28-year-old ex-Seattle-ite Blaine Fontana is an artist. Proof is on the left. Those photos were taken in The Kutting Room's photo booth the night before his show opened in the space - after 2 months of ceaseless toil. Homeboy looks like H-E-double hockey sticks.

Thankfully, his resulting work is mindblowing. Borrowing from a spectrum of influences, and riddled with detail and color, Fontana's artwork are vibrant storybooks encased in canvas. Get to know the man who gives ALL...

Blaine, how does your background in graffiti play into your work?
Do you still get up?

As far as the 3:23 am street life, I hung up my cans back in '98. After so many fines, jail time, and community service, I had to focus on my professional career and academic pursuits at Otis College of Art and Design.

Having graduated in 2002 with a BFA, my love and interest in graff still permeates in my work. The speed and intuitiveness of graff plays a large role in the work. During the construction of a piece, I have the ability to completely cover up an entire week's worth of work without hesitation. I feel this lends itself to the inherent nature of graff. Vibrant colors, urban compositions, and textures are also used heavily to express the previous paths and memories of the city and it's aggressive information that is presented everywhere...

So let's get to the obvious. Explain your "templings" and what role they play in your work.

The "Templings" function as androgynous beings that help the audience better relate to abundant use of abstract story-telling, and literal information, that appear as contemporary hieroglyphics in the piece.

"Templing" is a union of two words: temple and beings. Symbolically, they may be a demigod, human, spirit, doorkeeper, mask or emotion. Since each piece has its own myth, each figure is represented differently...



How does religion and mysticism play into your work?

Many cultures used, and use, art as a form of "medicine" - as a way of illustrating the visions of the shaman to the rest of the community. I feel all artists function the same way as some shamans do. Religion and Mysticism are also used as the backbone of the painting providing the story and/or inspiration behind the painting.

I find myself reading many myths and folk stories in anthropology books and specialty books that focus on a particular foreign society culture. I will adopt some of these to our current western experiences and struggles, creating a new visual and literal language in my work.

 I've also noticed a lot of Asian themes. Japanese and Korean writing, etc. Me and my very inquisitive Japanese girlfriend wanna know..What's up with that?

About 10 years ago, I endured a very personal and trying period in my life that resulted in an experience that some shamans and healers I've encountered with have called a vision. In this experience, I found myself in an ancient time and land filled with Asian folklore and themes. This experience was told (briefly) in my "Manifest Soup Transcripts" series - A series of 5 on brown paper I did in 2001 conveys this story and was the birth of the work I am doing today.

You used to run art direction at Metro Pop and Drifter, but now you've broken free. What was it like performing in such high-profile jobs.. meaning, did you feel limited in terms of your capabilities? Did it stifle your creativity even though it was art-related?

During my time at both companies my, work was never compromised - it just needed development. I feel I am at my best when I am working on multiple projects and Genres.

Working at two such great companies is always an honor, and it definitely challenged any capabilities I had being creative on two sides of the spectrum, but I felt I needed a better balance between my design and fine art pursuits.

At first, it took some discipline to work a 10- hour day designing behind the Mac and later, switching creative gears into an organic one. I felt my talents were being used well, except I never had the chance to really push my painting career due to the lack of time. Now that I have been on my own for the last two years I have achieved a wonderful balance between the two.




What's next for Blaine Fontana?

Recently, several companies, including Liquid Force, Escapist, Morey, and Relentless have licensed out my artwork for skate decks, surf boards, wake boards, skim boards and boogie boards. Keep an eye out at your local store for these products.

My work will be going through some interesting changes in the next several months. I will be doing multiple series on archival paper and be undertaking some new subject matter. As always, you can find out upcoming shows on my site. They will be held across the country so there ought to be something close to your neck of the woods. Lastly, after tremendous demand and interest I am now selling affordable prints that you can obtain from my website (http://www.totembookmedia.com).






click here to watch this piece - from start to finish