If you’ve followed Melbourne street art, or indeed Australian street art, at any stage in the past decade, then there is little doubt that the name RONE is already a very familiar one.

As a part of the illustrious and well respected Everfresh crew, RONE has received all number of accolades for his street art, as well as his fortitudinous design skills – so much so that he was featured alongside many of Australia’s street art luminaries in last years Space Invaders exhibition at the National Gallery in Canberra.

Having been involved in last years brilliantly executed Underbelly Project in NYC, he has also garnered a fair amount of media attention in the past few years, as this beautiful story from The Age testifys. Along with the rest of the crew, RONE will also be a part of the Everfresh @ NGV event, to be held over the next month in Melbourne Federation Square.

In the lead up to his first solo show at Backwoods Gallery, we managed to snare some of RONEs more than precious time, to talk to him about his upcoming show, and the beautiful, emotion laden women that he portrays throughout his work …

When you first became involved in Street Art, did you think it would turn into the life you live now? Have you always been driven by art from an early age or was it a discovered passion?

I never really saw it as being the life I live now – I was always into art and design as a kid, but I really didn’t think I could make a serious career out of it.

A large portion of your work focuses around visages of female faces, close up, emotive – is there a specific reason you are so drawn to this particular style of image, and where does the re-contextualisation of fashion etc, as we’ve read about elsewhere, come into your work?

It wasn’t always about the women – but when I first took images from fashion magazines, I loved the powerful looks the women had. What really clicked with me was the way in which they worked on the street, their calming beauty, contrasted against the walls they sit upon.

You also have a large affinity for the deterioration of works out on the street, and the more than ephemeral nature of the work –  in terms of adding to the strength of your work, for example the use of bill posters etc, how does this aspect of your work add to the over all themes you explore?

Yeah, I’ve always preferred they way my works look on the street than on a canvass. With what I’m exploring at the moment, the deterioration and illegibility of the works represents our inability to focus, and make sense of life when we’re faced with our own mortality.

In terms of your upcoming show, L’Inconnue De La Rue, and the story you have based it upon (hyperlink) – can you remember the first time you heard the story of the “unknown girl of the streets”, and how the story of such a tragedy has been adapted in your mind within the pieces in the coming show?

I was told about it last September by someone, who said that they were reminded of it when they saw my work. Of course, that intrigued me, so I had to follow it up. The story has inspired many literary works, but I thought it would be great to make something visual out of it.

I didn’t want to make a complete translation of the story itself, but more the idea of a girl dealing with such a tragedy.

This will be your first ever solo show, which is surprising! You’re a very recognised name and synonymous with Melbourne street art – what was it that prompted you, now, to do a show of your work?

It’s been something I’ve wanted to do for a few years but have pushed back and back. Things like the Everfresh book, and starting Backwoods Gallery have often been put ahead of pushing my own work.

RONE – l’inconnue de la rue from Everfresh Studio on Vimeo.

From the preview video of the show, your process looks fairly involved for creating your works – everything from screen printing to hand painting, to ripping up paper – can you tell us a bit more about how you put together a piece?

Putting a work together is fairly simple, – just stencilling over some ripped paper, to summarise it.

However, the stencils were all hand cut from a photo shoot that I set up with a model and a photographer back in May. Before that, even, I spent weeks designing all the bill posters that were later turned into two colour screen prints, and they were all printed at the studio. Making one work, or ten works, involves pretty much the same amount of time.

Did that process differ this time around for creating work for some gallery walls as opposed to the street work?

Yes, in the way that I knew that I could invest more into it, as I hope to sell a few to recoup some of the cost – but at the same time, I always planned to put these works out on the street.

We’ve been hearing all the bits and pieces of news about the upcoming Everfresh feature at the NGV – can you share any early insights into what you guys will be doing? What’s your take on the whole scenario – you’re pretty much setting up the entire studio over there. What do you want to accomplish with the project – can you give us a bit of background on it for those who aren’t familiar with it?

Yeah, we are working on having our studio as part of the installation inside the NGV. We are moving in next week, and we’ll have the doors open as of the 10 June. It never seemed right to have an open studio at our true location, but we know people would love to see how we work, so we thought it would be great to share all of that. We’re also working towards have a series of finished works to display at the end of our residency there, on the 8th of July.

There are a few more surprises, but I can’t give them away just yet.

What have been some of the stand out moments in your street art career? Where do you hope the future will take you and your work – can you share your plans fro after the show?

Stand out would have to be this upcoming NGV event with Everfresh along with having my works be part of the Space Invaders exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia.

Plans after this are a bit hush-hush, at the moment, but there’s something exciting happening in Sydney later in the year, and possible some international events – but I don’t want to jinx anything just yet …

You can check out more of RONEs work and his website. Also, make sure you put the details for his upcoming show, L’Inconnue De La Rue into your calendar, and stay tuned to the Everfresh website for more news from the EF crew. Also, if you haven’t got a copy yet, grab the Everfresh Black Book, which features not only RONE, but the entire talented stable of the EF crew.