Black and White: An Interview with Mike Giant
An Interview with Mike Giant
Mike, when did the name Giant become associated with your artwork?
I started using it (Mike Giant) professionally once I already had a name for myself as Giant in the graffiti circles but using Giant as a tag started in 89’, when I started writing. It’s one of those things that when I decided to tattoo I could have gone by my real name but at that point I had already been known as Giant.
Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Albuquerque (New Mexico) and was born in New York, upstate NY. My family moved us to New Mexico in 1979 and I stayed there until 93’, that’s when I moved out here (San Francisco).
New Mexico/Latino cultural is attributed to a good portion of your works. Did growing up in Albuquerque inspire you artistically?
A lot of the things that I draw are kind of symbols that we all know, it gets passed around freely. Everything to me though still has a personal meaning. A lot of it, especially with the Catholic stuff, is very New Mexico oriented. I grew up Catholic. I think just the imagery that stuck with me from that faith system was the kind of with more of a New Mexico feel to it, more native Latino. It’s just one of those things, so it’s definitely an influence.
I know a good amount of successful artists begin in one artistic field and eventually find their calling later on, Tinker Hatfield comes in to mind immediately. Was tattooing always your ultimate goal?
As far doing it for a living, it kind of had to fall in my lap for someone to offer me a full time art job, to even think that was a possibility. I was going to architecture School and then dropped out. But even as a little kid, as soon as I could hold a pencil or a marker or crayon, I was drawing. There were times when I wouldn’t draw everyday, I would draw once in awhile. There’s a time when most of us kids, as soon as people begin to know you’re a good drawer, say you’re kind of a dork and you hide away. It’s funny like that, cause I did the same thing. I stopped drawing and making myself stand out, but was still kind of a closet illustrator. Later on though, it was all good.
Do you ever see yourself heading back into the field of architecture?
I think I still want to go in that direction. Architecture is something that really interests me. It’s just not something that’s part of my life right now. My life has
taken me other directions and in many ways, way beyond any kind of fantasy or dream I would have had about the future. I don’t know if I would have had the same opportunities had I pursued architecture… I doubt it. If it would have happened, it would have happened later. I talked to my professors in college about leaving college and moving to CA to draw skateboard graphics for a living. At first, I thought that was gonna seem a little preposterous to them but they were actually really supportive and were like, “You obviously draw a lot of stuff in your free time that doesn’t cross over into your architecture work, which is academic and getting the grade. But your not really flexing your creative skills as much as we’re seeing in your graffiti”. At that point, they said architecture is a practice of old men. Some of the greatest architects in history didn’t make their world renowned pieces until they were really late in life, in their 60’s-70’s.
That seems like a valid point.
Definitely. They said just come back to architecture when you’re older and you’ll be more informed about the bigger picture of things and that will help your work regardless of what medium you’re working in.
It seems like tattoo art is still quite important in your life. Is there a reason why you choose to step away from it?
A lot of it was for physical reasons. It’s really hard on my back and my hands, every joint in my body aches after I tattoo. It’s just hard. It’s such a labor intensive medium, there’s nothing like it, you know? The stress of having to do it perfect, or as perfect as possible, is tough, it’s a tough business. It gets glamorized a lot and I think on a certain level it is kind of glamorous. Tattooing has that potential but I think for the people who really apply themselves artistically within the tattooing world, to maintain a real high level of professional quality requires spending a lot of time doing it and doing art work for tattooing and educating yourself, that’s when it becomes this big thing. I mean, you just can’t be happy doing street shop stuff your whole life and that can be real thrilling, you always have tons of cash and access to cute girls and all this. There’s definitely a contingent of people who are all about that. There’s another level to it, there’s a deeper thing then that, it’s heavy I think, you’re marking people, you’re making them bleed and hurt and a lot of the time you’re manifesting things that they feel so compelled in their heart to put into their skin and at the risk of all kinds of financial loss and pain and being judged by their family, all kinds of stupid shit. It’s a lot different than just drawing on paper, that’s for sure.
