How did you first go about getting your artwork seen? I have always wanted whatever I created to be seen, as I’m sure most artists do. When I was growing up I entered art contests, completed special assignments for my art classes, and contributed to art projects around my schools. All of these things guaranteed that a lot of people would be viewing my work, regardless of the medium or subject. The “bad” kid in me would also use means to display my art that were honestly looked down upon and in some cases, illegal. Not to incriminate myself, but I did do graffiti and street art on the walls of buildings and other private property. This is how I found my entrepreneurial spirit. Classmates and friends who saw that work commissioned me to do the same type of work on their clothing. That was my first experience of getting paid to do artwork. Getting paid to do something I loved - I can’t explain how that made me feel as a kid. From this venture, a teacher saw the work I had done on students’ jeans and asked me to paint her entire classroom with well-known cartoon characters. That was very cool! Which artists have influenced you the most, and what are your other influences? It’s really funny, the artists that truly influence me the most create work that is by far nothing at all like mine. Artists such as Angry Johnny and Shepard Fairey are at the top of my list of influential artists, but I don’t think you could ever see their work in mine. Real life influences my artwork more than anything else. The little things that most people take for granted on a daily basis: a building, streets, trees, cracks in a sidewalk, peeling paint, sewer grates. It’s the most random things that we sometimes ignore that influence me. Music has a major influence on my life and me as a person. I listen to all different types of music all of the time. While I’m working, driving in the car, walking the dog, even in the
shower; I surround my life with a constant soundtrack. Horror films have also been a huge influence on my work, not the blood guts and gore, but the emotion and drama; the feeling of not knowing and the question, “what if?” Where do you get your inspiration? Throughout my life many different, and sometimes unusual, elements have inspired me as an artist. Distant from the social norm, I never found inspiration hanging on the walls of art museums or in art history books. Instead, skateboard graphics, graffiti and street art, album covers, horror films and urban decay captivated me. I have always been able to find so much beauty in an abandoned dilapidated building. These were and still to this day are the main elements in my life that drive me to create art. What’s the most exciting thing about art for you? Creating something from nothing. Taking something and making it into something else. What really excites me is creating work for other people, bringing their vision to life. Yes, I enjoy having an idea and creating it as a personal endeavour. But when someone comes to me with his or her own idea or story and I can give that idea or story a life, give that person a visual representation of what they were trying to envision, that’s really exciting for me. You did a piece for the Urban Horror Special using your dad’s head. Tell us about that. Let me start by telling you that my dad is not the biggest fan of my work. Don’t get me wrong; he supports me and is proud of the accomplishments that I have made, but he isn’t into Horror or anything scary. When Adam first told me about the UHS, I had the idea for my piece almost immediately. I was actually going to use a female model for this but our schedules conflicted and we couldn’t work it out. It turned out to be a good thing though, because I was able to use my father. From