Artist Interview with Tony Ross

1. Who are you and where are you from?

Hey Guys! My name is Tony Ross, also known as Guerillustrator on social media, and I hail from Ventura County, California.

2. When did you start creating your art?

I have been creating art as long as I can remember, but I started taking it seriously around the ninth grade. High school was when I realized that the art field was the direction I wanted to take my life, as a result I went to Academy of Art in San Francisco for animation. After college, I pursued more Illustration and Graphic Design jobs rather than animation. I discovered I was getting more offers as a designer, so that's where I gravitated.

3. What is your favorite item to customize?

Baseball caps will always be my first love and focus, but I also love to customize shoes. Vans, Nike, Jordan, I've customized quite a bit of shoes over the past couple of years.

4. What got you into designing hats?

Back when I was four years old, my Dad and his friend coached a baseball team and nominated young me for the role of "bat boy." That's not only when my lifelong infatuation for baseball began, it was also my official introduction to hats. Over time, I began designing uniforms for local softball teams and had a couple hats embroidered and it all spiraled from there. After that, combining two of my favorite things was a no-brainer.

5. How are you associated with The Clinkroom?

The Clink Room and I just started working together. I have a been a fan of their Clink hats for years and I love the work they have done for the Minor League teams as Brandiose, so when the opportunity to make some hats with them arose, I didn't hesitate to get some designs over to them.

6. What advice would you give young artists looking to start their careers?

It may sound cliche, but practice, practice, practice and never give up. There are reasons that piece of advice is so commonly given, because it works! Another little tidbit of advice, and I use this one often, there's an ass for every seat, you just gotta find the right one. I know artists can become emotional about their art because of the creative process and attachment they develop to their work, but you can't let criticism get you down. Art is an individual expression, not everyone is going to like what you create and you can't let that discourage you. The audience for your work is out there, it just may take longer than you want to find your niche.

7. Who are some of your bigger inspirations?

I'm inspired by anyone who takes initiative and doesn't sit back and wait for things to come to them. Since we are talking art, cartoons and comic books have always been an integral part of my life when I was younger. I am a huge fan of Jack Kirby. Honestly, I find inspiration all over the place, horror movies, graffiti, toys, legendary artists like Dali, Michelangelo, da Vinci, Caravaggio, Hieronymus Bosch, Lichtenstein. There are so many great artists today, it's hard to narrow down, but Beastwreck, Alex Pardee, Dave Correia, Wayshak, Sweyda, Hydro74 are artists I check out regularly. As far as hat designers are concerned, I'm inspired by each and every artist, it's not as easy as everyone thinks.

8. Do you have any upcoming projects you want to plug or anyone you want to give a shoutout to?

At the beginning of the year, I co-founded The Capologists with my friend, Leon Chen. We make custom hats and pins, as well as special edition apparel every now and again. There are so many hats and pins currently in our pipeline, I'd recommend staying tuned!

Shout out and thank you to everyone who follows and supports me and my work, I can't express my gratitude enough. I'd also like to shout out all of you out here doing your own thing and creating something for yourselves!

Follow Tony on IG @guerillustrator and catch some of his hat designs on IG @thecapologists & @theclinkroom

Follow us on IG @Derp_taggz for updates on our blog and lots of Graffiti photos

Artist Interview with DARIN79

Image Taken in Honolulu, Hawaii (2018)

1. What do you write and where are you from?

Darin79

I’m from the United States.

2. When did you start doing graffiti? And how did you decide on your name?

I started messing around with tags in 2005-2006. At first it was just catching alley tags with crayola pastels. I had no idea what I was doing!

Eventually, through skateboarding, I had some friends put me on game. They showed me videos and flicks. This is when 50mm and Flickr were poppin. Two of my good friends were very active at the time and would bomb the city a few times a week. I was slightly older, so I was the driver and look out. Eventually, I got bored waiting around and started trying to do “pieces” with dollar cans and stock tips. I literally learned how to paint bombing sound walls on the freeway. 

I used to write “dine” because I like old school diners and breakfast food. Eventually, I felt like that name was played out and there’s an old school dine in the UK that’s fairly cool. So, I kept the basic letter structure and changed it up. 79 is a a funky ass vibe to me.

3. Have you had any art gallery shows? If so how was that experience for you?

A little bit. I used to be in a crew called Charles and through then I was in a few group shows. Nothing too major though. Shoutout to the chuck homies!

