Frequently Asked Questions
Do You Do Custom Art?
Yes, but mostly murals or paint jobs on vehicles, but I am open to all sorts of ideas. Please inquire through my contact form.
Where Can I Buy Your Art?
Check out www.mizuarts.etsy.com
I can also accept payment with Paypal Venmo Bitcoin and over 50 other crypto-currencies.
What Does "Mizu" Mean?
It means water in Japanese. It started off a a graffiti pseudonym and grew from there. Most graffiti names need to be short and sweet so it worked for that context. It has nothing to do with "Mizzou" or Missouri University.
Do You Show In Any Galleries?
I do have a small selection of prints and some originals available at:
Spectra Art Gallery
1836 South Broadway
Denver CO
Kind Mountain Collective
1535 Miner St.
Idaho Springs, CO 80452
Cloud 9 Head Shop
600 Main Ave. Suite 001
Durango, CO
Silver Stem Dispensary
2800 W Hampden
Englewood CO
Where Do You Get Your Ideas and Inspiration?
Anywhere and everything. I have too many ideas. Each genre of art I make comes from a very different part of my mind. My strategy is to make the widest variety of art possible. Too may artists get stuck in a rut of one particular niche or medium. Every painting I do gives me ten more ideas. I have to filter through and chose the ones that will provide me with the most satisfaction.
What is Micro-graffiti?
It’s my own signature style. I can honestly say I have never seen anyone else create it. It’s basically stencil work done on cinder-block and brick fragments. Hand-held, desktop sized graffiti murals. Originally they were all done with spray paint but lately I have brought in the airbrush to this style. Other graffiti writers either love me or hate me for developing Micro-graffiti. I’ve had some people tell me it’s the most creative thing they have seen in years and some graffiti artists are upset about it for some reason or another. Oh well, too bad. I find it hilarious that graffiti artists have so many "rules" for an artform that is illegal in the first place.
What Mediums Do You Use?
I use spray-paint, airbrush, and acrylics for most of my canvases and painting on vinyl records. Micro-graffiti is done with spray-paint and airbrush on concrete fragments. The fractals and mosaics are done digitally.
Who Are Your Favorite Artists?
Stephen Morath, Alex and Allison Grey, Robert Venosa, Martina Hoffman, Pablo Amaringo, Georgia O'keef, Mear One, Mars One, Perish, David Choong Lee, Robert W. Walker, Path One, Ewok, Bob Ross, Nicky Barkla, Sam Flores, Brian Curran, Oliver Vernon, Isaac Abrams, Salvia Droid, Gris One, Pendleton Ward, Ron English, Piano, Plus, Eric Howard, Brian Scott Hampton, Taste, Revok, Does, Cranio, Swek, East, Phibs, Pager, David Choe, El Mac, Doze Green, Sofles, Bates, Mad C, Motick, Chili Thom, Nicholas Bott, Dumperfoo, Angus MacPherson and many more.
You do many different styles and genres, how did you learn all this?
It has been a process. Let me back up and tell the whole story.
My mother is a very talented calligrapher so I grew up exposed to a lot of art through her. She has actually done pieces for Trey Anastasio of Phish and a few other famous people. I always had plenty of markers and crayons around and I remember doing a lot of doodles that had very southwestern tribal designs in them. My first abstract pieces were made when I discovered I could melt crayons on the hot vent cover in my room. Not my parents favorite work.
Graffiti & Street Art
My interest in graffiti started in when I was five. My mom and I were taking a roadtrip through the SW United States and stopped at a railroad crossing as a freight train passed. About one third of the cars had colorful graffiti pieces so I began asking questions. My mom explained that it was illegal graffiti and not even supposed to be there.
So I experimented with graffiti a bit in highschool and other styles. For sometime I fell out of making much visual art and focused on music. Around 2006 I was living with a roommate who was into street art and we would make stickers and stencils but we were living in the small rural town of Durango Colorado, and there was not much place to put up street art. So I developed.....
Micro-Graffiti
I figured it might be possible to stencil graffiti designs on bricks and cinderblocks and I was pretty happy with my initial attempts. I got some sales and have made them ever since. For the summer of 2008 I lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico and had the chance to work with artists like Perish One, Shewp, Dez, Dacks, Mega, Skae, Mike 360 and Furious. It was a great time but I felt Denver was calling so in the fall I moved back to Colorado. I opened a booth selling art on 16th St Mall and things were moving along.
Not long after, I discovered.....
Space Painting
which is a form of street art delevolped in Mexico. The basic idea is to create a landscape image very quickly using household items and regular spray-paint. I also began working with.......
Stencils And Pop Art
The idea with Pop art is pretty simple, just take something pretty much everyone knows and put your own spin on it. It's shallow but people like it because it reminds them of something.
After six years of making all my art with spraypaint I had mild nerve damage in my arms from all the toxic fumes. Even though I was wearing a respirator, it was catching up with me. So I began airbrushing and using acrylics. That allowed me to take my live art indoors to shows and festivals. It also challenged and inspired me by introducing me to many talented artists. This is when I began creating:
Psychedelic and Visionary Art
When I first heard the term visionary art I thought it seemed vauge and pretentious. What makes someone's art "visionary" and not mine? After a little digging and experience I came to discover that visionary art is it's own genre, relative to psycedelic art but also quite different. Quite simply, it's art based on visions. It's not something you thought of, it's something given to you. It's not something you make up as you go along, it requires careful crafting the whole way through. It's a way of telling a story that could not be photographed or shown any other way.
In the mean time I have done lots of.....
Landscapes
The Colorado scenery has always inspired me and I always gravitated to aspen groves. A few years ago I began doing aspen tree landscapes that became one of my signature styles. If you've ever been in an aspen grove you may have noticed that the bark is so white that it reflects the colors of the sky and leaves. I exagerate this phenomenon in some of my trees, adding big spotches of color where it really wouldn't be. Most of my landscapes are not based on real places but I do sometimes work from photos of actual locations.
Digital Art
This is something I dabble in. I mostly just do remixes of my paintings that were done by hand.
Body Painting
After live painting at concerts for a while people began asking me to paint on them. At first I was a bit sy about it, but after a while I decided to get the proper supplies and add this to the menu.
I still continue to experiment and now am making music as well.....