Around The World In Prints is a series of regular interviews aimed at detailing the journey of a print purchased from the deviantART Shop, both artistically and physically.

In this, the very first interview of the series, I took some time out with Richard, aka $lolly, Director of Community Development, who chose two well known pieces by Justin Maller, aka +ekud, who also gave me an insight into the story behind these two particular pieces of distinctive art.

Richard, thank you so much for agreeing to be the very first interview in what will be a regular series of Around the World in Prints. I know you have a multitude of prints, and it must have been difficult for you to decide which ones to select. Can you tell me why you decided on these 2 in particular?



Because +ekud is the man of course. Also, Two Dope Boys in a Cadillac is the first print I got. I just really like his style. He's one of the first people, along with his cohorts in depthcore, who really pioneered the whole style of "abstract" 3D work and took it and made something new out of it. Plus his style is always evolving. You can always tell its his work, but he's never been content to just stick to the same exact thing over and over which is why he differs so much from a lot of his contemporaries.

Your love of graffiti art is something which you and I have discussed before. Splash in particular is clearly influenced by such a genre. Do you think digital artists who emulate such styles are helping graffiti art become accepted and valued in the art world?

For sure. There's a massive movement going on right now with street art and it becoming recognized as a legitimate art form and that's spilling into other forms of art as it ends up in more and more galleries and in print and circulated online. I think part of that is due to the fact that people like +ekud have digitally been doing work that is very much a graffiti style.

Splash is obviously a marriage of the two, but if you dig back in his gallery to even his earliest things you will see a spray can sensibility to the way his work is designed and the way it flows. His work has always had that kind of aesthetic to it, and he and depthcore inspired a lot of other people to do similar, which seems to just naturally evolve toward more and more organic methods.


Now all they need to do is invent physical digital spraypaint so people can do animated graffiti on walls

Tell me more about the journey which (whatever print it was) took as part of the BT & Thomas Dolby Tour.

Ha the story of the poor print who had to go it alone for months. Days before the BT Tour we were told we could have a little bit of space to showcase some physical art in addition to all the art that would be shown on screen, but had nowhere near enough time to order up anything new so a few of us in the office volunteered up things out of our personal collection, and Two Dope Boys in a Cadillac was my first choice out of my own. It was pretty much a no brainer as the style fit the type of shows and music going on at it. It began in San Francisco and ended up in New York with a total of 26 stops altogether, so it got seen by a lot of people.



I have to say I actually felt like I was giving up a kid or something since this was my first canvas print ever and one of my favorite prints I own, and I had nightmarish visions of some kid swiping it and me having to embark on some cross country quest to get it back!
But from the feedback I heard from $Waveswinger who was on the entire tour, that print was the most well liked of the handful we had in display.

When you consider that Justin is in Australia, deviantART is in California, and our printlab is in Atlanta, that's quite a journey for a piece of art to take. Do you think that this adds to the value of the art?

Yeah I've always found that part of it to be interesting. I'm still new enough to the internet where the whole global concept is still something I find fascinating. The fact you can be sitting in Macedonia and see something you like from an artist in Canada and go hey, I want that and have it within a week or so is amazing. Art and prints in the past have always been kind of limited to what is around you in your city. So if you live in a big thriving city like New York or LA or London, you have access to all sorts of galleries, print shops etc, but say you live in Menominee, Wisconsin, the nearest thing to a print you will find is a Budweiser Beer Girls poster at your local K-Mart and and no way of knowing there even is an art world out there unless you really busted your ass to go find out about it.
Now all you need is a computer and a site like DA and you have a whole world, literally, at your fingertips.

I know you have quite an eclectic background, including art school. Do you think that these works reflect any of your own personal design style or do you tend to pick prints depending on where you intend to hang them?

Most of the work I get tends to be things that aren't really the style of work I do myself, but they do have certain elements of things I put into my art. In my home I try and choose things that will give a certain feeling to the area they are in. Like in my kitchen it's all conceptual photos of kitchen objects, spoons, glasses, wine bottles and things like that. All really brightly colored.

My living room area has more painterly, traditional looking things mixed with a few black and white photos and my bedroom is mostly really brightly colored digital work of mainly an abstract variety. That's where those 2 and a third other of ekud's prints hang along with a bunch of other stuff. So yeah, I tend to pick things based on where they are going to end up.

Your office at deviantART HQ has quite the reputation for being *the* coolest one there, mainly due to the artwork on your walls. How important is art in your work environment to you?

Massively important. I had the first prints on my wall here. When we first got the space we were told to put together lists of what we wanted and everyone was kind of taking their time with it and I got impatient and just hit my wishlist and ordered right away. I couldn't cope with blank white walls. Everything in my office is canvas with the exception of one framed print. My favorite ones in here are a pop art cow triptych by `smashmethod



You chose canvas for both prints, and I know that you have quite a few canvas in your personal collection. What is it that you like about canvas so much?

I used to paint with acrylics for years and years and I love the texture of canvas. There's just something much more visually satisfying about it over flat paper. Plus I like that it is not only the medium but also the frame. Canvas just looks damn good on a wall no matter where you hang it.


I notice that you have chosen 2 prints by the same artist, almost like a series, or a collection. Do you consider the artwork that you purchase as being an investment at all?

Yeah, for sure. Not so much in terms of a monetary investment so much as an investment in a part of the artists history, and with ekud's work for example, I have 3 of his, each from differing points in his development and they all have a different feel to them. As time goes on I'm sure I will add more and more to them, and after a few years it will be like having a little Justin Maller retrospective in my own home.

Plus, all the prints are just so nice they make you actually fret about how to hang them, where to hang them and put them up so if someone comes in your house they see them right away. Plus chicks dig a dude with cool prints. Or in theory they do, I spend most of my time alone so haven't really gotten to test this theory out much. But if this is true then they are a worthwhile investment indeed! lol

Finally, what advice can you give our readers who are considering purchasing their very first print from the deviantART Store?

Look around your house first at what you already have hanging up, or what colors your walls are and begin with that as the groundwork for what you are looking for. Think in themes and color schemes instead of being overly impulsive.

There's lots of prints out there that are entirely different mediums but have similar themes that look awesome together. And dig around into areas you normally may not, there are so many hidden treasures in areas you might not normally consider.

Two excellent pieces of art, with fantastic stories behind them. Who can blame Richard for his penchant for such vibrant graffiti art. I wanted to know more about the ideas behind the development of such works, and Justin was able to provide some insight into his own personal artistic journey.



TWO DOPE BOYS IN A CADILLAC
This piece was a collaborative effort with Ali Uz for the depthCORE.com Freestyle pack. It was completed a bit over two years ago; judging by the title, I was listening to a bit of Outkast at the time!

SPLASH
This piece was produced for my final University folio; it is a photomanipulation based on a shoot I did in Prhahran, Melbourne. I used a couple of techniques that were, at the time, quite experimental for me in terms of modelling and texturing the 3D form - this piece represents a bit of a stylistic breakthrough for me, as I achieved a harmony in this piece that had escaped me for quite some time previously.




Justin Maller is a graphic artist, based in Melbourne, Australia. He is currently freelancing fulltime, whilst also creatively directing the depthCORE.com arts collective. Check out his folio over at [link] and of course his deviantART profile on +ekud


I'd like to thank both Richard and Justin for taking time out of their busy schedules to be the very first participants in Around The World In Prints, I hope you all enjoyed the journey and look forward to taking you around the world again next month!