Nowhere in my job description did I see “I get to meet amazing artists”. However, I’m not complaining. It’s what makes my day so colorful, interesting & very inspiring. I had a chance to kick it
with a long time friend & Staten Island Native Cody Prez to talk art & the county of Richmond for a lil bit.
Name: Prez, Cody Prez.
T: When was the first time you picked up anything to create art?
CP: The first time I remember picking up anything to create art was as a young boy, more by the age of 12 I can truly remember to exhibit a real interest in drawing, creating , imagining, inspired so
to say.
T: Did you grow up on Staten Island?
CP: I grew up on Staten Island, and resided in a tough but influential neighborhood known as Park Hill/ concord. As a youth I attended a private school on Bay St also located on Staten Island.
T: Whats you’re favorite medium to work with?
CP: I’d say my favorite medium to work with is my hands, my gift. I have this huge need to create and build, move and work, operate and facilitate with them so any tool, or creative tool in my hands
are my mechanisms. If I had to choose one only for life, I’d say it would be aerosol paints.
T: What motivates you to create?
CP: Motivations in life are everywhere in our surroundings which allows me to create, but between this huge need to exasperate or vent daily life through expressionism of any of my creations, and
this feeling I get after completion of any project it is almost an addiction. I can never get enough. Even when I’m not in the mood for any.
T: Who is your favorite artist & why?
CP: It’s hard to say who my favorite artist is being anything I love/like all fits into the same category. Favoritism is hard also because I love and respect all forms of art, we’ll mostly… But if I
like it, I gotta love it, if I don’t, I don’t…. But if “I had to” I’d say id prob choose Leonardo DaVinci due to his overwhelmingly eccentric thought patterns and his way out of time creations, a
genius for many reasons.
T: what are you biggest challenges as an artist?
CP: My biggest Challenge as an artist would be there is never enough free time to create no matter how unlimited free time can be. Its more more more…. And always on my mind. I always try to drop new
science in any production I create, and I always try something new no matter how challenging it seems. My second biggest challenge as an artist is simply getting my art and visions into the eyes and
minds of the people who pay attention.
T: where do you want to see your art?
CP I want to see my art anywhere I can, I walk around or drive and always imagine it on everything, but that’s not the case. I’m constantly at war with time, and time constantly takes me away from
getting my art places on a grander scale, although I’m humble where my art has grown and landed, I’m always on the prowl to see it grow more, inspire, and please no matter where it presents
itself.
T: What do you call this collection of money art?
CP: i call the collection..” Debt till Death “(a series of a factual promissory note) but never thought of calling it anything of than what it represents, slavery.
T: What inspired you to do this collection?
CP: The art i place over the note is from my emotions connected to people, the world we live in, and the constant rat race we live day to day for its purpose, its love, and its addiction it has over
a majority. There is so much to talk about when it comes to currency, and its plain fraudulence of believing a piece of paper with ” legal printing ” actually has any value, other than the
conditioned views we all are taught to believe. So as an artist, who feels like a slave to the system of this repetitive race for a worthless promise note it was time to express my vision of what the
dollar is and what it does, a deeper insight on it mechanics, what it causes, what it leads to, the powers behind it and in hope, to have people think about the real message of my views based of the
life experience and knowledge I’ve acquired.