What has an A on his chest, three eyes and has the creative mind set of someone taking a mushroom trip? Of course you guessed the young and super talented Phil Winter out of Atlanta, GA. His images capture his audience and encourages them to think outside of box. I had a wonderful opportunity to chit chat with P Winter. Take a look at how this visual genius views his up bringing, future ventures, cultural experiences and political views!
Ice Breaker
Art Nouveau: Favorite song quote:
Phil Winter: “Don’t rush to get grown, drive slow homie” -Kanye West
AN: If you were a cartoon, who would you be?
PW: Probably Vegeta or Trunks from Dragon Ball Z.
AN: Which letter of the alphabet describes you best?
PW: P, because I was Skateboard P before I knew Pharrell was.
AN: Favorite pair of shoes?
PW: Probably the Stefan Janoski by Nike SB. That shoe looks dope in every color way. I had like 6 pairs of the Accel and Accel Plus by Es when I was younger haha I use to love those shoes.
AN: Wildest dream you’ve had?
PW: Its really random but I remember when I was younger I had a dream Kane (the WWF wrestler) came to my old house in NJ and was choke slamming everyone in my house and I ran away and he chased me around the entire town trying to choke slam me haha.
AN: “Who you wit”?
PW: Im single as a dollar bill.
AN: One place you’ve always planned on visiting.
PW: I’ve always wanted to go to Australia, Spain, and Guyana.
19 Questions with The Creative Phil Winter
AN: Please give me a little back ground story. Where did you grow up and what were some of the stereo types are associated with it?
PW: I grew up in South Orange, NJ. Its a small town in North Jersey filled with immigrants and thugs haha. All of my friends growing up were West Indian, Spanish, Italian, and African. There aren’t really any stereo types associated with New Jersey besides everyone loves pizza and talks a lot of trash, but that is completely true haha.
AN: What about your city has inspired you to express yourself as you do?
PW: Atlanta is filled with a bunch of creative open minded people so its easy to brainstorm good ideas with people.
AN: What do you think the youth in your area is being robbed of most? Was this the same situation you encountered as an adolescent?
PW: Information on things they don’t teach you in school. Ive learned so much more useful life information outside of school that I did in school. It wasn’t the same in my case cause I’ve always been open-minded to different things and views.
AN: Do you use art as a form of stress relief or therapy? If so when did you begin using this method?
PW: Not really as stress relief, just something to do when I feel creative at night.
Fast forward to present time.
AN: What was the past year for you like? How has your work improved? Have you seen as much improvement as you’d envisioned for 2013?
PW: Last year was pretty good to me! I got some awards, gotten recognized by some big names, and got a taste of some traveling. My work has improved from figuring out some new techniques and having better subjects to shoot. Nah, I’m not really satisfied because I can always do more but I think I did pretty well.
AN: Whats up for you in the future? Who are some people you’d like to work with.
PW: Theres a few things I can’t really talk about yet haha, but expect me in your city sometime and a show pretty soon. I would love to work with Kid Cudi, anyone in Odd Future, and Pharrell.
AN: Whats your favorite form of Art? Who’s work has influenced you to think so?
PW: My favorite form is candid film photography. Its always has a real personal vibe to it that I really like. I follow American Apparel on Tumblr and their photos are always on point. Modeling and film photography are usually a good combo. I mostly see a bunch of good photos whenever I’m on Tumblr.
AN: What influences you to capture the images you do? Do you see the image in your mind before you actually shoot or is it something you capture has you shoot?
PW: Its usually just listening to good music and just getting in a creative zone. Sometimes Ill have an image or and idea in my head then shoot it but sometimes I just do what comes to me.
AN: Back to the ice breaker question, have dreams ever motivated you to create? If so, what piece was it and how did you do about expressing yourself.
PW: Yea dreams motivate me to create music but I don’t have a keyboard haha. Music is going to be my next creative outlet.
AN: Proudest moment to date about matters dealing with your work.
PW: Thats a hard one! Either getting nominated for Visual Artist of The Year last year or having rappers tell me they like my stuff. Another proud moment is not ever getting a negative comment about my work so that is pretty awesome. Just having people that really believe in you and your work and actually buy your stuff makes me beyond proud.
AN: Do you create because of a need to create or is it a series of events that brought you to a habit of creation? Or is there some other reason you became an artist?
PW: Yea its usually from a need to create something cool and different. Yea, I think I became an artist because everything I was doing was different and weird to people. No one has my style so my style is a breath of fresh air.
AN: Are you ever satisfied with your work? If you have [are], how do you know when you are done? If not, how do you let go of a piece of art?
PW: Yea, Im pretty satisfied with my work. Always trying to top the last thing I did. Its hard to explain, but you just get this gut feeling its done and that you should do anything else to it.
AN: What inspires you – and do you use that inspiration directly to create a piece of art or do you channel towards something you are already working on?
PW: Music and traveling really inspires me. Listening to certain music or artist will put me in a mood that usually reflects in the collages I make.
World News
AN: What culture inspires you most besides your own? Why?
PW: I really like the culture of Spain because they have so much history and their food looks amazing.
AN: Are or have you be influenced by international artist? If so who are they and how do you relate to them? Could you see yourself living and working amongst their culture?
PW: No i don’t really listen to any international artists. I listen to M.I.A. if that counts.
AN: Pharrell Williams recently had event in Hong Kong to blend together creative minds alike in a giant tight international blunt of art and media. How important do you think it is to get to understand more than just your own culture? How would you fuse together different cultures in order to spread knowledge?
PW: Its really important to learn about other cultures other than yours because it opens your mind up to how other people think. You can also incorporate other cultures into your own art work and style. I think the most effective way of fusing cultures and knowledge is thru music and art. Music and art art the most universal ways to communicate. Two people that don’t share the same language can share the same feelings listing to music or looking at a painting.
AN: What country do you believe suffers most in Africa? Do you think these under developed countries will one day rise to a self sustaining power?
PW: I would have to say Liberia. Unfortunately, i don’t think so. There is not enough money or resources in these poor countries but I think it will get a little bit better in the future.
AN: With all the debt we’re in, do you believe China will one day become the worlds biggest power?
PW: Thats a possibility. Anything can happen.
AN: Pollution: Do you believe one day it will effect your country as it is doing parts of China like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou? Do you believe the Peoples Republic of China is handling the issue as serious as they should?
I don’t think it will be as big of a problem as China but we defiantly need to take care of our Earth, Its the only one we got!
You can find all my photos and art at philwinter.tumblr.com. Follow me on all social media!
The post 19 Questions and an Ice Breaker with The Creative Phil Winter appeared first on Art Nouveau Magazine | So We're Basically POP's Graphic Literary Magazine.