4. What got you into doing your own canvas art?

Honestly, I never paint on canvas...sometimes canvas paper. Something about canvas is limiting to me. I’ve been doing art my entire life, so if anything graffiti actually took me away from “art” for a while and than it came full circle. I just do both now.

Image Taken in San Jose, California (2019)

5. What’s your favorite type of painting, do you like bombing or legal pieces better? Or do they both have aspects you enjoy?

I’m a bit older now but I’ll always enjoy both. I don’t claim to be some big bomber but I had some years of being pretty active on the streets. Nowadays, I’ll do a toss or quickie somewhere illegal every once in a while .

Most of my graffiti now is in fairly chill spots. Cutties and tracksides. My favorite spots are the ones surrounded by nature or in super weird locations. 

Legals are cool. Honestly, I’m not huge on doing straight graffiti “legally.” Usually, when I have a permission wall I do some other shit. But, if there’s a homie or two and there’s a wall lined up, it’s funn.

6. Who are some of your bigger inspirations? How did they help shape your art career?

So many....

For graffiti, first and foremost my friends and former crew mates.

Thank you the the LostBoys (LA based not the East bay lbac), IRY, Charles, & CSM. All of these crews taught me unique and different aspects of painting graffiti. 

As far as writers I’m diggin right now, off the top of my head:

Niche VTS, Jery THR, Meck Charles, Ecks BBB, Butch EHC, Amaze Aok, Dondi & Tbone

For art I like old school cartoonists, skilled anime artists and a lot of postmodern and minimalist artists.

7. How has the graffiti scene changed over the years that you have been painting?

Shit...a lot. When I started writing it was kinda “cool” but definitely still an outsider thing. People weren’t as vocal and open about being a graffiti writer. In high school, I barley told anyone what I wrote and kept to myself.

Nowadays, it seems like everybody with any sort of artistic bone in their body tried to write. It’s cool to see art and shit everywhere but remember “just because you can doesn’t mean you should.”

Over the past 13 some odd years I’ve been writing I’ve seen a lot of people come and go. Just like skating, graffiti goes through ebbs and flows. 90% or writers who haven’t been in the game for at least a decade will stop soon or on their first offense.

8. What advice do you have for young graffiti writers just starting out?

Don’t do it lol.

If you really want to write graffiti, do it for fun and because you want to. Don’t do it to fit in, look “cool,” for social media likes...at the end of the day all you have are the flicks and experiences. If that doesn’t actually mean something to you, move on. We really don’t need more writers.

9. Do you have any upcoming projects you want to plug or anyone you want to give a shoutout to?

I have a lot of projects but I try to somewhat separate that from my graffiti.

Shoutout to all the homies!

Kier, Yesah, Tems, Helkat, Bakoe, Kayak CSM 14th Supply, Bukue, Table, Cels, Balto, Proks, Krugr, Utopia, Orkid, Uter, Elab, 2kool, Nickel THR, Mzee, Myan UGS...I’m sorry if I’m forgetting people. You know if you’re the homie!

Image Taken in 2019

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this Artist Interview, for more reviews and artist profiles stay tuned to the Derp Taggz Graff Life blog! Follow us on Instagram @Derp_Taggz for a lot more content! Thanks to all our supporters and a special thanks to DARIN79!

Krime Guys Comics (Review)

The Krime Guys comics by Vin Vert are by far some one of the most creative efforts I've seen come out of Bay Area graffiti. The storyline is unique, the art is amazing and has that graff head style. You can tell a lot of time and effort and thought were put into these comic books and I hope there are more to come. Especially since I've now read issues one through three and want to see how the story continues. 

The comics follow two writers living in an Oakland being taken over by Techies, which is basically the Oakland we all live in. And it follows the daily struggle of bombing, avoiding the police and eventually kicking some major ass. While some of this can only happen in cartoons and comics, the overall narrative is something any Bay Area graffiti writer would be able to relate to. We have all noticed the rise in out oft towner techies and the rise of the police state. We all know about the new ways in which we are all being watched by the proverbial Big Brother. Reading about two writers doing their best to take down the system and bomb everything while doing so was very enjoyable for me. And I would recommend these comic books not just to graff heads, but anyone interested in a good story and some dope art.

I encourage all of you to check out the Krime Guy's web site and go get ahold of these comics before stock runs out. These are going to be collectors items one day and a piece of Oakland graffiti memorabilia that you want in your collection of black books, stickers, etc. Vin Vert is very talented and I'm looking forward to his next projects and more installments of the Krime Guys comics! Hopefully I will get a chance to review more of their stuff, so make sure you stay tuned and thanks for reading!!!