Over this last summer, I have had the pleasure to work alongside two of the nicest most hard working artists I have ever met. I met
Dabs and Myla over a year ago through our friend Jason and hit it off right away. Their artwork is incredible and is a great fuse of their graffiti style and their classic training in the arts.
Well Dabs and Myla were kind enough to come by my studio and answer a few questions about art, life and vegemite, so here we go:• So first off where are you from and what brings you two to L.A.?
DABS: We are both from Melbourne Australia..Born and Bred.In the last couple of years we have come to the states and traveledaround...meeting up with people and painting stuff.
MYLA: Each time we visited LA we loved it more and more. The weather isultimate, the town is chaos and disneyland is so close! On our way homefrom out last visit, we thought to ourselves 'if we love it so much wecould just move here??!'. We made a few arrangements and here we are!
• Do you eat vegemite and listen to Midnight Oil?MYLA: Vegemite is the BEST! The secret is don't use too much in asandwich...i think that's why so many people outside of Australia hate it.DABS:A little inside tip is to try it with Cheese or even better..avocado.As for midnight oil?...well..for the record..not really fans! I feelashamed!! Like I'm a traitor to my own kind!! But..in saying that, off therecord, if you chuck on BEDS ARE BURNING there's a good chance my shirtscoming off and I'm gonna get live!!• How long have you been doing graffiti?DABS:Ive been painting graffiti for maybe 13 years!!
MYLA: When we met Dabs taught me how to paint...I did my first piece 3years ago.
• How is the graf scene in L.A. different than in Melbourne.
DABS: In some ways its very similar..that's one of the great things aboutgraffiti!! Its all over the world...its universal!!But at the same time...L.A has a much more intense scene!! In Melbourneits a lot more relaxed!! The police are a lot more relaxed(LAZY)!!All the writers in L.A have to deal with a lot just to get over!! Itsamazing some of the spots that get hit out here!! Considering the elementsthat are involved!!
• I hear you left a gallery back at home. Tell me about that?MYLA: We were running a gallery with two friends, called Per Square Metre,in Melbourne for over three years. When we left the gallery in April tomove out here, our two friends continued to run the space. It was such anawesome experience...we met so many great artists and had a bunch of funtoo!• Who would win in a fight, a kookaburra or a bald eagle?DABS and MYLA:...please....KOOKABURRA!! Hands down!! Game over!!• Do you find your street work getting intertwined in your canvas work?
MYLA: Definitely. Characters that we use on walls are making their wayinto our paintings, and walls that we paint outside make their way ontoour canvas'. We have recently done a few paintings that use referencephotos of buildings that have our graffiti on them.
Generally we try to keep our graffiti and our Canvases separate.But thisis something we would like to push further at some point in the future!!Maybe we will have a whole show of paintings based off pieces we have donein the streets!• what has the biggest adjustment been living in the states?MYLA: Getting used to L.A's Traffic is taking a while!! Learning to bepatient..and leaving enough time to get to where you have to go, even ifits only down the road!! Trying to avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup!! Thatshit is evil! We don't have that back at home so we are reading the backof everything in the supermarket, trying to avoid it when we can!! Andobviously its hard being away from our family and friends!! But theperfect weather and Killer mexican food defiantly help ease the home sickblues!!• when did the collaborative paintings start happening?
DABS: Maybe around 2 years ago..since we first got together we have alwaysdone some collaborations together as well as work on our own stuff..MYLA: Actually the week that we first started dating...after 2 days in, wesat up one night and did a collab together. So it was bound to come tothis eventually!!• working as a team must get frustrating at times, what do you do tokeep it interesting and stress free?MYLA: We are lucky to both have pretty relaxed personalities...sometimeswe get overwhelmed by the work we need to make, but we never get stressedout at each other.
If we do feel like we need a break, we take anafternoon off and get out of the studio. It might be hard to believe..butwe have never had an argument or disagreement over our work!!• any projects or exhibitions coming up for you guys?MYLA: We are having a show coming up in November at New Puppy Gallery inLA...this is going to be a really fun show. We are painting aninstallation in half of the gallery, and this will be where all our workwill be. In the other half of the gallery we are curating a show of about20 artists.• What were some of the first projects you first did upon coming toAmerica?We have done some cool stuff since we have been here.We have beenspending alot of time painting in our studio, working on a bunch of newpaintings.And we did some cool projects with Fila customizing shoes a few months back.
Another project we really enjoyed was a thing we did recently for the bandGreen Day.
Ourselves and 17 other Artists did paintings based off the 18 tracks ontheir new album 21st Century Breakdown.And the paintings are traveling with them on their 2 year tour.They will also be on show at Stolen Space in London around mid October.• any last thoughts and shout outs?Yeah!!...just a big hello to our new American Friends...Cinnamin ToastCrunch,Reeces Peanut Butter Cups,Flips Chocolate coated pretzels and PaulNewmans Black bean and corn salsa!!Thanks for the support,We love you all!!xxxxxxvisit Dabs and Myla at
http://www.dabsmyla.com/
Well Dabs and Myla were kind enough to come by my studio and answer a few questions about art, life and vegemite, so here we go:• So first off where are you from and what brings you two to L.A.?
