As a full time artist who once worked within the now closed Worlds End Studios, Numskulls work is tantamount to the epitome of a modern urban creative, equally at home outside or in.

In light of his upcoming exhibition, The Weird Machine, it would have been remiss of us not to get in touch with the Sydney based artist, and see if he had a few minutes to spare for a quick interview. Thankfully, he did, and we threw a couple of questions across to the man who has over many years contributed a wealth of high calibre work to both galleries and the streets alike …

So, how is life in Sydney at the moment, and what have you been up to in the past few months and in the lead up to this show?

I love Sydney – especially now when the sun is out almost every day. The past couple of months I have been keeping myself busy painting for this upcoming show at Lo-Fi, and other various little projects.

You’ve got a pretty unique style happening, can you tell us how this formulated over the years and where you got started with your artistic journey?

For me, painting started with graffiti – but I don’t really do that anymore. From graff I got into street art, and then I briefly worked in advertising – which was basically messing with images all day long. I think this all led to what I paint now.

You’ve been working and doing graff and street art for quite some time, what are some of the stand out opportunities you’ve had in the past that have helped to progress your art?

For starters, my mum was quite supportive. She’s used to let myself and my brother paint our bedrooms and makeshift walls around the house. This was what really gave us the spark for not just tagging, but painting proper productions – other great opportunities have included getting to paint massive walls, and working alongside Sydney’s best painters and creators.

You’ve done some more commercial work before – have you found yourself exploring  many other commercial opportunities with your art recently

I try not to do too many commercial jobs, although I’ve done t-shirts for a few skate brands lately, which I really enjoy doing. I’ve been skating on and off for most of my life, so i get excited creating something for a brand I’ve grown up around for a long time. Other than tees, I have also done work for some major brands, which is something I actually enjoy doing, but only if I get to control the outcome. A lot of artists get given commercial opportunities, but often don’t challenge the brand.

There’s a great quote from Ryan McGinness’ sponsorship book; “You don’t have to make your art fit so much as find a way for everything else to fit around it.” – I think this is a good rule to stick by.

In terms of influences, and away from street art in general, what would you say has had both a positive impact on the style that you have found yourself exploring?

I’d say that the people around me have had a positive influence – my close friends keep me in check.

In regards to your previous life in advertising, have you found any of the lessons and techniques learnt from those years have been applied to your current work?

None of the techniques have been applied, but generally what I learnt by experiencing and observing a strange environment definitely had an effect.

I hope to never work in advertising full time again – it’s fucking draining.

Give us a typical run down on one of your pieces – how do you formulate your idea behind it, and is it a planned process or do you work within a more organic and spontaneous nature, and what mediums do you most lean towards with your pieces – I’ve seen a bit of stencil and screen work?

To get to a finished painting I’m happy with, I normally grab bits and pieces off the internet, cut them up, rearrange or create based on style and structure. After I’m happy with it, it all depends on size. Most canvas work is using stencil or screen-print, bigger pieces are projector, and walls are done by hand with spray-paint.

Can you tell us a little about your upcoming show at the Lo-Fi Collective, what you’ll be doing and how you got involved with the space?

“The Weird Machine” is about dreams and fantasy.

Each character is either made up in my head or has been in one of my many strange dreams. There will be a series of paintings on canvas, a limited run of prints and an installation – I’m still really interested to see how it’s going to look in the space, it might just look like a pile of rubbish – who knows.

The “Scratching the Surface” installation that you did with Beastman, Phibs, Max Berry and Roach is fairly renowned – how did you guys decide on the idea, and what was the general reaction to it?

Originally, we were just going to paint a wall and show it in the foyer, but as we realized that the event was quite prestigious we thought it would be a good idea to fuck with the crowd a little – kind of create a shock to articulate the meaning.

Buffing a production which took two days, in ten minutes, created a priceless reaction from the crowd …

What will the rest of the year hold for you, and what other projects do you have in the pipeline?

Myself and Beastman have some painting projects we’re working on in December. I also have a couple of shows early next year, and some other fun projects – which I can’t really tell you about yet…

Check out more info on Numskulls upcoming show at his website and the Lo-Fi Collective site.