Funny enough I don't remember how I was introduced to the Tree Haus Creative, Studios @tree_haus_creative, but I was always looking at their story sales on Instagram and website! I have some t-shirts from them from maybe 2 years ago? This was back when they were in Houston. There was a point when I saw them make a post if I remember correctly they had a pop up in Brownsville which caught me by surprise! Austin AKA Shokka @shokkayo and Souther R @souther_berry have made their way to the RGV and have began operating here. I always find myself like "woah" they really are here whenever I see them in public or doing screen printing at their pop ups. With this I grip my Tree Haus Creative beer koozie and say WELCOME! For this interview I got to speak to Austin AKA Shokka @shokkayo who held his first art exhibition at the Carla Hughes Art Studio in Harlingen during Art Night. I wanted to speak to this art fella and learn more about his work. This weeks feature is Austin AKA Shokka @shokkayo
We begin by asking what we was going on today the of their exhibition as they say "We're having an art show haha basically just a lot of my art I've been making for years. Putting it out there and showing it to the community. I feel like since I moved to The Valley 9 months ago. I haven't been able to show what I can do besides commission work and stuff. It's my opportunity to show my personal work and client work as well." I feel like a lot of the times we can get caught up with commission after commission when we have our personal projects at hand we wish to tackle. While in a room surrounded by Shokka's work you can see just the amount work he was able to present within this space. Their own personal realm which the community was invited to. For their 1st art exhibition it was really neat! I got to see more than what I usually see on the website or on t-shirts. I got to see Shokka and how he implements himself onto their artwork and that was great.
With Shokka moving 9 months ago to The Valley, how has that been? Any changes?"Oh man it's been awesome! The art community here is so supportive and it's also accessible um like Houston, not to talk down on Houston because I loved living there, but it was rather gatekeepy and everything was spread out. The people were focused on their thing and their own little world, but in The Valley everyone is focused in The Valley. It's been a super welcoming and accepting." The valley has numerous amounts of outlets that let creatives get out there and just showcase themselves one way or another. Established artists and emerging artists all in one room and they see each other as ARTISTS. They support one another and I really enjoy the interactions they have with one another. It's hard to explain, but yeah it's great. I'm glad Shokka has that a great time here so far!
How could you describe your own art style?
"Funky, colorful, fun, illustrative, stoner-culture type of art um of many mediums. Any mediums I can get my hands on." I continue by asking if they recall when they started creating art and what differences have they seen from then to now? "I've gotten better haha! I've always been drawing, I've always been the artists in class wherever I was. Even in daycare I was having fun making typography letters while the other kids played their games. I'd say it's just a continuation that's been happening my whole life that has lead me here." Yeah I was the kid playing PS2 makes sense lol, but jokes aside looking at the pieces on the wall that night I can see the "colorful", "fun", and "stoner-culture" Shokka puts into their work. The background patterns and colors chosen to the wide smile, to the where I feel like if I was high I'd most likely see the patterns moving. I really loved the armadillo piece so much! ahhhhh!
When it comes to Shokka's work what was the turning point that lead to the start of printing on t-shirts for example "So I've done a lot of T-shirt designs, I've done a lot of t-shirt designs for the church I was in and for different events we were having. I've won design contests at school. I was already doing part of the work when it came to this. When I went to college I learned how to screen-print. I ended up working for this multimedia company that did zines, did events, a record label, but they had a sister company that did screen printing. It got me so interested in screen-printing my own stuff, but I just didn't know the process. Eventually they gave me a screen printer for free because they upgraded theirs! Like hell yeah I took and I took it seriously. Learning everything I could and the process behind printing." How one thing leads to another is always so interesting! From t-shirt designing at church to learning about it in college and getting a screen printer from work! Oh hell yeah! Screen printing looks so fun! I don't know anything about it, but I always wanna like mush the paint onto the design and get it on the shirt. I wish there was a like a workshop for that. It'd be neat!
What can Shokka tell me about the stoner-culture involved into their art work as they explain it by saying "the culture is get high and then draw haha. That's about it really. Hmm I find, personally I find my art better when I'm stoned. Like the colors are more vibrant and I just really see it, truly. When I'm sober I can appreciate it obviously because I like my art. When I smoke weed it brings out the saturation and makes it better." As I mentioned earlier yeah I appreciate and enjoy the art, but It got me thinking like if I was high would I see the armadillo bumpin with it's colors and I imagined it when I was there. It's like 2 separate versions from if you were sober to being high which is the "stoner-culture" aspect involved into the art work. It's pretty interesting!
Jacob asks about the smiling motif and when it became a thing as Shokka says "Hmmm I'm not sure" Was it something that you noticed coming up, Jacob asks "It was like a sketch that I started with probably. On my sketchbook just drawing that kind of particular smile and I ended up telling myself 'yeah ima add these on for sure' and they're called Smiley-Guys."
With Shokka being in the Valley how does he wish grow and continue as he says "I just want to have an impact in The Valley. I want to see my art everywhere. I want to collaborate with other artists. I want to create murals. I have some ideas in the works that I'm really looking forward to." One of the ideas down below on 4/20
Shokka shares one final comment,
I love making art and I encourage everyone to make art!
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