What if I was asked the right questions?
I thought it would be interesting to do an interview as if I was interviewing myself. I’ve been asked to do so many interviews in my career, that I declined for the most part. they are either requested by students or even professional journalists, and they either ask me the same questions that I don’t care about or worse, in the case of the Guardian interview (and another one I can’t remember the name) actually twist what I said!
But what if I was asked questions I actually want to answer?
So here is the impossible interview:
First off, why should we care who you are?
Personally, I think this is the best question an artist can be asked. We often think too highly of ourselves and we think people are waiting to hear from us and see what we produce. I learned this quite early on in my career and it was a chock to know that people didn’t eagerly await my next piece of artwork. I’ve improved my skills since then to the point that I think I’m better than I’ve ever been it terms of ability in my art, so my work still left lots to be desired, but even if it was perfect, why would people care? And this was 20 odd years ago, they are so many more artists now, why would people be interested in what I produce or have to say. So the answer is, I don’t know.
How long have you been painting/creating, how did you start?
I started in 2004, creating hoodies and T-shirts that I had in a shop in Camden, and I would get paid when they sold (the term escapes me, and I don’t want to get side tracked googling it), that led to going to Portobello market for nearly a year having a stool every Saturday selling my T-shirts and hoodies. I had studied in France for a couple of years at a French college, all the basics of art through a sign writing degree. And when I came to the UK I worked for a few years anywhere I could to make money while I perfected my Engwish. But after a while I wanted to do something relating to art so I grabbed the first thing I could think off and that was to do some designs on illustrator, and then get some T-shirts printed. After I did Portobello market for a few months, I was asked by someone to airbrush his friends on a T-shirt, to which I replied, yeah no problem! So I spent a week learning all about airbrushing on the old youtube and got an airbrush kit, and the following Saturday I handed him his T-shirt, fully expecting to give him his money back! But he liked it and got me to paint another couple of T’s for him and maybe trainers for him too, can’t remember. So you can say that’s how it all started. I Then stopped the market, and as I was working as a carpenter during the week and trained on Mondays to get my NVQ2 in order to be more legit as a chippy, I met a fellow graffiti artist, with who I went to Southbank with to paint my first graffiti or mural in London! I was hooked instantly and I got the bug to want to better my skills ever since.
What would you have done differently?
I think what I would have done differently is to maybe build a bit of a buffer money wise before I left the shop I was working at, and most importantly I think I would have held my tongue more often. As a young French man living on his own in a new and exciting country/town, I was often a bit too honest and it led me to upset some people who made me pay dearly for it! I used to think graff was all sunshine and rainbows since it’s anarchist and you can do what you want. But people reminded me that there’s a way they do things and I had to follow their rules. Also being French didn’t help, as people did/do remind/ed me often. I think where I went wrong really is that I should have doubled down, and not care about all their stuffy ways. Art is for everyone. Now I have a family to provide for, and ww3 looming, so if you want to hate me, join the queue, I don’t care anymore, I just want to create pretty artwork that makes me happy and pleases the ones who enjoy it, while glorifying God.
What is your artist name?
Olivierr. As far as the other thing I regret doing, I would have just gotten one name and stuck with it. I used to like the letters SHIZ to sketch graffiti letters with which then turned to Mr Shiz (as I wanted the domain name and Shiz was taken) then I used my real name Olivier Roubieu which was hard for people to pronounce so I went with Olivierr that people struggled knowing if it was Olivier R or Olivierr then I went back to my full name and now I’m using Olivierr, pronounced “O lee vy hey” I’m not changing it again now. But had I kept one name from the beginning, it would have been simpler. Anyway…
What would you like to paint next?
I’ve never painted the side of the multi story building! Like the ones in Paris that are so smooth and flat and tall! I painted a 100m wall in Berlin with 3 other artists and a 2 story building with another artist, but never a 10 story building like the ones Smug or Nerone paint! And those guys do a great jobs with their walls! Maybe in the future there’ll be one for me!
What do you want to convey in your work?
I love bringing the written scripture of the bible into a painted illustrated version that can inspire people. I like painting an image or a scene that depicts a verse of the bible, to plant some seeds for the kingdom of God, that hopefully some will be curious to know what Psalm 145:15 has to do with a bear hunting a salmon and they will come to know our God: Yahshua (Hebrew name) Jesus Christ (English name). But I prefer to just quote the verse as opposed to writing the full text, to make people want to search the meaning, and for the Holy spirit to speak to each person individually.
What is your style?
My style is abstract meets photorealism. I like the dynamic style of abstract painting, having some lines, some flares, some tags, some drips, with the realism with it that shows skills. I find abstract is harder to paint than realism as it demands a good understanding of volumes, shapes, colours, rather than copying the image. But most people understand realism as good technique. I like both, so I use both, because I’m the person I’m trying to please in my work first! If I think it’s good, I’m happy to show it, if I don’t think it is, I’ll upload it for a few days then remove it. I also like the cleanliness of it, I like a white background and the colours to be carefully selected rather than bold ai colours.
Things I don’t like:
That people still don’t see us as having a real job. I was talking to a friend of mind at dinner and she laughed when I said “my career…” She has a bank background, and for her one can only have a career when one is up there with them lot. An artist like me doesn’t have a career. And most people think like that towards us, until we make it big time, then yeah we have a career. But like any other job, we bring value to our clients, we make a space more inviting so their customers want to be there, we make a boring event colourful and inviting, we turn dull into cool. As opposed to bankers who turn fun into dull, but I digress.
Ai, instagram, youtube?
I just got a nice job recently from a client asking AI for (…no offence but I’m not going to tell you what worked this time) so I’ll try to be nice to ai, unlike google and youtube that i’m moving away after years of trying but they are just not working for me and my business. Instagram seems to be working at the moment but those platforms are like building a castle on sand, so just like FB close my account before with no warning, I approach it with the feeling that they could just close my account if I preach Jesus a bit too much or something else. Besides all that instagram has been the bane of my career, often creating to “feed” the machine, rather than to express myself and get clients. it’s also a false idea of “working” we sometimes think: well people see my work…but in a sea of artists, and now ai content, it’s harder to stand out, and are we not better off painting in ways that bring in clients, rather than to look busy? I don’t have the answer, I’m just doing things hoping they will work. Some things do, I pursue those, and what doesn’t work, I discard like youtube.
Advice for other artists?
Honestly with ai in the mix, it’s hard for us old timers to even know what to do! I guess I would say don’t be afraid to use the tools that get the job done! Use a projector, ai, meta goggles and anything else you can! does a office worker still use a type writer??? So don’t listen to those purists who have never held a brush. Use whatever you can to make the job easier, quicker and better for your clients. And remember to have fun in the process. God bless you.
