female announcer: On "Studio Space," painter Gina Tuzzi's socially conscious work is influenced by her love of rock music.

Muralist Sonny Wong's bold style fuses comic book impact with the vivaciousness of graffiti.

"Studio Space" explores Northern California's vibrant art community.

♪♪♪ Kati Texas: Gina Tuzzi is a painter and a muralist and a painting teacher.

And what she does with colors just sings to my soul.

Hi, I'm Kati Texas.

Welcome to "Studio Space."

Gina Tuzzi: I think something that I really value in my own life creatively and is important for me to sort of relay to my students as well is discipline and showing up for your work, even when it feels like the inspiration's not there or the energy's not there, finding a way to work it into your life regardless.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Kati: All right, Gina Tuzzi, thank you so much for sitting down with me.

Gina: Thank you for being here.

Kati: I can't wait to talk a little bit more about your work and your paintings, both large and small.

And I just want to say right off the bat that I love everything you do with color.

Gina: Aw, thank you.

Kati: Just everything.

Gina: Thank you.

Kati: We could start with a little bit of background.

Were you always interested in art?

Gina: Yeah, definitely, I'd say it's the thing that's been the most constant in my life.

I was really fortunate to be raised next door to these artists, a married couple Phoebe and Charles, and they both had studio spaces in their home.

They were career artists, so they were making work all the time.

And Charles in particular had this massive studio with his huge paintings on the wall and a sound system where he was always listening to music.

And I remember from a very young age thinking like, "I want that.

That's like the life I want, and whatever I can do to make that happen for myself, that's how I want to spend my time.

That's where I want to be in life."

Kati: And were you encouraged to do that?

Gina: Yeah, definitely.

Yeah, my parents are both really creative people.

My mom's a carpenter and my dad is a musician, so I think they understand the importance of--or I know they understand the importance of having a creative outlet.

And so, they were always fostering that in me.

They were always very supportive of that in me.

I would say from junior high, I was taking it really seriously and trying to have an art practice of my own, however that can be defined by, like, a 12 year old.

But constantly keeping a routinized creative process as part of my life.

Kati: I think sometimes people come in to painting or art classes with the idea that inspiration is this ephemeral, elusive thing, when really successful artists sit down and get to work.

Gina: Yeah, yeah, totally.

Inspiration is really fleeting, right?

It's not something we can just tap into.

You're really fortunate when you experience it, but it's not always there.

So, you have to constantly work, even when that's just not on the table as an option for experiencing that that day.

Kati: Does the practice of making art have meaning for you personally?

Gina: Yeah, I think that, you know, the practice of making art is a way for me to process great emotions that I otherwise don't have language for.

So, you know, my processing my relationship to color, or to texture, or to ideas, concepts, all of that kind of gets hashed out in the work.

And I don't have an identifiable other outlet for that in my life, so it's just a great way to process all of it.

You know, to process joy, or desire, or grief and loss, longing.

All of that can be worked out in here, which is really, really valuable to me.

Kati: So, you process all these emotions, you put all of this, like, deep thought and problem solving and thinking into your pieces in these delicious, fantastic colors.

And then you set them free out in the world.

Gina: Yeah.

Kati: Do you have a hope for them when they go?

Gina: My hope is that the viewer will have some minuscule amount of the experience that I had in making them, you know?

A lot of things are really satisfying to me visually in making the work and looking at the work, and I think that my desire is for the viewer to have a similar experience, to value them, to cherish them in the way that I do, which of course it can't be the same experience.

Maybe it can unlock some way of thinking in them that is different than my experience, you know?

Like it gets to be their relationship and sort of visual dialogue with the work.

Kati: Oh, well I'd love to see how you do that.

Can we--can you do a demonstration for us?

Gina: Of course, I would love to show you some things.

Kati: Great, yeah.

♪ There is a gate-- ♪ Kati: Tell me about what you're doing.

Gina: So, I'm working on an acrylic painting right now that is based on this photograph of Natural Bridges, which is a beach on the west side of Santa Cruz right by where I grew up.

I'm kind of building up this body of work that's all about eroding landscapes, and this is the first one from that series.

And all of the landscapes that I'm sort of borrowing from in the series are all places that I've lived.

Kati: There's something about eroding landscapes because when I look at this, this is a giant arch of stone.

