- Wooden Toy Features -

INTERVIEW WITH TWOONE (FROM EDITION 6 - 2009) // Interview by Josie Edwards

The hearty earth tones mingled with the old relics he had again discovered during his meanderings as they lay patiently by the side of the road waiting to be found. Fantastical animals born from the myths of time, dreams and his own imagination were instantly transformed from mundane to amazing within the labyrinth of his minds own thinking.Tthus we meet Hiro (aka TWOONE), a truly unique artist and creator of the traditional kind.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself? (Twoone) I’m originally form Yokohama, Japan. Then I moved to Melbourne when I was 18 years old, and am now living in here. I draw, paint, build artwork, and illustrate.

What do you get up to in your spare time? I skate, walk around my local area to hunt for cool junk, play ping pong (I have a ping pong table at my studio shed), read books (I want to read more, but I still cannot get into English written books, so I have only little selection of Japanese books), and drink beer.

Your studio was robbed recently – did you lose much? I lost my laptop with out power cord (they took power cord for extra HD), 2 digital cameras and a video camera. I wonder how much they sold them for.

What do you love about illustration and painting? I was actually thinking about something similar the other day. It is easy to say I love painting because, put simply, I really enjoy the process of painting, the smell of paint, the feeling of brush stroke. I like the satisfied feeling when I finish a piece. But I thought it should be more than that, because I illustrate and paint all day everyday. I don’t know what that is yet, but I know that there is other strong feeling I get every day, which is not just love for illustration and painting, it’s more like pressure. Most of time there is a pressure to make the next one in my head.

You draw a lot of animals in your pieces, what is special about them to you? Most of the animals are based on my dreams, like the human bodied elephants and ox skull man, and the flying gold fishes. They actually appear in my dreams. At the same time I draw lots of other animals too. I simply like their shapes and expressions I guess. I think animals have more of the expression that I like to put into my painting rather than humans.

What is your favourite animal to draw? At the moment I enjoy drawing elephants. I love their shape and expressions. Also I went to Thailand at the end of last year, and went to an elephant nature park where you can see them in semi-natural way. That was beautiful.

How did it feel to finally finish the 1000 cans? Did you feel a bit lost after such a big project? It was very satisfying to finish. But I didn’t really get lost, because I had other pieces to work on for group exhibitions, and designs to work on until the end of last year. Then I went Thailand with my girlfriend for a month and came back with lots of inspiration and motivation. So I haven’t been feeling lost so far. [Check out www.onethousandcans.com to see the very cool 1000 Cans project – seeing is believing!]

You use a lot of earth tones in your work – why are you drawn to these colours? I wondered why too, but I find I’m more comfortable with earth tones. Even my room is only in those colors too. Also I like old things, because they are beautiful… except for computers (old computers don’t help at all when you use them for visual). Old things also normally have earth colors – so maybe my earth tone addiction comes from there.

You seem to listen to a lot of music while creating your art. Who are your favourite musicians and how does this affect your mood? Music definitely inspires me. I listen to lots of roots, dub, reggae – like Augustus Pablo (Melodica player legend of reggae dub), Linton Kwesi Johnson (punk soul reggae singer), ja-man all stars (great band). I also listen to many different genres: Bill Evans (great jazz pianist.) Tha blue herb (one of the best Japanese hip hop) and lots more. Music helps me get into the meditation for creation, like a foot path. That’s why I like the music to have a simple structure, but have interesting timing, and layers of instalments. Heavy bass is perfect.

How did you start doing ‘art’ in Melbourne? Same as other kids I guess. I was always drawing, and where I grew up in Japan, there was a great one-kilometre wall covered by graffiti. So I start copying their characters. When I moved to Melbourne, I saw lots more graffiti on street. Then I got myself a big fat marker, and started writing my characters on streets and bars, because at that time I didn’t know any one in Melbourne. At the same time Monkey was doing all the interior design in a bar in the city call St Jeromes. That is where I met him – the very first artist I met in Australia. We were doing a cubical drawing session (I draw in one of the cubicles and then the next day there appears one of his pictures incorporating my character. And then we move to the next cube). We were doing that for a while without knowing who each other are. So one day I draw in one of the cubicals, and then his character appeared in same night, and I knew he was doing the interior of the bar by his style. So I asked the bar guy who he is and we met. Monkey introduced me into the Melbourne art scene.

If you could collaborate with anyone in the world who would it be and why? I think I’m not really into collaborating with other visual artists at the moment. I used to work with Bonsai a lot, and I learnt so much from him. Then I think now I have gotten into the self-developing time. I still work with Bonsai some times, but at the moment I think it is important to look into my self more when I’m creating. However I still enjoy working with other field based artist. It’s very good for inspiration, and makes me think outside of 2D, which I want to put more into my creation. You know like sound, moving image, smell, wind, and maybe even taste!

Can you tell me about some stuff you’re working on at the moment? I’m working on pieces for 12x12 group show. Taking wooden frames and making them into panels, shelves, and light boxes. People can put them together like a puzzle.

What is your favourite thing to do on a sunny day? Paint outside. But anything feels fun on a sunny day, as long as you’re not in trouble.

www.twooneelephant.com