Angus Plastow on Creativity, Growth and Making His Mark at 18
Photo: Zane Qureshi
Adelaide Native, Angus Plastow, is the new artist you need to know about. At 18 years old, Angus is a visual artist, photographer & all-around creative person. We sat down with him earlier last month to discuss his current life, work, favourites & upcoming projects.
How did you first get into photography and art?
I’ve been doing art ever since I was five because my brother started doing art classes when he was seven, and I wanted to do it with him, and ever since then, I’ve been interested in art. I probably started doing photography at the start of high school because a lot of my mates were getting into it at that time, so I thought it might be fun.
How would you describe your art style?
My art style changes like once every month, but at the moment it’s hard to describe, but is almost abstract but not really.
“It’s just a bit crazy all over the place and whatever I’m kinda feeling at the time.”
What medium/s do you use in your artwork?
I like to see how many mediums I can fit into one piece of art because there’s something about using different mediums that is so enjoyable to me. I always feel so limited when I’m just painting or just drawing, it almost feels boring. In the painting of Brent Faiyaz I used to paint, markers, pencils, crayons, spray paint and all different types of mediums and to me, that’s just much more fun. I get to create different layers and textures that you couldn’t get with just using one medium. So at the moment, those I just listed are probably the ones I use most.
Do you have a favourite art piece that you’ve done?
I don’t know, I feel like every time I do a new piece of art, I’m happier with it than the last one I did, I feel like I get better every time, which makes sense. At the moment, I just have a lot of pieces unfinished and on the go. In terms of finished pieces, I would say the paintings I did of Brent Faiyaz and Joji turned out pretty well, as well as all the drawings and paintings I did last year for my high school art exhibition of people like Jaden Smith and Frank Ocean. I was really happy with all of them.
Painting of singer, Brent Faiyaz by Angus Plastow
You have painted musicians such as Frank Ocean, Brent Faiyaz, Jaden Smith & Tyler The Creator, so what is your music taste?
My music taste? That’s another one that changes very frequently and is a bit all over the place, but at the moment, I would say a mix between alternative hip hop and old school rap. I like a lot of artists like MF DOOM and other old school rappers, which at the moment I’ve found have inspired me. But I also like Brent Faiyaz, and Baby Keem is another one that I’m liking at the moment. Musicians such as Tyler and Frank, I’m always a big fan of them, but I don’t know, it’s kinda all over the place, but it’s mostly in the rap category.
Now you tend to draw a lot of celebrities and musicians, what do you like about drawing them?
I think just having somebody recognisable. When other people look at that artwork, they know who it is, and they can see that it looks like them. I think since they’re all well-known figures, and to me at least, when I see the artwork, I know it makes me feel more than just a painting of a random person. It doesn’t evoke a response from me when it’s some random portrait of a person, whereas when I see someone I know, I’m a lot more interested in it. Most of the people that I paint are mainly the people who are inspirations to me, and even though they are musicians, I get creative and artistic inspiration from their music.
Where do you get most of your inspiration from when making art and taking photographs?
Art, I get a lot of inspiration from other artists I see. At the moment, I think the two artists that are inspiring me the most are Basquiat and Terry Urban. I also just see stuff online and on social media, and I enjoy just taking inspiration and little aspects of creativity from all different types of artists’ work. Photography-wise, again, just social media for the most part. But honestly, with photography, I feel like the less I see on social media, the better. I am a lot more confident in my artistic abilities than my photography abilities so when I see art on like Tik Tok or Instagram I think “I can do something like that” but with photography, I have less confidence so when I see a really dope photo I’m like “oh damn there’s no way I could ever take a photo that good”.
Has social media helped you grow as an artist?
Definitely like I said before, I get inspiration from it, but also posting your art on social media feels so good because at least when I post art, I always receive positive feedback, which is great to hear. I think, as a whole, social media has been really good; people don’t tend to hate on art, and it’s a pretty good platform for creatives to share their work with people beyond the ones they know. I know it’s a bit cringy or whatever, but I honestly think TikTok is one of the best places for artists at the moment because it’s just so easy to get a lot of attention on a video of you making art. The comments and the community are nice, and they give you a lot of confidence and positivity.
A painting of singer, Joji - By Angus Plastow, 2021
Would you say that school has had an impact on the way you make art and photography?
