While in San Francisco a few weeks back we were introduced to street art / muralist D Young V. Today it is our pleasure to introduce his work to you and extend and share the conversation on his current works.

1. What are you currently working on?
At this point I’m working on a multitude of different things. I’m working on a new series of elaborate large scale ink /mixed media drawings for a solo show I have coming up in January 2013 at White Walls Gallery (www.whitewallssf.com) in San Francisco. In addition to that I’ve been conducting a series of hand painted and mixed media murals of all sizes in both the Tenderloin / Lower Nob Hill area of San Francisco and in Oakland for the last 6 months. I’m currently finishing up my 9th one at Space Gallery (www.spacegallerysf.com). As far as street art is concerned, I had done a run of work in Edinburgh, Scotland last October. Then in Miami in December. I’m hoping to get work up in South America this year, and various American cities as soon as the spring season hits. As far as fashion is concerned I just completed a collaboration with ‘All Saints’ (www.allsaints.com) in the UK. I did a series of tee shirts and jerseys with them which should be out later this year. In San Francisco I’ve been in collaboration with ‘The Loin’ (www.theloinsf.com) on a series of tee shirts, logos and patches to also be issued later this year. Aside from my many happy hours at Hemlock Tavern and mass consumption of coffee and cigarettes (which takes more work then one may think), I think that about sums it up.

2. Tell us about your process from inspiration to execution?
My process can be rather detailed. Since much of my work is inspired by film I generally try to mimic the process of move making. My work is very much a group collaborative process. On my most recent series of work I collaborated with photographer Shaun Roberts (www.shaunroberts.net). Together we came up with a specific shot list which we both thought would fit the direction of my work. We then spent two days shooting models equipped with various props and poses according to the concepts we came up with. I generally have a personal relationship the people that model for me. I try to make the mood and attitude of my pieces fit the personality of the particular models that pose for me. I even take it so far as to take an individual model’s tattoos and include them in specific areas of the final piece I do of them.

Once the photos are complete I alter the contrast/shadows on photoshop to make them sharply black and white. I like to give my work a very stencil like feel. Although I do not work very much in stencils (at least not yet), I prefer that aesthetic. From there I project the photo(s) onto paper to capture the contours of the model. After that is completed I add in several details to the model from my imagination. Once I have a basic feel for the character in my piece, I begin everything else. That consists of a mass amount of measuring in compositional details, patterns, symbols, imaginary numerical codes, etc. Everything I do implies the creation of a new society and it’s forms of communication. I try to express that in every piece so that the viewer is not only looking at a single person or people being represented, but also a large amount of information involving the structure and culture of the world I am developing.

As far as inspiration is concerned, that comes from a wide variety of different places. Many of my ideas and aesthetics derive from science fiction film. I’ve been a huge fan of science fiction since I was a small child. Feature films, Japanese anime and comic books have served to be a huge influence in my ideas, aesthetics and philosophies. That coupled with Punk Rock music and culture. I try to maintain a certain Punk quality to both the look of my work and my approach to art/life in general. There is something about the ‘Do It Yourself’ attitude and culture that had always served me well.

3. What have you been listening to lately?
To be honest, as far as music is concerned these days, I don’t listen to much of it. I generally throw on movies and movie trailers while I work. Oddly enough the modern movie trailer has become my equivalent of the quick three cord hardcore songs that had inspired me so much in my past. I’ll watch movie trailer after movie trailer soaking up the attitude and personality of that trailer while I work. I’m fascinated with trailers and how much they’ve advanced in the last few years. More often then not, I prefer to watch the trailer then the movie. A lot of the time the trailer is better then the movie itself. I’ve actually not seen the movies or play the video games that many of the trailers I watch were made for.

4. If your work had a soundtrack what would it be?
That’s an interesting question. It would have to be a switch off from the Akira soundtrack to Guerrilla Biscuits.

5. What do you want people to take away from your work when they see it?
I suppose I want them to be inspired to rethink their environment. Everything I do has these sort of variations on our modern day society and culture. I use elements of order and conformity and intermingle them with rebellion and chaos. I like to focus on the necessity of both order and chaos. I also like specify certain contradictions in our culture. There is a huge military element in my work mixed in with a very punk aesthetic. There is a need to conform or be apart of something but also maintain (and develop) one’s unique personality, identity and expression. More often then not people will join groups that have very specific ideas, rules and fashions as way to express who they are as an individual.

One of the most prevalent aspects of my work is the use of the symbol. I like taking the idea of the symbol and manipulating it to either imply an interpretive meaning or express a literal message/meaning. Within these symbols/numbers I do at times have literal meanings or messages, but generally that is not the case. The majority of the time I create these faux languages to imply that humans and cultures can adapt to new forms of communication based on fragmented pieces of their history. Many of these symbols are reconfigurations of modern and past (existing) languages, i.e English, Runes, numbers, etc. Its the idea of people taking elements of their past and reusing those elements to develop something entirely new based out of necessity. We see this with cultures, languages and religions constantly throughout history. Its my way of doing the same exact thing with reference to where we came from and are going as a culture. In truth, I like listening to people’s interpretations to what I do because it fuels the ideas and aesthetics of my work. Much of my work is based on viewer interpretation. I’ll take ideas that I hear from others about my pieces and recycle them back into my work.

An example of this is the woman’s face that I constantly include in many of my pieces. When I did my first drawing of her I made multiple wheat pastes from that image. I pasted them up all over San Francisco, Los Angeles , Miami, then sent her out to other cities for other artists to put up. I had no literal intention for who she was or what she represented. I just really liked the image. Once the blogs got a hold of it I started reading different interpretations of who she was. One LA blog called her the ‘Nun of War’. I took that idea and ran with it. I started to use her image over and over again in my work as way to imply that she is a historical figure in my word. She began to represent some sort of martyr figure, or someone that represented a huge level of importance. I like the idea of reusing here image over and over again, much like Obama’s face during his campaign, or Che Guevara, Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King, etc. The only difference was this face was that of an imaginary person from and imaginary world.

Photo credits: Elia Varela Serra

6. What does the future hold for you?
I hope the future holds good things for me. I’m looking to advance my work into a sculptural and film format. In order to this I’m going to have to collaborate with a variety of different people ranging from other artists, crafts people, writers and film makers. I’m not there just yet, but am taking the steps to get there. There are a vast amount of places I want to take this world that are going to require the talents and ideas of other people. One  example of this would be building environments that reflect the setting of this world. This could exist both as a gallery installation which would be more interpretive, or a movie set that would be far more literal. If I did this in a gallery I would most likely work with another artist(s) to create a certain mood, but also a collaboration between my skills/ideas and theirs. If this was done as a film setting it would take a variety of different people ranging from set designers, electricians, carpenters, actors, etc. It may seem grandiose, but its the basic direction I want to go in.

As a fine artist I am restricted to my talent, skill level and resource. If I can take on the role of a creative director my options can open themselves up tremendously. Hopefully, the future allows me to jump into that role to create something wholly different then a single individual’s vision.

Photo credits: Elia Varela Serra

7. Where can we find you?
You can find me at www.dyoungv.com.
In addition to that: facebook (dyoungv) , www.whitewallssf.com and Hemlock Tavern between the hours of 5-7pm daily.

Photo credits: Elia Varela Serra

Photo credits: Elia Varela Serra

Photo credits: Elia Varela Serra