How about the scene that accompanies most street art over here? Is it very different than the US? Do you have roots in hip-hop/graff?

I don’t come from either a hip-hop or skate background. I don’t really identify with any particular activity or influence. Growing up in the suburbs of New York was enough to attract me to the city and everything is has to offer. There is a definite link between hip-hop/skateboarding and street art. Obviously, graffiti has many of those same connections but I’m not sure I can say that all of the street artists I know here in the U.S. have those same influences. Age level has a lot to do with it… rebellious youth culture. Which explains why large companies are marketing street art inspired images back at our youth. It’s an audience with huge buying power. What better way to get kids to buy products than to emblazon them with the imagery they identify with rebellion? It’s contradictory, but they sell stuff. Automobile manufacturer, Nissan, recently had a poster campaign in New York that utilized imagery looking like wheat-pasted work. This was clearly a way for them to try to connect with young prospective customers.

What’s your favourite medium?

I enjoy doing just about everything with anything… if I had to choose, I’d say drawing and painting; I really love it. As for stenciling, I haven’t stenciled in the streets for years. I’m much more into wheat pasting original paintings that I create in my studio. I like that they’re more susceptible to decay and weathering than direct paint is. The ephemeral quality of wheat pasting is what I like best about it. You put something up and it could be anywhere from a day to a year before it finally disappears. This works especially well with my flower project. Real flowers sprout, bloom, and die, only to sprout again somewhere else.

Do you find it sad having to leave your works to their unknown fates? Not
knowing how long they will last. Do you have your own work on your walls at home?

My wife and I do keep some of my work hung around the house… only a few paintings though. I like to put up recent work so that I can encounter it outside of my studio and possibly better assess it. I often take a piece or two back down to the studio to rework it. Just about anything I do on paper is glued up in the streets… I don’t hold onto much of it. I’m more satisfied if I hang it in the streets… the work comes to life and breathes. Original work that’s hung in the street engages viewers in a completely different way than work hung indoors. There’s less expectation placed on the viewer. It really levels the playing field because anyone can encounter it… homeless people, delivery people, construction workers, shop owners, drug dealers, executives, lawyers, etc… People can identify with one-of-a-kind work that’s glued to a street surface… they can see that it has a life expectancy. Naturally some people walk right by things without seeing them and others witness the changing surfaces they’re surrounded by. Some people try to take my work down… I’ve been told this a few times by people that have had success getting something off a wall in one piece without it tearing. Usually I’ll notice evidence of people attempting to peel a piece off when I revisit the work.

You left your flower design on dollar bills for a while. Would you ever be tempted to ‘flower up’ the Euro?

Two years ago, I stamped a bunch of Euros with my flower. Because the Euro was just introduced, people spotted the flower immediately. It made it difficult to spend them because shop owners thought they were counterfeits! I figured that people wouldn’t really notice because the notes are loaded with so many colors.