FSAP’s Artist of the Week: Elli Killingwithcuteness

Wika Magazine welcomes our new feature columnists, Austin Smith and Kim Dryden of Filipino Street Art Project.” FSAP will have a weekly featured artist.

This week’s artist is Elli X Killingwithcuteness, whose style at first seems sweet and cartoony. Until you notice the knives.

“I always had an affinity for cute and deformed things.”

Read more to find out why.

Q: Tell me about Killingwithcuteness – where did that come from? What does it mean?

Its a name I’ve come up with to describe the cute entities that I create that vomit colors and brandish cleavers and knives, the shady horrors that offers hope and heart shaped things. It’s matter of being sweet, so sweet it’s diabetic.

 

What’s your background? How did you get into art? 

I got into art because of my brother, I always see him sketch superheroes like marvel and DC – he is fond of western super heroes and Japanese mecha anime series. During those times I also watched a lot of cartoons and was also introduced to comics. The 1st comic I had was locally published and was called Funny Komiks, there was a character that got my attention, and it was CombatronDuring that time, the art was similar to the toys that became popular, those SD Gundams. I always had an affinity for cute and deformed things or “chibi” things. I tried sketching them but my skills back then was really awful. But still it didn’t stop me from drawing.

During grade school I played Zelda on Gameboy, it also got my attention and became an influence. I started drawing mazes and monsters like those from the game. During high school anime and Magic the Gathering was rampant – those also influenced my art.

In college, I decided to take advertising. I really wanted to take painting but my mother didn’t want me to, saying “there is no money there,” a common misconception of people. During those times, my colleagues would always show me pop surrealist artist like Mark RydenAlex Pardee and the likes, so that really got me pumped up and then got me into art.

 

So how did you get involved with street art?

I had my first affair with street art back in college. Street art was just starting to boom during those days. The first time I’ve held a spray can was during an exhibition and I was such a noob that it sucked and I decided that spray cans were not for me.

I went on a long hiatus with art. I had a kid and a failed relationship with the mother, and it took me a long while to return into painting, although I was doing some sketches and some shows. But all of that was kind of lacking, just part of me getting back on my feet to make art.

The time I got involved in street art was when I got together with fellow alumni Rai CruzI told him part of my story and he then invited me to join one of the paint session of Cavity Collective. It changed my life and I’m still doing street art thanks to Rai and the guys and girls of the cavity family.

 

Awesome. What other kind of art do you do? What’s your main passion? 

I also use oil paint, that was the discipline that I really liked. Although I have knowledge of the other mediums, I really fell in love with oil, or I dunno, maybe I just got addicted to the scent of turpentine and the texture of gesso while priming. Recently, I’ve been trying to learn how to use spray cans and have been using ball point pens more.

I am passionate in making pieces that invokes strong emotions like being in love for the first time, stepping on poop while on your way to your crush’s house to meet their parents, or having to win over that grumpy cat who lets you pet the tummy but then still scratches your hands after a while.

 

Hahah, there are certainly strong emotions there. So, overall, where is your career now and where do you hope it’ll be in 5 years?

I still have many things to learn and do honestly, like cooking meth, establishing an apparel brand, animal necromancy, making my own toy, do something significant that can change not only the art world but the whole place we live in. I wish to see kids get busy painting stuff on the walls instead of selling stuff on the street. You can call it child labour, but at least it’s more safe and can hone a kid’s creativity. It’s an idea but let’s hope 5 years from now it’ll become a common scene.

 

What do you think about the explosion of street art in the Philippines?

It’s actually quite nice, kids these days are exposed to art; it’s a catalyst to save these poor souls from the mundane effects of society and sugar coated anomalies today. People can now view and appreciate art without paying or getting overwhelmed by galleries, which is a sad reality here in the Philippines sometimes.

Street art here is not yet in full bloom – there are still a lot of people who don’t quite understand it, both the viewer and the artist. But I guess with the amount of scenes we are getting it will eventually get there, as long as there are people pushing with their passion and hearts on their sleeves

 

What are your views on the rapid economic gains the Philippines has been seeing lately? Does it mean anything to you personally?

Economic growth?  Is that the thing that makes tempura crunchy? Or the sense that my travel fare is still expensive or the fact that there is a lot of tax in this country and will make you wonder why are there potholes on the main roads? For me, there should be awareness or intellectual growth – it’s pointless to have a good economy if the people don’t know how to utilize it.

 

Where do you hope the Philippine art scene will be in a year?

I want the scene to be the start in helping end or reduce poverty and all those things that the government is too busy to care about.

Art in the Philippines will still be pushed and will progress, there is no other outcome, there is no failure or no stagnation in art, it’s all part of the process. Just like how our lives work, “the worst assholes in your life will be the best lesson you’ll get to move on and be great.”

 

I like that outlook – in both art and life, change is inevitable. Back to you – what motivates your art? What are you trying to say? What’s the message?

The things I do with my hands are usually fueled by what happened to me or what sweet ideals I’ve tasted on songs, movies or literature. It’s a mash up of what dreams are made of, a lot of sugar and spice and a dash of chemical x.

The pieces usually shows the spectrums of love and tragedy, bitter sweet memories and cold hard truth, a subtle way of provoking people or just leaving them with smiles on their lips, or something gross I can’t imagine.

 

Our project’s mission statement says that we will “examine Filipino life and society through the lens of street art.” What is it that international audiences should know about the Philippines right now?

The Philippines is a place where there are a lot of kids trying to doodle things on the wall, but some of their folks are not really into it – they are more worried about clean walls than their kid being a part of a global movement.

The Philippines is a kid who needs proper guidance, an eager beaver with crayons in its hands but colors the paper wildly in a trashing manner. It’s cute but guidance will make the output better and something more to make us cry out of joy.

 

Thanks so much for talking with us, Elli! We love your work and are happy to have you on board as part of the FSAP team. 

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Want to see and read more about Elli X Killingwithcuteness? I know ya do, so check these out:

+ The album of Elli’s work on our Facebook page

Elli’s Tumblr blog

Friend Elli X Killingwithcuteness on Facebook

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