SUSO

RUDEY'S WORLD

In this era of customisation it seems like any product can be adapted to represent its owner. Individuality is currency and people want to be recognised as being unique. Some are braver than others, and for a certain few individuality is a way of life.

With people demanding that which no one else has, there has to be designers with the talent to deliver extraordinary, inimitable work and do it again and again. I caught wind of Rudey about a year ago having seen his work in a shop window, His talents had been spotted by a 'pooled resources' company representing designers, musicians and artists.

The style of Rudey's work is dazzling, and I wanted to know if custom clothing was his only focus. Making contact with him wasn't easy but once I did, I discovered that for him it wasn't so much about the clothes as the art. His work needed to be seen and what better way than for the people to become exhibits and to create a gallery on the streets.

"I had to figure out how to get my work seen, so I started painting on literally everything. I left a wake of colour pretty much everywhere I went. That decision brought a new style to my work which I like, so now I work on the kind of images that I grew up doing but at the same time I'll be painting a pile of trainers with some really unusual design requests."

The thing I love about Rudey's work is that has a really strong feeling of youthful, almost childlike exuberance. It's a riot of colour that takes cultural phenomena like graffiti and freestyle basketball out their hiding places and into the public eye. Refreshingly though it's not a contrived political statement, for Rudey it just is what it is:

"My work is all about fun, it consists of the colours I love and the doodles I doodle. A lot of it has an urban feel but it's very important to me that its not too serious. I stay true to that but sometimes its a fine line between keeping innocent and also expressing elements of darkness and surrealism that may be neccesary for a certain piece."

Rudey's clients range from Marvel Comics to UK Hip-Hop dance champions Diversity, and he always gets a buzz from the continued individual client work. To get an idea of the grassroots though, have a peep at www.rudeyarts.com For me this shows the real Rudey, a collection of images, doodles, clothing design and fine art that looks incredible whether its on a canvas, on a wall, on a cap or in a sketchbook.

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By on 4/2/08