On Thursday last week, we got a chance to see the 2-time defending champion Heat take on the new-look Nets in-person as Brooklyn coach Jason Kidd had his jersey hung in the rafters at the Barclays Center. The fine people at Red Bull had invited us to the Deron Williams mural unveiling along a brick wall lining Flatbush Ave. as it comes up Dean St., southeast of the Barclays Center. We spoke with artist Tristan Eaton about the tattoo-inspired mural.
Eaton has done some street art around New York City, but he just moved into a penthouse apartment in Los Angeles, so we’re guessing he’s a little nostalgic for the days when tagging walls wasn’t so official. Instead of passing cops, for this project Tristan had to contend with Selena Gomez fans, intricate details that required stencils, D-Will’s own ideas for the project and a unique problem for an artist of his caliber. While we took in the piece, Tristan was kind enough to give us a brief Q & A.
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Dime: So you finished last night. I had heard it took you three days to complete?
Tristan Eaton: Three, 12-hour days.
Dime: Did they give you an outline of what they wanted? How did you decide on this design?
TE: It’s been a year-long process. Red Bull asked me to collaborate with D-Will to design the can about him. I took inspiration form his tattoos because that’s one of the direct ways he deals with art in his life. So I took his panther tattoo and his snake tattoo evolving off of him presenting his personality on and off the court. And that’s it. Flatbush Ave, big wall, finished. Feels good.
Dime: So we’re assuming the panther and the snake line up with each of D-Will’s arms?
TE: Yeah, it was really fun. It was all spray-paint. I used these ginormous stencils to do the half tone, and then I hand painted the can over there, which was brutal, but I got through it.
Dime: We’re assuming you did this at night to avoid the foot traffic?
TE: No, we started at 9 a.m. every day. Working through the day and night. Last night was a Selena Gomez concert. So there were thousands of 16-year-old girls all around us while we were trying to paint.
Dime: It’s better than having to paint watching for the cops, though.
TE: Hey, if I have to choose [laughs].
Dime: Did Deron come up with the [tattoo] idea?
TE: No it was my idea.
Dime: So you came up with what you wanted to do, and ran it by him?
TE: Kind of. We hung out a couple times, got to know each other a little bit, and then I just picked it up and ran with it.
Click page 2 to hear more from Tristan and see more shots of the mural…
Dime: Has he [D-Will] seen the finished product yet?
TE: Yeah, he was here on Tuesday and we hung out and chatted, hi-fived.
Dime: Have you done anything like this before for the NBA or through the NBA?
TE: No. But I’ve done a project with Red Bull and Thierry Henry, the soccer player. Did a crazy art project for them where I created a 40-tall mural outside Madison Square Garden. There were 40-foot tall targets all the way across the top of the painting, and it was all white panels. So every time he kicked the ball and hit the target, it opened up every single panel, like a Rube Goldberg. Crazy. That was fun. So Red Bull gets me doing crazy weird projects that I wouldn’t do normally.
Dime: What do you do normally?
TE: Whatever the f**k I want [we both laugh].
Dime: Are you based in New York?
TE: I have for the last 15 years, but I just moved to LA last summer.
Dime: Do you have a studio in New York still?
TE: HAH! I wish I could afford it. I’m not Banksy —
Dime: — He’s here now
TE: — I know he is, but I don’t make that kind of a living.
Dime: I love the finished product. It’s a nice piece to scope before heading into the stadium.
TE: Yeah, it’s crazy, they had a little animation thing on the Jumbotron, too. F**kin’ awesome. Pretty rad.
Dime: What are you working on now?
TE: I focus on my fine art and murals. I only do brand projects when it’s a really special, cool thing. Hopefully, I’ll be doing a lot more work with Red Bull because they let me go off and be creative. So, I’m sure I’ll be doing more work for Red Bull, but in terms of other commercial projects, I’m really picky with it. Normally I just paint.
Dime: Is there anything you hope people ask you about, but they never do?
TE: Well, one thing no one knows about me is that I’m colorblind. I’m like 75 percent colorblind. Reds, greens, browns —
Dime: Obviously not blue? So what does the mural look like to you?
TE: It looks the same as it does to you, but a lot of colors I can’t see as well as most people.
Dime: Does it affect your art?
TE: F**k yeah. If I was to sit down with a bunch of unlabeled crayons, it would be a mess. Yeah, I know what are complimentary and primary colors, and you know how to mix this color to get that color and what-not, so I know the formulas around it. But a lot of time with juxtapositions, I can’t differentiate one from the other.
Dime: When you’re working, has that ever been a problem?
TE: [laughs] Yeah. I’ve sent art to clients and they’re like ‘yeah, our logo is actually red, did you do it brown for a reason?’ [laughter]
Dime: So how do you create in the studio with your color blindness?
TE: I know color theory. So I know why colors work together and why they have certain outcomes. So I choose certain outcomes, for the symphony I want to produce.
He certainly created a nice symphony for the mural, so check it out when you’re going to Barlcays for the next Nets game.
What do you think?
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