Welcome to another installment of Behind The Figure I have been doing a lot of amazing things lately, which has had me all over the place, but I just can’t stay away from giving you guys’ cool stuff when I can here at Go Figure News. I had a chance to chat with an exceptionally amazing artist and illustrator, Patrick Wong. This guy has some serious skills and is a great person to talk to about art and music. I had a great time doing this interview and getting to know a little bit more about him. Patrick grew in up Canada he began his career in 2003 as a graphic designer spending most of his professional life doing print production for other businesses.
Here is something I found interesting about Patrick -- not only is he a skilled artist, but he is also into Hip-Hop. He has experience with graffiti writing, beat production, and emceeing! He went by the name “Fair One” collaborating with underground and legendary artists such as Sadat X. Patrick has a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts and his work has been showcased in galleries across Canada and the United States. Check out the chat I had with Patrick to get to know more about this talented artist.
(Lennon) - Thanks for taking the time to talk to me I know you are pretty busy so let’s just jump right into this shall we. How did you get started doing customs and art?
(Patrick) - I've always been creative, but after years as a graphic designer and working in industry, I wanted to get back to something more expressive. Something more fulfilling. Doing client work wasn't always a fun experience and at that time I was looking for something. I saw what was Kaws and Barry McGee were doing and keeping researching.
Ah cool! So you are fans of Kaws and B. McGee? Is it safe to say they have inspired some of your work?
Yeah, Kaws and Twist among others from that generation of artists. I have many artists from high brow to low brow I admire like Dan McCarthy, Jeff Koons, Haim Steinbach, and the list goes on - but those two in particular because I saw their work in the 90s growing up and watched them rise.
Sweet! So do you have a particular or favorite style of art? Anime, modern, contemporary, etc. what style do you like to use or have used in your work?
From the point of view of fine art, I really like commodity sculpture, found art, appropriation, relational art, the strategies of the Situationalists and Letterists. In more pop culture "art", I like wildstyles, mash-ups, anime, comics, and editorial illustration - all sorts of styles really. A lot of times different aesthetics catch my interest for different reasons, it can be the subject matter, technique, or connect to something personal.
Do you have a specific technique that you use to get the best results for your work?
I do a lot of planning and a lot of design process, sketching, color studies, and more until I'm happy with an overall design. What makes my process unique in the customs area I think, is that I create vector designs and print them on waterslide decal paper. This combination of computer-based design and and hand painting gives the pieces a very "production-like" appearance. This was something I learn from a ceramics professor at Emily Carr University. Fine art ceramic pieces would be a limited edition with these decals applied, then glazed, and finally fired to a glass finish.
Interesting? That is a very different approach than most artists I have encountered.
So far out of that pieces you have done what is your favorite?
The "Mortal B.I.G" piece is one of my personal favorites in the last few years because I was I was so busy at the time working a full-time job in the next city over and juggling my personal art practice. I was invited by the UK blog Streets of Beige to participate in their 16bit Brawl video game themed show. I ended up making this mashup of Biggie Smalls and Scorpion from Mortal Kombat on an Esctoys Soopa vinyl arcade figure. I put it together very quickly with the lines from Juicy "Super Nintendo, Super Genesis, when I was dead broke, man I couldn't picture this..." as inspiration. The piece was well-received and I was relieved as my schedule was so hectic.
As far as customs go what kind of vinyl do you like to use? Funko, Kid Robot, Mezco, Titan, etc.
I like to work on platforms that are not super popular like Dunnys or Munnys. Freakstore's Fonzo, Arkiv's Mickiv, Deathshead Mickey, Loyal Subject Optimus Prime, Funko's DIY are some of the recent ones I have been interested in.
Do you collect any art or pieces from your peers/custom artists? I'm sure you are a collector what do you collect? Toys? Cars? Music? Etc.
I don't consider myself a collector but have a fair amount of vinyl around my apartment and art pieces from my friends. I have some Kidrobot, Tokidoki, and a ton of blank figures- American designer vinyl.
What was your favorite toy growing up?
