Memo Pisa el Lodo
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
  Interview with No.Fi



How did you get into creating art? How long have you been doing it?

i've been an artist for as long as i can remember. i don't exactly know how i got into it. i was a weird kid and i'm an even weirder adult. i'm completely self taught except for lessons one summer in the 6th grade. i'm a musician as well. i feel they go hand in hand.


Tell us about your character.

her name is "ai chan". it's japanese for "love friend". she is based off of my ex-girlfriend of the same name (ai). she sings and plays theremin and synth in a band called pink mochi. she is cho kawaii neh!!! she broke up with me, it broke my heart, i was really into nara at the time, i came up with the character to keep her in my life. we are best friends now. she thinks it's hilarious. someone actually got her tattooed on their arm. ai (the person not the character) is a self proclaimed cannibal, hence the occasional blood dripping chompers.


How did you get into putting your art in public places? How long have you been doing it?

hmm... sort of long story. i'll try to keep it short. i started writing graff when i was 15. nothing worth mentioning. i ultimately became disenchanted with the whole "culture" of graffiti. it seemed like glorified gang shit to me. don't get me wrong, i love the art form but hate scenes and rules. i'm an anarchist and an outcast amongst a group of outcasts. i like street art because to me it seemed more about the art than the artist. ok, here's where it gets weird. i probably shouldn't say this but i'm just gonna be brutally honest because that's how i roll. (insert cliche' here:) after the aforementioned ex girlfriend fired me i got really depressed and started doing heroin. on new years eve this past year i od'd and was clinically dead for several minutes. my best friend and hetero life mate alan trailer (ribbon controller) found me and personally saved my pathetic waste of a life.
he had to give me mouth to mouth and "revive my black ass". we decided from that point on that we had to do something with our lives. my music was going nowhere and my art was non existent at the time. i (we, rc and myself) started putting up murmur posters and stickers as soon as i recovered.

if you read on seizer's website he says why he began using his image, for branding purposes to sell his paintings and what not. it was essentially the same for me in the beginning (i'm still in the very early stages of course) tack on music and you got it. it has of course evolved into a love of being out bombing late at night and everything else that comes with the territory. i love all of it and the fact that RC and myself have no friends or lives really pushes us to get out and just kill it as much as possible. i was tired of being just some dude in a box somewhere in hollywood. i've made 5 albums that have never been heard. we're sort of forcing ourselves on the masses. a lot of people have been very responsive to it and we heart them for it. my life has turned around 180 degrees. i feel like a cheese dick for saying it but art is literally saving my life.


Where is your favorite location or type of location to put your pieces? Do you have a picture?

billboards, billboards, billboards. the higher and harder to reach the better.
roof tops are fun too. any spot that's a challenge. i'm like a totally different
person when i do that shit. i get all ninja and shit. my friends are like "what the fuck, how'd you get up there?" and i'm just thinking, "i don't know, it wasn't really that hard and i didn't have anything better to do."
i started a group on flickr called art attack!!! it's all about stealing back the ad spaces that have invaded our lives and using them to say something about ourselves as individuals. www.flickr.com/groups/allhaildischordia


(http://www.flickr.com/photos/nofino/150088624/in/set-72057594121711690/ )



(http://www.flickr.com/photos/nofino/150088623/in/set-72057594121711690/ )


What is the most interesting experience you have had while putting your stuff up in public places?

2 instances come to mind. when RC and I were doing that franklin spot, the one in the picture from above, we climbed all the way up on the outside scaffolding which in retrospect was pretty fucking nuts, especially since there was an open stairwell but there was a security guard on duty and when we were on like the 4th or 5th floor i saw him patrolling, RC didn't see him right away and sort of made some noise and all of a sudden the light beam crossed just over the top of my head. i ducked down , RC bailed up the scaffolding to the next floor and that was the last we saw of mr. security guard.

another time, and this was really funny, RC and myself went pasting with another artist and friend, blinky. it was on melrose and i was hanging off of a light pole trying to help straighten one of blinky's posters when RC accidentally rubbed the pasty brush all over my fucking face and beard. i don't know if you've ever smelled homemade wheat paste but it smells kind of like, well something gross that i probably shouldn't say. he says it was an accident. yeah we'll see sucka. i still feel violated.
blinky died laughing, i did too actually. it was damn funny.


