The street artist who is responsible for a part of the new graffiti on the Cardiff Fashion Quarter walls and who goes under the alias of Colour Doomed, arrived by pushbike wearing paint-covered jeans to The Full Moon bar on Womanby Street to talk to Alt.Cardiff.
Colour Doomed working on his piece on the Cardiff Fashion Quarter wall. Credit: Lucy Fisher
The 26-year-old artist, who is originally from Chichester, is currently studying for a degree in fine art at the Cardiff School of Art and Design.
He explained how his roots are very firmly in the traditional graffiti culture of tagging and bombing, which involves a graffiti writer’s personalised signature being painted in public areas. However he then went on to say how he made the decision to “learn how to paint properly and figuratively instead of just doing letters.” It was not until last year that he began using his alias of Colour Doomed, which was also the name of an exhibition he ran during a year he spent living in Brighton.
As for where he gets his creative zeal, it seems to be a matter of it being in the genes; his mother was a painter and it was his older brother who he used to go out tagging with and with whom he says he has a great relationship.
When asked which piece of his own art he is most proud of, he said that it had to be the piece that made it into the National Museum. “It’s a large scale piece called Life Support and it was great because not only did it make me feel like I’d achieved something but I was also just really happy with the painting. It took about six months.”
It was very clear that Colour Doomed is an artist who has his eyes open to the world and can find inspiration in all kinds of places. He describes himself on his website as a “cautionary observer” which he explained to mean that he is always cautious before making a judgement on anything he sees and that he likes to have the ability to be proved wrong. “You have to be aware, especially as an artist, that objects and things can be deceiving. People interpret what they see in different ways.”
Colour Doomed’s paintings are directly inspired by a long list of artists such as Goya, Peter Houson and Steven Campbell, but he also says “anyone can be inspiring. You could go to a bingo hall and be inspired.” He believes in the notion of ‘art for all’ and that every person has a value as an artist, whatever they are painting.
When asked about his biggest unfulfilled ambition he paused for thought for a while before quoting the Aesop Rock lyrics: “I’ve never had a dream in my life because a dream is what you want to do, but still haven’t pursued. I knew what I wanted and did it until it was done, so I’ve been the dream that I wanted to be since day one.”