EXCLUSIVE: Interview With Graffiti Artist and Toy Customiser HOAKSER

Featured here in the Tru:Teknology Files back at the beginning of last month, graffiti artist-cum-toy customiser Hoakser has been hard at work sine our last look into his art; opening his first solo show, working on several inspired pieces, and gaining recognition from the likes of leading art toy bloggers ToysREvil and Spanky Stokes for his amazing customs.

(Hoakser Gundam Fatcap Customs)

After the overwhelming interest in his first Gundam Fatcap custom, Hoakser has since gone on to finish another 3 5″ models, and one giant size (pictured top), which can still be purchased through his store here.

We were lucky enough to catch up with the man himself to talk graffiti, toys, and the future of the original Hoakser…

First off, what got you into graffiti, and art in general? Is there anyone in particular that has had a major influence on your work?

I’ve been into art for as long as I can remember, and have been scribbling since I’ve known how… My dad used to draw a bit… He would sketch characters, the main ones I remember were of Vikings and rabbits, and as a kid that fascinated me. My dad is also a keen photographer, and used to develop his own photographs, so I must have got my creative genes from him I guess.

As a kid, colouring books kept me busy for hours. My mom told me recently that one Christmas when I was really young, I was unwrapping my presents and one of the first things was a colouring book and some felts, happy enough I stopped unwrapping the rest of my presents, and started colouring in a page. Looking back I’ve always been about colours and characters… blame the parents…

The day I found graffiti happened purely by chance… I went round to my friends house, but he wasn’t in. I was walking to a phone box to phone him and on my way bumped into 2 friends I hadn’t seen for a while. They had recently started doing graff and were out to go and look at some new pieces.. I went with them and couldn’t believe what I saw… They took me to our old “legal” walls, in Sellyoak Birmingham, (which was shut down and made illegal a few years ago,) there were pieces everywhere…T-BONE, ZOOKI, ROME, CREM.KORSA, CRYSE, FKS crew were the names that stood out to me that day- I knew I wanted to have a go myself, so I started learning, became obsessed and haven’t looked back since…

As all graff artists start off… I was a toy!!… There’s a lot of work that goes into understanding how to give letters style (all 26 of them) and make them your own. Until you do graff, you’d never realise there’s so much to it…

It all amazed me, and there’s so much to learn… things like making your own style, how to connect letters, making them flow, how to put on 3d’s and highlights, what colours go together, what brand of paints to use, what nozzles to use for certain effects, how to have a nice handstyle, being able to do dubs, throwups, wildstyles, characters, backgrounds… The more you learn the deeper the rabbit hole gets, and the more skilled you get the more possibilities you have of what to paint…

“Quick freestyled chameleon around Fluid.. Painted using loads of scraps, with a little hoakser piece running down his back and some dinner flying around..”

How did the art-toy aspect of your work come about? We’re you already a follower of the scene, or was it just a natural progression for your art?

My first introduction to the vinyl toy scene was seeing a SKET ONE heinz ketchup dunny. I thought it was cool… I was into his graffiti anyway, I’d seen him on walls ( via the internet) with the rest of HI crew,  who I got a lot of my early inspiration from… Shouts to  KEPH, REO, RAGE, and SAVAGER!!

After an ebay search I found a blank munny for sale and bought it so I could paint it… I enjoyed it, I’ve still got him, and wanted to do another… They aren’t the cheapest things to buy, and as graffiti was already what most of my time and money went on, progress was slow… I hadn’t really looked into how big the scene was until recently… I kept painting a few here and there in between, but that was mainly for something different to do other than paint, draw characters or write letters…

Late last year I was asked to be part of the HMQ project by a nice guy called Dan Perry. He had seen some of my munnys and invited me in. The brief was to customise a QEE bear with a heavy metal interpretation, hence HMQ – HEAVY METAL QEE…

http://www.heavymetalqee.com/gallery/hoakser/

Before that I had been working with air dry clay, trying to teach myself how to make my characters into models… just for me, and because it was something different to do… I decided to try and make a Heavy Metal Mick-Qee with my new skills- Mickey mouse in the style of Eddie from Iron Maiden. I’d never tried anything like that before, and I liked how it came out…that gave me a bit more insight into the toy scene.

I still haven’t took half the time I would have liked to get to know it better, but graffiti, and trying to earn money already keeps me far too busy.. I have met some cool people so far, and I have plans to do some collaboration work with a few of them… I guess it’s been a natural but slow progression, due to lack of funds and time spent elsewhere but there’ll definitely always another toy coming soon…

How did your recent graffiti vs art exhibition go? Could you tell us a little bit about it?

My first exhibition, went better than I’d hoped… It was a bit short notice, I only had a few weeks to prepare, and as I have no staff, not much money and limited space, all of this was a big challenge…

I called it Graffiti vs Art because I have a range of old paintings and prints which I have either vandalised or added to… for example Whistlers mother with a bandana and a spray can sat in front of a Hoaks throw up… I had a whole wall of those, a few originals and prints. I also had a longer wall of most of my other works, most of them created within a 2 week gap- plenty of late nights spent framing, painting and all the rest of it… I also included some of my dad’s photographs, digitally “Hoakser vandalised”, a collaboration I painted with ANNABELDEVETTEN.COM, and a piece by FLUID and myself…

We had Hoakser cakes courtesy of THE CAKE CONJURER and BOUTIQUE BAKING… I had a show of toys and sculpts on display too… The open night ran smoothly thanks to my good friend Little A of AVA EVENT STYLING, who made it easy for me being my agent and organiser for the night… She did a brilliant job!

It was a massive learning experience, seeing the work that needs to go into putting on a bigger show. Something I’d like to do one day…

What are your plans for the future? Would you ever consider working on original toys based on your various characters?

Plans for the future are difficult to say. Like most in my circle, I’m always restricted by money. I have to keep painting walls, developing my style and skills. That’s a definite…

I’ve got a project I’ve been working on and is almost ready, I just need money for it- this sort of combines both my love of graffiti and toys together, and pretty much all the skills I’ve learnt in between. Hopefully I’ll be able to do that early next year..

Graffiti is good for work ethic- it keeps me constantly changing and developing, in as many ways as possible, just to get my name up in some way or another, on any surface… I’m proud of what I’ve achieved so far, and every now and then (like doing this interview), it makes me think about how far I’ve come, how much time I’ve devoted to it, and what I’m capable of…

Hopefully next year when I turn the dreaded 30 I’ll find a way to make it all work out… it’s been a struggle so far…

“This piece was painted on a windy sunday morning. I only had about one and a half cans of paint, and some emulsion to use, so I got out of bed and dropped this sketchy one that reads hoaks.. Meek and Fluid were painting to my left..”

Any last words?

I appreciate people even taking the time to read this, and especially Niall for putting this together. It’s nice to know that some of what I do gets seen and appreciated…

Follow Hoakser on twitter @hoaksergraffiti to stay up to date on his latest works and releases. His extensive portfolio can be found at his site here, whilst his one toy creations, prints and paintings can be purchased through Big cartel here.

(photos- hoakser)