Art interview playboard mag

here is my art interview on the last Playboard mag in germany.

check this out and read it if you speak german!

shortcut: Julien Deniau

age: 37

original home: le chesnay ( suburb of paris)

home: barcelona

years of skating: 24

years of skateboard photography  20

years of painting:  6

homepage: www.unavista.net

Hi Julien, how and when did you get into the whole skateboarding scene?

I think I had my first skateboard when I was 12, my father bought it for me from a flea market, it was one of the little 70’s boards with small trucks and big wheels, but I was just using it making down hills. I really started skating in 1989 when I met some guys with big fish boards jumping off the sidewalk. I was impressed and I really wanted to do the same. I did my first bolness, then ollie, then kick flip …. Since then I haven’t stopped.

How long have you been living in Barcelona now and how easy was the decision to go there back then?

 I’ve been living in Barcelona for 12 years now. In 2000 I came here with my friends Rico Saxi and Guillome Langlois from Toulouse. We was supposed to stay only for 3 months, but it was so hard to find a flat, that in the end we found a perfect one but to get it, we had to sign a 5 year contract. So one thing led to another and I decided to stay. I rented a van in Barcelona, drove 10 hours to Paris, packed all my stuff and drove back to Barcelona. Was a crazy mission!

Was it easy to go there and getting paid? 

Back in the day it was really easy to come to Barcelona. The currency was still pesetas and everything was a lot cheaper than in France. At this time I was a pro skater for Adidas France, and I was the head photographer for a French magazine called Tricks. So I was making my money like that, no need to find a job in Barcelona.

You are an artist, photographer and skateboarder, what did you do first?

When I was a kid I was drawing all the time and taking pictures with my father’s camera, I think I’ve always been attracted to art. I stopped drawing for 10 years because of a final exam I didn’t pass at my photo school; and it pissed me off. Then I started to concentrate more on pictures and skating. Just 7 years ago I started drawing and painting again after an expo I did with some graffiti artists from bcn, they brought back the feeling!

As an artist, is Barcelona the perfect city to live in for you?

Barcelona is a great city for art and photography. There is always something to see and to do. This city never stops! But I’d imagine me enjoying being in hundreds of other cities in the world as much I like it here. Personally for me as an artist it’s good to seek new inspiration from new places, but still Barcelona surprises me by having never ending new things to offer…

How much influence has skateboarding on your artworks?

All of my artwork is of course influenced by skateboarding. I’ve been living more than half of my life on a skateboard and I’ve seen all the generations of boards designs, graphics and the skate related art.

What materials do you use?

I use all kinds of wood that I find in the streets, skateboards, paper and canvas sometimes. Usually I paint with oil, paint markers and simple black pen.

What makes the scene in Europe so special for you, although the industry is way bigger in the USA?

It’s pretty incredible how something like skating can connect so many countries in such way. I would say that skateboarding in Europe is the best, because you can move from one country to another really easily and see different cultures and way to live. Also it’s interesting to see how every country has their own style. I’ve been skating and shooting a lot of times in the states and it’s totally not “ the American dream”, spot wise the distances are exhausting and easy to get kicked out from. It seems all the big money is in USA but the business side of skating is a bit blank area for me. I’m more into the scene of the little company supporting the local little man, than making the skater with all the big sponsors as a “god like” character.

What inspires you?

My inspiration comes from all the things I see in my everyday life, especially when I travel. Bcn is full of art galleries so I take the advantage of seeing as much different kinds of art as I can (and free beer hahah), but it’s not always necessarily other people’s art that inspires me. I can find random inspiration from nature, something that happened to me, a new friend or a movie. Anything pretty much!

What artists are your idols/influences?

I don’t really have any idols, but there’s a few artists that I definitely have been influenced by, like Dali, Escher, Klimt… And then some ancient cultures like inkas, mayas and aztecas .

 Looking at your pictures, you can clearly figure out a pattern. What exactly do you want to express with your pictures and how would you describe and categorize this kind of art? 

I don’t like to categorize what I do. I started painting because I wanted to create things I can’t capture with a camera. Things that come only from my imagination. But I’d say there’s a big influence of all kinds of world art. Especially Mexican, latin American and African vibes. I find all kinds old mythologies and stories really fascinating. I think I mixed a lot of these themes in my head and created my own fantasy world.

The idea of going so much back in time is to point out that we are living in a world where we don’t really need all this technology and all those products that we use everyday. We could live lot more simply and more close to the nature if people just understood the real importance and benefit of it, like those inkas and mayas. Mother earth and father sun!

What is the criteria after which you pick the artists in your "pointing artists" category. A lot of them are well known Hip Hop artists, is that genre also your preferred one?

With this series I wanted to do the opposite of what I’m doing usually, meaning figurative, black and white and without any out lines. I wanted the theme of the series to be about legends.  Then I decided to have a few genres of music and select artists I admire. Mostly ones that I’ve been listening to when growing up.

How long are you working on one art piece in average and what are the working steps?

This completely depends on what kind of piece I’m doing. The drawings I do on my sketchbook can take me between 4 and 8 hours, depends of the amount of detail. I always start by drawing the characters eye and then I let my hand and my brain construct the image.

Cutting skateboards takes a lot longer. It can take one month just waiting for the oil paint to dry. I make the drawing first, then cut it with a tiny electric saw. After I start painting with oil; let it dry for the time needed and finish the black lines with paint markers and black pen. It’s a long work that needs some patience, but I like it!

What are up coming projects in future - any crazy ideas or wishes what you can do?

I have lots of ideas in my mind for my painting. I would like to make some expositions in every big city I know. The idea now is to start making bigger pictures, see if I can make something different. Then make some boards design for different brands. With photography I have a few projects that I’m working on since few years. I have a collection of more than 500 portraits of skaters from all around the world that I took with my Hasselblad. My dream come true would be seeing them all, or at least most of them as a picture book. Then there’s another similar project, but with pictures of actual skating in them. The concept of the book would be 18 years of time travel in the world of skate, through my eyes. At the moment I’m looking for some sponsors to help me get one step closer to finishing these projects.

more of my art here!

www.unavista.net