Ok, this is something new. We don't do interviews with artists any more. We let other artists do them for us. Yes, You could say that we are a bit lazy. This time, Lunar did it with one of the greatest; David Choe. One of the greatest? Yes, that's our opinion... maybe his girlfriend thinks that guy is total asshole. Who knows?

That's the guy
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Introduce yourself to the wide public, who you are and what are you doing?

Hey everyone! I'm just some kid from L.A. that had a lot of hate and anger problems and wanted to express myself through art and writing and create beutiful things and show them to this world of shit. But I'm 30 now still doing the same thing but not as angry or hateful.

What were the points of your anger back then? Having too much energy or did you really have a strong reason to hate anything or anybody? Why?

Do you really need a reason when you're a teenager? But I guess for starters, not getting any chicks, going to mostly an all rich white school. Getting made fun of for being Korean, getting made fun of for wearing payless shoes, watching my parents buisness and neighborhood burn to the ground during the L.A. riots.

What were you like as a kid, besides that you've mentioned?

I was the kid that could draw, and shoplift and steal everything I could. I had 2 brothers and we fought alot, but we created entire worlds, our own toys, cartoons, comics, vehicles, home movies. I had a lot of adventures, I was never bored.

Did the growing process bring a satisfaction to you now, thinking of perfecting your drawing and painting skills, having all that experience behind, having a bit more peace for creating what you want? Having an opportunity to live from your talent and work?

There's really no feeling like it. And i don't like to really talk about it anymore, because I noticed it makes people jealous or upset, because I guess I can come off Braggadocio. But nothing will ever come close to the rewards of how I lived my whole life and still continue to live it today, except without the crime and assholeness thast comes with youth. I live everyday to the fullest, I do whatever I want, exactly how I want to whenever I want, and I get paid to do it. I basically get paid to be me, and it feels fucking great and I really have nothing to complain about, but I do anyways people like to say how fucking lucky I am, which I am, but to anyone who's reading this make no mistake. I been doing this shit for over a decade. I bust my ass, I wreck shit while your sleeping, I paid my dues, I paid the price, and now I'm starting to cash in some chips.

Did you ever belong to any group of people sharing the same interest, like a graffiti crew, and what do u think of joining forces this way, how it feels to deal with working along with other people, sharing ladders, paint, and workspace + being an individual at the same time?

I never belonged to a traditional graf crew, I always bombed alone and learned through observation. When I was in art school for 2 years I was in a gang called 38th Street or Krab Shack we were all like minded art students but we mainly stole, and comitted crimes, there was 9 boys and girls living in a 3 bedroom apt. above a seafood soul kitchen, and we robbed and thieved, and fucked each other, and fucked up other people, and then drew and painted about it. It was epic times, we robbed every frat house in Berkely for 2 years, that era ended with all of us being arrested and going to jail, I was running down the street with a big ham. But I love collaborating with artists and have painted with tons of artists from all over the world over the last decade. But art for me was and still is a solitary sport. It's when it's most quiet at 3.a.m that the real shit starts floating to the surface.

This sounds almost a bit spooky, 3 a.m. and the creative energy fills up the space around yourself but I think I know what you're talking about: At the end of the day, and even beyond that, the silence is finally surrounding you, leaving you some energy leftovers + some extra time to digest all that happened during that day and you can restart the mind and get things going. Are the outcomes of what you paint in any means dependable on surroundings?

Surroundings and environment is everything. It's why people are gay, why people are gangbanger, why that girl down the street is a whore why that kid decided to take psycology classes, everything is environment. I'm not gonna be apinting urban scenes if I'm living on a beach surrounded by sea shells. Everything I live and breath comes out in my art in some form or shape. I can't hide it, and I don't try to even when I feel like lying or hiding things from myself.

Self building/Self destructing?

I'm all about self - destruction, I've lost evertyhting that belongs to me many times in my life so I don't care about possesions or am bound by them. I don't care about what happens to me so that makes me either really stupid or really brave and fearless, I'm the kid that would make a gigantic starship out of every single lego in the house and then throw it against the wal after I was done just to see it break, it's how my style was developed , through experimentation and destruction and with nothing to lose and everything to gain, spending hours rendering a portrait in oil just to go over it with one flick of the krylon, rebuild ,destroy, build, destroy, layering, building above ruins, always getting stronger more powerful!

It's all about creating and bringing it to the one point when you consider thing perfect, I'm telling about the lego thing; had the same problem when I was a kid.. when you bring some complicated structure to the end then you feel bored and that's it. Same thing with illustrations neverthless how hard they were to make. Also, about this first impulse which you can reminisce of: like for example I remember my parents gave me some markers when I was a kid, some chalks, and I still have photo of scribblings and characters over the closet from 1977, so that reminds me, along with some photos of paper drawings. Actually it never stopped since I faced graffiti in 1989 for first time.. when did this impulse go through you, when do you remember you wrote first line or drew first character on some wall or anything else?

