From Gotham

When was your vocation as an artist born and what triggered it?
I would say in 1975 at 5 years old. My parents worked in NYC and I would ride the subway with them back and forth from Queens. The skyline, architecture and the subways, seeing the first tags on the subway was en grained in my memory since. I would try to draw what I saw when I would get back home.

An era, an artist or a current that particularly marked you.
My sister’s friend Patricia was the first talented and professional artist’s work I saw. Her pencil, charcoal drawings and hand painted denim jackets I saw as a kid/early teen amazed me. And of course, growing up in the 80’s NYC graffiti era!

The meetings that counted in your career?
Some of my high school class were graffiti writers. It was in those years there I found out about the exchange of blackbooks, making a homemade marker, etc. Also, the mystery not meeting many of the notable graffiti artists inspired me!

What gives you resources or inspires you … (music, literature, architecture, nature, a place …)
Being born and raised in Queens, NYC to French parents and taking a photography class in my 20’s, I discovered the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson and capturing moments. It inspires most all of my work still today, trying to paint and draw moments I remember in my younger years or scenes that I see in my travels. Music, 90’s hip-hop, 80’s metal, jazz, and blues.

A favorite color?
Shades of grey