Inside the mind of Brisbane artist and skater Whobokku and his creative inspirations.

Andrew Krasnoff, otherwise known as Whobokku, is a Brisbane artist and skater who continues to forge a path for other creatives with his unique artwork. Inspired by his background in skating and music, his style and paintings are refreshingly unique and provide a glimpse into what fuels him creatively.

We sat down with him to talk about his creative inspirations, his process when making his art pieces, and his advice for other artists like himself.

Could you introduce yourself for people that don’t know you?

My name is Andrew Krasnoff, I paint, I do my creative endeavors as Whobokku or Bokku, and I’m a 29 year old Brisbane creative.

Where are we, could you give us a rundown on this space?

We're in the basement underneath my house in Herston, Queensland, this is where I do all my aerosol stuff, do a lot of my creative work, and yeh just keep all my shit.

Your style is super unique, how has your personal life influenced your style and the way you create?

Yeah, I think it completely influences and shapes it, as everything else in life does. I definitely think that all my experiences shape my art. I feel like art for me, gives me the chance to say the things that I can't say in person or that I struggle to with words, and instead I can show it through my art.

Is there a particular time or place where you feel most creative?

Ah shit. It's diverse. It changes all the time. Like whatever is happening in that moment in my life, it could be like in the morning, I'll wake up feeling good and ready to go, but other times late at night. Yeah, just changes whenever the feelings there.

Your style has evolved a lot over the past couple of years, do you think your art reflects what you are feeling at that point in your life?

Yeah, definitely. It's like a little snapshot into what was happening in my life when I made it. You can look back and kind of get a hit of nostalgia too. I see them as like little mementos.

From when the concept first enters your mind, to the finished product, what is your creative process?

So recently, it's been mostly sketching, I'll try to sketch a character or an idea out and then sometimes I'll just try to smash out the painting in that session and just go straight to filling in with colour. And then aerosol after, but it can be collaging too so like, chopping out bits from one piece, and then sticking it on another painting I've been doing in the past. My process changes a lot as well, it's a big mixed bag. I feel like that’s just me though, I get distracted a lot and my attention span is pretty thin on certain things. Sometimes I will smash into something for like 12 hours a day, and then just be like kind of over it, and then just move onto the next thing.

I know a lot of artists face creative blocks, self-doubt, or are sometimes just unmotivated, how do you fight that mentality?

Just life I guess, I like to get out, do other stuff, just really balance it out. Finding a balance in life is really important, in whatever you do. Skateboarding helps me a lot, having that creative outlet, and then art as well, it's a nice little marriage.

What impact do you want your artwork to have on the people that see them?

Damn, that's a hard one. What I find value in when I see art is that something's being said that I relate too. It's like showing that something's okay. Showing me that it's okay to have these feelings or showing me that, alright, this person also experienced this. Maybe give people some clarity on some feelings or thoughts that they’ve been having that they can see in my art. I don't know. It's just showing things that they can relate to I guess.

You have had public exhibitions of your work before, you have a book full of photos and your artwork. How important is it to you for your work to be printed and shown to the public in a physical form, in comparison to just seeing it on instagram?

Yeah for sure. Well I guess I use mostly practical stuff, so I already get the piece myself, but then scanning it onto the computer, and then seeing it like that, and then getting it again, is definitely a cool feeling. Because you’re like shit, this is like, legit. It’s definitely a cool experience.

You said that you are drawn to skateboarding and its culture because there are 'no rules'. how does this outlook on skateboarding translate into the way you create?

With art? Yeah, definitely, it's all the same. I came into doing art without any structure or any learnt skills or anything. For me it's the same as skating and you just kind of jump on the board, do your thing and just hope for the best.

What first got you into skating?

Shit, my neighbour, when I was a kid we had a little skate crew called the Street Rats. We used to just run around the streets, trying to ollie up curbs, drawing on our grip tape and shit, that’s where it all started.

From the designs on decks, the stickers everyone puts up, to the clothes, skateboarding is an art form in itself. Do you see skateboarding as another avenue for you to express yourself creatively?

