It's been a slow rolling snowball I feel. Just steady painting everyday for about eight to ten hours a day. It's hard to take days off because other than spending time with my family, I'd rather be creating artwork.  It's definitely a passion and an obsession, pieces can take from a day on the smallest ones up to 6 months on the largest ones. I can't believe there are over three hundred already, damn I've got some editing ahead of me on the painting book.

Wall by Ces, Sub, Won and Craola

Ever been busted for creating public art?

I've been roughed up by the cops (I wouldn't say beat up) for photographing my work a day later, ran more times than I can count as well as sitting in some nasty places for hours hiding out. Luckily that is the extent of it.

The Lost Thought

The new show you're curating has the wonderful theme of artists interpreting the anti-hero of Watership Down. I see you've got Alex Pardee and Amanda Louise Spayd exhibiting, who don't need telling twice to do a bunny piece. Why are you guys all so nuts for rabbits?

I don't know man, it's in our blood from a young age - eating Trix and watching Bugs Bunny I guess. I originally was making the invite for the show to include just those artist friends of mine who are known for their bunnies, like Alex and Joe Ledbetter and Luke Chueh... Than I thought more of the context of the story itself and although rabbits are the foil which the author uses to piece the narrative together, it's about so much more. Social classes, perseverance, heroism, life and death, and all tied in with the dark thread of the black rabbit of INLE showing up to snatch them away. I wanted to see what all these artists would do to decipher the theme within their particular discipline.

Nutsy's Knife

Apart from rabbits, you've got a pretty keen eye for critters in your work. In one piece alone you've got a hammerhead shark, a budgerigar and - I don't even know what that fish is. What's your favourite animal and why?

I've been an animal nut and a bird nerd since I was a little kid, I even began my college studies to be a veterinarian, so painting animals is just a given for me. There are so many complex and beautiful creatures out there that when juxtaposed together can tell a story just in their meeting. Also the switching out of their skin to become a new creature is a take that I am highly interested in these days. You can take the punch out of a shark by giving him a clown fish paint job. I obviously am a fan if rabbits, but these days killer whales seem to swim through my head an awful lot. There so powerful and aesthetically can't go wrong with the black and white.

Beholder

I've had a lot of jobs. I began working when I was twelve years old. My first job was as a janitor. I did it for two years, scrubbing toilets, the whole nine yards, then I washed dogs at a kennel, delivered pizzas, waited tables, always making art and taking art jobs on the side. My first full time art job was right out of college. I was an illustrator at Jnco jeans for a couple of years. The company was pretty lame but the people I worked alongside were top notch. Getting to sit next to Axis, Kofie, Epik and Bill Mcevoy was a great learning experience. My art director Ken Bustamante was a huge inspiration in that he got me up and running on a computer which is the only way I could have gotten my next job at Treyarch/Activision as a texture artist for such games as Tony Hawk 2X, Spiderman 2, and Ultimate Spiderman, in fact the Tony Hawk project was probably the single greatest job aside from painting full time that I have ever had. I learned my work ethic from a young age and feel it has pushed me a lot. I mean it helped to see that I really don't want to be scrubbing toilets again.

See more of Craola's work at imscared.com