HOW DID YOU GET STARTED MAKING YOUR WORK?
I started creating art as it was something I did not always do, nor could do, but definitely had a calling to.
As a member of the corporate and service industry workforce for 15 years, I was not drawing anything more than a few skulls every now and then when I had a chance to relax. I realised I had no true happiness on that path…so I went in search of happiness.
I chose to study animation for, four years. This meant drawing every day and a challenge I knew I needed, in order to get where I wanted to go. Three years after study I find myself: working from home, at my dream job, working for myself, creating every day. From designing album covers or restaurant bars to creating commissioned pieces for private clients and businesses. Sometimes I’m working on collaborations with other artists, musicians or photographers, such as the unseenmonsters.com project. Or perhaps I’m creating chalk pastel mural pieces, short videos, songs and loops or crafting little creatures in fabric or modelling mediums.
I love drawing most, but I also very much enjoy painting with traditional mediums or digitally in Photoshop.
I am a one -man Production Company with a high standard in regards to the work I achieve. Some of my current clients include Forbidden Cider Co., who recently won Champion Cider of New Zealand 2015 at theBrewers Guild Awards. I’ve worked with Forbidden on their logo, label art and design, bar design, digital graphic work and even custom created the front cover for Forbidden’s 2015 feature in New Zealand Business magazine. For music venue and promoters The Powerstation and MuchMore Music, I get to edit television commercials, create custom art tour posters and graphic elements for the web like gifs or banners, for top touring New Zealand and International music acts.
DESCRIBE HOW YOU WOULD LIKE TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS IN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS
In the next five years I’d like to do more, more of everything! More of all the current pieces I create for my variety of clients plus the ability to work on my own creative projects and inspirations. I’m looking forward to doing stacks more fairs and markets too, in and around Auckland but also around New Zealand and the world. I’m looking to get into a bit more live art demonstration and forging new collaborations with artists and creatives in other fields.
In the next five years I’d like to do more, more of everything! More of all the current pieces I create for my variety of clients plus the ability to work on my own creative projects and inspirations. I’m looking forward to doing stacks more fairs and markets too, in and around Auckland but also around New Zealand and the world. I’m looking to get into a bit more live art demonstration and forging new collaborations with artists and creatives in other fields.
I like to promote the attitude of having no boundaries or expectations with my work, so I don’t box myself in. If it’s creative and it feels cool and fun to me – then I wanna have a go at doing it myself!
WHAT DO YOU LOVE MOST ABOUT YOUR CREATIVE SPACE, WHERE YOU MAKE YOUR WORK AND WHY?
I’ve worked hard to create the perfect home studio and office. Perhaps what I love most about my creative space is my reference library. I’ve got a lot of fantastic reference books that inspire me just by being around for me to enjoy or thumb through. But they can also help with things like creating some of my wacky creatures and monsters, when I need a bit of a biology reference. My creative space is filled with natural light and I like to keep it pretty simple, clean and tidy with everything at my fingertips that I might need in order to create pieces.
I’ve worked hard to create the perfect home studio and office. Perhaps what I love most about my creative space is my reference library. I’ve got a lot of fantastic reference books that inspire me just by being around for me to enjoy or thumb through. But they can also help with things like creating some of my wacky creatures and monsters, when I need a bit of a biology reference. My creative space is filled with natural light and I like to keep it pretty simple, clean and tidy with everything at my fingertips that I might need in order to create pieces.
WHAT CAN PEOPLE EXPECT TO FIND AT YOUR STALL ON THE DAY?
I’ll be bringing along a bunch of fun items that will include: A4 and A5 sized art prints of various designs such as ‘Doughnut Vader’, ‘Sickelodean Series 1’, Wylie Coyote / Mad Max Fury Road mash up, selectedunseenmonsters.com images and more. I’ll also have abstract, pop culture and portrait themed painted canvasses in different sizes for sale. I’ll be bringing along a bit of a new project I’ve been working on too, some fun fabric monster buddies. There’ll be all sorts of goodies and treasures to check out at the Mr Leon Taylor table and because I believe that art should be accessible to as many people as possible, I humbly offer a 10% discount on all items to any Senior Citizen or Student Association card holders.
WHAT WAS THE BEST BUSINESS ADVICE/TIP YOU’VE BEEN GIVEN ON YOUR JOURNEY?
Author Malcolm Gladwell says that it takes roughly ten thousand hours of practice to achieve mastery in a field. This concept is something I like to think about regularly as it helps to motivate me to keep working on projects, ditch self-imposed boundaries and to not take anything I create too seriously if possible, while I work on clocking up my hours.
