Interview with Peeta

wlfmrs: How would you describe your artwork? It's graffiti, definitely, but it sits on more of a fine art category as well.

Peeta: Conceptual graffiti. It's no different from a tag that you'd see in an alley, but to explain that it's not just a tag, it's computer work, studying design... it don't know really. A gallery that I'm working with right now, she defines it as new urban art.

wlfmrs: It’s interesting what the word 'graffiti' does to an art piece. Some people worry about negative connotation when they hear that word.

Peeta: Yeah, it's interesting because some people look at my work and say 'graffiti? Oh. No thanks', and other people see what I'm doing and I didn't even say anything and they don't even think it's related to graffiti, they say 'oh, nice sculpture' or focus on the futuristic aspect or architecture design.

wlfmrs: it's probably also depends on where you show your pieces too, you show it at a place like Ayden Gallery and it's easy to see the graffiti elements of your work, but you put it in a fine art gallery that has a more classic approach, I'm sure the response is quite different.

Peeta: In the gallery where I am showing (Baron Gallery on Columbia St.) it is very different than Ayden Gallery, it's very serious and the lady who owns the gallery is from NY and has a good reputation as a sculpture and it's definitely more of a fine art gallery. It's a totally different approach and the people who will come are different that those that go to Ayden and have a beer and hang out, people will go to this show and meet other people observe art a little differently.

wlfmrs: When you paint or sculpt, do you work based on themes or do you just let it flow naturally?

Peeta: No, usually I don't work in themes but it happens sometimes in productions for wall. If an organizer wants something based on sports or the history of a town, but personally, for myself, it's not usually easy to mix other concepts in with my style. But in some cases I can make something completely different when I don't focus on my style.

wlfmrs: Do you ever do character based paintings?

Peeta: Sometimes I do futuristic faces but it's something I do very rarely. I'm not really into it.

wlfmrs: Is there a goal to your work other than just a finished product? Is this just a step to something bigger that you are working on?

Peeta: I mostly enjoy the process of painting canvases and making sculptures of them that are the same, I take pictures of them and make sculptures of the images and try to study light and shadows and for me this is not really the final art work, it's just a process. To understand how to paint better on walls. My goal is the walls. At the same time it’s been a way for me to show stuff in galleries and to make some money so I can keep doing this.

I love to paint on large surfaces because they have a different impact on the people who see it. Like a painting is fine, it’s a good size but if you were to see this on a big wall in the street, it's more breathtaking.

wlfmrs: It's nice to see it on a canvas as well though because people get a chance to take your work home and put it on their wall. When you do big murals, it's amazing to see but you can't really pull a couch into an alley and hang out with it.  So it's really nice to see your work on canvas and sculptures in the galleries.

Peeta: I've done a lot of works all over the world. I usually work from Italy and make my paintings then ship them to the USA the most and UK, Australia. I sell more work to the states than in Italy. Most of my clients are from the west coast. Seattle, California, Portland. It's one of the reasons why I am here in Vancouver now, so I am closer to them.  Also, I always wanted to have a show in Portland, OR, and now I have one set up at Backspace gallery.

wlfmrs: Have you been in a lot of gallery shows/exhibits?

Peeta: not so many, maybe 6-10 shows? Sometimes I am in shows where I ship my work but I can't go to.  Last month, I had a show in Germany; It was really my first solo show. It's usually collective shows that I'm in so the show in Germany was really nice.

wlfmrs: With your two different styles of work, do you get a larger response to your sculptures than your paintings?

Peeta: Some people are really interested in sculptures and don't like my paintings as much, but people change when they see my walls. 

wlfmrs: And personally for you when you work, do you prefer creating sculptures or paintings?

Peeta: You know, I love them both the same. They are so different from each other that it's easy to love them both. With the sculpture, there is weeks of computer work that goes into it and the break down of each piece.

It's a lot like designing a chair. It's a real industrial design approach to each sculpture. It's not like a block and you go from there. It's more like surfaces and projection of lines and projections of surfaces.

I've been working with all these lines and angles. Then I take each surface and unroll it. Then I have all the pieces then I print them out on to a blueprint. Then I have to cut them out on PVC sheets then glue them together and sand them down. I always work in small apartments’ and I didn't have as many tools so I had to learn to work within my space with what I had. I didn't have the luxury of working with drills and saws so I just scaled down my tools to cutters, glue and tape. Also, this way, it's light and easy to ship.

wlfmrs: Obviously the processing time is way longer with a sculpture, how long does it take?

