Zomb One Interview

Carter: thanks for doing this interview! For those who haven’t seen your work how would you describe it to them?

Zomb: No problem man, I'm always happy to help furthering independent media and entertainment. I guess you could call my stuff urban modern-art, street art, graffiti, art, crap, awesome, whatever you'd like, it all means the same really.

Carter: how long have you been at this? Is their any other art forms that you work with?

Zomb: I have been doing graffiti art/street art for a long time now. I first got interested when I was in high school, around '96-'97, drawing like crazy on my books, in my books, lockers, black boards, etc...it was an escape from the bullshit at school, that and my head phones, haha. I have stoped many times since then, some due to legal troubles, some because of life's situations, like kids, bands, skateboarding, you know, just life in general.

Carter: I really liked how you apply stencil work as well as freehand design into your work. Although these styles are common with graffiti artists you have a way of making it your own. I was wondering if their were any special touches that you incorporate in your work to make them unique.

Zomb: Well my basic background comes from graffiti, first and foremost, but over the years I have been jaded by the graffiti scene as a whole, the attitudes, outlooks, cliques, competitiveness, basically all the things that I hated about team sports, and school. I looked at graffiti as more of a backlash to society, and another chance for a faceless kid to tell a story. I try to further progress my work, and incorporate diffrent mediums and techniques constantly. I love making art period, and finding new ways and things to make it work. I have used scrapbooking techniques before, acrylic paint, wheat paste, spraypaint, stencils, stickers, clothing, skateboards. I just love to paint and make art period.


Carter: Do you like to work on canvas or walls better. What is your favorite piece you’ve done so far?

Zomb: Well, they both have diffrent feelings, and honestly I'm not sure which I like better. With canvas you have time, lots of it, to create what you want, and you can use other mediums and whatnot on them. Plus they always look nice on my walls of my house, haha. It's nice to have that freedom and time to work, Especially in comparrison to working on walls. With walls, you have the adrenalin rush of doing something illegal, and also for me I have the feeling that I am doing something right for society, I feel that I am putting up a huge middle finger to comercialism and advertising, and it feels good and refreshing. Also with walls you have less time to work on your piece, but that can in turn be a good thing, sometimes I can ruin a piece because I am working too long on it, and I am trying to fix every little wrong thing. So the limited time can be a good thing too. Both are really fun, and each one lets me recieve and diffrent feeling and emotion, it's great!

Carter: Do you believe that street art is a good medium for reaching and sharing messages with other people?

Zomb: Most definately, as long as people are willing to turn off the initial negative reactions, and really think for a moment. Some really great points are being made through street art, like for instance, BANKSY, the dude is extremely talented, and his work is that of social/political commentary, and he really strives to make people rethink and unlearn. That is something I eventually want to achieve, something outside of being pretty or dope, but something with a message.

Carter: do you feel that street/graffiti art is neglected because some people don’t see it as much as art as just a form of mindless vandalism?

Zomb: It is neglected to some point, but really since like '82, it has blown up. You have it in advertising billboards, commericals, designer clothing, cd covers. So really more and more people over the years have really grown to accept it. I mean it has even reached modern art galleries. It was an art movement, the only art movement that was created by kids, for kids, and now people are paying well into the thousands for pieces of work. It's crazy. Then on the other hand, you most definately have the people, who see it on the streets everyday and only get to see the midless vandalism part, which I can also identify with, as there are hundreds and hundreds of kids out there just doing it for the vandilism side. In smaller places it's kind of diffrent though, places where graffiti is just starting to surface, and there will actually be kids doing it for the artistic side and they actually have something to say, but it's negleted by the mass local public, because they just don't understand it. It's all relative though.


Carter: when you come up with a piece in your blackbook then recreate that image on a wall or canvas do you change much or do you like to keep it close to how it looked in the blackbook?

