Kuya

Kuya is a classically trained fine artist with a keen interest in the human form and academic painting style. He began drawing at the age of 16, pulling inspiration from the dystopian surrealism of Salvador Dalí. After creating fantastical scenes and characters over again, Kuya wanted the skill to do more with his drawings. Under the instruction of his first college art professor, Kuya studied figure drawing from the live model and oil painting techniques. The beautiful symbiosis of fine academic drawing and a subconscious-inspired imagination is what drove Kuya to the world of tattooing. By combining these two aspects of drawing, Kuya is able to return to his roots of creative mark making without being bound to the strict pedagogy of the academic style. Kuya is interested in tattooing renaissance inspired painting and sculpture, surreal images, plants and animals, and segmented body parts like eyes and hands.