Over this last summer, I have had the pleasure to work alongside two of the nicest most hard working artists I have ever met. I met Dabs and Myla over a year ago through our friend Jason and hit it off right away. Their artwork is incredible and is a great fuse of their graffiti style and their classic training in the arts.
Well Dabs and Myla were kind enough to come by my studio and answer a few questions about art, life and vegemite, so here we go:
• So first off where are you from and what brings you two to L.A.?
DABS: We are both from Melbourne Australia..Born and Bred
.In the last couple of years we have come to the states and traveled
around...meeting up with people and painting stuff.
MYLA: Each time we visited LA we loved it more and more. The weather is
ultimate, the town is chaos and disneyland is so close! On our way home
from out last visit, we thought to ourselves 'if we love it so much we
could just move here??!'. We made a few arrangements and here we are!
• Do you eat vegemite and listen to Midnight Oil?
MYLA: Vegemite is the BEST! The secret is don't use too much in a
sandwich...i think that's why so many people outside of Australia hate it.
DABS:A little inside tip is to try it with Cheese or even better..avocado.
As for midnight oil?...well..for the record..not really fans! I feel
ashamed!! Like I'm a traitor to my own kind!! But..in saying that, off the
record, if you chuck on BEDS ARE BURNING there's a good chance my shirts
coming off and I'm gonna get live!!
• How long have you been doing graffiti?
DABS:Ive been painting graffiti for maybe 13 years!!
MYLA: When we met Dabs taught me how to paint...I did my first piece 3
years ago.
• How is the graf scene in L.A. different than in Melbourne.
DABS: In some ways its very similar..that's one of the great things about
graffiti!! Its all over the world...its universal!!
But at the same time...L.A has a much more intense scene!! In Melbourne
its a lot more relaxed!! The police are a lot more relaxed(LAZY)!!
All the writers in L.A have to deal with a lot just to get over!! Its
amazing some of the spots that get hit out here!! Considering the elements
that are involved!!
• I hear you left a gallery back at home. Tell me about that?
MYLA: We were running a gallery with two friends, called Per Square Metre,
in Melbourne for over three years. When we left the gallery in April to
move out here, our two friends continued to run the space. It was such an
awesome experience...we met so many great artists and had a bunch of fun
too!
• Who would win in a fight, a kookaburra or a bald eagle?
DABS and MYLA:...please....KOOKABURRA!! Hands down!! Game over!!
• Do you find your street work getting intertwined in your canvas work?
MYLA: Definitely. Characters that we use on walls are making their way
into our paintings, and walls that we paint outside make their way onto
our canvas'. We have recently done a few paintings that use reference
photos of buildings that have our graffiti on them.
Generally we try to keep our graffiti and our Canvases separate.But this
is something we would like to push further at some point in the future!!
Maybe we will have a whole show of paintings based off pieces we have done
in the streets!
• what has the biggest adjustment been living in the states?
MYLA: Getting used to L.A's Traffic is taking a while!! Learning to be
patient..and leaving enough time to get to where you have to go, even if
its only down the road!! Trying to avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup!! That
shit is evil! We don't have that back at home so we are reading the back
of everything in the supermarket, trying to avoid it when we can!! And
obviously its hard being away from our family and friends!! But the
perfect weather and Killer mexican food defiantly help ease the home sick
blues!!
• when did the collaborative paintings start happening?
DABS: Maybe around 2 years ago..since we first got together we have always
done some collaborations together as well as work on our own stuff..
MYLA: Actually the week that we first started dating...after 2 days in, we
sat up one night and did a collab together. So it was bound to come to
this eventually!!
• working as a team must get frustrating at times, what do you do to
keep it interesting and stress free?
MYLA: We are lucky to both have pretty relaxed personalities...sometimes
we get overwhelmed by the work we need to make, but we never get stressed
out at each other.
If we do feel like we need a break, we take an
afternoon off and get out of the studio. It might be hard to believe..but
we have never had an argument or disagreement over our work!!
• any projects or exhibitions coming up for you guys?
MYLA: We are having a show coming up in November at New Puppy Gallery in
LA...this is going to be a really fun show. We are painting an
installation in half of the gallery, and this will be where all our work
will be. In the other half of the gallery we are curating a show of about
20 artists.
• What were some of the first projects you first did upon coming to
America?
We have done some cool stuff since we have been here.
We have been
spending alot of time painting in our studio, working on a bunch of new
paintings.
And we did some cool projects with Fila customizing shoes a few months back.
Another project we really enjoyed was a thing we did recently for the band
Green Day.
Ourselves and 17 other Artists did paintings based off the 18 tracks on
their new album 21st Century Breakdown.
And the paintings are traveling with them on their 2 year tour.
They will also be on show at Stolen Space in London around mid October.
• any last thoughts and shout outs?
Yeah!!...just a big hello to our new American Friends...Cinnamin Toast
Crunch,Reeces Peanut Butter Cups,Flips Chocolate coated pretzels and Paul
Newmans Black bean and corn salsa!!
Thanks for the support,We love you all!!xxxxxx
visit Dabs and Myla at http://www.dabsmyla.com/