Zomb: When I create something in my blackbook, it's there as more of a blueprint, or a guideline of how I want that pice to go. And then I just let fate take over when I'm carrying out the image onto a canvas or wall, adn I just let it transform. A lot of my best works have been due to accidents, mess-ups and fuck-ups. Nothing has ever come out as planned, and I find that very soothing. It's very metaphoric to life in itself.

Carter: Do you believe that art always needs to have some deep message to be worthwhile or you think that art can still have a powerful impression without a definite message?

Zomb: Art doesn't necesarily need to have a deep message, because I feel every work of art has a story in itself. Especially graffiti/street art. Like it makes you ask questions like "who was this person?" "how did they get away with this?" "what did they use?" "why did they do this?" and so on. However I am very partial to art that has a deep message in it, but I have learned over the years to appreciate it all. It's all like a book, they all have something to say or teach us.

Carter: Besides the usual places you might expect to see street art such as a wall or in a notebook you have done something unique in doing your art on records. What influenced you to use vinyl as a canvas?

Zomb: Well, I have been involved and influenced throughout my whole life by music, all of it. Every single genre and subgenre, I can gain something and find beauty in it, and I like how that can tranfuse into art as well. I also was looking to do something more unique and cheaper than canvas. It helps me stay in touch with the working class and poor. Art supplies can be expensive, so I have a friend that moved in next to a record store and every week they were throwing away vinyl, basically contributing to the unnecesary pile of trash in this world, so I asked him to start taking them off the road, and thought it would be a really neat idea to infuse the art with the music, and at the same time recycling. I have find out now, that I am not the only one who does this, but thats ok. A lot of people play around with it, but it's my main medium right now.


Carter: what are some of the artists or people who you look up too and get inspiration from? Do you ever gain inspiration from a non-street artist?

Zomb: I get inspiration from everywhere, and everyone. It all comes from my life and the shit I have gone through. The loves, the heartaches, the fun, the bad times. i also draw influence from certain authors like Daniel Quinn, Charles Bukowski, Jack Kerouac, Chuck Klosterman, Chuck Palanuick and many many others, reading is a huge influence for me. Also my outrage for alot of the injustices of the world, animal liberation, social oppression, political agendas, and the like. As far as artists go, it ranges. Local graffiti artists and crews like LEARN, ICH, SEPT, ALKE, JURNE, CEMEK, TURDL, KG, ZURK, BERN, RENT, PANIC, NAP 71, HBT, YME, WUT, SFL, and the like. For graffitit artist worldwide it has come from a lot of diffrent dudes. JA, COPE, SABER, RIME, REYES, and all of MSK, AWR, TKO, SKUF, NOXER, UNTOLD, NECKFACE, DONDI, BLADE, BANKSY, OBEY GIANT, GOLD 1, NOWAE and all of FNK, and the list could go on and on. I love it all. For non graffiti/street artists, it would have to be Jackson Pollock, Salvador Dali, Cezanne. I could really make this list go all day, but for the readers I'll cut it short.

Carter: Any last shout outs?

Zomb: Shout out to Nowae, and the rest of my FNK crew, my girl Jenni, you are seriously the best ever! My crazy cat Lakai, all the hobos under bridges, every animal, vitamin water, vegan and straightedge movements, and everyone who read this, keep your mind open and stay informed, you can make a diffrence.

www.myspace.com/zomb_one (my main art page)
www.myspace.com/heartshardcore (Add my new band!) (Hello Carter, haha)
Also support these sites/organizations
www.savedarfur.org
www.antiracistaction.us
www.veganoutreach.org
www.hrw.org (Human Rights Watch)
www.answer.pephost.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ANS_homepage
(A.N.S.W.E.R.)
www.knowmore.org
www.adbusters.org/home
www.shac7.com
www.indymedia.org
www.freespeech.org
www.zcommunications.org
www.truthout.org
www.democracynow.org
www.zeitgeistmovie.com (Watch movie for free online)
www.directaction../index.htm
www.stencilrevolution.com