Reno averages 114 cloudy days per year.  Seattle is about twice that number. Can you blame Overunder for moving to Reno? Despite the endless days of gray, Seattle’s pretty nice to live in, according to many. The economy is fueled by the high tech industry and is also one of the most progressive cities socially, recently enacting a $15 minimum wage, new taxes on the wealthiest 1%, and there are well funded social services for the homeless and those seriously in need.

Overunder AKA Erik Burke. “Kurt Kobangs” Seattle. March 2015. (photo © Erik Burke)

And truthfully, painting under gray skies is actually preferable to burning under hours of blasting sun, so Overunder recently returned to Seattle to create a new mural for Urban Artworks, a youth oriented public art program that is celebrating its 20th year. In addition to the “monster mural”, Overunder also had the opportunity to complete some characteristically “free-range” installations, the kind we were more familiar with when Brooklyn was his stomping ground a few years ago.

Overunder AKA Erik Burke. Seattle. March 2015. (photo © Erik Burke)

A very distinctive style on the street that recalls work of pals Labrona, Troy Lovegates, even Barry McGee and more West Coast folk surrealists, OU continues his visual anagrams on the street that toss around the elements now familiar to his vocabulary – rolldown gates, distorted monochromatic figures, brownstone facades, somewhat brooding expressions, wit. You’ll see the linework is cleaner and more confident than ever, the palette pleasingly saturated, the waving curvilinear forms now more expressive even as they beguile.

Overunder AKA Erik Burke. Seattle. March 2015. (photo © Erik Burke)

We wanted to see what he had to say about his work now, and how his pieces on the street came about, and how he conjured the new mural for Urban Artworks;

Overunder AKA Erik Burke. Seattle. March 2015. (photo © Erik Burke)

Brooklyn Street Art: Can you describe a typical process for creating one of these – do you sketch, paint, cut-out, and wheat-paste?
Overunder: The process is very pure, just spray paint on paper. A typical process involves tacking a roll of paper up, cracking a beer, and just seeing what happens with a can of spray. Oh and maybe a little Freddie Gibbs or Isaiah Rashad as soundtrack.

I try to keep each piece to an hour or less so they don’t get over-worked and then I cut them straight off the wall.  For every 2 or 3 pieces I put up in the streets probably 1 piece gets tossed in the trash and another archived so I can look back at my progression (sometimes regression). These pieces are very liberating and give me the freedom that I can’t achieve in my murals. It’s just my subconscious and the medium. Especially now that most of my murals involve more research, time, supplies, and stamps of approval from various parties.

Overunder AKA Erik Burke. Seattle. March 2015. (photo © Erik Burke)

Brooklyn Street Art: How do you chose the text that sometimes goes directly over the face, and what is it about?

Overunder: I don’t want my wheat pastes to be precious or special and the best way to de-virginize that smooth and perfect paper is to christen it with whatever’s on my mind. In a way the text chooses me. A lot of times I have no idea what I’m writing but it becomes brutally honest. There is a reason why diary and diarrhea are found next to each other in the dictionary.

Since I put shading and line work over the top the text gets pushed back and becomes more of a technique to build background texture. i.e. a kneeling red figure I put up in the ID (International District) reads, ‘There is comfort and then there is convenience and then there is undeniable devotion and then there is unquestionable kinship and then there is regrettable choices and then there is all the other stuff.’

That could be interpreted many ways but to me it was a joke about my inability to distinguish between then and than.

Overunder AKA Erik Burke. Seattle. March 2015. (photo © Erik Burke)

Brooklyn Street Art: How did you connect with Urban Artworks and can you describe the organization?
Overunder: They reached out to me after hearing about me through mutual friends. It was inspiring to learn about them as they are a very unique organization that works specifically with adjudicated youth to create public art. The youth are paid by the county to work on projects and they gain work readiness skills, art experience, and self confidence through the creation of their murals.

Urban ArtWorks also takes pride in giving aspiring muralists opportunities to build their own portfolios and skill sets through the whole process. The program is in its 20th year and looking to build their roster by working more with artists beyond the Seattle area – so, I hope to be back to create with them again and maybe even lead a youth mural next time.

Overunder AKA Erik Burke. Seattle. March 2015. (photo © Erik Burke)

Brooklyn Street Art: The mural features airborne creatures … and a cassette tape that looks like a mix of home jams. How do these fit together?
Overunder: Under the supportive assistance of Urban Artworks I created this mural titled “Contribute” for a new apartment development on Capitol Hill. While the theme involves showing birds flying to a nest with gifts to contribute I was also fortunate enough to involve several of my all-time favorite Seattle artists as they helped contribute to the overall mural.

Overunder AKA Erik Burke. Seattle. March 2015. (photo © Erik Burke)

Collaboration has always been important to me as a humbling bi-product of process and as a tool for apprenticeship. Aside from Derek Yost (who assisted on most of the mural), I involved No Touching Ground, Kyler Martz, Yale Wolf, Paulina Cholewinski, and Kathleen Warren who is the Director for Urban Artworks. The mural itself combines Gulls, Swallows, Killdeers, and other two-winged friends reported to be seen most by the Seattle Audubon Society.

I tried to create some movement amongst the large space by weaving birds, birch trees, and unspooled cassette tape as it gets tangled in the birds nest. The background blue gradient utilizes the natural shadows cast by the architecture to create an abstract sundial from sunrise to just past high noon.

Brooklyn Street Art: Why does it always seem to be raining in Seattle?
Overunder: I don’t know but I do know that that is the reason why I moved out of Seattle in 2004.

Overunder AKA Erik Burke. Seattle. March 2015. (photo © Erik Burke)

Overunder AKA Erik Burke. Seattle. March 2015. (photo © Erik Burke)

Overunder AKA Erik Burke. Urban Art Works. Process shot. Seattle. March 2015. (photo © Erik Burke/Urban Art Works)

Overunder AKA Erik Burke. Urban Art Works. Process shot. Seattle. March 2015. (photo © Erik Burke/Urban Art Works)

Overunder AKA Erik Burke. Urban Art Works. Process shot. Seattle. March 2015. (photo © Kathleen Warren/Urban Art Works)

Overunder AKA Erik Burke. Urban Art Works. Detail. Seattle. March 2015. (photo © Erik Burke/Urban Art Works)

Overunder AKA Erik Burke. Urban Art Works. Detail. Seattle. March 2015. (photo © Erik Burke/Urban Art Works)

Overunder AKA Erik Burke. Urban Art Works. Detail. Seattle. March 2015. (photo © Erik Burke/Urban Art Works)

Overunder AKA Erik Burke. Urban Art Works. Detail. Seattle. March 2015. (photo © Erik Burke/Urban Art Works)

Overunder AKA Erik Burke. Urban Art Works. Seattle. March 2015. (photo © Jake Hanson/Urban Art Works)

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