5 Questions with Shannon Crees

The 2095 first "discovered" the artist known as Shannon Crees purely by what she (ie. the 2095'er) had deemed at the time to be complete misfortune.

Feeling hideously shivery and shaky, having caught the wrong bus due to watery eyes, the 2095'er fell asleep and awoke to find herself almost at Dawes Point.  Grumpy and annoyed, the 2095'er alighted said bus, bemoaning the fact she would have to walk that extra "mile" to the ferry and even worse, through the busy Rocks Markets.

Somewhere through the cotton-wool-headed haze and desperate for some sun to chill the bones, the 2095 noticed something above her which glistened with such intensity and intricacy she could not but help pull out the camera and capture the image.

Despite (or inspite perhaps) the feeling of blech, all photographers have a little voice within saying "if you don't get it now, it'll be gone", and as such the 2095'er then went on to capture the reverse side of this beauty.

Curiously the 2095'er did sense some folk watching her walking down, around and trying to get the perfect angle, but obviously not enough to prevent them from buying some disgustingly kitsch souvenirs  of which there are plenty, thus leaving the 2095'er blissfully enraptured enough to get two more perfect frames before literally falling on to a ferry seat, inching her way home,  crawling in to the beckoning bed and sleeping like a baby.

Fast track 2011 Outpost where on the 2095'ers maiden voyage, one of the first images she spotted was the singularly most beautiful wall she had laid eyes on. However, to be fair, it was literally within the first 2 minutes that the 2095  chick had stepped foot on soil and hardly any further discovery had been made at that particular stage.

Here are my 5 questions with Shannon Crees.

You have an incredibly distinctive style.  Has this evolved as you have grown both as a person and an artist or did it come in to "being" from doodles or scratchings along the way

I don't actually doodle at all.  I am quite impatient and like to see process.  I drew a lot when I was younger and it was my way of being able to sit still at my desk at school, but now I love the freedom of expression in painting large.

I went to fashion college so it all started from fashion sketches and my first job as a fashion illustrator and developed from there.

How do you choose what you are going to paint?  Is it an overt process (if given a brief) or does it present itself and you take it from there

It is mostly presented to me as a brief.  I do corporate work, private commissions and work to fit in group shows.

What has been your biggest installation to date

The mural for "Wall to Wall" competition at 80m sq.

But the temporary installation for "The Galleries Victoria" on Pitt Street (Sydney), I worked on for a whole lot longer and that was almost as big at 18m x 3m.

Although big can be impressive, I think 3x4m or a little larger is a great size to pain. Not too big, not too small.

For some a piece is never really "finished".  Is this the same for you where you have to draw a line in the sand, or do you meticulously plan and stick to point

Ha ha...sometimes it is just better to never come back and look at it again after completion as you can see bits you just want to add to.

That's why I need deadlines.  I work better that way.

How would you sum up the world of Shannon Crees in 5 words

That's the hardest question ever.....

Colour

Surprises

Inspiration

Freedom

Hardwork (that's one word!)

I mean everything except hard work :)

**********

From one Northern Beaches chick to another I thank you.  Most especially as Shannon is currently o/s and somehow managed to fit in answering questions for the 2095'er from afar (the wonders of the fibre optics!)

5 questions with OX

As the 2095 became more confident in her exploration of the Inner West, yet maintaining the "if i can hear a train or a bus I know I'm not too far from safety" thought process as it were, she chose to walk through Camdenville Park to get a shot of a wall on the other side of a train track she had previously seen.

What she spied instead was a funny little pasteup that required IMMEDIATE investigation.  

Still not terribly familiar with the area and having already done the unthinkable (racing across the train track) she felt duty bound to take the long way around in order to get a closer view of the paste up in question.

Fast forward to (yep....here it comes again...) PM3 and  the first incredible image the 2095's eyes clamped on was not just hypnotic but made SUCH an impact, upon return to the confines of her abode, she simply stared at it admiring it in all its intricate political seductiveness for an indeterminate amount of time.

It was also due to this piece, that the impatience to return to said Outpost and discover more by this artist drove all around the 2095 up their own walls which in itself is an enormous achievement even by her standards!!

What was your initial entree to street art and can you give a rationale in regards to your tag name

I guess I started a few years ago when I was doing a bunch of live art shows around Sydney for free drinks. I enjoyed the speed of it all and wanted to start playing around with spray paint so I could start using more colour at speed.

I met Bafcat and Resan (a couple of painters) earlier that year and ended up going to some abandoned factories to hang out and have a paint.  I really enjoyed using cans, learnt a bunch of little tricks pretty and have been hooked on painting since then.

OX comes from the fact that I always had a hard time telling people my last name.  Not that's it particularly long or weird or anything; just having a semi-English/Australian accent people seemed to get it wrong in a variety of bizarre ways.

i wanted to go by something incredibly simple and something that was symbolic above just letters.  I like how both the symbols O and X are used in so many different contexts other the letter format.

I have always preferred images over the written word, so I think OX represents my work well.  There are a bunch of other reasons but I won't go in to them as they probably equally as boring.

What drives your creativity

Not sure really.  It's just something I do, something I enjoy working hard at and exploring new ways to create.

Art in whatever medium has always been attractive to me.  There are no rules, no wrong answers and on one who can stop you from doing it.  It can be incredibly difficult and especially financially unrewarding at the best of times, but no matter what I do, there is always an element that is predominantly positive.

It's important to me that I'm never going to be able to master what I do, I'm never going to reach 'that point' where I'm finished.  I'm always learning and there will always be something that I'm just going to suck at.

I think that probably what drives me most: just trying to do work that's better than my last piece.  I want to be a grizzled old man one day who still worries over his filthy painting.

Some of your work is incredibly complex with specific reference to the first shot I took at PM3 (as seen above).  

Is there a specific "story" for each creation, or is it almost a continual work in progress to the point that while you may personally never be 100% satisfied with the finished product ("it needs a tweek here"), others perceive it as a perfection 

Improving my techniques is definitely what drives my work, but in each piece I try to tell an ambiguous story I guess.

Most of my work is character based and I have a background in animation which is where the story-telling element of my work comes from.

I like to give people a character that they can imagine a story for: in that way the viewer has a role in the creation of the work as well.

Do you prefer the freedom of wall or the restrictions of design

I like elements of both.  I enjoy being able to take as long as I want in the studio trying to perfect whatever I am working on at the the time getting lost in illustration really chills me out, but after a few days I start to get some serious cabin fever.

So that's when I really like getting outside and painting with some mates for fun; it's really the only environment I can make art and be social at the same time.

It's fast and takes me to new places that can only be compliment endless hours in the studio.

In a perfect world where do you see yourself as the artist being within (say) the next 5 years

I would like to be illustrating and painting full time.  Having enough clients that I can life purely off selling my own art and doing illustration work that I really enjoy.

The freedom of that kind of work would allow me to travel around and do more mural work than I am capable of doing at the moment.  AND the opportunity to exhibit my work overseas more often

**********

My eternal thanks to OX for sharing a bit of his life with the 2095 and allowing reproductions of his work for this blog.  

Love the work, and hope to see it hit the international heights it deserves my friend!