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Creepy
A Normal Man
"I think it has influenced my work just by seeing lots of different people and ways of living, realising early that ‘normal’ to one culture is very different to another." Creepy
From an early age, there was something that separated artist creepy from the pack. “In primary school, we had to draw a picture of what we wanted to be when we grew up. All the other kids had a fireman, policeman or a nurse. I drew a picture of a man in a white shirt with brown pants and a tie and wrote underneath ‘a normal man’. From then on i liked drawing.”
To this day, the human condition continues to inform Creepy’s work. The characters that feature heavily in his art- at times winsome and other times woeful, mirrors our outlook on life. “I’m just fascinated by what we focus on, good and bad...I find it really interesting that one person can see something one way and someone else will be really offended by the same thing. That’s amazing.”
The holistic perspective that Creepy incorporates can be somewhat traced to his upbringing. His formative years were spent between the Solomon Islands, Perth, Melbourne and Holland. “My family mainly moved around for work and to experience different countries... I think it has influenced my work just by seeing lots of different people and ways of living, realising early that ‘normal’ to one culture is very different to another.”
Adept at working with acrylics, pens, aerosol, chalk, pencils, lasers, wood and canvas, Creepy’s work has various incarnations from sketches to stickers to the street. His characters have embraced an international existence, seeking refuge in the alleyways and backstreets of New York, Barcelona, Berlin, Melbourne and his hometown of Perth.
His recent exhibition So Many Broken Umbrellas delves further into the culture of city living. The title is a literal admission from his father. “I went into the shed at my folks’ house. My Dad opened the door and the first thing he said was ‘So many broken umbrellas’, pointing at his collection of five or so broken umbrellas. I liked the idea he was keeping them even though on the surface, broken umbrellas are pretty useless. He showed me a photo of a sail boat in Papua New Guinea where the sail was made up of old umbrella material that was all sewn together. I like resourcefulness in the modern world.”
“For the show, I built these moving wooden arms as the main wall installation then painted a flat character on the wall. It’s kind of like a huge ghost looming over the show. The paintings in the show are a mix of story telling and city scapes.”
To check out more of Creepy’s work head to creepy.headtank.com
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The holistic perspective that Creepy incorporates can be somewhat traced to his upbringing. His formative years were spent between the Solomon Islands, Perth, Melbourne and Holland. “My family mainly moved around for work and to experience different countries... I think it has influenced my work just by seeing lots of different people and ways of living, realising early that ‘normal’ to one culture is very different to another.”
Adept at working with acrylics, pens, aerosol, chalk, pencils, lasers, wood and canvas, Creepy’s work has various incarnations from sketches to stickers to the street. His characters have embraced an international existence, seeking refuge in the alleyways and backstreets of New York, Barcelona, Berlin, Melbourne and his hometown of Perth.
His recent exhibition So Many Broken Umbrellas delves further into the culture of city living. The title is a literal admission from his father. “I went into the shed at my folks’ house. My Dad opened the door and the first thing he said was ‘So many broken umbrellas’, pointing at his collection of five or so broken umbrellas. I liked the idea he was keeping them even though on the surface, broken umbrellas are pretty useless. He showed me a photo of a sail boat in Papua New Guinea where the sail was made up of old umbrella material that was all sewn together. I like resourcefulness in the modern world.”
“For the show, I built these moving wooden arms as the main wall installation then painted a flat character on the wall. It’s kind of like a huge ghost looming over the show. The paintings in the show are a mix of story telling and city scapes.”
To check out more of Creepy’s work head to creepy.headtank.com
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