interview with Jakub Golebiewski

   Hello Jakub Golebiewskin! Thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview. Please start by telling us something about yourself and your background. When you got interested in art? I was interested in art as far as I remember. My earliest memories are when I was about 5-6 years old. I was drawing my favorite cartoon characters. I have to say I was quite good at it or a least that's what my parents were saying ;) my dad was giving me little drawing tasks to do like "draw at least 2 favorite characters from the cartoon that was on tv at the time.

Q: Who is your biggest inspiration?
A: It's quite hard question for me because I don't have the best relationship with my father now, but from the beginning it was him. He was a great artist for his time. I remember we had a basement transformed in to a super cool art place where my dad was drawing, painting and it was one of my favorite places where would I spend a lot of time watching him painting. Nowadays my inspiration is everything around me.

Q: What about the other family members?
A: Hahaha my mom hated it in the beginning because she tought that I will end up tattooed up from heads to toes and in my country tattoos are still seen as something bad and prison related, but as soon as she figured that tattooing is the love of my life she supported me all the time. She still hate tattoos tough :) My sister is a lot younger than me so she is from that generation who loves tattoos and I think she is very proud of me.

Q: What was their first reaction after seeing some of your tattoos?
A: I think they are more impressed with my work now than when I just started ;)

Q: Do you have any artistic background?
A: I'm one of those self taught artists and I've never had any apprenticeship but sometimes I wish I had. I will be a lot better a lot quicker if I had a teacher. Obviously I pick some stuff up from artists I was working with but nobody ever guided me through the way, I had to learn from scratch. Being self taught have a positive side as well. It made me humble and grateful for what I have, because I know how much work I've put into it.

Q: What was the hardest part in getting into the business?
A: The hardest part... I have no idea to be honest. Every minute of my tattoo experience seems like a great adventure. But if I have to choose, I would say is to find the right studio and the right people to work with. I saw it many times when cool artists worked together but the vibes were bad and that affect the quality of tattooing and then you just wait till 6 or 7 o'clock so you can go home, that's not good, it kills the spirit.

 

     

Q: Did you have any ups and downs, creatively and maybe emotionally? Did you trust yourself that one day you will become successful and tattooing won't be just a hobby?
A: Oh for sure! There are days when I think I have lost it all... that I can't come up with a cool idea. I know it's a bit weird but if I'm on a holiday and I'm not tattooing for few days I feel like I forgot how to tattoo haha. But after few minutes of tattooing I'm there again ;) I have bad days but as soon as I'm on the chair in front of my customer everything else have to wait and im 100% focused on tattooing. I've never thought of myself as successful. I'm just trying to do the best tattoo I can and never stop learning that's the dream anyway. There's still tons of stuff to learn ;)

Q: Any favorite style?
A: I like doing realism and surrealism. Recently a lot of textures and high contrasts. I love both b&g and color tattooing. There's something cool about the grey color and I'm using it quite often. I'm working on a new style, you can see in my recent works but it's in the early stages and it needs to be improved.

Q: How important is to be good at drawing?
A: Do you know what, that is hard question. There are a lot of well known artists that do pure realism and they copy images and there are many artists that produce the artwork from scratch. In the end of the day if you execute bad ass tattoo it doesn't matter. I do draw maybe not on the master level but enough to help me understand more how to create a decent composition and it make my life easier. I can do freehand tattoos and be creative if there is a need. Sometimes freehand is the only option because of the placement of the tattoo and then you have to be able to draw. Answering the question I think if you want to be better as a tattooist than yes, drawing is very important.

Q: I love the sleeve designs. Tell me about the creative process.
A: I'm starting to work on a project where I reproduce images from the internet or photographs from friends. I don't do it just for the sleeve ideas, but for fun too. I'm using a lot of photoshop and sketchbook pro where you can do digital artwork. I find it very useful and a lot quicker than classic pencil drawing. When the design is ready I post it on my social media like fb or instagram and if someone is interested in getting it done they can dm me. I usually do digital version of a sleeve before the session so they can see how it's going to look before we start tattooing.

Q: Do you sell prints?
A: I'm thinking about focusing on painting a bit more in the future and creating a website where I can sale my prints and original artwork but till that time, I invite everybody to visit my studio and get a tattoo.

Q: Would you work on something completely different?
A: There's always something I want to do differently on the next tattoo. I hope I can evolve my own style to the point that I'm happy with it. Maybe in the future I will get inspired by somebody or something and decide to change my ways of tattooing completely but I need to master the ways I do at the moment first and that's still miles away.