ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: PEABE

Over the next week I will be doing artist spotlights on a few of the artists that are taking part in our "Odds & Ends" groups show next Friday, May 8th.

Up first is an artist named Peabe. Peabe hails from Chicago, but now calls Oakland his home. He is doing live art at the L.A. Sneaker Pimps event this Friday alongside such heavyweights as Slick, Estevan Oriol, and Tokidoki. Check out the interview below courtesy of Formatmag.

How would you describe your style?
Peabe: I’m not entirely sure, I struggle with this all the time. It’s like a Technicolor world of zombi-esque people and monsters walking around a world full of colors and shapes but just starting to realize the beauty of it. Or, like being there to
witness people during their epiphanies. I’m an ‘80s baby too, so all the typical ‘80s cartoons like The Transformers, GI Joe, and Silverhawks, had an influence on me, in terms of colors that I use.

Where do your characters come from?
Peabe: I was born and raised in Chicago. Pretty much after grade school you got to take the train or bus to get anywhere. Riding the train everyday, I’d see all the graff up and down the subway lines. In between noticing the graff, I’d notice the same folks looking like drones on the train, like cattle being shipped to and from slaughterhouses.

Everyone looked dead tired or hating where they were going and just zoning everything out. It was sad because there would be all this dope graff to stare at on the way to wherever they were going but they would ignore it and just stand there looking like zombies. That’s when I would bust out the sketchbook and just start sketching the people I saw. The people in my worlds eventually came from these trains sketches.


Were you influenced by the comics or cartoons you watched growing up?
Peabe: Man. Cartoon wise I was all about the Transformers, Ninja Turtles and funny enough Silverhawks to name a few. It seems like no one dug the Silverhawks because they were the shiny lame space version of the Thundercats. I was crazy about comics as a kid. I used to really be into X-Force, Dead Pool, typically all the really bright shit [laughs]. I fell off of comics but have slightly gotten back into them only cause my best friend has and he’s been telling me all the loco shit that’s been going on. I may get hooked again.