When I was getting started with photography, it was mainly people around School who influenced me in the style of photography that I did. In terms of art, I never enjoyed it as a subject in school. I liked making art for fun, but once it became a subject and was something that was graded, it just wasn’t quite as enjoyable. I think, honestly, throughout high school, especially, I feel like I've been greatly limited in terms of my art flow and my creativity. I find I’m when I’m doing too much art at school, I don’t wanna go home and do more for myself. I feel like I would be a more creative person now if I had never done art in school, but obviously, that’s not a possibility. I don’t know, I think school is weird because I have developed better skills from going to school and going to art classes, but in terms of creativity and my ideas and thinking, I believe it’s limited somewhat.
Heading back into photography, do you shoot digital or film or both?
At the moment, it’s like 99.9% film. I don’t know if I’ve even touched my digital camera in like two years, except to film a video at school. Digital photography is not interesting at all to me. There’s something about it that I was just getting so bored with, and it became a chore to go through all the photos and then pick the best one and edit and export. Since I was losing interest in digital photography, I thought I would try out the film, and there’s something about how you can only take 24 or 36 photos. It forces me to be more careful with the shots I would take, and when you develop them, it’s like that’s all you get, so you have to love them. So for me and my creativity and confidence film was so much nicer. I felt better about the photos I was taking and sharing, and I feel as though I accomplished more with a good film photo because it’s more of a hands-on process. I feel like I worked harder to get that photo, if you know what I mean.
When shooting 35mm film, what cameras and what film stock do you use?
My first ever film camera was my Dad's old Olympus OM10, and it’s a pretty old camera, but it does the trick. One day, I was watching TikTok and I saw somebody had this 3d camera that took four photos at once, and I was like, dude I need one of those so I woke up at 5 AM to bid on an eBay auction for a Nishika N9000 and was lucky enough to get it pretty cheap. I loved that camera; it was fresh and gave me lots of new inspiration. Recently, I decided to upgrade from the N9000 to the N8000, which is even more fun and was sort of a dream camera for me. I picked up an Olympus OM77AF, it’s a long-ass name, it was fifty bucks from an OP shop, and it was one of the first film cameras with autofocus, so that’s pretty cool. I’ve been shooting with that a lot recently, the autofocus makes it way easier to shoot with and way more fun. So yeah, those are sort of my three go-to cameras. For most of my film photography career, I’ve been shooting with the cheapest film stock I can find at the camera store, which is usually like Kodak Colour Plus 200 or Ultra Max 400. But recently I thought you know what I’ll be a cool professional film photographer dude and buy some Portra 400 and honestly, I can’t even tell the difference but I still shoot with it anyway because I feel like it might be better but I don’t know, I’m colour blind so I really can’t tell haha.
If you could photograph anyone, dead or alive, who would it be and why?
Ooh, I would honestly just pick Tyler the Creator or Jaden Smith because I feel like they’d always be cool to photograph, and honestly, I would just do it so I could meet them. In terms of people dead... I’d probably pick MF DOOM so I could meet him, I don’t care as much about taking photos of him either haha, and I mean, he wears a mask anyways, so. I’ve also been into surf photography lately. I don’t know the names of any famous surfers, but any surfer would also be cool.
What do you hope for the future as far as taking photos or making art?
I want a life where I can make the art that I wanna make and not be told what to make. So, whether that means I’m making art and people are buying it or whether I’ve just got a normal job where I can make enough money and go home and make art. I also definitely see myself going down more of the clothing design/fashion side of art. At the moment, I'm working on some clothing projects that I'm super excited about and can see a future in that.
Do you have any advice for artists who want to be like you or follow in your footsteps?
I don’t know if anyone wants to be like me, haha. I don’t have any steps to follow in but I guess just be yourself, do whatever art you wanna do, do whatever makes you happy. I’d say don’t worry about school too much. Looking back now, I realise how kinda irrelevant or unimportant school was for me. At the time, I was stressing thinking that was everything and the be-all and end-all of life, but it’s not as important as everyone says it is. Just have fun through school, don’t get too caught up. Especially if you’re an artist, try to do more of what you enjoy doing, and if you can somehow incorporate that into your work, do it. Also, experiment a lot, even if you have a style you like, try a new one. I mean, I hadn’t painted anything since I was 12 or 13, and last year, when I painted a painting of Jaden in a new style, I realised how much I loved it. I think just trying different things.
Finally, do you have any upcoming events or projects you want people to check out?
Yeah, I’m just working on the clothing brand at the moment, it’s coming along slowly, I haven’t posted much yet but the Instagram account in @fragile_.hwc and ill start posting more on that soon. Also, I guess you can follow me on my regular art Instagram account which is @26487x and whatever I’m working on I’ll post there.
