drawing anything out. I’m taking a piece of paper or board and go-
ing full-on color. And you can’t erase, can’t make mistakes...it makes
me nervous. The colored pencil stuff I’m doing now is way more
advanced than the murals.
It’s not the wizard, it’s the wand.
I dropped out of school because of the criticism they gave me for
colored pencils. I used them because I couldn’t afford paints. You get
a class syllabus and it tells you to go out and buy 600 dollars worth of
supplies that I couldn’t afford. It what’s what I make out of it, it’s how
I got my voice out there. Like, Jack White started out with a plastic
guitar, and now look at him.
Ornette Coleman played a plastic saxophone; he became jazz
royalty. So, your work that comes from a place that is from
you—within your imagination and more personal—is power-
ful stuff. The vivid quality, circus-like and surreal. Talk a little
about it. What are you drawing upon for influence? Who and
what? Where’s it coming from?
Making artwork is like writing a song. Laying down the bass here is
like where the colors go. I’m more of a music person than an “art”
person. I think you look at my work and you see...hear a piece of
music in them. The line work is like sound waves.
Your passion for murals, your push behind them? St. Pete?
Clarion Street, San Francisco? The future of them in the region?
AS: You forgot Philly. SHINE St. Petersburg Mural Festival, which I
would say is one of the most relevant mural festivals, and the caliber
of artists they get, makes it one of the most relevant art events in the
area. When I got called about it, I was floored to get the chance to be
around so many great artists.
You’ve had some ambitious ideas yourself about this: the I-4
project.
That would be a project, and idea, of exchanging the talent from the
St. Pete/Tampa area with the talent we have here i n Orlando, really
showing off that Central Florida has artistic merit and a talented com-
munity. This is an idea that takes lots of relationships, coordination,
and public planning by committees, etc. A larger scale than what Sam
Flax has been doing, and in the same vein as the SHINE festival.
If seen to fruition, it would certainly add a new dimension to
your career. Andrew Spear the organizer, curator if you will, in
addition to prolific artist, which is probably one of your stron-
gest attributes—being prolific and delivering.
Blue-collar upbringing. You do your job and are raised not to bitch
about it. You want it or not; there are people in line who will take
it. I never think a job is not good enough for me. When your ego
gets involved is when you get sloppy and it gets in the way. You stop
producing.
Well said.
You can see more at:
SpearLife.com
top, David Bowie, (for Hard Rock) mixed media
center, Iron Maiden, colored pencil on black board
bottom, MTV Real World mural, Las Vegas
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