Featured by JUICE Magazine. Full unedited version.

What prompted you to take up art?

I was probably doodling before I could walk. I’ve always loved it, obsessed with putting what I saw in my head on paper or on anything for that matter (parents were not happy with the walls in my room). I was going to major in Psychology when a family friend based in Paris dropped by, saw my work and said “ Why aren’t you studying art?”. I never saw it as an option. I gave my dad a nervous look and he said “Why not?”. I applied to Parsons Paris and got in. Next thing I knew art became what I did for a living.

Were you self-taught or did you go to school for your art?

I am mostly self taught. Art school was a strange place, filled with the weirdest people you’ll ever meet. It focused more on opening up my mind and thinking outside the box than technique (that you had to develop on your own). It taught me how to translate my thoughts into an art piece. It changed the way I saw colours, the way I painted, the way I thought and changed the way I saw art.

How did you come to develop your technique and style?

Every art piece I do is always different from the last one. Im always on the net sifting through paintings and illustrations, adopting the things that I like about them and discarding the ones that I don’t. A lot of it is through practice and experimentation, discovering what works best for me.

A lot of your sketches and paintings are quite grotesque and dark; could you explain why that is? Is it possibly a reflection of your personality or sensibility?

Ever since I was a kid, Ive been a lil obsessed with anything creepy and strange. I loved the way it made me feel, how I was always on the edge of my seat, ready to bolt. My favourite cartoon was Courage the Cowardly Dog. Another reason for this “darkness” was that I had really bad anxiety when I was younger and up till about last year, always in a state of constant fear and paranoia and the best way to calm me down was by painting and drawing. The best way to describe it would be like talking to a Psychologist, a way of letting everything out. When I paint in that state there is always an underlying darkness to it, so yes it is a reflection of this little battle I was going through inside my head.

You're also quite fascinated with the female body, aren't you? Why?

Haha, yes i am. In Paris, we had countless life drawing classes where we’d draw nude models. Most of the time, they were female. I think we only drew one male model throughout the course. I can’t even count how many I have drawn but after a while you start to see the beauty ( a kind of beauty you only see when you look for hours) in the curves, the shapes, and the fragility in a woman’s body. I just find it crazy beautiful.

What was the objective behind the series of sketches that featured nude female bodies with animal heads?

They are actually based on 3 very important men that played a very big role in my life. The female bodies represented the sensitivity that no one ever saw and the animal heads were a reflection of their character and personality.