I did the artwork for a Shane Meadows film called ‘Le Donk’ and I have a screen print coming out at Pictures On Walls. Also the ICA have made a publication of the Heavy Pencil event and I have a drawing and some of my music included. There are other things on their way too.

Got any new work that people can get their hands on?
Yes I have a screen print produced by Concrete Hermit available at Tate Modern Shop. Everyone is welcome to look at my website to find out all the latest news. It’s a ‘real’ place where everything is clickally linkable to various online digital purchasing areas.

If you had to, would you be Toni with an i or Tony with a y?
Definitely with a y because the other way would feel wrong.

What’s nice?
A clown standing silently in a poorly lit alleyway.

Thank you for doing this. What are you going to do now?
Go back into my hole. Thank you and goodbye.

INKIE

Bristol-born Inkie is part of that stable of artists that trotted out of Bristol and over to London and showed pretty much everyone how you actually go about doing ‘street art’. And that was way before some dick started calling it street art. His figures and heavily emphasised lines are instantly recognisable, and he’s spent the last year or two jetting around the word live painting at events with all kinds of super famous people at it. As of a week or so ago, he’s been dancing around, celebrating the birth of his second child. Luckily though he managed to spare a few minutes to answer a few questions about stuff.
- Burnface

Wassup Inkie? How are things?
All good thanks, though a little sleep deprived due to the birth of my second daughter last Sunday.

Ah congratulations – other than that, what you been up to? Last time I saw you, you kept disappearing round the world to paint for Jade Jagger.
I’ve been designing Jade’s new range for Paris Fashion week, working on a big group show for this coming December in Mayfair, plus Mutate Britain 2 and a few other projects.

Tell me about your work – why do you concentrate on painting hot women? Have I just answered my own question there?
Why draw men when you can draw women….

That’s a very valid point. Now I have it on good authority that out of the explosion of artists from the Bristol scene you are ‘the best draughtsman out of the lot’ – what’s your secret?
Speed and patience… not feeling put off by the enormity of a job and just diving into it and having confidence in the end result, even if there are a few errors.

Do you do much spray can work – or is it all about fat, drippy markers with you?
I use spray cans for my wildstyles and when I do more illustrative work they are used for base colours and fades, you can get more detail with a pen and the finished result looks a look sharper… why use a spade when you can use a scalpel…

Outside of art, what do you get up to?
I love visiting museums and ancient monuments as well as drinking beer…

Beer is indeed ace. You were well involved with the computer games industry for a long time, do you still do stuff for that?
I walked out of SEGA after nearly 10 years as head of design and haven’t really looked back, sometime in the future I plan to set up a design agency working with the games industry though.

Which artists are rocking it for you at the moment?
Chor Boogie – LA, Bio -TAT crew NYC, Retna – LA, Bom.K – Paris, Shoe – Amsterdam, Will Barras & Sickboy – London

Your auction for charity earlier in the year was a massive success – you got any more planned?
I am doing another at the Paradise pub (Kensal Rise, London) on the 25th February 2010 – expect more quality work and a bigger party this time…

Where’s the best place in London for a pint in your opinion? I probably owe you one.
There are several. I prefer local boozers to ‘gastro’ pubs though and anywhere that shows the football.
Let me know when you want to meet up for a jar…

JON SLADE

Jon Slade isn’t just an artist. He is also a man. His style is quite distinctive as you can see, and I think he’s a very interesting person. If you know what he looks like, you’ll often find him lurking near pubs in east London. If you don’t, he might have stood near you recently.

How’s married life?
Petty much as it was before, but with extra levels, more weapons, night-vision, and better game-play.

Can you describe your work in the wankiest possible way please?
I’m interested in character of form. I utilize simple marks and shapes to infuse emotion and presence to my workings, like a de-constructive reflection of the personality embedded in the structures of our finite society. I am a mirror.

How do you go about doing what you do?
I get the Jubilee Line to the Metropolitan Line to Liverpool St. Walk to the clinic, then coffee.

