Vantagepoint Radio

Greg ‘Craola’ Simkins has accomplished something that many have attempted but only few have succeeded in doing. He crossed over from the graffiti world into the fine art world with huge success and very little compromise, and in doing so has influenced a generation of artists to attempt to follow his lead. His work is highly sought after and sits in some of the most respectable collections around the globe. His acrylic paintings dance in the space between the real world and the imaginary with an unmatched level of craftsmanship. Bursting at the seems with creative energy, Craola’s imagination can hardly be contained within the borders of a canvas. He has branched out to clothing, sculpture, animation, among other things and has his sights set on a few new endeavors he couldn’t talk about publicly just yet. It was an honor to have Mr. Simkins sit down with us during our time in LA and we are very happy to be able to present his thoughts and knowledge to our listeners.

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Johannes Mundinger is a staple of the Berlin mural and contemporary art scene.  His abstract murals play color against shape while taking influence from the surrounding environment to inform the direction for the artwork during it's creation process.  His studio work, much like his murals, can be at times fully experimental and at others more controlled and exact, but almost always feeding off the space in which it is displayed.  As a long standing resident of the famous Urban Spree studios in the heart of Berlin, Mundinger is at the center of the Berlin art scene and one of the most genuine people you’ll ever have the pleasure of talking to.

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Like a cup of coffee on a frosty winter morning in Austria, Frau Isa has a warm and relaxed energy beaming from her that brings a smile to everyone’s face in the room. Her artwork can be described in exactly the same way… subtle, clever, sweet, funny, and distinctively her own. As the only female member of the legendary Weird Crew, Isa rose to fame about 10 years ago when the crew was founded and shot onto the mural scene like a rocket, but her art roots go back much further. In her home town of Vienna Austria she sharpened her skills painting character based graffiti on the streets for years before the public knew the name Frau Isa. These days she juggles a highly demanded illustration company, a fine art career which includes traveling and painting murals as well as her studio work, and her newest job as a mother. We sat down with Isa in Sweden during Artscape Festival to hear her very interesting and quite unique perspective on the world of art and the life of an artist.

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The surrealist paintings of Atlanta based Thomas Turner depict scenes from the natural world if the laws of physics didn’t apply. Things such as gravity, color, time and space are solely held in Turners control and he alone decides what is or isn’t.  Although widely considered a studio painter, Turner has spent the last few years branching out and painting murals with great success, landing big commission jobs around Atlanta including some with the major league sports teams in town.  For the past two years he has also worked as the assistant for VantagePoint host James Bullough on all of his major mural projects including one in Sweden for Artscape Festival which is where we sat down with Thomas for an interview about life as an emerging artists, making the transition from studio painting to murals, the pros and cons of working as an assistant and where he sees things going for him in the future.

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Beau Stanton has cultivated and very unique and specific visual voice within the urban contemporary art scent.  One that feels both "old timey” and contemporary at the same time with hints of Greek mythology and nautical themes.  Weather painting murals on walls or working in other mediums such as mosaic, stained glass, or light installation, Stanton's work can be found throughout the globe.  His work often incorporates sight specific historical imagery and deals with issues close to his heart such as climate change.  We sat down with Beau in Gothenburg Sweden during Artscape Festival and had a fascinating discussion on many topics including his 5 years working as Ron English’s assistant, and the highly publicized controversy over his mural in Las Angeles which lead to a much larger discussion of artistic freedom in public art and censorship.

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‘Tom AUTO64’ is the brains and energy behind VantagePoint radio. Along with co-hosting, he handles all of the behind the scenes operations which make it possible for you to find and listen to us.  Outside of VantagePoint however Tom, better know as AUTO64, is a man of many other talents. From music video production, to sculpture, to fine art video installation pieces and a wide range of music production in many different styles, Tom really is a Swiss-army knife of talent. After tons of requests from listeners to know more about the quiet co-host we decided to flip the mics around and dive deep into Tom’s history in the arts, how and why he got involved with VantagePoint, all the different things he does to keep the show alive and growing, how VantagePoint has changed over the years, and what he does with himself outside of the show.

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SMUG is, and has been for many years, one of the leaders in the clubhouse when it comes to realistic portrait murals.  His output is beyond  impressive and the number of murals he paints in a year is almost unbelievable, but to him... "it’s just what I do.”  His massive portraits can span anywhere from one story to 14 stories high but the detail and crispness of the image is the same every time.  Over decades of painting walls, SMUG has developed a distinctive and immediately recognizable style which is not always easy for someone who paints realistically.  His selection of slightly unconventional models and more importantly his very specific use of light and shadow are undeniably SMUG and exquisitely executed every time.

It has been a hope of this podcast for a long time to have SMUG join us for an interview and as luck would have it we recently found ourselves locked in a hotel room in rural Sweden with a couple of microphones and a bunch of beers.  Big thanks to the cast and crew of the Artscape SAGA festival for bringing us all together.

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Captain Kris is a New Zealand born London based character artists and designer.  Best known in the streets for his iconic Captain character, Kris balances his time between traveling and painting walls with commercial design work and illustration.  We sat down with him in Sweden during ‘Artscape Festival’ to discuss the positive and negative aspects of maintaining two separate artistic identities, how to maintain a livelihood as a freelance artists in one of the worlds most expensive cities, and how he seems to be at a transitional phase of his artistic career.

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Daniel Wakeham and Tor Hedendahl are the creative minds and driving forces behind Artscape Festival,.  Swedens largest and most visible mural festival has been running for 5 years and is one of the rare festivals that travels from city to city every year rather than continuing operations in the same place every time which would certainly make things far easier.  We discuss the highlights and pitfalls that come with putting on such a massive project and what the local communities, organizers and artists get out all the hard work that they put in. Daniel and Tor explain, among other things, where the money for such a massive project comes from as well as how they approach curating just 10 or 20 artists from a pool of thousands of talented and capable painters from around the world and how each project has it’s own personality which helps narrow down the field.  Our interview took place in Gothenburg Sweden during Artscape SAGA, the most recent iteration of the festival, and we were very happy to be invited and bring VantagePoint to scandinavia for the first time.

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Herr Von Bias is possibly the most talented, most original, and most prolific painter you’ve never heard of.  A full on legend in Berlin and throughout certain circles in Europe, HRVB has developed a style completely his own in which his totally tripped out characters and environments morph effortlessly into seemingly impossible shapes and contortions.  The level of detail and cleanliness in his work is somehow inconceivable and his bold yet elegant use of color will stop you in your tracks and force you to come in for a closer look.  All of this however, is just the icing on the cake because it’s the imagery that he creates that really sucks you in.  His murals and illustrations feel like they come straight out of the mind of a cartoon character on a bad LSD trip and will have you staring for much longer than you’d expect trying to decipher the scene and figure out whats gong on… all while drooling and giggling like a school kid. A member of the famous WEIRD Crew, HRVB keeps mostly to himself in terms of painting walls, preferring to paint with friends or on projects he develops himself rather than chasing down the fame and notoriety most seem to be after in the international mural festival circuit.  It took JB and Tom over 5 years of asking before he finally agreed to come on VantagePoint but it was a massive pleasure to finally get to sit down with the man himself and pick his brain.

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