WadidoLA: Featured Artists: Gregory Siff

Photo by MAR

Meet Gregory Siff, a 33-year-old American pop, street, abstract-expressionist who divides his time between New York and Los Angeles. He's exhibited all around the world (in London, Italy, and Vancouver, to name a few) and his paintings have been featured in Urban Outfitters and The Four Seasons Hotel. His work has also appeared in Andy Warhol's Intervew Magazine, Paper Mag, LA Times, and Glamour. We guarantee you're going to like what you see, so check out more on his website, like him on Facebook, and follow him on Twitter!

Photo by Avinash Chainan

WLA: When did you first become interested in painting, acting, and writing?GS: In 1st Grade I found Crayons, in 7th Grade I played Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors, and in 2008, I wrote a play to act in because no one gives you anything, you have to create it.

WLA: You seem to be very creative in almost every avenue, where would you say you get most of your inspiration and creative energy from?
GS: I get a lot of steam from the people I meet and the people I love. Music always sets me off and I can pick up a brush or a can when I hear the right song that zings my gut and heart.

I have to make at least one new thing a day, and learn from it.WLA: What do you spend most of your time writing?

GS: Writing on stickers, and rewriting a screenplay called painT.WLA: What is Paint the Movie?

GS: painT is an indie movie I wrote. It is a modern day version of the life of the artist Vincent van Gogh. I found myself enamored with the letters he wrote to his brother Theo, over 600. Some of the purest moments of what it's like to live a life in the arts are captured in his letters. A must-read. In my connection with them, I decided to blend my own experiences with his and the outcome is painT.

WLA: What style painting do you do?

GS: Wild, kiddy.WLA: What type of acting do you do?

GS: Real.WLA: What do you hope to do in the future?

GS: I have one big art show in October and my solo one, in a secret location, in November. I hope to finish the rewrites on painT and start pre-production in January of 2012. After the film comes out, I hope to go on vacation in Hawaii and write another play called Ice Cream Stories about a Mexican Ice-Cream-Cart-Man. I have it already written in my head.WLA: Do you have any advice for readers who perhaps have an interest in pursuing their creative art?

GS: One, don't do it if you want to make money. Two, don't sleep. Three, if you know deep down in the pit of your heart that you must create, DO it, and never stop. Even if people say

your style is wack, even if people tell you have no talent behind your back, even if it takes 20 years to get one person to like what you are creating. Don't stop. Do it for you. For the way

it makes you feel. Being an artist is like being your own doctor, you know what's good for you, you know how to live.WLA: Do you have any other hobbies?

GS: Swimming in the ocean, more painting.WLA: What's your favorite weekend activity?

GS: I like to get sun.WLA: Team Blackberry or Team iPhone?

GS: iPhone, it's better than chocolate.