A few months back we announced this unique t-shirt design competition: Get Shirty
Entries were vast and varied but there could only be one winner. His name is Gwilym Devey, he’s from New Zealand and he’s responsible for some really interesting creations. Currently working on a whole host of projects including a large scale exhibition, you can check out his extensive work on his Facebook page.
Order this bespoke Drum&BassArena t-shirt today. Then get to know the man behind it…
Interview: Damian B
You and fuzzy, cute creatures with intense scary eyes: Is there
something you need to get of your chest, Gwilym?
Yeah I guess it appears I’m slightly insane. For some reason I just love to draw strange faces and I also love animals, so when I mix these things together… well you’ve already seen what happens.
Tell me about what first inspired you to draw… I mean the way you render. I am almost reminded of very old woodcut work. It’s very textured… is that the style you like?
I grew up watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles which hugely influenced me to draw ninjas and weird creatures wielding weapons. I then became a Dragon Ball Z nerd which consequently inspired me to draw with a more Japanese anime influenced style. I still love both these cartoons. The flat woodcut look in my work relates to my influence from graffiti and trying to emulate that style.
What is your preferred method?
I struggle to define the genre of my artwork, I have been called both a graffiti and street artist but I don’t feel it’s right to claim to be either of them. The way I paint is from a self- taught non-traditional technique so I find it hard to describe where my work fits in the world. I should probably outline the fact that I use a brush and not spray paint which people are often surprised to hear. I just like diversity – I love to paint walls, objects, canvases and digital work. You can use the term urban artist.
When you work outside (EG on a wall) would you welcome the process of weathering and aging on your work?
A problem I have come across in the past in regards to outside walls is other people tagging over the top for the sake of being destructive, often outside wall artworks don’t have long life spans so I never think about the weather effecting them much. But you have given me something to consider.
Art in music: what are five kneejerk reactions for you?
Frequency and fluidity: the way tones from music affect art. Music is feeling and people paint what they feel.
Duality: both music and art are very relative to each other. Music is art so it’s all just expression of self and creative impulse. They will always be linked in this way.
Work and fun: music has brought me quite a bit of work over the years, doing logos/posters/illustrations/commissions and live painting. I am very grateful for this; they are always such fun projects.
Weird dance moves: music makes people dance and do funny things. This inspires me to draw dancing characters pulling funny faces and just in general makes me wants to paint odd things
Passion: the drive behind music is inspiring, the amount of energy that goes into creating music.
Name some favourite artists that inspire you…
Mr Jago, Aryz, Mcbess, Dave Kinsey, Will Barras, Os Gemeos. There are some really cool local NZ artists too like Drypnz, Bmd, Askew and Seekayem.
What about films/photography and visual art in general, what springs to mind?
I’m a big fan of animated films like Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away. I love the movement and diversity in all the characters. Unique environments and strange worlds are what I am drawn to. Things that encourage your imagination to expand and develop are wonderful.
Back to graffiti: Any tips?
I don’t believe my work is really graffiti, though the thick bold lines in my work were originally influenced from the aesthetic of spraypaint and big graffiti letters. I really like graffiti and feel as though what I do is related to the culture, though really it’s just important for artists to discover and explore ways they like to paint and to just paint what they want.
Sometimes labelling yourself as a particular kind of artist can be restricting. Yes D&B really encourages the scene and both forms of art work really well together. Much of graffiti’s origins comes from hiphop but I think D&B has encouraged many new styles to develop and has expanded the culture.
Do you use applications like Illustrator to create art?
Illustrator is a great tool! I use it a lot – along with Photoshop. It’s a great way to mass produce work or to create something for someone on the other side of the world. The ability to amend your work makes it very useful; it’s a great tool for very intense detailing and achieving a professional finish. At the same time I think I will always like painting the most, it is just so much more expressive and peaceful to me than working from a computer. Also making mistakes helps your work to grow and develop, I think it’s good to diversify with both analog and digital mediums.
D&B-wise: what do you like and how long have you been in the music?
I’ve eased off the partying side of D&B a bit, a few of my friends are DJs so growing up with them I was going out to gigs every weekend. These days it’s more recreational, I’ll chill out and listen when I’m painting or playing a game or something. I’d say Iv’e been listening to D&B for about 5-6 years now. Some of my favourites would be Sub Focus, Chase & Status, Andy C, Wilkinson, DJ Hype, Shapeshifter and The Upbeats
Is D&B good to work with in the background as a creative backdrop? Or something entirely different is good to have on as you work?
Hell yeah, it gets me amped up to paint and get shit done! It always depends on the mood I guess though different genres serve different purposes.
Say someone gave you an unlimited budget to curate an event and you would decorate it: what would it look like and who would play?
Wow that’s a hard thing to answer! It would be really grand to get about 50 visual artists and 50 musical artists to all get together and create a huge festival in Europe somewhere and to have stages scattered throughout a small town somewhere with various artists performing music over a few days, while all the painters are covering the town in huge murals. And everyone is just on a good buzz listening to the music and enjoying the show – watching the town transform into a work of art.
After winning this competition with Drum&BassArena what is next for you, what are your plans?
Well I’m gonna stay put here in NZ for about another year and in that time I have a big exhibition organised, various smaller projects on the go and me and friend from design school have been working on a video series called “weekend sessions” which is basically a collection of little videos of my painting antics. After that year I will than start traveling around the world leaving a trail of paint, so hopefully I get to catch up with you guys along the way.