Broken Crow is an artist from Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.  He is best known for his stencil pieces and they are HUGE: the word ’small’ is not a word in Broken Crow’s vocabulary. Over recent months he has been touring the world featuring in major events in London and Paris. He often collaborates with other artists, such as Vexta, to produce amazing art pieces. I been fortunate to see Crow’s work first hand in London where the Cans Festival took place. I wish I could say I’ve helped him on some of his pieces or even seen him paint but, alas, this still remains a distant dream. A big thanks to Broken Crow for taking time out his busy schedule to answer some questions for us. You can read the interview below:

Click the link to read the interview (all 1000 words of it )

There are a lot of stencil artists out there these days but your art seems to have a very recognizable style, has it always taken this form? If not, how it did it develop?
I’ve always drawn over photos as far back as I can remember, a few years back I started cutting stencils out of them. I think the style sort of fell into my lap, I wanted to cut the way that I was drawing. Over the last couple of years, I’ve been really obsessed with primary and secondary line definitions, it’s total dork stuff, and not all that interesting to talk about. Once I was comfortable with and proud of the style, I figured it’d make sense to try and paint it as big as I possibly could, just to see if it could be done.

What’s with the animals and which is your favourite?
There’s a lot of reasons for them. The biggest one is probably that we’re killing the planet, and that for every species that goes extinct, our chances of surviving as a species get a little worse. Animals are adaptable, there’s a lot that we can learn from them. Growing up in cities, we lose sight of the fact that there’s a whole world happening all around us, or that our stupid human drama bullshit doesn’t really mean anything when you’re being chased by a rhino or are surrounded by sharks. People need to calm down a bit. At the same time, there’s nothing cooler than having a 5 year old come to you while you’re painting, smiling ear to ear because he knows what animal it is. It’s that kind of stuff that gives me hope.

Your characters/animals look awesome, have you given them names and do they have personalities?
Some of them have names.. The angel is Steve, the nine year old that I live with named him, although I’m not actually sure that the angel is a boy. He’s up to something, but I have no idea what it is. The goat is Billy, they’re all pretty much up to no good, I can’t control what they get themselves into once they’re out there in the world.

If the kids in the neighborhoods where these animals exist are making up stories about what they’re doing there, then I figure that I’ve done my job right.

How did you get into street art?
I wanted to paint on stuff, so instead of talking about wanting to paint on stuff, I went out and painted on stuff…  Also, I cut a lot of holes in things to paint with.

What and who inspires you?
My family and close friends are probably the biggest influences I have. Besides them, I’m really into natural disasters, devil’s advocates, worst case scenarios, untimely death, total destruction,biblical plague, bad jokes, conspiracy theories, sociology, end time theory, stained glass windows, hand styles, happy accidents, free shoes, bucket paint, meteorology, new spray paint colors, making collages, and evolutionary mishaps.

It seems your always painting in a different country every week, where have you enjoyed painting the most and why?
I’ve had a great time painting everywhere I’ve been.. it’s the people that make any experience great. Putting faces to names you only know through the computer is mind blowing… London was great for that, Paris and Brooklyn were the same way. People have been really kind to me, I’ve been really really fortunate to have been everywhere I have over the last few years, I feel like it’s all just getting started. If I had to pick a favorite, it would be Paris, because I brought my lady with me. If I could get paid to hang out with her all the time, that would be my dream job.

Where else would you like to paint?
I would like to paint everywhere, please. Maybe a huge wall in Japan would be nice.

You were part of The Cans Festival, was there anything there that you saw that made you jealous and wish you’d thought of it?
Yeah, the London Eye!! If I had thought “I should build a huge ferris wheel on the river in London and charge people an arm and a leg to wait in line for three hours and then ride on it for 15 minutes” before that thing was built, I’d be a fucking bazillionaire!!
But seriously, the sense of community at Cans was astounding. I was proud for everyone there, there was no jealousy whatsoever. It was amazing to be surrounded by such awesome people doing incredible work.

During The Cans Festival did you meet the illusive Banksy?
If I did, he did not introduce himself as such.

I’ve noticed on your flickr that you have painted a few cars, have you painted your own?
Nope. I don’t actually have a car at the moment. I roll incognito.

What’s been your proudest street art moment?
Getting the email asking for your full name and passport number pretty much blows everything else out of the water.

Anything else you’d like to plug?
In the next few months I’ll be starting a mural company. We’ll paint anywhere. Send me an email.

Links:
Broken Crow Flickr
Broken Crow’s Website

Tags: Broken Crow, Interviews

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 31st, 2008 at 7:48 pm and is filed under Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.