Battlemouth

The staggering amount of talented artists out there these days is something, if you have been a fan of Battlemouth{DOT}com for a while, you know I celebrate. In addition to the countless comic book artists I talk about frequently, I am also a fan of many other forms of art from photography, to more traditional canvas painting, to sculpture and designer vinyl, and everything in between. As I have discussed before, I nearly followed a path into the art world myself, but chose a different route. However, I have always been a dabbler and maintained my passion for all things art.

It is for that reason that I try to do what I can to help shed some light on artists that I think stand out in the crowd, or that I just happen to be a fan of. Philip T Hunter is one of those artists. I met Philip through Twitter and have been a fan ever since. A gentleman and a scholar, Philip’s work is always fresh and something unique. A self admitted “newbie” to the customizing scene, he shows serious potential to be a force within the ever growing art scene. Working primarily with the customization of designer vinyl, plastic, and wood toys, Mr. Hunter uses paint and and clay to create fun and fantastic pieces.

Philip took some time out of his busy schedule to answer some of my questions. Compiled here is that discussion for your enjoyment. If you ever want to be part of the conversation, follow Mr. Hunter on twitter here.

1. Who is Philip Hunter?

I’m just a simple Joe who loves to make stuff, whether thats just stuff in my head, on page, on canvas or on vinyl and the occasional wall!

2. Your work covers a large array of styles and designs from army men to zombies. Where do you get your ideas?

For the most part my ideas just spring out of a strange universe I created years ago containing four principle characters, basically alot of it started as the filler to ground the story, making it real, so it’s what they watch, what they read, and ultimately what they think of, but this universe is very British with added oddness, for a start the main character is a guy with a face made out of fuzzy felt this is where most of the odd stuff comes from also I have a self imposed remit where I’d rather not base any work on anything that already exists as I find it’s a pain in the ass. As for the more grounded pieces it’s generally the day to day of life and the way I see things and an attempt to explain what I think about it without giving too much away at first glance (and so I don’t have to, I’m lazy like that)it sounds a little pretentious I know. As for the Zombies who doesn’t love Zombies man, need I say more? That also goes for the robots as well.

3. You took part in The Lunartik Custom Tea Tour, how was that experience for you, as far as being part of a traveling show?

The Lunartik was Massive for me (still is) getting to show my piece with some of my favourite artists was ACES man pure and simple, also getting to see where my work fits in next to these artists was a learning curve, giving me the old “I wish I would have done that” but I think my finished piece held up (or so my friends tell me) which was nice!

4. Do you listen to music while you work? If so, what could we find on your playlist that helps to “get you in the mood?”

Anything music wise as long as it was written or engineered by someone with talent and Ideals no Pop Idol crap!! Anything from Creedence Clearwater Revival, to Billy Talent, Miike Snow, The Filthy Dukes, Fugazzi, Beastie Boys, wide and varied I guess but I do have a tendancy to listen to Flobots when I’m creating a statement piece. The easiest thing to say on this is anything as long I like it and it means something to me, or it gets a Rise from me.

5. Are you working on any pieces for upcomming shows?

Sadly I don’t have anything coming up, I think I need to push myself a bit more in getting pieces infront of the right people hopefully this year that might happen if I get my arse into gear. I’m hoping to be making my own resin platform sometime this year and I definately want to get some more works done I have a series of qee that I want to develop into paintings, but back to the question I would love be asked to do some more work for shows as the Lunartik experience was great, let them know I’m cheap, and by cheap I mean FREE!!

6. What brought you to the toy customizing part of the art world? Who are some of your biggest inspirations?

To be honest I fell into it buying my first munny about 2 years ago, made a character from the aforementioned pre existing universe (the customising equivalent of Ikea I suppose) and then did another and BANG hooked, since then I haven’t stopped hopefully developing skills along the way and getting paint and crap on the floors much to my wifes chagrin. As for Inspiration my Dad was a huge Inspiration in the way I think and see things kinda from the leftfield, and he gave me the ability to see mundane things with a skewed sense of reality, to clue you in he told me once that if you pick your nose your head’ll cave in, and on finding out that my friend picked theirs I started bawlin like a brat because I thought he was done for, and lots of other shit like that, he was a great man. Also probably watching a lot of banned horror flicks when I was a kid, the UK sucked at video! The customizing scene is a major factor in doing what I do with some great artists out there Jon Paul Kaiser, Chauskoskis, Brizl, Lunabee and many others are the Kings and Queens on the scene and a massive Inspiration to a snot nosed kid like me!

7. You do a large amount of customizing with Kid Robot pieces. How do you feel they have done in keeping in touch with their fan base? Do you feel like they isolate their fans with their prices or does the lack of “mainstream” attention help to keep the industry competitive and creative?

Aww Man this is a question, simple answer I don’t think they have at all, I actually think they’re trying to grab a new audience, I mean look at the blindboxed mini Munny what’s the point in all those colors, come on are they a DIY vinyl, or a decorative piece of vinyl, KR you’re not Hasbro stop it now! As for the prices in the UK we pay say £9.99 for a mini Munny retail, in the USA they are $9.99 which means we pay way more here, and yeah those prices are hiked up on both sides of the pond. Kidrobot do have a fair amount of creativity coming through their doors, that said there’s plenty of room for more, this is where they really isolate the fans on several counts asking for an opinion and then Ignoring it, you’ve seen the amount and quality of work from the guys on the boards and on the net in general and I bet you also thought give them a chance come on KR you can afford it, I know I do and often. To be honest the reason I use KR for alot of my pieces is down to 2 things availability and laziness, I can get them easy, and I know my way round the platforms. I am looking at moving away from KR slowly but surely, I needs me a new thing to make it fresh!