LA based muralist and artist Steiner explores the relationships between humans and the environment through his vibrant and bold colored murals of wild psychedelic multi-eyed beasts and skulls emanating from toxic sludge. We’re excited to chat with Steiner about his art, his process and what he has coming up for the rest of the year. Take the Leap!
Photographs courtesy of the artist.
Introduce yourself? Steiner here, I grew up in Arizona eating burritos and drinking beers. I have lived in SF, NYC and now LA.
How did you first become interested in drawing and art? Who were some of your early artistic influences? I was always drawing and painting from a young age, but I became more seriously interested in art at around 15. My family spent part of year living in Rome Italy, and it really blew my mind. There was graffiti everywhere and of course, a shit ton of mind blowing classical art. Growing up in Arizona, which has a beautiful natural environment and a less than inspiring bland stucco sprawl city environment, Italy was quite the experience. Other than that, I always loved comic books and watching freight trains roll by with all the graffiti on them.
When did you finally go from drawing and muraling to it becoming your profession and what you do? When i was younger, I held down all kinds of jobs from cooking to bartending, then slowly but surely all the years spent plugging away at drawing and painting murals started becoming more serious. A friend of mine and I started doing design and screen printing company together in New York, which was so rad. We worked for all sorts of companies big and small. Now I still make art for a living, but I also have a graphic design job, sort of like Jekyll and Hyde because my design work is quite different than my murals and art.
How would you describe your artwork someone unfamiliar with it? Wild psychedelic beasts, with friendly colorful souls. I would also say that my work is about humans impact on the environment. I like to illustrate that with mutated multiple eyed animals painted in vibrant colors. Humans are represented by demons or skulls to denote the negative impact we have, and I often use smoke clouds in my backgrounds to represent pollution.
What is it about muraling and creating art outside in the city that you are so drawn too? I love seeing mundane spaces brought to life in big colorful ways. I love to work on large scales. Sometimes, painting on a small canvas is just a bit boring, but if you make your canvas the side a building, then it becomes way more fun. Also there are always weird challenges with murals – like the texture of the walls or roll down gates, the architecture of the building and the interaction with the street.
When you’re working on a mural, what’s the process like? In an ideal situation, you have plenty of time to prepare. In this case, I would take pictures, get the dimensions, then make a bunch of thumbnail sketches that fit the space. Sometimes I have a sketch or something that will already fit perfectly, but other times, depending on where or who the mural is for, you work with a theme that can help dictate the end result.
When you’re not working outside on a mural, what’s a typical day in the studio like? Sketching as much as I can. Sometimes ideas come pouring out, and some days it’s a struggle.
What are your essential materials and tools for inside and outside the studio? Moleskin sketchbooks are my favorite–mechanical pencils, all sizes of Sharpies and Micron pens, nicotine gum.
For murals: spray paint, rollers, gloves, fat and skinny caps ect..Always need a boom box , some cold ones and more nicotine gum.
What’s your best Art School tip that you want to share with folks? Man that’s a tough one, I always think about how a professor of mine made us mix 300 shades of green oil paint, without using black or white, then we painted an all green still life. It was frustrating at the time, but it really makes you think about color differently, and it really made a lasting impact on me. Other than that I try as many mediums as possible. You never know what might stick.
What’s been your biggest challenge you’ve faced as an artist? And what did you do to overcome that obstacle? The biggest challenge is the constant one of never giving up and always trying to improve upon what you are doing.
Whose an up and coming artist you are excited about? Jason Pulgarin, Keya tama, David Leitner, Revost. All of which are a bit more than up and coming, but I like what they are doing.
What are your favorite style of VANS? Summertime has always been about the Authentic for me, but I do love old Skools and SK8-His as well. Vans Vault has been a staple of mine for years.
When you’re not making art, how do you like to chill out and unplug? Riding bicycles has always been a hobbie of mine–from fixed gear to road bikes or big old beach cruisers. Also there is a great little par 3 golf course I love to play by my house. It’s a good place to zone out. What’s coming up for you the rest of the year? I just want to paint as many walls as possible, hopefully a truck or two also haha. Hopefully I’ll do some more collaboration walls; I really love to do those! It’s so fun to blend styles.
Here’s a little curiosity from my beautiful Nietzsche collection: It is a small book called “Nietzsche’s prophetic words about states and people”, edited by Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche - Friedrich’s evil sister. It therefore consists of passages that she believed would “please the man of the party when he finds remarks kindred to his heart”, as she puts it in her creepy preface. In fact, Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche was utterly confused by her brother’s works and hired Rudolf Steiner to explain it to her. Steiner very quickly abandoned the attempt, finding it impossible to teach her anything about Philosophy
On the tail of a mysterious man, Lieutenant Schmitt runs into opposition in an unexpected form…
This scene is a deluxe version of the credits page from Issue No.5, and though it is already a large splash page, I really liked how the night lighting and dark shading turned out. I think it makes the momentary standoff quite dramatic!
Stay tuned for shenanigans though, and catch the latest page of Avania out now on @avaniacomic!
Took me awhile due to all the other stuff I’ve been working on lately but I got to finish the six fanarts challenge! Juzo Okita from Space Battleship Yamato (Starblazers), Monterey Jack from Rescue Rangers, Jax from Mortal Kombat XI, Gouhin from Beastars, Asher from Spyro universe, and Steiner (w/ facial hair!) from Final Fantasy IX! These were super fun to work on! :P
On the tail of a mysterious man, Lieutenant Schmitt runs into opposition in an unexpected form…
This scene is a deluxe version of the credits page from Issue No.5, and though it is already a large splash page, I really liked how the night lighting and dark shading turned out. I think it makes the momentary standoff quite dramatic!
Stay tuned for shenanigans though, and catch the latest page of Avania out now on @avaniacomic!