When is your favorite time of day or night to go put your stuff up around the city?

between the hours of 2 and 5 a.m. LA is totally empty at night. it's so strange. one of the biggest, most important cities in the world and it is completely shut down. i feel like i own the city driving around and pasting at that time of night. (when we actually have a car to use. i'm mostly on foot and now bike.)


Have you ever been caught?

iie, neine, no. RC has twice and i got blamed for one of them though.
he got all fucked up when we were kids and bombed our high school.
i honestly would have been there but i had already passed out drunk.
yay malt liquor!!!


Who are your favorite artists?

oh damn. let's see: chiho aoshima, takashi murakami, yoshitomo nara, junko mizuno, deth p. sun, kaws, dalek, pushead, apak, sanrio, the human empire, jeff soto, picasso, bwanna spoons, soma, nano spore, nathan cabrera, jhonen vasquez, buffmonster, joe coleman, ribbon controller, blinky, ai yamaguchi, aya takano, jeana sohn, camille rose garcia, david choe, shit, i'm sure i'm forgetting someone really important here.

as far as street art and graff goes: shepard fairey of course, again buffmonster is the coolest, d*face, the london police, doze green, haze, banksy, wk interact, grey, idiot the wise( art attack!!!), phallic mammary (i really like her), mike giant, bigfoot. and then there are toys. i heart toys and toys are art too: medicom, kid robot, secret base, bounty hunter, toy 2r, nathan cabrera again. anything japanese is generally pretty suge!! in my book. i'm sorta otaku.

i'm really inspired by anyone who is an artist and musician because that's what i do. aaron turner from isis, steven o'malley from sunn0))) and khanate, boris/fangs anal satan. people who aren't confined to one trade or profession.


Any final comments?

much love to ribbon controller, my brother from a different mother. if it weren't for him i would be dead. literally. we push each other to get out and do something with ourselves and not be richards like most of the people i meet. thanks to everyone who has taken notice of what we are doing. listen to murmur, silence..., earline robinson and breathed you.

and i'm going to leave off with a few quotes that mean a lot to me:
"do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law"
"do what keepeth thou from wilting shall be the loophole in the law"
"every man and every woman is a star"
"love is the law, love under will"
"thank god i'm an atheist"
"all hail dischordia"
"for there to be unity there must first be a plunge into and through the agony of complete separateness"
oh and of course, "i'm not a mod or a rocker, i'm more of a mocker"

my sites:
www.myspace.com/nofideadguy - art, personal
www.myspace.com/murmur93 - music and art
www.myspace.com/silenceforlikemindedlosers - music
www.myspace.com/artattackindustries - music and art
www.flickr.com/photos/nofino - art

**
 
Comments:
I <3 No.Fi
 
you know I am the hugest fan in the world...
 
liked the interview...
much love...

Idiot the Wise
www.idiotthewise.com
 
gLAD YOU DIDN't die bro,BLINKy :)
 
Great interview. Love the art.
 
you can tell that D*Face has alot of influence on your style
 
i loved this.
 
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Exploring Los Angeles' interactive urban environment.

Name:
Location: Los Angeles, California, United States

I live in the Historic Core of downtown Los Angeles and close to downtown Riverside. I like to walk around, take pictures and interact with my surroundings.

Sites
  • Wooster Collective
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  • Graffiti.org
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  • Mickipedia
  • outside.in
  • Perpetual Elaboration
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  • Reference Type Sites
  • Dictionary of Aerosol Art
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    December 2005 / January 2006 / February 2006 / March 2006 / April 2006 / May 2006 / June 2006 / July 2006 / August 2006 / September 2006 / October 2006 / November 2006 / December 2006 / January 2007 / May 2007 / July 2007 / August 2007 /


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