Sonny Wong
SONNY WONG
Good afternoon world! Today we have another special guest, Sonny Wong from behind the Redwood Curtain. This guy is one of my biggest inspirations in font architecture. A true Jedi of the Sharpie. We are stoked to have him join our team.
Interview by Forest Stearns.
Fatbol: First off, tell me What to call you, Who you are, WHERE you’re from, and WHAT you do.
SW: My name is Sonny Wong. I live behind the Redwood Curtain in beautiful Humboldt County. I am a graphic designer and I own a health food store, Humboldt Healthy Foods in Fortuna Cali. On the side, I’ve been chasing the art life since I was a lil tyke, and still to this day, at 36, I eat, breath and manifest art everyday.
Fatbol: Where can the world go to see more of your work digitally and gallery?
SW: I have a website, World Wide Wong (http://www.worldwidewong.com) that shows some of my stuff, but my most recent work I post on a blog with a buddy of mine named The Sheik, called SHEIKvsWONG (http://www.sheikvswong.wordpress.com)
Fatbol: What is specific and unique that you plan to develop for the Fatbol project?
SW: I want to bring my own personal style to the Fatbol Project. To me that is the most important thing to bring to the table, your own style.
Fatbol: What is your favorite style and application for your own work?
SW: My favorite style is that old black and white, pen and ink shit. That is where I spent most of my developmental stages, filling up black books with sharpies. I’ve spent lots of time working with spray paint, acrylic on canvas, block prints, and I love all those too…
Fatbol: Explain your own style and science of art.
SW: My style is a fusion of comics, graffiti, and historical work. I look at making art like therapy, so I will be working out things I am contemplating in my life into my art. I also try to bring humor to it, I might be painting a subject matter that is strange or serious, but I like to make the viewer get a chuckle from my own cynicism.
Fatbol: What are three words that best describe your artwork?
SW: Clean. Colorful. Controlled.
Fatbol: What inspires you?
SW: I will find inspiration everywhere… beautiful scenery, music, the news, other artists, samurai movies, my kids….
Fatbol: What is your earliest “artistic” memory?
SW: When I was a kid, and would be getting too rowdy or whatever, instead of getting busted or put on time out, my mom would make me draw a picture that she would chose… she would say, “Ok, now you are gonna sit here and draw a picture of the Golden Gate, I want to see a boat and the city” I was like 6 or 7, and ever since then I have drawn.
Fatbol: What is your goal in life?
SW: Simply to be happy.
Fatbol: Name something you love, and why.
SW: I love my kids, they are the dopest things I ever created and they amaze me everyday.
Fatbol: What makes you angry?
SW: Hate makes me angry.
Fatbol: What was your favorite toy as a kid?
SW: Star Wars toys… specifically the AT-AT
Fatbol: What is your favorite toy now?
SW: My Mac.
Fatbol: What is your “dream” art project?
SW: I don’t know exactly what it would be, but whatever it would be would have to be of a huge scale and have a large impact visually… a mural on the face of the moon?
Fatbol: What have you been listening too while you’ve been working on your art[recently]?
SW: I listen to quite a wide range of stuff… MF DOOM to PINK FLOYD to reggae to dub… depends on the mood, or if I just have shuffle on my ipod.
Fatbol: If you were a cocktail on a drink menu at a bar, what would your name be?
SW: “Its A Wong Way Home” and it would be strong as hell.
Fatbol: If you could go back in time and talk to “8 year old YOU”, what would you say to her/him?
SW: I’d say “follow your dreams and work hard at that and you will be happy as hell young’un”
Fatbol: If you could collaborate with any other artist [living or dead], who would it be and why?
SW: Paul Gauguin, I just love his paintings, and the idea of living on a tropical island just doing your thang.
Fatbol: What is the best bit of advice that you have ever been given?
SW: My dad told me when I was a kid, “marry a woman that you meet while you are doing what you love, because if you marry someone that starts doing the things you love after you meet, it won’t last.” That was the smartest thing he ever said to me.
Fatbol: If you had a chance to say one sentence for the whole world to hear, what would you say?
SW: Treat others how you want to be treated. The world would be a kinder place instantly.