A Day in Wynwood in July 2013
The Go! Shop presents: A STRANGEWAYS Group Show
What do you love most about Miami?
I love everything about Miami. The sunshine, the people, my friends. I am semi-native but I consider myself a full native. I have been here since I was five years old. This is the only home I know.
You started as a graffiti artist. What was the graffiti scene in Miami like growing up?
It was fun for me but it was different from what I see today. Today I see a lot of friendly atmosphere where crews co-exist. In my era that did not happen. Wynwood was our neighborhood. I was a part of the VO5 Crew, best crew in Miami history. Everything we did was trendsetting, cutting edge. We were ahead of the curve by all means. Still to this day it is still a legendary crew. As far as the scene, there were a lot of gangs back then and it was a little violent. We did fight, we did throw down if you went over our tag or came into our neighborhood. It was fun but I guess that environment, for a young man growing up, with all the hormones and the issues that we had at 16, 17, 18, it was just great and we loved it. Now I look back on it at 42 years old and married with two kids of my own and I am kind of happy it was taken a turn to where it is now. It is more about respecting art and other artists and working together, coming up with ideas together. It has changed most definitely a lot and for the better.
You said VO5 is legendary and was always ahead of the curve. Tell us a bit about what you did then that stood out to this day.
Our productions were very large productions and they were all done in one night. These days graffiti artists have the luxury of mostly doing a lot of work with permission which, I guess, is nice. The quality of the work is still there and it is beautiful work but I do not see the challenges that were presented to us as kids. We worked by street light or by no light and we had eight hours of nighttime to produce our work. Coming back was a risky option which we did not enjoy taking advantage of so we tried to do our pieces all in one night. As far as cutting edge, we came up with different techniques and different looks. They were not cookie cutter bubble letters or whatever everybody else was doing. You could spot a VO5 piece and know that was the VO5 crew that created that production.
When did you transition from street art to gallery work?
20 years after I used to paint on walls I found myself living in a bad economy, came to Wynwood for an art walk, saw what was in the galleries and I told myself as well as my family that I could do this. I had their full support and today I am an artist, going three years strong, loving every minute of it, wish I would have started earlier. I am here now and I am planning on making a mark.
You often paint Popeye. What do you like about that character?
Popeye is more of a nostalgic childhood thing. As a kid, believe it or not, I could never draw that guy. It was one of my challenges. Now that I am older and more years have gone by, I guess, I am more observing, I think I kind of nailed this guy. I would love to reach out to Warner Brothers and see if I could start doing him under contract but for now I am just happy to do him and do him well.
You also used another iconic image, of the Coppertone Girl. Why?
That whole series of paintings started by me thinking of something interesting and I thought “What could be more interesting than my childhood?” As a kid I was very much always in trouble at school and I would spend many long days driving around with my dad. He would have to take me to work with him. He was a road sales man. I saw all these images on a daily basis and I remembered the Coppertone Girl and I thought it was a fascinating little figure. That was basically the reason behind me painting her.
What inspires you besides your childhood?
The things that are around me. Things that I see and things that are part of everyday experiences. I bring that into my work.
You have a distinct style. When did you develop that style?
That style is still in the developing stages. If you look at my earlier work, there is always hints of what used to be and hints on what it is going to be. It is very hard to see my fingerprint if it were not for the texture in my work. My style basically is what I feel at the moment and where the work is taking me. There comes a point in the work where I tell myself to put it done and be done.
If you could own any work of art. What would you choose?
There are so many. That’s a funny questions because I do not have any of my work hanging in my house.
Why not?
I do not know. I am not really into that vibe. As far as other artists’ work, I have a small print of a Vincent Van Gogh and a have a print from Ricky Mastrapa.
Back to the questions. If you could own any work of art what would you choose?
If I could own anything I guess it would be Rembrandt’s “Girl with the Broom.” I connect with something about the look of that piece. In that era it was juts a little peasant girl and to see the emotion that he grabs in her face. There are so many angles to that painting you could sit there for hours and always find something interesting about it.
Where do you see yourself going next with your art?
I am thinking of going back more to my abstract world inside my head. With some of the figures making an appearance now and then. I really would like to go even larger than my work now. I am a bit limited by the space I have to work in. I would love to go way larger. I come from a background of walls and to be working on something so small makes you feel confined. I just want to go crazy and blow something up.
Heike Dempster 
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