Krusch Rhoades, 33, spent the formative years of his youth in the "armpit of New York, the shoulders of New England and on the polluted teat of New Jersey."
Since then, Rhoades has travelled all over the country, and currently calls Santa Cruz his home. He has painted, drawn, molded, and scrawled for as long as he can remember.
"Identifying myself as an "artist" at an early age somehow allowed me to view life with a golden preciousness. Being enraptured with the architecture of simplicity, the constant dance of light. I'm so thankful for this perspective," said Rhoades.
Rhoades enjoys large scale work, especially when working with spray paint, which he calls the "closest synthesis of dance and paint."
"The large sweeping strokes is so pleasurable when compared to the restricted movements of smaller pieces," said Rhoades.
That being said, the artist produces work of all scales regularly, and even paints bicycle frames.
"Paint and bicycles have been the most consistent relationships in my life and have therefore becomes the pillars of my existence," said Rhoades.
Q & A with Krusch Rhoades:
Patch: What's it like being an artist in Santa Cruz?
Rhoades: Being an artist in Santa Cruz and really the greater bay area is very supportive. There's the Tannery, a strong First Friday, of course the MAH. This community is very open and accepting, it's wonderful in that sense. I would love to see more risks taken by the local galleries though. They're the artist's emissary, they create the perspective of value. It's their eye that takes the edgy work and puts it into a palatable context for public viewing. I think that's missing here.
Patch: A lot of your large scale painting work would look great on the walls of American cities, but there is a stigma in America surrounding all things that can be classified as "graffiti." Why do you think this is, and do you want to see more art in American cities?
Rhoades: Of Course I'd love to see more street art in American cities!!! I think like any progress, it's being suppressed by old ideas. Graffiti was territorial, letter forms, and often gang related in its infancy. Because of this,, entire police task forces where created, criminalizing the art form. This I think, has something to do with the stigma still roughly associated with street art.
Patch: How do we change a societal stigma surrounding art in public spaces?
Rhoades: I think an excellent transition is: open walls. Either a public legal space for art or an unused industrial zone. A Place where people can come paint for the sheer joy of it without fear of incarceration is a good first step. It's been and is being done all over the world and country with amazing results.
You mentioned Valparaiso, Chile, a perfect example. I've seen innumerable wastelands, condemned spaces, and ghettos made vibrantly beautiful by illegal art. Cities wising up and legalizing walls in rundown areas can turn those same places into tourism. Look at Sao Paulo, Brazil!
Patch: What does your studio look like?
Rhoades: My "studio" is my home. I get out of bed and paint. It has to be this way. My relationship with art is too intimate to live apart. There is no television. There's ample light and art supplies everywhere. My studio is any wall I have the pleasure to spend time with in a painterly context. A factory. A water tank. A salon. A train car on an endless plain. My studio is my home.
Patch: What inspires you to paint?
Rhoades: My greatest inspirations lie between being so awestruck I want to experience the image or idea by living through it in the process of recreation and the frenetic release of overabundant otherwise incommunicable rushing emotion. When I can balance the two, I do my best. But really, It's all I can do to pick which tangent to run with. My mind is a constant kaleidoscope of complex recycled emotion resolved in image form. It pales Fantasia.
Patch: What is your creative process like?
Rhoades: My creative process usually plays out in one of two ways. It's either a complex piece that I ruminate over and pick apart in my mind as a snowball of intent or energy churns inside me toward it. Or, it's play. Fast exploratory fun with no defined end goal.
Patch: What is the Urban Beautification Project?
Rhoades: The Urban Beautification Project is my own personal mission to beautify the decrepit. I love spending time in forgotten places and adorning them.
Patch: Where can people find your work besides on the Krusch Rhoades website?
Rhoades: My work will be at Motiv until the 30th. The show is called Nektalk. This is a reference to the colloquialism: "Talking out of your neck" as a euphemism for BS. Which is funny to me. It puts things in perspective. No matter how conceptually absorbed I get with a piece, it still may come across like I'm just talking out of my neck.