That's permanent, right?

That's something that's going to last long past me and it was there long before I was born.

But it's not there anymore, is it?

Gina: It's not there quite possibly because of, like, human impact, right?

Kati: I was thinking, driving your car on it couldn't have helped.

Gina: Yeah, like we enjoyed it to death.

Kati: Right.

Gina: So, the color palette that I'm using here for this painting is from the "Wild Heart" album cover by Stevie Nicks.

So, I just went in, you now, pixel at a time and kind of sampled all of these different colors here.

Kati: Oh, that's fantastic.

Gina: And you know, I'm kind of like bringing that into the work.

So, somehow the record will also be sort of displayed with the painting, like I'll paint the record, but I will play with color in that too.

Kati: So, why "Wild Hearts?"

Gina: I think that, you know, I've been really drawn to the sort of post-Fleetwood-Mac Stevie Nicks records in the last year of my life.

My dear friend Janessa Johnsrude, who's also a local artist, kind of brought that song back into my life, and it reminds me so much of being a young girl in this landscape.

To me, it embodies this idea of like growth, you know?

Like I was a young girl when Stevie Nicks stepped out of Fleetwood Mac and became this amazing goddess.

♪ It's everywhere ♪ ♪ You say you seek the truth ♪ Gina: Listening to that music really reminded me of that time.

So, I think in a lot of ways, you know, there's this kind of element of autobiography for me in this work, where I'm talking very much about my life and my experience, you know, as a young person sort of existing in this landscape.

And the work is kind of always about music.

It's sort of been a constant for me that the way that I learned to draw when I was a young girl is that I would, like, lay under my parents' record player and just recreate the album covers.

Music is an art form that's always been so inspiring to me and, you know, brought me so much joy.

So, I just wanted to kind of bring it into the work because it's sort of a, I don't know, a visual medium I've been captivated by my whole life.

Kati: And we talked a little bit about different kinds of paint, but there's a principle that goes with all painting, and that is about light.

So, can you describe the difference between drawing and painting?

Gina: I think of drawing as being a medium at which, when you apply it to the paper, it becomes sort of still, right?

So, imagine if I was to take a graphite pencil and run it across the surface of something.

I can manipulate it a little bit, but it's pretty stagnant.

Whereas with paint, there's a sort of sensuousness to the medium, where it's open and malleable for a little bit longer.

So, I actually would qualify watercolor as more of a drawing medium because it's sort of inability once it's sort of set to want to be continued to be malleable, even though you can reconstitute it with water, you can get back in there.

But you know, maybe ink is actually a better argument for that.

But that's kind of how I personally distinguish the two.

And I should tell you that, like, I belong to a sort of camp of thought, maybe I can say, that like I recognize the rules in art making, and I also hold them accountable for being defined by a history that I think is, like, richly problematic.

So, there's a part of me that's like it's all drawing and it can be painting if you'd say it is, right?

Because I would think, like imagine I'm like gluing felt to this two-dimensional surface.

And you know, if I want to argue that it's painting and I can stand by that with integrity, then I'm interested in that conversation.

Even though a purist might be like, "That's not paint, so it's not a painting."

And I kind of think like, "Well, I don't know, I think it can be."

I think it's important for us to redefine those things because, you know, they were defined by a specific demographic for so long that, you know, there's a part of me that has issue with that.

It's like, I don't know if you get to make the rules anymore.

Kati: Great.

When you are working on a wall, when you're working outdoors like on a mural and you've got a lift or you've got to deal with like--there's so much that just has to happen and can't really be undone.

Gina: Yes.

Kati: When you do big projects like that, do you also experiment there on the wall, or do you come at it with a really solid plan?

Gina: I have a little bit more of a plan.

So, I do a lot of both digital and analog sort of planning before I go to the wall.

♪ Try to be there for you when your spirits start to sink.

♪♪ ♪♪♪ Gina: So that when I do get to the wall, I can just really stick to the plan.

You know, it's like I develop a recipe here in studio, and then execute the recipe at the location.

But I am such an improvisational painter, and I'm so attached to the spontaneity of being present with your work, that I try to keep time for that as well.

Like it's important for me to also find ways to let things feel like they happened there because they needed to happen there.

