SPOE Interview with the French artistMega art

Interview with Spoe, the French artist based in Biarritz, France.

Spoe is a French artist I know from Biarritz, a city located in the South of France where I was visiting my mother and brother (hi family!).
Among other things, Spoe is a photographer, graphic designer and new school surf shaper. You get it, the guy is cool.
More artworks by Spoe.

Spoe with one of his shaped surfboard

PLEASE INTRODUCE YOURSELF
My name is Paruite Tibo a.k.a SPOE, a freelance artist & graphic designer born in Paris and living in Biarritz (France). I come from the 90’s graffiti era, started working in the skateboard industry in 1999 before graduating from the art school L’ ESAHDAR in 2002.

Various screen-prints by Spoe

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR WORK?
Mixed media: i’m working on pictures (in the large sense of the word). It covers painting, sculpture, photography, urban ambitions, typesetting, layout. The media are various with a folk influence. The work gives a speech tinged with folk influences. The mass is crystallized between crisis and lightness, tip the happiness over the edge (editor’s note: yes, sometimes Spoe talks like an artist).

Artworks by the Biarritz-based artist Spoe

PLEASE SHARE WITH US YOUR WORKING PROCESS
Usually everything start with a photo i take (my camera is like a post-it for me, it’s where i keep my notes & things i saw, or people’s face i like). Then I draw the picture i like and add distortion & mechanical elements (i ‘m into it since i started industrial drawing in school). I’m into real painting action on 100x80cm media, and i love accumulation of geometrics and colors. Each picture has an story (personal or not). i’m also shaping surfboards in a new school way. No fins or rocker… This is a really creative research, more like graphic design, with rules but you can play with the lines and volume.

NYC mixed-media artwork

HOW DOES YOUR ENVIRONMENT INFLUENCE YOUR ART
Every morning I open my eyes with hunger to know more (ok almost every morning). I love to read old technical books, looking for new lines or new process… I guess my biggest influence is my education, the way I learned to do things and to see the world. I’m fatherless and one of my grandad was a painter, the other was a technical manager (in mechanic and electricity). I’m kind of a mix of them both. Recently i was working with Photography of a B-boy kid[/caption]

WHO ARE YOUR INFLUENCES?