Sheryo and The Yok talk about art, Miami and their “Endless Summer Travels“…

S: I started when I was 19 and the stopped in between where I wasn’t painting that many walls. After I met The Yok I painted a whole lot more.

S: I am from Singapore originally but now we both live in New York.

Y: I am from Australia.

S: Yes. We will be painting mostly. We are not fast about going to any fairs. We have a few pieces in a few gallery shows here in Miami right now. Brisky Gallery and Max Fish pop up and I am part of the exhibition “Women on the Walls” at Wynwood Walls with an entire line up of ladies who paint murals.

S: We have been traveling a lot even though we are based in New York. We are kind of nomadic and keep traveling to different places so we take a lot of inspiration from things that happen during our vacations and travels. We are always looking for summer weather so we call it “The Endless Summer Travels.” Our murals are usually also inspired by a lot of creatures and characters on vacation. The second mural we painted in Wynwood is a creature wearing a holiday vacation shorts, on the beach, sun tanning, soaking up the Miami vibes. We try to keep it a bit site-specific.

Probably Southeast Asia. Indonesia, Vietnam.

It is a mix of everything. We have been pretty lucky so far. People see us painting a wall and then they like it and they approach us for another wall. Or through the internet.

S: We started using less colors because we were always traveling. A paint situation. It is just way easier to get the paint if you only use a few colors. We started to develop a style with just four colors. Our own little color palette.

Y: It is a trademark style. It is a lot bolder, the less colors you use and it heightens your line work because you have to be more focused on the lines. We use thick and thin line works to differentiate parts rather than color. I think the gold came from us working in Cambodia. They use a lot of gold leaf in their paintings and that really influenced us and stuck with us. On other travels, it is something that we have kept as a constant. It is a nice way to draw attention to a part of the mural.

Y: Maybe 10 years ago. I have been in New York for three years and before that I was in Bangkok and Kenya and Singapore.

Y: I have a background in graphic design but my passion has always been painting. Every city we go to, we try and paint something.

You are both using an alias to paint. How did you come by your names?

S: He is The Yok and I am Sheryo.

Y: I just like the letters for mine. It has nice letters and it doesn’t have a meaning. My artwork gives it a meaning.

S. For me, it’s a combination of my real name and my obsession with Oreo cookies.

Y: Yes, the first time. First time in Miami ever.

S: I wanna see some flamingoes.

S: The same thing really. Characters on a holiday, chasing the endless summer vibes. It’s got a bit of Miami flavor in it.

S: We are doing some stuff on batik. We have been doing our artwork on fabric done in the traditional batik way. It is totally new and on show at the “Women on the Walls” exhibit. It is a lot of work. If you do 10, maybe 5 or 6 come out nice.

Y: It is done with hot wax. You dye the fabric and then boil the wax off.

S: Last year we had a show in New York based on ceramics. We also did a crazy dragon sculpture on a skateboard that looks like it is made out of ceramics. We want to do more because it was so well received. We actually went to a village in Vietnam to do the ceramics. Same with the batik. We went there and did it. We spoke zero Vietnamese but we had so much fun with the locals. We did Karaoke.

S: Britney Spears

S: A lot of hip hop, rap and reggae lately.

This is the third year.

I have been painting since 2001. I would say, on the streets since 2001. I was painting since I was a child really. I have been painting full time, as in I do not have a job anymore, for two and a half years. This is my full time job now.

I always paint portraits. Not since I started but this is what I have become known for.

I work from photo references. I work with a modeling agency. They cast the model and take the photos and have a make up artist to do the hair and make up.

They are usually from Australia but sometimes from other places. Last year, I painted a girl from Quebec who happened to be in Australia. This girl I am painting today, she grew up in Australia but she is part German and part Maori.

This girl, she was over the moon. She was so happy. To quote her, her mom “lost her shit” when she saw it.

I build a grid to make a reference. I work from the grid to make sure all the proportions are perfect and then I just work from the photo reference and render it. What makes someone beautiful is that the proportions are perfect and they are very balanced. To paint a face that is kind of very expressive is easier and maybe an ugly, angry monster where everything can be distorted. In a sense it is a lot more fun to paint that. To paint something that has this perfect balance, it really has to be right.

It is just the way I have developed painting. I kind of like the aesthetic of the drips. It adds to the texture of the painting and it adds a micro detail to it. You can only see it when you are close but from far away you don’t really see the drips. It has an aspect of decay. I like the having something that’s really messy and raw contrasting with something that’s really beautiful.

Yes. I do a lot of gallery work. Same women but on canvas. I rarely make money from painting a wall. I make most of my income from selling works through galleries and releasing prints.

I am showing at Stolen Space Gallery in London next April. That will be my first show in 18 months. I might do a show in Melbourne. I have not done a show in Melbourne in over two years. I have been concentrating on doing stuff internationally.

It is funny, I just saw my friends who are here for the first time and they said “It’s so crazy here!” and I said “You have no idea! This is nothing. It has not even started yet!”

Yes I will be going to some of the fairs. Painting the walls is my priority but I try to get at least to SCOPE because I am showing some works there.

My name is Tyrone. It was shortened by my friends when I was 15. I never really did traditional graffiti, tagging my name or anything like that. It just became an obvious alias for me that I decided to use. I do not really do stuff illegally so I could go under my real name but I think Rone is more unique.