Pirate Grill

Artist Bio

I’m a country boy from Centerville, Indiana. Now I’m living in Brooklyn, working freelance as an animator/illustrator. I think, for as long as I can remember, I was drawing. When everyone else was talking about being a fireman or a policeman I was saying, “I’m going to be an artist!” Even at that age there was no way I was going to have a “job.” I wanted to enjoy what I did for a living, I didn’t want to be bitter about my work, so I think that’s why I became an “artist.”

Ever since then I’ve done nothing but chase it down (still going). Some of my biggest artistic and creative influences are my father, him being a carpenter I think gave me a huge appreciation for the underlying structures of the arts. Right now, I think I’m a little obsessed with Ashley Wood’s work. He’s so loose but controlled at the same time. Makes me jealous, but I still bought almost all of his books. Zombies vs. Robots is incredible. I think I’m influenced mostly just from what I see in day to day life. The random things that aren’t necessarily posed as art, but the arrangement and composition of them resonate somewhere inside.

There is a balance between control and chaos that I struggle to understand. I think this is where my approach for a shirt design comes from. I wanted to do something clean, with large shapes and flat colors to balance the chaos of all the wrinkles and form changes when someone wears it. A design that integrates the shirt and the person, rather than a design that screams out for independence from the wearer. I’ve had the idea for this shirt for a long time actually, I designed a cute little band for a children’s cartoon channel in Canada. I wanted to make them feel tough, and I wanted to put a skull on the drummer’s shirt. I needed to make it fun though, its for kids anyhow, but still badass. So I put two clean white dots for eyes and three vertical lines for the front teeth on a black shirt. I’ve been wanting to make this shirt for a while, and this was a great opportunity to explore it and expand the idea a little. So that is where “grill” comes from! Pirate Skull!

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