Artist of the Week: Peat Wollaeger

I have been fascinated by graffiti, especially stencil art for awhile now, and when I found out that Chicago's Rotofugi gallery was hosting a show featuring three top stencil artists I knew I had to do something. The art of stencil graffiti, both in the streets and in the galleries, has been gaining in popularity over the last several years, and public acceptance is continuing to grow. Artists are being commissioned for murals in the name of "urban design", and with each stencil sprayed across the cities of the world there is creativity and artistic drive instilled in the public as a whole. It is one of the most immediate and vital art forms in our cultural today.

St. Louis stencil artist Peat Wollaeger has been crafting stencils and using the streets as well as traditional canvas to spread his creativity around the world. His most recent series of stencils is called Eyez, and takes repetitive look at what most consider the window to the soul. Not a surprising subject matter for an artist who calls his site stenSOUL.

The stencil exhibit at Chicago's Rotofugi opened on Feb 27th and runs through March 15th. Along with Peat the show features Chicago artist David Soukup who explores the use of stencils to create intricate architecture-inspired works and Seattle-based Jonathan Wakuda Fischer mixes Japanese themes with modern culture and vibrant colors. Recently Peat was kind enough to answer a few of questions.

OrangeAlert (OA): You have seen the perception of stencil art transform from graffiti to legitimate "urban design". What has that transition been like for you?
Peat Wollaeger (PW): I used to do some traditional graff in the early 90's...I did mostly Characters and not really tags. When I started Stenciling it was mostly as a means of transferring my drawings in Illustrator to canvas/glass. But since i was creating these stencil for gallery I actually went the reverse way and started spraying them on the street. After seeing how fresh and gritty they looked on the street I started doing more and more, now I actually think my stencil look better on the street than on a canvas.

OA: As a family man and active member of a community are all of your public works commissioned and legal? Does that limit your ability to create?
PW: I still paint when and where ever I can. I do legal and Illegal walls. The only problem with being known for my stencil work is that I am starting to get calls from the authorities when they see new stuff that I have put up illegally on the street. I actually know a cop on the "Graffiti task force" and he has told me to chill out, but has explained to his chief that I am respectful and would never paint on raw brick or ruin property. I mostly will hit up dumpsters and boarded up buildings, my intention is not to vandalize but to beautify...but not everyone understands the difference.

OA: You are currently involved in a three person stencil show at Chicago's Rotofugi. Tell us a little about your contribution to the show and your thoughts on the show in general.
PW: Rotofugi is about a block away from where I used to Live in Chicago (Wicker Park) before I moved to St. Louis 8 years ago. Actually Rotofugi used to be "Big Brother" an indie video that I used to frequent. I have only done a few small group show in Chicago, and I am excited about my first major exhibit of works since I lived here. It will be mostly featuring my latest Series "Eyez".

OA: I really like your Eyez series. How did you come to design that stencil, and has that been your most recognizable image?
PW: My StenSOUL's are usually focused on EYEs because they are the window to your soul. So this series pretty much embodies the basic element of my works...the EYEZ! It also pretty much started with the design of my custom EYEconoline.

OA: You have collaborated with several talented artists, two of which are former Orange Alert artists of the week, how do you approach a collaboration?
PW: My biggest Collaboration has been my Luchador Collab-o-mask Series (Over 90 masks to date) where I mail out Blank Wooden Wrestler masks to various artists (a mask by Famerbob aka Robert Hardgrave above) and then they paint their style in to the mask. They then mail it back to me and I stencil in the Eyes, nose and mouth. So this Collaboration is mostly based on what the other artist want to add to the mask, I just decide what feature I will mask out and the colors of the facial features.
See all the masks here. I will be bringing this Show to Chicago in August at the Country
Club.

OA: What's next for Peat Wollaeger?
PW: This is actually very TOP SECRET...but I am working on creating my Largest Stencil installation to date....check back soon!

Bonus Questions:
OA: If you could sit down to coffee with anyone (alive or dead) who would it be?
PW: Keith Haring

OA: What type of music do you enjoy and who are a few of your favorites?
PA: All kinds from Hip-hop to Rock to Jazz to SOUL...I just hit shuffle on my ipod...If I had to choose one musician to listen to every day for the rest of my life it would def have to Be Stevie Wonder...he's a Genius, I can never get enough!

For more information on Peat Wollaeger please visit his website.