RD: When did you start painting/Drawing??

Shok1: I started doing street work in 1984 but I was drawing from my early childhood.

RD: Where are you from??

Shok1: England.

RD: Main art influences??

Shok1: Life. Street culture. The interaction between mainstream culture and subculture. The ways people behave. Society.

RD: Do you have to get in the "zone" to paint, or do you just jump right into it??

Shok1: Depends. I try to make art something that can happen at any place and time rather than something that happens in a special environment, like a studio. I draw standing up on the bus drunk and that type of thing. It's become harder to get focus with the pressures of modern living but I do my best to get lost in it.

RD: How did you develop your style??

Shok1: Many thousands of hours and drawings. Study everything. Accept nothing on face value. Always try to look beyond what is already there.

RD: Do you have any crazy art gallery moments??

Shok1: Probably but I can’t really remember any openings I was at; being English, I am incapable of refusing free booze so I am generally drop-dead drunk wherever the whine and cheese is at.

RD: Whats your biggest accomplishment in terms of Art??

Shok1: I have no idea. I am always mentally 5 years ahead of the last thing I made so it’s never enough. Chasing it… I can’t really see my own work anyway. It’s like your own face in the mirror. It’s just there. What you think is good, people don't care about, and then they all seem to jump on something you think is average. It's not worth thinking about.

RD: Do people ever send you pictures of tattoos of your work??

Shok1: Sometimes. Maybe I should hire someone to sue them like Giger does!

RD: What do you think of porn??

Shok1: My brother told me a while back one of the memories he has from our teens was getting up and coming downstairs first thing in the morning to be greeted by me watching some hardcore and eating a bowl of cornflakes. I saw Animal Farm and dwarf porn when I was 11. When I was 16, my mother got really upset because we got Porkies out of the videoshop. Bless her.

RD: What kind of girls are you into??

Shok1: Something different. Confidence is the biggest thing. Sexually very open-minded. Curves. Big round butts. Tough, a bit of attitude, can cuss back. I like exotic girls especially. I have a soft spot for black girls.

RD: Do you have any "art groupies"??

Shok1: Bizarrely, plenty. There is this stripper who is in a relationship with a psychotic bodybuilder who she says will inherit some percentage of 1.5 million pounds. She reckons he will have a heart attack on steroids soon and when he does, she will get the money and invest it in my art and we will live happily ever after. We didn’t speak for 5 years and then she sent me an email this year telling me how much she misses me. She told me she is mentally ill though so I am not getting my hopes up.

RD: Any Crazy Sexual Exploits to brag about??

Shok1: I like to introduce girls to swinging. I like sex clubs but group sex is just information overload. Nothing beats a menage a trois with two bi girls. I once took a lesbian couple to a swing sauna with my ex. They turned out to be not entirely gay but that's another story.

RD: What do you think of razordolls.com??

Shok1: It's fucking filthy. I am going to go out and find a nasty punk girl to get it on with.

RD: Whos your favorite razordoll??

Shok1: I’ll have them all, at the same time preferably. Tell them for me, yeah? Cheers.

RD: Do you think Porn will ever be an accepted art form??

Shok1: Sex has always sold and it always will.

RD: What upcoming artists should we look out for??

Shok1: I don't know. I am way too obsessed with my own stuff to be looking.

RD: Do you like Horror Movies? If so Whats your Favorite??

Shok1: Oh yeah, most definitely. They are part of the imagery I use.

RD: Whats your opinion on the art scene today??

Shok1: Jesus zombie childs. Everywhere.

RD: Why do you do what you do? What Motivates you??

Shok1: Bloody hell. That’s a bit serious, isn’t it?! Umm. I want to be good. I want to be the best. To say what needs to be said. To live on after I die.

RD: Anything you want to plug, do it here??

Shok1: www.shok1.com