So, you know, I would say it's a good 80-20, 80% pre-planning, 20% allowing myself to make changes, to make moves outside of what the original plan was.

Kati: I see what you're working on.

Is there another project you're thinking of, a dream project?

Gina: Oh man, this is definitely something I think about from time to time.

You know, like if money was no issue or if time was no issue.

And I do have this fantasy.

I don't know if it's like a dream project, but I think it's like a dream experience.

I would love to rent a house somewhere in the south of France and spend a summer, like, painting landscape paintings, like stepping into the sort of fauve, you know, lifestyle and seeing what Matisse saw and, you know, all of those sort of giants that I adore as a painter.

You know, they feel kind of like the patron saints in a way.

And so, I've always kind of fantasized of gathering up my friends and having some space where we could collect as artists and be in this environment, and kind of make work together, and see that sparkle that's in the air there, you know?

I don't know if it's a dream project, but it's definitely a dream experience.

Kati: Well, Gina, thank you so much for allowing us today in your beautiful studio, it's really been a pleasure.

Gina: Thank you so much for coming.

It's been delightful to have you here.

Kati: And thank you for joining us today on "Studio Space."

David Ferney: Today, we're visiting Sonny Wong, a painter and graphic designer known for his bold, colorful style.

I'm David Ferney, and you're watching "Studio Space."

Sonny Wong: You know, I tried to put a lot of little things, even if it's not even for other people or maybe for people to discover, like that there's Easter eggs to discover.

And you know, if there was a theme, I'd throw in as many little things as I could, which maybe only four or five people caught.

You know, never have to explain it, never anything, but they're just there for someone to find later.

♪♪♪ David: Hey Sonny, thanks so much for joining us.

Sonny: Thanks, David, for having me.

David: Yeah, I appreciate it.

Just tell us what is the Sonny Wong style.

Sonny: The Sonny Wong style is it's a evolution of the teenage artist that I have been all the way till almost 50 now.

It's influenced by Hanna-Barbera cartoons, Super Friends, to manga, to ninja movies, to graffiti, to learning about fine art, and just meshing that all together.

David: You were the Artist of the Year, North Coast Journal 2019 really recently, and some great articles on you.

So, there's such a wealth of information and work out there, so it's been really fun to get exposed to it and learn more about it.

You started out doing a lot of graffiti in your younger years too.

Sonny: I was introduced to graffiti in the early '90s, fell in love with it.

I'd already been somewhat enthralled with it, even just from going to San Francisco with my mom as a child, just looking out the windows driving around, not even understanding what it was until I started paying attention and noticing, "Oh, that's the same person.

They're all over the place."

There's also early movies like "Wild Style" and "Style Wars," which are like the early documentaries on New York graffiti.

And just fell in love with the idea of it.

You know, I was also a skateboarder, so I was always--that's kind of rebellious.

Graffiti was rebellious, kind of went hand in hand.

David: Yeah, and you can definitely see how it's influenced the evolution of your work for sure.

Sonny: Yeah, I mean, even in my plein air paintings, I can see forms that I'm like, "Oh, that would be a cooler shape if it was, like, shaped like a S or shaped like this part of a letter," so, it definitely is infused in all my-- David: Foundation, yeah, foundation.

Now, you work in a lot of different mediums.

Is there any favorites that you like or your real go-to?

Sonny: Well, I wouldn't say that I really have a favorite, but there's definitely times that if I'm going through it, I will lean on one or the other.

My go-to is pen and ink drawing.

And that's really just I think my personal art journal, which I call a black book.

I like block printing, so there'll be a month or two every year where I'll just dive into a print.

Painting is always something I have going on in the background.

They all to me are all kind of the same thing, though, an expression of the same vision, just different medium.

So, like this piece right here, there's a finished piece underneath it, and I covered it with gloss.

Normally when I'm painting, I don't have a gloss on it because you get that really high reflection of the light.

So, I did this painting, I got it all glossed up, and I just didn't like it.

So, I was like--so, I started doing these shapes on top of it.

David: Oh wow.

Sonny: It was just too wild.

The geometry kind of calms it back down.

David: Yeah, and it like pulls you into the layers of it too.

Sonny: Yeah, to the chaos in the back.

So, this is kind of a new thing I've been on, this more abstract stuff.

'Cause a lot of my stuff is just cartoony.

