Here’s Tangents interview #2! Presenting the incredible Kenichi Hoshine, who caught a lot of attention awhile back collaborating with James Jean on Polite Winter.

Where are you living these days?

I’m living and working in Brooklyn, NY.

How much of Brooklyn is there in your work?

I moved here in March of this year so I can’t say that there is much of Brooklyn in my work. I don’t think my environment affects my work too much.

You have an interesting way of veiling an image, covering elements with a wash. Can you tell me a bit about your process and the way your style has evolved into what it is now?

Most of my work you have been seeing lately have layers of beeswax over them. I have always found images that are obscured or fragmented to be more interesting than “complete” pictures. I am drawn towards implied images that suggest certain moods and narratives. More often than not, I will draw or paint a “complete” image then delete/erase/sand parts of it until I achieve the desired picture. I probably spend more time editing the image than actually putting it down on the panel or paper.

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This is the first of six mini interviews, featuring the artists in our Tangents art show. First up is Ben Tour!

Can you describe your process? And are the little letters that appear in some of the works from those rub/transfer sheets?

My process changes from piece to piece. With painting, I start with a sketch which is quite tight and then project it on my chosen surface with an overhead projector. I’ve played around with different techniques but find this one the easiest. For smaller scale work, I just sit down and get to work usually building the final from smaller roughs. Tradititional illustrator style. The little letters and numbers are rub-on. It’s a product that was popular for designers before computers.

My Dad actually introduced me to it as he would lay out magazines cut and paste style and have sheets of Letraset Rub-On next to the drafting table. I also remember as a kid their was similar stuff in boxes of Fruit Loops – you would get a little rub-on sheet with Toucan Sam and you could use a pencil and rub him onto paper. I’d forgotten all about the stuff and then by chance years later found a box of it, which I still have.

I totally remember those rub-on sheets in the cereal boxes! When you were a kid did you ever read those books that came with a battery-powered “pen” that had some sort of laser in it and when you put it on different colors in the book it would make different noises and light up? (This sounds totally made up, but I swear this was actually a thing!)

I don’t remember those? Sounds awesome. My parents only got the good kid cereal maybe once a month, I ate alot of Shredded Wheat and Weetabix. I like both of those cereals but they never had cool toys.

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Charlotte from Manystuff, Will from Itsnicethat, and yours truly were recently interviewed by HUH. Magazine for a feature called Bloggers Delight, and they just posted it up. I am extremely flattered to be named one of HUH’s favourite sites, especially along side two sites that were huge huge huge inspirations for starting Booooooom.

Read the feature here.

Doodlers Anonymous has posted a great little interview with Ted McGrath who is known for his really raw illustrative style. What makes the interview so great is that he responded to all the questions with doodles. Read it here.

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DeChazier Stokes-Johnson emailed recently me about a site he recently started called The Marma Spot. It’s an on-going archive of his interviews with creative people – Stefan Sagmeister, Geoff McFetridge, and Soft Gold USA, to name a few. His latest interview is with Mike Mills. Read it here.

Just a quick bit of personal news – the good folks at Hypebeast interviewed me about the release of my shoe for Converse and a bit of my personal background! Read the interview here.

In case you missed it, the charity/launch event is Thursday Feb 19th – Livestock (1709 West 4th Vancouver)! All profits from shoes sold that night will be donated to The Global Fund! Come out and support a good cause and get some shoes to boot (I’m not totally sure if that’s a pun).

Rene Almanza is the latest artist to be profiled on Upper Playground’s Walrus TV. I like what he says about committing an idea to paper, thinking about something too much is like losing it forever.

Artstreet interview with amazing paper artist, Jen Stark. Hit “MORE” for the video. Coincidentally, some of her paper work reminds me of the first image I posted of the Handmade video a couple entries below.

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