lf www.​skaffs.com

What would you do if you could never go near a com­puter again with­out it explod­ing because you had built up a static charge com­pa­ra­ble with the national grid as result of rub­bing your head against to many balloons?

Funny you should men­tion this, it actu­ally hap­pened to me the other day… I am now offi­cially banned from bal­loons. My art career actu­ally started off with a pen and piece of paper and I still enjoy sketch­ing as a form of art. Having no com­puter would cer­tainly put a stop to dig­i­tal art and ani­ma­tion; how­ever, I would then find another avenue to express my cre­ativ­ity Maybe tra­di­tional cell ani­ma­tion or stop motion…

How much money would you charge for a one off custom skateboard?

I am cur­rently cus­tomiz­ing a skate-​deck for the Across the Board Art auc­tion for the Cancer Coun­cil of Aus­tralia. So for a great cause like this, I would charge nothing.

Apart from art and illus­tra­tion what other things are you into?

I like to play around with Flash and bring my Skaffs char­ac­ters to life through 2D ani­ma­tion. I also love lis­ten­ing to and com­pos­ing music. I play the guitar and I try and incor­po­rate that into the music that I create. I have writ­ten all the music for my ani­ma­tions. I’m also a black belt Taek­wondo. It’s my form of release when I have a mind freeze.

Who are your favourite artists/illustrators alive today?

Mark Ryden
Yoshit­omo Nara
Scott Mus­grove
Camille Rose Garcia

After 10 years in the busi­ness are you ready to quit yet?

Heck no! I thrive on the new and crazy chal­lenges every year brings.

I’ve noticed a number of other great illus­tra­tors work­ing on recent Coca-​Cola cam­paigns. How did you get that gig?

Inter­est­ingly enough, their agency read a mag­a­zine arti­cle on me. They approached me and wanted me to use my Skaffs sexy chicks to lure in con­sumers. I think it is a very cool idea for Coca-​Cola to mod­ern­ize their mar­ket­ing cam­paigns and delve into the 21st cen­tury art world.

With a choice of any space or gallery in the world; which city and venues do you con­sider to be hotspots and which ones would you like to show at?

I’ve been for­tu­nate so far to have exhib­ited in Mel­bourne, San Fran­cisco, Los Ange­les, Seat­tle, Tokyo, Sin­ga­pore and Hong Kong. To exhibit in New York, London, Paris, Prague, Barcelona or Berlin would be an awe­some opportunity.

Are you involved in any col­lab­o­ra­tive projects at the moment and is there anyone you would like to work with?

I hooked up with Pop Cling in 2006 to develop giant vinyl adhe­sives and a skate deck line. I’ve col­lab­o­rated with Pimp My Scoota (www.​pimp​myscoota.com) to design some Skaffs Scooter Decals. I recently sub­mit­ted some custom K-swiss sneak­ers that are going to tour Asia. And I am always dab­bling in the cus­tomiza­tion of vinyl toys. My dream col­lab­o­ra­tion would be to develop a fea­ture film with Hayao Miyazaki or to work on a stop motion film with Tim Burton using my characters.

What’s next in the pipeline for Luke Feldman?

I recently signed with Wheaty Wheat Stu­dios to pro­duce a line of vinyl toys. I am super stoked with that. There are plans to expand the prod­uct line with Pop Cling. I also have a couple more exhi­bi­tions this year that I am prepar­ing for. You’ll have to keep an eye out on www.​skaffs.com for upcom­ing details. And I will con­tinue to work on my Flash ani­ma­tion con­cepts for tele­vi­sion. My ulti­mate goal is to see my ani­ma­tion con­cepts devel­oped into a TV series some time soon!

Vam­pires or Zombies?

Zom­bies. I’m a real sucker for Zombie movies.

McDon­alds or Burger King?

Burger King. It reminds me of a burger place we have in Aus­tralia called “Hungry Jacks” where the burg­ers are flame grilled.

Illus­tra­tion or Animation?

That’s a tough one as I love both.

Coca-​Cola or Pepsi?

Coca-​Cola (of course, I am biased!)

You can see more of Luke Feldman’s work at
www.​skaffs.com

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Cats: Animation, LCS Interviews
Tags: Asia, Australia, Barcelona, Berlin, Burger King, Camille Rose Garcia, Cancer Council of Australia, Coca-Cola, Hong Kong, Interviews, London, Los Angeles, Luke Feldman, Mark Ryden, Melbourne, Nara Scott Musgrove, New York, Paris, Pepsi, Prague, San Francisco, Seattle, Singapore, Taekwondo, Tim Burton, Tokyo, www.pimpmyscoota.com, www.skaffs.com, Yoshitomo Nara