David: Right, bold lines, bold colors.

Sonny: It gives me a chance to just be free and create without having--like no form, no line style.

Well, I mean, I still do line style, but it's just non-constrictive, so yeah.

And these things I kind of look at like they're like these weird outer space or inner space neon light kind of things.

And I'm just--I'm not trying to be too neat.

[scraping] Sonny: Kind of gives them like they're sparking off some sort of electric-- David: Yeah, I like the way the yellows do that a lot.

Sonny: Yeah, I've been playing with this two different color--the red and the blues.

And I don't know, we didn't talk about this, but I'm colorblind, red and green, so.

David: Yeah, I didn't mention-- I've read that somewhere or saw it in an interview, and I was like, "Wow, he's colorblind, 'cause his stuff is so color bold, you know?"

Sonny: I think I might make up for it because of that, you know?

As far as, you know, I'm concerned, I see colors just fine.

I can tell red, I can tell green.

But I think when I like to use them a lot together 'cause it--maybe 'cause to me, it makes it seem more vibrant, or maybe it ends up more vibrant.

As a kid, my dad had a putting green in our backyard.

And I had this little cap gun that would inject these little red cylinders.

And they would land on the putting green and it was-- I could play with a cap gun all I wanted as long as I picked up those cylinders.

And I would, but I would miss tons of them.

And my dad was like, "What are you doing?

Like, you don't want to play with this out here."

And I'd have to get really close, and then I could see it.

The way red and green vibrate with the way the light-- the waveform is very similar.

And so, for me, they will blur together, unless they're like super bold next to each other.

Yeah, it's strange.

I didn't even--I mean, I kind of knew I was colorblind like that, but it was never diagnosed until I used to work at Pacific Lumber Company, PL.

And I was training to be a grater and they test you for color blindness, and that's where I found out for real.

David: Were you a big drawing sketcher as a kid?

What were some of your earliest memories of art as a kid?

Sonny: I definitely have been drawing since I was a little kid.

Like I said, my grandmother was an artist, my mom in her youth was an artist, and I'd seen her sketchbooks.

But I always drew.

And if it was from Calvin and Hobbes to Garfield to Conan drawings, always had something going on.

But I used to get timeouts, and the timeout would be sit down and draw something, and it would often be something like the Golden Gate Bridge.

Or if we were just in San Francisco, Point Tower.

Or anything to make me just sit down and be quiet for a second and chill.

And it wasn't really a punishment to me.

David: It was like, "Get his focus on something productive."

Sonny: Totally.

David: Yeah, I also discovered one of your other side creative things that you've done a lot of over the years is your music, which I thought was really cool.

And you recently had a new release of a project that you have been working on and some different diverse musical partnerships.

Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Sonny: Well, that also kind of goes hand in hand with graffiti.

So, graffiti is one of the four pillars of hip-hop, and hip-hop is graffiti, DJing, breakdancing, and rapping.

And so, I try to dabble in all of those things.

So, what you're alluding to is I've been a rapper and I've had a rap crew since the '90s.

And we've put out our music independently, recorded it all ourselves, engineered it ourselves, learned how to distribute it independently.

And so, yeah, my rap crew is The Dirty Rats.

We've been around Humboldt County for 20-something years now; put out, I think, 18 albums.

It really is just another expression of my art.

♪ I hear you calling, but I ain't got the room.

♪ ♪ Only one sarcophagus can floss in this tomb, ♪ ♪ and that's mine.

♪ ♪ Mr. third eye blind, Mr. float out the picture ♪ ♪ like you full on frying.

♪ ♪ I dropping like a hawk, knock a sparrow out the sky.

♪ ♪ You could watch a downward spiral ♪ ♪ get reflected in my eye.

♪♪ Sonny: You know, if there was an audio version of what I do, that's what it is.

David: You did a ton of magazine covers for the "Savage Henry" magazine.

I talked with Chris Durant, who is the publisher of the magazine, who said, "Oh yeah, I met him originally doing music hip-hop stuff together, and then started the magazine."

I was like, "Hey, let's bring in Sonny."

Sonny: Yeah, I mean, literally I remember in the back of the Jambalaya, Chris and his crew was called The Republican Duck Hunters, and he was opening for us.

We were in the back just talking about art, and he had this magazine before "Savage Henry."

