GrungeCake’s Interview with Illustrator Chris Granillo by Miss Cox! GRUNGECAKE MAG

GrungeCake: Where do you hail from and what town do you currently represent?

Chris Granillo: I’m originally from small town south of LA called the Coachella Valley. I fell in love with the Bay Area’s swag, so I decided to switch it up and move to Oakland, Ca.

GrungeCake: How would you define “art?”

Chris Granillo: Art to me is a therapy, helps me vent out issues through expression weather it’s street art, oil painting, sculpture, or screen-printing.

GrungeCake: Who do you remember as your earliest creative supporter and encourager?

Chris Granillo: My earliest supporter was within my graffiti crew — not being afraid of creating large scale work, being out there painting guerrilla style type work, you don’t know how permanent it is. The stuff I would do were mostly characters, before all there fancy spray can tips, we used basic stock tips to paint, which made it difficult to create thin lines and intricate designs, so I started to paint with house paint, brushes, stencils and other mediums.

GrungeCake: How do you feel the economy is affecting your art/work/life?

Chris Granillo: The economy is definitely taking a role in the art scene movement. I see less solo art shows and more group shows sprouting; I choose to make opportunities to create more work now than when the economy was stable. I receive more exposure from lowbrow collectors; ironically, I feel more movement in my career now than before.

GrungeCake: I got one of those official Bob Ross oil painting kits when I was like 6! When were you first introduced to paints, brushes, and canvas?

Chris Granillo: Bob Ross? The white guy with the afro? He has skills.

I went to a thrift store with my mom when I was 11, I asked her to buy some paintings, and she said, “Why the hell do you want those?” The total came out to about $8 dollars. I took it out of the crusty old frame, painted over it with some house paint, spray paint and whatever I had. I started realizing that I can recreate over something that has been neglected or lost value, like found objects. I find inspiration in diversity, religion, cultures around us, making something out of nothing, Victorian architecture, folk art, be it a can in the sand or distressed materials or surface. I see certain things in a different way when it comes to art.

GrungeCake: When did it become a serious lifestyle/career for you?

Chris Granillo: I think when I figured out school wasn’t for me that’s when it slapped me in the face. I didn’t have any support from rich parents to go to art school so just focusing on art and working full time jobs, I started working on several series and they became commissions to some murals, CDs and record covers, more commercial designs.

GrungeCake: You’re work reflects the stylings of some of the greats. Salvador Dali, for one, comes to mind. Are you a fan of his, and how does the comparison make you feel?

Chris Granillo: Surrealism is mostly compared to Dali’s, I am a fan of Dali’s, and I personally like the works of Lee Bontecou sculptures and also a fan of Odd Nerdrum dark paintings.

GrungeCake: Is there such thing as a “mistake” or “misplaced brushstroke” with your style of art?

Chris Granillo: To me every brush stroke is a placed brush stroke, even in abstract work.

GrungeCake: Visually, “Granillo-Excel,” “Wall,” and “Lee and Chris Deck 2” are some of my favorites. Are there any cool stories behind any of them?

Chris Granillo: Granillo-Excel piece was done at P.A.C. sessions event (live art show) in San Jose, a that painting feature 3 artist tattoo artist Paco-Excel (AWR), Downtimer and myself, live music by Digital Underground, I always have fun painting large live art, especially when you get free drinks.

GrungeCake: What’s the energy like at one of your live exhibitions?

Chris Granillo: A diverse crowd, I think most of the people who come enjoy themselves. I have a lot of friends from different backgrounds, hippies, scientists, scholars, gangsters, so you can imagine. Theories about my work that I might not see, assumptions, I get a lot of interesting questions.

GrungeCake: What was one of the most memorable moments of your career?

Chris Granillo: I think working on the Cal State East Bay (Hayward, Ca) murals; it really had an effect on my life. It consists of 3 large murals in the union building images: Creatures playing chess, pool and ping-pong. I hired my best friend and shortly before the mural unavailing, he was killed in a car crash, this took a powerful toll on life. In 2006 they remolded the union building and all 3 murals are still there.

GrungeCake: They say if you “… choose to do something you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.” Is that something you can relate to?

Chris Granillo: Most definitely time is money, I feel you have to use it wisely especially when you don’t have much of booth.

GrungeCake: What’s next for you in your career? What’s next?

Chris Granillo: I just started on a comic book called Creature Kingdoom; it’s about a creature who works for an obese queen that has no respect for her workers in a garden of one-eyed flowers. It’s a new medium to me; I can express myself with writing and create the characters as the story evolves.

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