Interview from March 2018 Hidden Champion, a Tokyo based art and culture magazine. 

When did you start working as an artist? Please tell us about your first opportunity to paint and create artwork. I’ve been drawing as long as I can remember. I actually probably drew more when I was little then I do now! The first time I can remember using my art for anything besides my parent’s refrigerator would probably be in high school when I made little animations for our crews first skate video. I think my first paid job as an illustrator was in 2009 for my local skateshop 2 nd Nature. I was still in school and for my screenprinting class final I drew a bunch of different beer cans in a row and replaced all the brand names with “2 nd Nature”. At the time I don’t think the idea even crossed my mind that it was possible to make a living off drawing stuff, I was just so stoked to see my work printed on a skateboard.

You use a lot of analog techniques such as engraving, silkscreen, and drawing, but is there a style you like most? Most of the time I will use all three of those techniques in a color print! Everything always starts with pencil on paper and a rough sketch. I then transfer that drawing onto the woodblock and make a more detailed pen drawing. Once the woodblock is carved I’ll print up one good copy and use that as a key image to make all the color separations for a screen print edition. I do enjoy the actual carving of the block the most. I think the sketch and drawing is the most work because I’m trying to figure out the compositions and position of everything. Once the big shapes are nailed down it acts as a map that I can follow to carve all the little lines and details.

What is something that appeals to you about engraving? I just really like the way the dark bold lines look. The artist Dennis McNett first introduced me to woodcuts while I was still in school and once I made my first one I knew it was the medium for me. Before that I would try to imitate that look with pen and ink. I also like that you can make many prints off one block. Printmaking is a good way to offer original art at a more affordable cost.

You often use animals as a motif, why is that recurring concept? For me, animals are a fun way to subtlety poke fun at society’s flaws. I’ve always enjoyed drawing animals more than drawing people. I found woodcuts to be a great way to represent all the different textures of hair, fur, scales, and feathers found in the animal kingdom. I grew up on animated Disney movies which I still try and keep up with, because they do such an amazing job of anthropomorphizing characters and giving them so much emotion. 

Are there any stories behind one of your drawings that you could share with us?

I made a large scale 3.5 x 7 foot woodcut inspired by all the trash used for fill in DIY concrete parks. I’ve shown the print in a bunch of shows and it’s always fun to hear what people think of it that are disconnected from the skate board world. One conversation that stands out in my mind was from a show at a print shop in Brussels, Belgium. The show was in Boitsfort, a suburb of Brussels where most did not speak English. Being the youngest in the show and not speaking any French, I felt pretty out of place. After hanging out for a bit and chatting with the few people I could, I was told that the person who had designed the catalog wanted to meet me. He was a man in his 90s who was very curious about the DIY woodcut. He didn’t speak any English so the whole time talking to him we went through someone translating. He told me it was his favorite piece in the show and that he had invented a whole background story about it. He believed it to be an excavated section of the earth many years after the earth became uninhabitable. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out this mini photocopy of the image he made with a scale showing the excavated piece from his story was 4 meters. It was so rad to hear some ones take on my piece from such a different age and background and surprisingly it wasn’t too far off… 

Since you ride for CODA, what board do you use? Coda makes a long and short 8.5 board. I usually ride the longer 8.5 with the 14.5” wheelbase as my main board and then set up one of the more alternative shapes as a cruiser board.

Are there any artists that influence you and/or do you have any favorite artists? Too many! My biggest influence is Dennis McNett. I started working with him in 2009 and he’s taught me pretty much everything I know about printmaking. He moved out of NY a couple of years ago, but I still help out every year with his annual Halloween party, Hallowolfbat. I love Yuko Shimizu’s illustrations. She has a great website where she posts tons of process pictures of all her work and is constantly giving out great advice in her Instagram posts. I found Jeremy Fish and Todd Francis art pretty early on in high school through skateboarding and have been admiring it ever since. I have an amazing book of Heinrich Kley’s drawings. He was a big influence on Disney’s Fantasia and has tons of great drawings of animals in human situations. I’m constantly looking at the amazing contrast of black and white in Fritz Eichenberg’s wood engravings. The size and detail of Tom Hucks woodcuts doesn’t make any sense. I know I’m forgetting a ton of awesome people.

New pup portrait carving process video.