DABS: We are both from Melbourne Australia..Born and Bred.In the last couple of years we have come to the states and traveledaround...meeting up with people and painting stuff.
MYLA: Each time we visited LA we loved it more and more. The weather isultimate, the town is chaos and disneyland is so close! On our way homefrom out last visit, we thought to ourselves 'if we love it so much wecould just move here??!'. We made a few arrangements and here we are!
• Do you eat vegemite and listen to Midnight Oil?MYLA: Vegemite is the BEST! The secret is don't use too much in asandwich...i think that's why so many people outside of Australia hate it.DABS:A little inside tip is to try it with Cheese or even better..avocado.As for midnight oil?...well..for the record..not really fans! I feelashamed!! Like I'm a traitor to my own kind!! But..in saying that, off therecord, if you chuck on BEDS ARE BURNING there's a good chance my shirtscoming off and I'm gonna get live!!• How long have you been doing graffiti?DABS:Ive been painting graffiti for maybe 13 years!!
MYLA: When we met Dabs taught me how to paint...I did my first piece 3years ago.
• How is the graf scene in L.A. different than in Melbourne.
DABS: In some ways its very similar..that's one of the great things aboutgraffiti!! Its all over the world...its universal!!But at the same time...L.A has a much more intense scene!! In Melbourneits a lot more relaxed!! The police are a lot more relaxed(LAZY)!!All the writers in L.A have to deal with a lot just to get over!! Itsamazing some of the spots that get hit out here!! Considering the elementsthat are involved!!
• I hear you left a gallery back at home. Tell me about that?MYLA: We were running a gallery with two friends, called Per Square Metre,in Melbourne for over three years. When we left the gallery in April tomove out here, our two friends continued to run the space. It was such anawesome experience...we met so many great artists and had a bunch of funtoo!• Who would win in a fight, a kookaburra or a bald eagle?DABS and MYLA:...please....KOOKABURRA!! Hands down!! Game over!!• Do you find your street work getting intertwined in your canvas work?
MYLA: Definitely. Characters that we use on walls are making their wayinto our paintings, and walls that we paint outside make their way ontoour canvas'. We have recently done a few paintings that use referencephotos of buildings that have our graffiti on them.
Generally we try to keep our graffiti and our Canvases separate.But thisis something we would like to push further at some point in the future!!Maybe we will have a whole show of paintings based off pieces we have donein the streets!• what has the biggest adjustment been living in the states?MYLA: Getting used to L.A's Traffic is taking a while!! Learning to bepatient..and leaving enough time to get to where you have to go, even ifits only down the road!! Trying to avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup!! Thatshit is evil! We don't have that back at home so we are reading the backof everything in the supermarket, trying to avoid it when we can!! Andobviously its hard being away from our family and friends!! But theperfect weather and Killer mexican food defiantly help ease the home sickblues!!• when did the collaborative paintings start happening?
DABS: Maybe around 2 years ago..since we first got together we have alwaysdone some collaborations together as well as work on our own stuff..MYLA: Actually the week that we first started dating...after 2 days in, wesat up one night and did a collab together. So it was bound to come tothis eventually!!• working as a team must get frustrating at times, what do you do tokeep it interesting and stress free?MYLA: We are lucky to both have pretty relaxed personalities...sometimeswe get overwhelmed by the work we need to make, but we never get stressedout at each other.
If we do feel like we need a break, we take anafternoon off and get out of the studio. It might be hard to believe..butwe have never had an argument or disagreement over our work!!• any projects or exhibitions coming up for you guys?MYLA: We are having a show coming up in November at New Puppy Gallery inLA...this is going to be a really fun show. We are painting aninstallation in half of the gallery, and this will be where all our workwill be. In the other half of the gallery we are curating a show of about20 artists.• What were some of the first projects you first did upon coming toAmerica?We have done some cool stuff since we have been here.We have beenspending alot of time painting in our studio, working on a bunch of newpaintings.And we did some cool projects with Fila customizing shoes a few months back.
Another project we really enjoyed was a thing we did recently for the bandGreen Day.
Ourselves and 17 other Artists did paintings based off the 18 tracks ontheir new album 21st Century Breakdown.And the paintings are traveling with them on their 2 year tour.They will also be on show at Stolen Space in London around mid October.• any last thoughts and shout outs?Yeah!!...just a big hello to our new American Friends...Cinnamin ToastCrunch,Reeces Peanut Butter Cups,Flips Chocolate coated pretzels and PaulNewmans Black bean and corn salsa!!Thanks for the support,We love you all!!xxxxxxvisit Dabs and Myla at http://www.dabsmyla.com/
