Art.Technology.Television.Film.Gaming
CULTURE.
I am true to myself. My style was never the “depressed stereotypical artist” type of style. ~J. Clark
If you visit most blog sites, flip open a magazine, or even turn on the television, you will see all types of artists trying to make it big. In today’s society we tend to forget about the visual artists: the painters, sculptors, and sketchers. They are just as hungry to get their big break. Last week, I sat down with up and coming urban artist, Jermaine Clark. Jermaine is from St. Louis, Mo and now he resides in Huntsville, AL wear he is a senior at Alabama A&M University. I caught up with Jermaine ripping and running around my current city of Birmingham, AL. We chopped it up overlooking the city at the Vulcan
A Star Is Born
Words: Mr. tHresHold
www.twitter.com/fresh2thresh
What got you into art?
Being bored! When I was growing up my mother couldn’t really afford all the fancy toys and Christmas didn’t come every year. So when my mother saw that I could put lines together, my gift s became sketch books, crayons, drawing utensils, etc.
What age was it when you knew you wanted to be an artist?
Probably 3rd or 4th grade…we had to do a report on what we wanted to be when we grew up. I knew that I liked to draw and I knew there was such thing as an artist. So I selected that, everyone else around me at that time wanted to be a firemen or policemen because that what they knew and saw around them. It was kind of regular to want to do that….they see and hear about them every day. I was around my drawings so I said I wanted to be an artist.
I noticed that all of your work are paintings; do you dabble in any other forms of art?
I am skilled in all forms of the visual arts: painting, sculpturing, graphic design, paper mache, print making…all of that. But I was always told and under the impression: don’t be good at a lot of things…Be great at one thing. I like sculpturing, but I want to be great at painting!
Who is your favorite artist? This can be in any form (Music, Visual, etc…)
I can name two from the painting side and two on the music side. Kinde Wiley is one of my favorites. If you never heard of him he is a famous artist, black man, which grew up just like me. He graduated from Harvard Master program in art and he just kind of just took off. He stays true to the urban style…he paints young men in urban settings with urban clothing and he incorporates it with renaissance themes. He a young black man, he is only 30 and he is shutting down galleries left and right.
Another one of my favorite artist is named Justin Bua. He grew up in Bronx, New York around the B boy culture and the hip hop scene. He always stays true to hip hop music and that culture. He is also a black man…well…he is half Hispanic.
Those are the two painters that I look up to and want to be like one day.
When it comes to my favorite musical artist, it will always be Jay-z and Kanye (West), for the obvious reasons…I don’t even need to go in on that.
Speaking of style, I see that you have done some paintings of classic sneakers. Are you a sneakerhead?
I did most of my sneaker pictures for theshoegame.com 3rd year anniversary. My thing is I don’t really consider myself a sneakerhead…I just have a lot of sneakers; 110 to be exact (laughs). Sneakerheads are deep into that craft and they go hard! I got a dollar and a dream and really can’t afford to be sneakerhead (laughs).
If your pieces of art could talk…what would they say?
I want them to laugh. Growing up I was the smaller guy, couldn’t get the fresh clothes, or the girls…so I know about flaws. If I paint a portrait of someone and exaggerate there facial features I am not trying to make fun…I want them to embrace what makes them different. You can only love you. If you cannot embrace your flaws…you are going to have a hard time in this world. If I make your nose bigger than what it is or you lips huge, I want you to laugh at it and tell me how nice it is. Cause regardless if you laugh or not, I will be! (Kanye shrugs)
I saw the name Kriteek’d is on your business card. What is Kriteek’d?
Well my blog is kriteekd.blogspot.com. I identify my work as being Kriteek’d. In the art world when you are done with a project you always will be critiqued. It is when people look over your work and let you know what you did great on and what you need to improve. My thing is I apply that to life. All day long you are being critiqued by people that you know and don’t know or even don’t care about. If you embrace it…that doesn’t mean you have to change anything but at least listen, you will be a better person because of it. I am embracing it! I am Kriteek’d! People will always have something to say. According to some I am just chasing a dream by pursuing my career in art, but when I hear that it does not bother me. I know that there are just trying to Kriteek me and I keep pushing towards my goals.
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