Who’s the daddy(/mummy)?
Marcel Duchamp, Francis Bacon, Cy tombley, Rene Magritte, Ray johnson, Roy Lichtenstein, Antoni Tapies, Anish Kapoor, Martin Creed, Zevs, all qualify the Mummy/Daddy prestige, although we have the joy of loitering about to see how some of the selected develop within this ‘brain dump’ daddy status.

What’s your favourite piece you’ve done?
At the moment I’m trying to get a couple of drawings made into fluorescent lighting, I’m really pleased with how they are turning out, especially the character, the text is the inspiration, (which justifies its presence in this particular tale) I tend to like immediacy in relation to the activity of working, whatever I’m doing right now is what I’m really into, Appreciation is altogether different as the marks made, however simple are judged by the uncontrollable time test, and so I end up loathing some and loving others…

This piece I still enjoy.

Where are you working at the moment?
In the loading bay of an Old St. clinic, where I’m an outpatient, I’m allowed to help Big Frank with the deliveries, he gives me cigarettes even though I’m not allowed.

You know your cousin’s written some bar reviews for Strokeface?
I did not know that, I’m gonna take that golden slice of information to the ‘roulette table of life’ and place it all on red 17…

… oh look I’ve won nothing.

She decided she wanted to be called Fuckface. Discuss
There are many different interpretations of this ancient insult that have developed throughout history. Originating from the Greek ‘fuck πρόσωπο’ (pronounced ‘fook-fash’) it was an insult used by lonely peasant farmers to describe the defiling of the sacred ‘λάχανο’ – a cabbage like vegetable that sometimes resembled a face. It was also worshipped, eaten and sprinkled on the bodies of the deceased to ward off the advances of highly aroused animals, in ‘Stage One’ of the afterlife assault course.

Where’s the best place in the world?
On the other side.

Have you ever done a picture that tells exactly 1000 words?
On the other side there are no limits (apparently).

DEADBEAT DONNY

OI! Deadbeat Donny… who the hell are you?
Not entirely certain but a lot of the time we think we are an artist collective…
We are illustrators, painters, cyclists, workers and creatures of the night.

I like your style. What are you all about then?
We’re about hand made, drawn, painted, cut up imagery; making pictures that we like.

Who’s the girl who keeps popping up in your work?
She’s one of many Deadbeat characters but she’s around a lot in this current phase, she is referred to by others as many different things from ‘that girl again’ to ‘the female terrorist’ to ‘Selma Deadbeat’.

She looks likes she hiding from someone or something. There’s a furtive look in her eyes. What’s going on?
Yeah she sneaks about finding stuff, she goes on adventures, she explores and then i guess sometimes she’s just down right rude…

What do you use to do your art?
Found stuff, little scraps of paper, photos, paint, ink, pens of many varieties, our hands and feet, coffee, wine and occasionally a paint brush.

What’s better – drawing on walls or drawing on paper?
Toughy…..toughy…
Drawing on walls is great because you have to go with what you’ve got and its harder to erase and dispose if you’re not keen on what one has produced. On paper is just grand because you can use it for other things or simply fold it up and keep it in a safe place…we like secret places.

Who else is good at drawing and that, in your opinion?
mmmmmmmmm….we like Barry McGee, Kill Pixie, Camille Rose Garcia, Keith Haring oh many many more, we could go on and on and on.

PAVEMENT LICKER

These guys are superstars – they set up Pavement Licker to support aspiring writers and artists could say they’ve been published on their CVs. A dude called Kelsey Brookes in San Diego gave up his job to give just being an artist a go, and he sent them some pictures, they published it, Steve Lazarides saw it, asked who he was, they told him, two months later Kelsey was in London selling work at Santa’s Ghetto and now he travels all over the world selling his stuff for good money and he gets to surf and paint every day. Which is exactly what he wanted.

So it works.

It’s pretty sporadic, but it’s ace in your face and has had artists like Banksy, Jamie Hewlett, David Shrigley, Paul Insect and Antony Micallef do stuff for its pages.

Give it a look see – they’ve just relaunched their website. Nice

Gonna do an interview with one of them soon too.

- Burnface