In the previous edition, we explored how the passion to craft, unlike more traditional art forms, such as painting, is often borne out of a desire to make things practical more so than out of an inherent urge to create things aesthetically from childhood. Andy McCloy in the last issue for instance, was a mechanic before he became an artisan.
Yet such an occurrence also seems to be apparent among artists who focus upon art forms that are typically urban in nature, such as, something which is perhaps the most urban centric of them all, graffiti. Nohone (NH), their artistic pseudonym as it is their wish to remain anonymous, a now greatly experienced graffiti artist, was never really interested in art growing up - instead their passion was skateboarding.
‘I grew up in a little farming village and I spent any of my spare time on my skateboard’ NH tells me. ‘I loved the freedom of it; skating around for hours on my own. I can’t remember really doing anything with art at that age’. Yet it was this hobby that would ultimately lead them to become the artist they are today. ‘Skateboarding definitely had a big impact on my art and still does’ NH says. ‘I would see graffiti on the skateboarding videos, just quick flashes of it in the background, but it was enough to plant that seed in my mind’. Just how that seed grew; why NH creates their graffiti in the style they do; and how they have dealt with the backlash of such a controversial art form over the years, however; is what me and you dear reader, will now explore.
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