LukeDaDuke is an artist I’ve had my eye on for a while. He’s part of the VST crew (check out a great interview with fellow VST crew member FarkFK at Concrete Canvas), and it sounds like 2009 will be a big year for LukeDaDuke and his dog.
RJ: How did you get started in art/graffiti/whatever you consider what you do, and what do you consider what you do? Is it street art, urban art, graffiti art, just plain art, or something else?
LukeDaDuke: I started somewhere in 1997 or 1998. I was intrigued by graffiti since I was young, and I decided it was time for me to get noticed.
Noticed I got… 2 tries, 2 times busted.
I still wanted to go out and make myself known. In Eindhoven, a city in the Netherlands that I often visited, the stickerscene was boiling hot and I went along with it.
First a little tag on a sticker, later nude girls, and after a while, I came up with the dog.
I think my work comes close to streetart. But perhaps stickerart is a better word for it… and posterart.
RJ: What does your dog character mean to you?
The dog has no special meaning to me. I never had one or liked dogs more than cats or birds or anything.
I was just doodling one day, and I doodled a round shaped dog, with a little depth feeling to it. I straightened the rounds bits, et voila, the dog was born.
I like to think I’m marking my territory with my posters and stickers, just like dogs do with their wee.
It grew on me… I tried other stuff for my streetwork, but I alsways seem to come back to the dog… or the dog comes back to me, like a good trained dog is supposed to do.
RJ: What is the VST crew?
LukeDaDuke: The VST crew is a gathering of international friends I got to known the last couple of years. VST stands for Vector Stencil Toy Crew, as most of the work we design is done by a vector programme like Adobe Illustrator.
The crew was founded last year, when Orticanoodles organised a jam in Milan. I wasn’t there, to my big, BIG regret, but I got to join as we al knew each other from the Difusor Stencil Festival in ’07.
The Lover, SNUB23, FarkFK and Orticanoodles are the other founding members. More members are coming soon, but it’s still all in a very early stage… can’t tell much about it realy… but if the signs are correct; 2009 will have VST sprayed all over it.
RJ: Where do you want to paint but haven’t yet had the chance?
LukeDaDuke: I’m not really a streetpainter… I hate it to paint vertical. I prefer working at home, painting posters, stickers or canvas. But if I have to name a place, it is New York.
I’ve been dreaming about that city for sooo long now, I have to go there on of these years.
RJ: What have you got coming up this year?
LukeDaDuke: First of all, January 10, an exposition in my hometown together with The Lover. Second, a trip to London/ Brighton to hook up with The Lover, SNUB23 and FarkFK.
Third, fourth and the rest are still in the pipelines… has to do with VST, hope it’s going to be big… but we still have to work out a lot.
Thanks to LukeDaDuke for answering my questions. More on his upcoming show with The Lover here.
All Photos from LukeDaDuke’s flickr