Bwana Spoons Interview (Part.1)

When we arrived on the stand of Grass Hut Corp two years ago during the Comic Con in San Diego, we immediately felt a certain change of scenery. A wonderful organized brothel, a drawing fodder hung in all directions, a kind of Ali Baba cave which was mismatching from the rest of the well -stored, organized but love stands. At Grass Hut it's just the opposite, adorable people (with surprising hair) welcomed us with a large smile. This is when we got in touch with a unique character with a great universe: Bwana Spoons. From Thursday, September 25, he will present new paintings and a number of original and customized figurines. Discover the world of Mr Spoons with this interview by email in several parts: Can you introduce yourself to our readers please? Where do you come from, what is your journey? My name is Bwana. I live in Portland where I am rather rooted. I have a charming family and a little girl, dogs, a garden, as well as a street cat of 2^e generation called Lulu. I make a living through painting, by designing figurines and shoes and by managing the shop-gualerie-Stduio Grass Hut with my scrapper partner. What exactly Grass Hut Corp? It started as a coverage for our activities. We started at the same time as wild opa and violent redemptions like Rupert Murdoch. It is now a gallery, a small publishing house, a studio, a site and a clubhouse for me and scrappers but also Martin Ontivieros, Apak and the shit. It looks like Portland is a very warm city where multitudes of artistic scenes hatch in the mainstream and in the indie scene. Is this something you feel? How do you expic that? Before moving, I did a roadtrip with my wife to see if it was worth the move from San Francisco. Portland was one of our very first judgments. At one time before the skateparks, there was Burnside, we went to people who had a hole that we can visit. "The mysterious Woodstock hole", a vintage store with micronauts, bus and cycling tickets, a coffee that serves corn dumplings (Hushpuppies), Milk-Shakes with peanut butter and with card games on each tables. The shit is advancing, Portland remains beautiful and I love to live here. The weather is rotten 7 to 8 months a year, you look out the window and outside is like listening to the Anthony and the Johnsons. I really like that. Can you tell us a bit about your comrades artists (Martin Ontivieros, Scrappers, Lemerde, Apak ...)? They all kill, they come from different places in the United States, except Ayumi de Apak who comes from Japan. They are excellent each in their own way. We have Grass Hut meetings every Wednesday and we fight about art things. The shit makes waves of resin, Apak is in a magical world, Martin is darkness, and Scrappers is a real Californian carpenter. How do you choose the artists who will exhibit at the gallery? We have to please us to Justin and myself. Then we try to see who could do what and if it is possible that the artist comes to expose to our gallery. We just had a micro show with Tim Biskup and his daughter Tigerlily, just after we had a micro show with Andrew Brandou, next year we will have Amanda Visell and Joe Ledbetter, Itokin Park, Gargamel and others .. . How did you become an artist? My father was doing a little wood sculpture like Hobby and my mother likes artist of art, so I drew a lot of growing up. I think it really came with fanzines. I started painting when a friend asked me to participate in an exhibition at the Diego Rivera in 93 I think. As with many things I was super bad before achieving something. This is why my paintings have as many diapers, it is because there are a lot of shabby things until possibly I arrive at something correct from time to time. How would you describe your art? Sometimes it’s abstract scribbles, sometimes it’s a deep reflection on the world around us. Most people do not watch out for what they look at, often it blasses me and that's why I feel like doing something true when I paint. Maybe I can make people happy, or better, make them uncomfortable. If the question is on the style, I would say that it is a bit retarded and whimsical, an imaginary world where people live among the Rainbowsaures and the Tapirs. The reference to nature is omnipresent in your paintings, how would you describe your relationship with Mother Nature? I love it. At the moment it seems that we are heading towards tsunamis and deserts as far as the eye can see. But even the desert is sublime, it is enough that it just rains a little bit and everything flowers. I am the kind of couillon that can stop watching a colony of ant for an hour. What is the most incredible place you visited? Oniona's falls (which I am almost on badly speaking). It's just 45 minutes from my home. If I'm lucky I'm going once a year. It has to be super hot outside because to go you cross a place where you stammered severe in the water. It is 20 minutes from here after the highway but the water is very cold. As a result of nature how do you manage the fact that you use excessively polluting materials for your creations of toys ? It has been a passion for so long to be toymaker. I made the decision aware of making toys Even if plastic is shit. I'm just trying to make it as beautiful as possible. As long as it does not take in the middle of nature at some point I am happy. You can tell us more about how you work on a new painting. Do you have a clear and precise idea of ​​the rendering you want to get or you try a lot of things on the way? I have never been able to paint what was in my head. I think that if I had been capable of such a thing I would have stopped and would have moved on. From time to time I start with a pencil or at least one idea in mind, other times I only have colors in mind and I start. I see what type of forms start to take shape and what I could get. This gives the end my worst works and some of the most intense and exciting. It's like seeing Jesus' head in a gum ball. When did you decided that you were going to live your art? I knew it when I was at university, but I did not know at the time how I was going to get there. It was around the age of 30 that I really knew that it was what I will do in my life. If you weren't an artist, what would you do? I will study insects, or I will work with animals, or perhaps a landscaper or forest ranger. Discover the Bwana expo in progress in Paris in Paris On his Flickr Expo Bwana Spoons "Hunt and Gather" at Artoyz Paris from September 25 to November 2, 2008.