My childhood is a blur and hard to place a specific toy, but I rediscover a lot of characters in raising my daughter. When you have kids, you get a chance to re-experience everything again - but from a slightly different point of view. The Go-Bots, Voltron, WWF rubber figures, TMNT, GI Joe, Thundercats I have much affection for the toys from the 80s.
I ask everyone I have interviewed this question, as I like to hear funny stories. Has anything crazy, or funny happened while you were designing or showcasing?
Nothing really crazy, but when I work on projects it's always great when people reach out because I make my artwork primarily for myself. When someone contacts me and says that my work sparked a conversation, it meant something to them, or they simply enjoyed it - I feel like the art is doing something good for those people, even if it's just a few. Through my Beats Series of resin samplers, I've been introduced to so many talented beat producers I probably wouldn't ever come across.
Wow! You work with producers? Like music? Do you do art inspired by there music?
My background is in music and graffiti writing - I was a typical "backpacker" growing up and worked with my friend's indie label in Toronto. He had an online vinyl store in those days and we had distribution for the label through Crosstalk in Chicago, UGHH in Boston, and Fatbeats in New York. I worked on several projects with him in art, music, and business - but closed the label in the mid-2000s as time code vinyl took over the hip-hop market. That's part of my experience and I bring that attitude to my current practice in designer toys. I think there are a lot of similarities between the two groups - producers and the toy collectors. I wouldn't say I make pieces based on the collectors of the Beats Series. In production people go by pseudonyms and in my web shop it's just a guy's real name. So when I find their music and they're legit - it's an awesome feeling that some of my resin joints are in good homes.
So you’re from Canada? How does the scene there differ from the scene here in the US?
I was born just outside of Hamilton, Ontario an hour away from Toronto. The music scene, well I don't know specifically, but overall - Canada encourages culture that is somehow different from the US. Artists of any kind whether in music, visual arts, writing, etc. are promoted to make Canadian work about Canadian culture; whatever that is. I don't think that's such a priority in the US. In Canada, there is a need to separate our culture as a way to build a national identity distinct from America.
How do you feel about the underground scene? Do you think it is getting better or worse and what would you like to see in the future?
In production toys, it would be interesting to see some fresh artists enter the scene and do it themselves. I'm a strong believer in a DIY ethic and in not sitting around waiting to get "signed". Conversely, my hope is that emerging artists get a chance to be featured in new series' and platform toys, but I understand some of the economics. Producing designer vinyl is an expensive undertaking and companies are reluctant to take a risk on artists they don’t know, that’s why you always see the same names.
That's an interesting point do you think that some artists are over saturating the game per say, due to bigger companies being afraid to take the risk on new artists?
I think the answer is implied in your question. The big companies, which there's only a few, are releasing a lot of older / established artists leaving the younger ones on the outside. There's not really a feeder system that develops talent. The customizing community is supposed to sort of represent that, but so few artists make the leap from one-off customs to production toys. In the 3 years I have been interested in designer toys, I have only seen this happen a handful of times.
What have you designed that you wish was or wasn't put into production?
I have designed three Kidrobot Fatcaps (Frozen Krylon, Frozen Sparvar, Oven Cleaner) and wished one of them would have been produced commercially. I made one-off "prototypes" of each design and promoted them as best I could, but the Fatcap platform appeared to be discontinued. All three are in a private collection alongside every production Fatcap manufactured.
That is pretty awesome that your work got put in private collections.
Most find their way into good collections and some are commissioned outright.
What advice would you give to upcoming artists?
One piece of advice I believe in was from an Art History professor I can pass on. As artists and designers you start off as "developing countries" and your country's currency that you trade in is worth very little. Your currency is your artwork and it's up to you to make it worth something like all of the established artists or "industrialized nations". I like this analogy because for new artists sometimes the path can murky, but if they can prioritize building up themselves - success will follow.
Well this has been a great interview it was a pleasure to talk with you before we end where can the readers find more of your work. Some of them maybe interested in getting some of your work I know I will.
...........You can see more of Patrick's work in his webshop.