I first met artist Paul Tyree Francis (aka Paul Diddy) through his work at David Byrne's global music imprint, Luaka Bop.   Paul has been designing for Luakabop.com for the last five years.  More than just a visual referencer, he's a part of the label -- an artist on the same roster as groundbreakers Tom Ze and Shuggie Otis.   Diddy recently moved to Berlin where he and wife, Jesi Kadivi, opened a new gallery, Golden Parachutes.

Talk to us about collaging.
I'm focused on making specific references with my collages, elucidating relationships between contemporary technology and ancient history, sex and death, God and reverence/seeking, capitalism and exploitation.  I seek to mirror the reconfiguring of the world that I believe will transpire very shortly in the future.  I often refer to a quote in which William Burroughs (in referring to experiments made with the tape recorder) states "when you cut into the present, the future leaks out."

What visual artist is most influential to you and how are you challenged to work with that influence?
Robert Rauschenberg's dirty pop art and color sensibilities have been hugely influential, but I'm equally inspired by painters like Cy Twombly, Anselm Kiefer, Herbert Bayer, Josef Albers, Mark Rothko, Frantisek Kupka, Per Kirkeby, Fred Tomaselli, Mati Klarwein, Mark Tobey, Julie Mehretu and Ed Ruscha. I am also very much in awe of whatever makes crop circles.

How is music a part of your work?
I make music because it's fun to make. Often I won't intend on fashioning a complete work; the work arises out of the process of creation. I haven't yet combed through the records that I have here in Berlin for samples, so I'm certain I will create some type of musical overture in the near future.  Whatever I make, I think I would like what I make next to feel like a ceremony of sorts.  I have a few midi samplers that I'm excited to work with, and would also love to dig into Max/MSP.

I know Sun Ra is a big influence.  Tell us about it.
Sun Ra taught me a lot about cosmic language.  There's this one Sun Ra quote that really resonated with me from an interview that VH1 did with him in the 80's:  "I realized that people got feelings, and I reached towards their feelings and not their minds, because they've been brainwashed so why should I try to reach something that's brainwashed? But their spirit hasn't been brainwashed. And it's pure! Everyone I meet. I know that. I know what they supposed to be. And I reach what they're supposed to be and what they potentially will be, I'm not worried about what they are, I'm not trying to reach that part of people."

Where do you feel closest to nature in Berlin?
Berlin is the greenest city in Germany, and has so many spectacular parks that stretch for kilometers.  Probably the most natural areas around the city are the areas surrounding the lakes. I just took a bike trip to the Grünewald, which is where the Teufelsberg (Devil's Mountain) is.  This is where an American spy station was located, built atop all this WWII rubble.   The station has been abandoned for years and is being reclaimed by a combination of nature, anarchists, junkies and graffiti artists. 

Geopolitics and art in three sentences. Go!
Art can bring people to ideas, but it can't make them think.  Political systems only allow people some access to some ideas.  Art (Mark Lombardi comes to mind) wields the power to reconfigure not only people's relationships to politics, power and the world, but also to themselves.

Is it fucked up to love something you don't understand?
It's much more fucked up to hate something that you don't understand.  I recall a Tesla quote that I have to fabricate as I can't find it directly, but he said something like 'even for all of the time spent in my laboratory working with electricity, it remains to me a mystery.'

How do you make money from your art?
By selling it and through donations for my music.  I also make websites for people and organizations, which could be seen as art but is probably more akin to psychic theater and engineering. Though I would prefer to work as an artist full-time, making art for me is not about making money.  That doesn't mean that artists like Jeff Koons or Olafur Eliasson who utilize a lot of people's talent and therefore a lot of money make bad art because they sell their work for a lot of money. It just means they have more options as to what is possible for them to make (or eat or where to live).  Access to more options doesn't necessarily make life easier.

What's the most futuristic part of your life?
Meditation.

What's the biggest environmental challenge facing artists today?
The necessity of fashioning objects of any sort to relate meaning, and the demands of culture for an artist to be in many places in quick succession, generally via air travel.  A friend recently commented to me that I was 'keeping the internet warm', which disturbed me to my core. I then (the next day) read an article in the NY Times describing the central data facilities that various companies operate, and the enormous amounts of power required to maintain their operation. It's harrowing to realize that one's vacation photos posted on Facebook or Flickr not only require space but perpetual power.

Posted by Wills Glasspiegel
wills@greenowl.com