ARTIST INTERVIEW - CHARLIE GREEN

No pretend: Please give us a brief bio; where are you from and where do you currently reside?

Charlie green: I was born in Calgary, Alberta to Canadian/American parents. I spent most of my life in Toronto, with a large part of the last ten years spent on the Canadian west coast or traveling. I am currently living and breathing as an artist in new York city, between Brooklyn and Manhattan.


No pretend: When did you first become interested in art?

Charlie green: I am told I loved to draw for hours on end, from before I can remember.



No pretend: How did you discover your creative talents?

Charlie green: My creative connection came and went through my childhood and youth. From foreground to background, depending on what was going on in school and my various teachers. It was mid 20's when i came to terms with the Arts as my calling.



No pretend: Can you tell us how long you have been painting?

Charlie green: My work is very drawing driven, which I have been doing forever. I have been playing with paint since I began 'spray painting' in my teens, say early 90's. I have been using paint in my fine art since the early 2000's. I am currently on a big mixed media - collage kick, including acrylic paint.



No pretend: Do you have any artists in your family? If so, did they have an impact on you in any way?

Charlie green: My step father; Wim Vanderkooy is a big influence on me as a person, and artistically. He is a photographer and was very close friends with a wife/husband duo; Krystyna Sadowska - visual arts and Stefan Siwinski - furniture builder and visionary. Our entire home was always filled with incredible paintings, batiks, wood cuts, drawings, sculpture, tables, chairs, books. It was a brilliant environment to incubate my relationship with the arts.



No pretend: Can you describe your style and technique of painting? And how did you make the decision to focus on this particular style?

Charlie green: Bold, Primitive, Iconic, Fantastic, Loose, Balanced, Dirty, Clean, Spontaneous. So many influences, with hip hop and skate-surf-snow being the cultures I grew up in. My work is an extension of many schools, including graffiti and black marker tagging, cartoon expressionism, branding and advertising, the human search for meaning..




No pretend: What do you think makes your paintings different from others?

Charlie green: Every Thing and Every Body is different. There are no 2 humans alike or animals or paintings. I am creating work that draws from many sources. Some new, some old. I have a great amount of experimentation in my processes, this creates continuous discoveries in technique, aesthetic, medium. I hope my practice keeps changing forever. And my fascination with reclaimed materials creates a streaming uniqueness to all my works, series and studies.




No pretend: As a growing artist, can you tell us who your influences were ?

Charlie green: Matisse, Picasso, Appel, Disney, Joshua Reichman, Sean Hamilton, Paul Aloisi, Elicsr, mdrl, jafar, manhatman, seth scriver, mike parsons, Rocky Dobey, twist, tilt (Wim Vanderkooy, Stefan Swiwinski, Krysytna Sadowska.)




No pretend: Does music play a role in your painting, and if so, how?

Charlie green: Music is always on. Especially during studio and creation time. I love the online access to tunes from webradio to endless other sources. I just plug the laptop into the stereo and stream away an eclectic mix; hip hop, reggae, dub, rock, folk. I'm listening to the Gulag Orkestra album by Beirut right now. mosdub, dubkweli, dancehall is dead - NAS, and a bunch of Jperiod mix tapes are a few of my favorite music finds of 2010...



No pretend: What inspires you to keep going? How do you keep yourself motivated?

Charlie green: I am well down this path, with my profession, this body of work. Only I really know where I want to take my art. There is plenty left to do, the shear amount of work to be done leaves me with no time to think otherwise. I am grateful to have the work that I do, and to be enjoying my experience.



No pretend: How can people find your artwork and sales info?

Charlie green: Vsit me at www.ckdub.com http://www.ckdub.com and email me with any inquiries.
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Nice days in SoHo, you can find me and my Art on Prince st. near Wooster.

PEACE