Meet Ross Pino, an emerging, self-taught contemporary artist, whose work shines light into the darkness.
How would you describe your artistic style & where do you draw your inspiration?
I like to think of my artistic style as more of a conceptual way of doing art, I like to see my art work as a spiritual guide - more of a duplication of duality and polarizing life and death, good & evil, right & wrong, black & white, etc..
I draw my inspiration from my daughter’s artwork, also skateboard culture, mainly I pull most of my ideas for the story of life and death. Which is why there are so many skulls.
What’s a typical day in the life of Ross Pino look like recently & where do you draw your inspiration?
All I do is paint, and try to keep a healthy lifestyle, I get out and skateboard, ride motorcycles, stay active in the gym. When I’m not doing that you can find me painting away.
I draw my inspiration from my daughter’s artwork, also skateboard culture, mainly I pull most of my ideas for the story of life and death. Which is why there are so many skulls.
You’re based in New York, do you find that living in the city influences your work & how would you describe your creative process?
NYC definitely influences my work, the busyness of the city is captured in my work as well as in my lifestyle. Skateboard culture has had the biggest influence on my work, with the whole art culture they have adopted.
I rarely plan anything out, I try to let the work manifest as I mess around on the canvas, it comes naturally. The moment I try to manipulate it into something serious it falls apart.
We collaborated together on great art shirts using your work, tell us about those pieces and that process?
I started painting in the beginning of 2019, my daughter was messing around with some paints and so did I also, I found it to be very therapeutic during the rough season I was going through, it just stuck. It was as if I could get lost in it and work out all the issues I had in my life.
The shirts we collaborated on are some of my fun stuff, you can still see the juxtaposition of life in death in them, however they are more playful.
You will see the number 11:11 a lot in my work and basically, in a nutshell it’s a call to wake up, or pay attention, and also, it’s that duality playing out.
Are you working on any other projects at the moment?
I am always working on projects, painting has become a full-time endeavour at this point, from doing shows, to just simply creating. Entering into new mediums is always a fun thing, expect to see more ceramic work and books coming out.
Don’t be afraid to dream, but even more, don’t be afraid to fail.