Yeah. 100%, I see skateboarding kind of like dancing, just going out there, learning new tricks, doing these little moves and jigs and stuff. It's my physical creative outlet, painting and art is more of my mental outlet.

You've done murals, mixed media pieces, photographs, paintings, mini-sculptures, and much more. Do you have a favourite artistic medium?

Ah, definitely sketching, just like sitting there drawing with a pencil on a pad like, that's the most calming kind of thing for me.

I know you've tattoo'd yourself and you like tattooing, what first got you to start?

I mean shit, skating too, as a kid you look up to all these pro skaters and most of them are covered head to toe, it's kind of part of the whole thing I guess. I see it as art as well, so it’s just a mixture of all the shit I like.

Do you have a favourite tattoo?

On me? Definitely Ging, this one right here, it’s a stick and poke done by Simple Hands. Ging is this anime dude who I feel like represents skating because he gets beat almost to death every episode, but then next episode he's ready to go back at it.

What creatives, regardless of their artistic medium, inspire you?

There’s so many, Tyler the Creator, he’s a big one because he's just full on being himself, just doing his thing, whatever he wants to do he just kind of does it, so that’s definitely super inspiring to me.

Do you listen to a lot of music?

Yeah I do, I used to make beats and DJ quite a bit, I’ve actually got an EP, it’s kind of weird, I used a text to speech bot and made this AI complaining about the end of the world, saying shit like, "we fucked up" and all this shit about the world ending, so I might release that. Maybe as Whobokku, just like a visual kind of video thing, who knows.

What have you done that you are most proud of?

Shit, I don’t know, that one’s hard. Probably the sweet back side flip I landed the other day, it was pretty fun. The Bad Olive stuff was really cool too, that whole experience. Abby just hit up a bunch of Brisbane creatives, similar to what you guys are doing, and then put on a big event for us. She just made us feel special and gave us fucking catering and shit and all this unneeded stuff for our level but yeah, it was just a cool experience for sure.

What led you to make the hot sauce?

My uncle, he makes sauces and honey, he's just a super farm kind of dude. Yeah, we were growing heaps of habaneros and I don't know, I love the show hot ones and thought i’d just make a hot sauce.

What other Brisbane-based creatives do you think. are pushing the boundaries and deserve to be recognised?

There's a ton of Brisbane artists that are super creative and really getting into it with music, art, everything. There’s way too many to name. The homie Blue the Magi, he's a sick rapper. He does a lot of improv jazzy kind of stuff and shit. There's so many. Everyone who I put on my show. Shit. I feel like I missed so many out.

What are your goals or hopes for the creative Brisbane community in the future?

I think that we just work together, my main hesitant apprehension or whatever is that things will get too cliquey, like everyone just doing their own shit. But yeh just mainly for everyone to work together and help each other out.

What advice do you have to young creatives who are just getting started, regardless of their medium?

Just make shit, do as much as you can, whatever you feel like. But make make sure you're actually doing, it's sick to think about something and have an idea but you gotta execute. You have to at least try it to see if it'll actually work. And yeah, just do it. I guess. Like Nike.

If you could have 5 guests at an imaginary dinner party, dead or alive, who would it be?

Shit I don't know. Would it be someone to converse with, or someone that’s gonna cook me a mad dinner.

Dinner is provided.

Alright, five people, shit. I mean, Nikola Tesla, right? See what the fuck is going on there. Probably Bowie. Nikola Tesla and Bowie. Those two would be the best, they’re the ones I would ask a lot of questions. Andy Warhol, maybe.

Any skaters on the list?

Oh, true, I didn’t even think of skaters. Who would I like to party with? Dustin Dollin for sure, Dylan Rieder, rest in peace, we'll just say Harold Hunter too. That’d be a fun dinner party.

What's next for you?

Coming up next, I don’t have any shows locked in but I’m doing a thing with Parliament which I don't want to say too much about. It’s a little capsule collection, so that’s cool, and yeah, just gonna keep pushing the art and trying to evolve and get better and then and keep it moving.

Photography credit: Oliver Nijimbere

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