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The Artist

When I first met Garrett I learned pretty quickly he was a graffiti artist, and if you’ve been following along you know that he’s matured in his style, based on doing his set lists for each show, and he did the ‘blues chairs’ for his first gallery show last summer.  Now he’s working over old paintings, starting in large format and has completed eighteen “Blues Chairs”.

I had a chance to ask him a few questions while he was working the other day. Gar comes from creative peeps and has been collecting art for some time. His connection to his favorite artists gives him the freedom to engage in the kind of experimentation that makes this genera so vital.

@jimijazzmusic: So earlier I described your art as “graffiti art”, how do you feel about that characterization?

@phillyglove: Well, it’s not graffiti, I wish I was a better graffiti writer, but I take elements that I was trying to do when I was doin’ my graffiti, and did in fact do, and applying them to my lettering . . of my, Love Saves the Day, Play the Blues, G. Love & Special Sauce, whatever the catch-phrase is on the chair or painting that I’m doing, this series of blue chairs and blues paintings. So today I’ve really gotten a lot to work with, I’ve got nine pieces I’m working on at once. So it’s an ambitious day, and my paints are also running down.

@j - So Gar, this is the first time I’ve seen you using a brush, and not just the paint pens, can you tell me about your evolution in techniques and tools?

@p - Well I started, I got a couple brushes, see they’re big, as big as you can get, ah, for my back drop painting which was a large-format muralesque type canvas. So I need to cover a lot of space, so I use a roller and I use the brushes, as well as spray paint and a lot of splashing. And ah, so yea I have some brushes, this is the first time I’m using them on some of my smaller pieces, and ahh, I’m just wiping out stuff that I’ve done, wiping it out. I’ve done a whole painting and just tooken the brush and wiped it out, and just made more work for myself.

Well, that’s art for you. This is one of the most important lessons as you mature, you cannot be precious with your work, you of course must be able to destroy whatever you create in order to grow, and to move forward. Perhaps this is why the life of the artist often seems such turmoil.

Boon NC, Autumn Grey.

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