Kev Grey has taken tattoo style and
twisted it. As you can see here, his is a distinctive approach,
which is by turns humourous and Gothic (in the old sense of the
word). Born and bred in Liverpool but now living in Sheffield, he’s
eager to avoid being connected to any one particular scene:
‘I have always mixed my various influences together. I think
it helps me come up with better ideas instead of limiting myself
to the look of one specific artform.’
So, who are those influences?
‘Initially Jamie Hewlett, Evan Dorkin's Milk & Cheese,
and Zap Comix which I discovered when I was fourteen.
Up until that point I had been drawing but with no real concept
of what I wanted to do with it. What I learned from Zap Comix was
that I shouldn't worry about the content of my drawings, and that
I should basically draw whatever I want to. Plus I was also hugely
influenced by the work of Robert Crumb, Rick Griffin and Robert
Williams. More recently it’s been people like Seth Cifarro,
Jim Woodring and Charles Burns. I’ve also recently discovered
the work of Angelique Houtkamp. She's amazing. As well as all that,
I’m heavily influenced by music when I draw. Mostly traditional
country, or some rock ‘n’ roll.’
And it goes without saying that tattoo imagery is clearly a very
large part of Kev Grey’s work.
‘I’ve been getting tattooed since I was eighteen, and
I learned the hard way about why you should go to a good tattooist
instead of a cheap one.
When he’s not getting himself tattooed, he’s a busy
chap…
‘I design skateboards for a company from Liverpool called
East. I've designed T-shirts for a few different companies including
the Scrawl Collective and Militia. But my favourite shop to work
for has been Sixpack in France (www.sixpack.fr). I’ve painted
shop interiors, designed flyers for clubs and gigs, make zines,
paint graffiti and also make paintings on mdf. And I just draw whenever
I can, to develop my own ideas.
As Kev’s art doesn’t fit comfortably into any one genre,we
wondered whether that makes life difficult for him in terms of people’s
perceptions of it and in finding paid work?
‘I’ve always preferred to be an outsider with all of
my interests. It’s nice when people that you respect from
certain fields appreciate what you do, but I like to think that
I’m just making my own twisted contribution to various movements,
which hopefully can be appreciated by different people. It can be
hard getting people to accept what I do: normally people will tell
me they really like some of my work (normally the birds) but don't
like other bits that I do. I never want to have any regrets about
not pushing myself to try new ideas. It's too easy to just play
it safe and not take chances. It is hard to get work sometimes which
can be a pain when you have to pay rent, but as long as I’m
happy with what I'm doing then everything's okay.’
© Nude 2005. This is an abridged article
which first appeared in Nude issue 6 (April/ May 2005) |