Peeta: This one is being rushed because of a deadline so it is taking maybe a week/ 10 days. They take a long time and it's a lot of brainwork, very tiring. I have to

concentrate on all the lines and surfaces and sometimes there are 15 lines over lapping and I have to concentrate on each one. It's very time consuming.

Basically I take all these lines that are just a projection of the same painting I have then I build all these lines to flatten the surfaces that are inside the sculpture. The program that I use is called Rhinoceros design software. It's like AutoCAD but more for architecture and creative design. 

wlfmrs: Is architecture anything you'd get into as a career?

Peeta: Not as a career but I did collaborate with some architects. One of the greatest projects I did was with a car brand and a student was doing her master in exhibit design at a European design school. She had seen my website and some sculptures that I had done for a show in Oakland. She took inspiration from the images and built a big stand for the cars and in some offices and for a bar. It wasn't a project that was actually built but rather just a rendering for her project in school.

I also work with architects to paint walls in buildings because they love the white on white paintings and the architectural, futuristic design to my work. I did some underground parking lots with the white paintings and white walls. In the future, I’d love to make some big sculptures for the public in cities but you know, it's not so easy to get the funding for that. You need the city to ask you for that and to pay for the materials.

I'd love to do a big white sculpture in a public square or something.

I worked for an engineering studio so I spent months on auto cad and projecting structures of the skyscrapers or buildings or exhibit places.

As well, I worked for a design studio where I designed chairs, tables, lamps and for me each experience in my past, even if it wasn't graffiti, I it treat them like school and absorbed as much knowledge as I can and apply to my work. It’s really been the past two years that I've been just working on my own thing and apply all that knowledge from school and work into graffiti and my sculpting. I also designed my own website since I worked for a company that designed sites so my past work has been really helpful.

wlfmrs: Can you tell me about your involvement with Paint Your faith and what this project means to you? Also, do you have an idea of what you are going to paint?

Peeta: For me, I am very excited about this project because I get the great opportunity to paint on a big wall in Vancouver and in my neighborhood. It is really hard to get the city to give artists a wall to paint on so I am very happy about this. The other reason is because it's so hard to get a wall here in this city. Another reason is because I am getting a chance to study on a more spiritual side of me. I have been reading books and practicing meditation not only an artist but also I'm developing a new awareness of my soul.

It will be nice to paint something that represents myself completely. I get to combine my art side (graffiti) and my spiritual side, which I never talk about or show. Now I will find a way to match all of this together and paint something really special for this occasion.

I have a concept in mind but I have yet to get it onto paper. I’d like it to be something different and unusual. I think to represent faith and a spiritual sense; my style isn't enough so I need more elements in it. Recently was reading about the symbol of the pinecone, which is something that is represented in many religions since the first Egyptian and Mayan. Lots of old cultures have this symbol, even Christianity but nobody really seems to know what this means. I recently heard that the pinecone is a symbol of the small part of the geometrical center of our brains and it is responsible for the connection to the spiritual side of the soul so when you meditate or pray, or get into altered state, you are using this particular part of the brain and it seems that this part of the brain carries cells that reflect the 3rd eye. It is a specific location in the brain, not just a 6th chakra, but it's likely connected to it. I wanted to paint this symbol or make a huge pinecone that was somehow spreading energy or connected to my shapes to make the center of the piece. Maybe in the process I will develop something more precise.

When I first heard about this, I had to read lots of books to learn about it but also, it's a good traditional shape, I like it, so I can also use it to match with other traditional shapes I do.

wlfmrs: are you planning on using different colours or stay with the classic white that you tend to use?

Peeta: No. I think I am going to do something really colourful and one thing I want to do was to use white as a light source because of the symbolism behind it. Lots of people tend to think of the white light as a sign of spiritualism and that the body is made of white light, so I think that I will use it as a focal point but still have lots of colours. I have to find a way to mix all of this together. The white light, pinecone and the spiritual source to spread light onto my two-dimensional shapes that defines me. It's like a portrait because it's my name so it's a way to represent me but not paint my face.

Peeta along with Indigo (Vancouver, BC), Faith 47 (South Africa) and Titi Freak (Sao Paulo) will be painting live during the week of April 21-27^th at 55 E. Hastings, Vancouver BC. Please visit PaintYourFaith.com for more information.