Earlier this year I stopped by Space1026 – Philly Art Gallery - to catch up with my homey Liz Rywelski and interview Luke Ramsey. We tackled various topics ranging from comics to the super-addictive nature of Starbucks. Although Starbucks wasn’t on the agenda, it made for classic dialogue. I’m not one for conspiracy theories but I think Liz is on to something here.

“Taj, think about - Starbucks puts magnets in their drinks. Latte equals magnet. Espresso equals magnet. I’m telling you, their strategy’s pretty simple. The machine is grinding magnets, not coffee beans. Sometimes I watch the workers. I know their game. I know they have a button back there. If 2pm comes and they haven’t met their quota, they press it and all these people come running in as if the store is a big vacuum. Caffeine is addictive man, but why doesn’t Dunkin’ Donuts’ coffee have the same affect. There’s addictive and then there’s ADDICTIVE.”

At this moment Luke entered Liz’s studio and we began to chat. Luke isn’t a big guy, but his presence is massive. He has a quiet disposition that makes you feel extremely comfortable. Within seconds of meeting him it became clear that Luke made his choice for art. In every aspect of his approach you sense an expressive touch – a care for the present and a desire to paint with kindness.

During the spring, Luke displayed his work at 1026, made several friends, worked on a collabo piece with Liz and also created a comic book for his art installation. Below are a few moments exchanged between Liz, Luke and I.

Where did your relationship with Space 1026 begin?

I found out about it through a few friends who had a show here. I was in a shop in Vancouver and saw one of their postcards. I was like "This is beautiful! Where’s it from?" They told me it was from Space 1026.

So many people I know admire their work and have great things to say about them. Something like six months after, I sent them a book I did with this guy as an example of my work. Then I made a book that was very specific to 1026. It was a one off book. And, here I am today.

Your style is very unique and detailed. How did it emerge?

This language that I’m using is about three years old. I went to Taiwan and was so influenced by the culture and art over there. Everything is animated and there are so many cartoon characters… There’s tons of Hello Kitty. Hello Kitty is everywhere. But, while I was there I got to experiment with lots of different styles. During that trip a lot happened. For example, I painted this mural and a guy painted over it, so that challenged me.

Wow! How did it feel when the guy painted over your mural?

I was devastated. I hadn’t taken any photos of it yet. I had just finished. And, I was going to come in the next day to take pictures. I was doing it for this guy, this bar, and he got really drunk one night and didn’t like it.

I was using inversed Hello Kitty symbols. It was the anti-Hello Kitty. He didn’t get it, so all he saw were these upside down Hello Kitties. He hated it. So he just painted over it. I was hurt but I ended up being good with him in the end.

Many artists have told me that when they create they feel so vulnerable. They say it’s difficult to determine when a piece of expression is ready for viewing – when it is truly finished. When do you know when you’re ready to show it? How do you determine that you’re finished?

I’m never afraid to show my work. I’ll never do something that I might not feel comfortable showing at a later time. It rarely happens, but if I’m doing something that I’m not feeling, I’ll just stop doing it.

Liz: But you’re not letting anyone see your comic book until the show.

Yeah but it’s not finished.

Is it your typical kind of comic book or is it abstract.

It’s a little bit of both. There is no story line. There’s two captions per person that I’m interviewing. For instance, I interviewed KRS-One…

Nice! You must have been excited about that.

Oh yeah I can show you. I’m not apprehensive about showing it to people that aren’t in it, but the people who are in it I don’t want them to know. I’m not ready to show it to them yet. I don’t want people to think that I’m misrepresenting their look or their character. I’m just taking my take of them. Then I draw them as an animal. The whole story will be a nice flow. People that are in it will look at it like oh okay. Because their look and my interpretation of their ideas is my contribution to the whole thing.

What’s the premise of the comic book?

The name of the book is called Be Kind Be Cause. I ask them what kindness means to them, or to tell me about a time someone has been kind to them that made them want to be kind to someone else.

What was it like interviewing KRS-One?

He was right on. He had so much to say. He wanted to be a lion. I totally pegged him as a lion. Haha! I felt a little strange asking him what kind of animal he wanted to be, but I was like, I have to ask him. I have to ask him the same questions just like everybody else. It turned out really nice.

The concept for the comic book and the work I see displayed is nicely integrated. Did you have an idea about how you were going to set up your gallery before hand?

Liz: His work was so refreshing. Once I saw it I couldn’t wait for it to be in the gallery.

I had an idea. I had a lot of the foam parts built and ready. I really wanted to show all of my work starting from the point when I was in Taiwan. So for me to show it was kind of the end of the chapter.

-- el fin [back to DM Issue.4]

You can view more of Luke's work at Ubiq or visit his website mebeme.