We started talking about like, hey, you want to do the covers for this?

Now, that was at a rap show, and he was pitching the idea of "Savage Henry."

And we were both Hunter S. Thompson fans.

And I was like, "Yeah, I'll do it, let's do this."

And he had an idea for a pilot issue that he was gonna get published, and then we'd shop it around and see if they could get advertisers.

And that was in late 2009, early 2010.

And yeah, I did the next 100 covers, one a month.

David: That's a lot.

Sonny: Which, yeah, make months go by real quick.

David: Yeah, yeah, well, you know, you can look at a lot of them online, and I loved how he had such specific themes each month that you really ran with.

He said, "Sonny's one of the hardest working artists in Humboldt County."

Said, "He's super chill, super professional, and he always had something in his back pocket ready to go."

Sonny: You know, I've got to say, you know, doing the thing for "Savage Henry" definitely helped me as a graphic designer because that is a thing for graphic--well, for artists to procrastinate, to not get things on time.

David: Right, you had a deadline.

Sonny: I did have a deadline, and I have to say, though, often, you know, it's like summertime, it's the month, and my wife wants to go camping, we got to go camping.

I'll be inking those covers with a lantern at nighttime, coming home the next day, scanning it and coloring it, getting it to Chris 'cause, you know, I'd procrastinate too.

But I always try to hit the deadlines.

David: It was kind of a hybrid of mediums.

You would sketch it out and rough line it, and then-- Sonny: No, I'd do the--I'd do the ink, full on final version of the ink, and then scan it.

So yeah, I would draw it on paper with pencil, go over it with ink, erase all the pencil, get home.

Or if I drew it at home, throw it on the scanner, scan it in, photoshop, and do all the color in Photoshop.

Drop the logo and type from Illustrator into Photoshop.

And that's--so, I'd already learned how to do this.

The "Savage Henry" just made me really good at it.

David: I went out and looked at some of your mural work.

I love the ship in a bottle in Eureka is really great.

How do you feel about doing big outdoor stuff like that?

Are you gonna do more?

Is there other stuff-- Sonny: Most definitely.

And that one's a good example of my evolution from graffiti was writing a name on the wall.

So, the mural is easy, it's just like I don't use the letters, but I just put myself on there instead.

So, it was almost kind of the same idea, like I'd already been doing big graffiti murals.

And then to do an art mural, it was just, you know, take the letters out and just have the characters.

It just--it felt natural.

And yes, I'd like to do more.

It's a balance because you have to have time to do it.

And so, if you have a job and-- David: It's not a quick-- Sonny: It's not quick.

David: Art fix.

Sonny: Yeah, it's easier to fit in doing canvases at nighttime in my garage right now, but at the same time, I always love painting big and in public places.

David: One of the other things I found out that you like to do as well is outdoor plein air.

Can you tell us a little bit about what appeals to you in that form of-- Sonny: Yeah, well, again, that's another balance that goes from urban style art, cartoon style art, or narrative art, where I can just go out anywhere in Humboldt County.

And there's so many beautiful places and different types of scenery where, you know, you sit there, it's quiet.

I don't put headphones in, I just listen to birds and the wind.

It's almost meditative.

And again, I never was taught any style for that, so it's just go out there and be free, and just have fun, really what it comes down to, especially when the weather's good.

David: Yeah.

Sonny: There's plenty of times when the wind blows, and the easels are falling over, and paint's going everywhere.

And it's, okay, that's not as relaxing.

But yeah, for the most-- David: Have you done any recently of that or?

Sonny: The last time I did a plein air painting was probably about two months ago.

A buddy of mine, Shawn Griggs, had built me a plein air palette setup, which he's been developing for the last couple years to fit in a backpack, and it's this--it's awesome.

I can get it out and show you if you want to.

It's got these magnets, so it holds all your canvass down.

It's got a magnet bottom, so it holds a paint tray.

And it sits on a tripod.

So yeah, it was about two months ago I got this.

David: Oh, right on.

Yeah, great.

Well, it's been super great finding out more about your work, and meeting you, and hanging out.

Really appreciate it.

Thanks, thanks for joining us.

Sonny: Well, thank you.

Appreciate it.

Kati: To learn more about these artists, go to studiospace.tv.

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