It was probably in 1990, CBS crew were the most visible crew in my neighborhood, and they were skilled not just taggers, I remember watching MEARS skill level progress on walls, that guy used to suck, also HEX from TGO was painting every store front on Melrose so I would ride my bike afterscool and cruise Melrose just looking for him, and when I would find him I would just watch him for the whole day this is how I first witnessed can control, and strived for that level of perfection. I didn't know how good krylon was and how expensive it was for me at the time so I bought 99 cent cheap generic cans and they were so runny I couldn't believe people could paint with this shit, so I started stealing the KRYLON cans and the first time I hit a wall with flat black, I wrote JOHN 11:35, and there was no going back, flat black is still my favorite smell and color. No one will ever know how to explain graf to anybody until they steal there first 2 cans of flat black, throw on a sweater and hit the street. there's no going back. It's like getting your first bag of weed.

Is sex filling up your batteries or does it empty your creativity for some time?

My sexual patterns have remained the same for the past 15 years, I masterbate the same now as when I was 15 (a lot) so I dont know if that fucks with my creative game or not. I don't think it does.

Guess it releases the pressure, same like creating, art or anything else. In my opinion, we are given that certain amount of energy which is renewable and it's there all the time, we can empty it, but after few minutes, hours, days, the battery is full again, individually dependable how often and how much.. Anyways, what would happen in you haven't draw and paint for some time? Could you ever live without it?

I already know the answer to this, because I've been in many situations in my life where I ripped from my normal surrounding and things like art and freedom are not available to me, and I literally cannot live without it. It's my greatest gift, and my greatest talent, and it's built so many bridgers for me and has gotten me out of the most hairiest situations, when your the only Korean in a Japanese prison cell with 4 other Japanese dudes that hate Koreans and want to kick my ass, and 2 hours later their bething the shit out of each other fighting over a drawing I did, that's a fucking blessing. When I was in prison in Japan, I painted with tools I made, pens, food, and my own urine, over 600 drawings and paintings in 3 months.

What's it like to be in prison in America? I had an opporunity to see "Oz" and few really harsh movies. Did you have to belong to any groups there or do you have any chance to survive as an individual, related to art?

I've been arrested 4 times in America, 3 when I was a minor and the 4th when I was 23. Only when you get arrested is when you get to feel real racism, from everyone because Asians are not in jail, if you compare us to Blacks and Mexicans in jail we're nothing. I never spent more than a week in jail in the U.S. even though I'm the baddest gook you know, because I don't look like a bad ass gook and I'm too legit to quit, on paper. When I got arrested in Compton for check fraud when I was 16, I was the only Asian kid in the precinct and every Korean cop in the building came down to slap me upside my head, while I was handcuffed to a bench, and did the whole scared straight routine. (They say all this to me in Korean) "What the fuck are you doing in here look around you what do you see ?!?!? Niggers! This is a place for Spics and Niggers, don't ever show your fucking face in here again, grow up be a good kid, when you show up in a place like this, you make us all look bad, you're a representitve for your race, don't make us look bad!", none of it worked obviously I got arrrested every 4 years years like clockwork. To learn a real hard lesson about life, I had to travel to Japan for that one.

Did you ever feel like training some martial art, were you practicing some? Any pressure emptied after hard training

I haven't excercised since 1990. I'm a fat piece of shit, I spent my whole life being a skinny Asian kid, but only after I made my first grand did I realize how hungry I was. I was starving. Art and food, it's the only thing I spend money on, porn is free, church is free, I eat out three meals a day, I can't even see my dick anymore, I'm a porker. I still masterbate 5 times a day, same as when I was 15.

Projects?

I'm currently art directing a Jewish magazine called Jewcy. From here I will have an art show inSpain with SABER at the Montana spray paint gallery, then next is a Wu-Tang comic book, and a monster truck i'm going to design for Scion. From there I'm gonna be in 2 TV shows for the Vice network, that I wrote and produced, and a travel dvd to the Congo looking for dinosaurs, next I'm opening a restaurant in L.A., maybe painting a whorehouse for Heidi Fleiss in Vegas, and releasing a 500 page hardback book in super limited run of my last 10 years in art called KOREANS GONE BAD, around october dirty hands movie should be

coming out, then I have 3 art shows; The Boulevard in Seattle in september Gallery AD in San Jose in october, Jonathan LeVine Gallery in january and then I'm gonna take a long nap.

Thanks for the interview Dave, wish you good luck in future!

Thanks Lunar. I'm in Spain right now. I did the interview on an airport computer so I won't be able to send photos till I get back but you can grab whatever you want from my website.

Peace to you,
DC

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See some more of David's art HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, AND HERE!