For Artist Don Rimx, Brooklyn Is Just Another Canvas
Photo by Guerin Blask
This interview is part of our FRESHMakers series, a collaboration with Arizona-born, Brooklyn-based photographer Guerin Blask. For this project, Blask took portraits of New Yorkers he finds inspiring: ”I wanted to capture the faces behind the work I so admire. Each of these entrepreneurs has had a major impact on my daily life over the past decade, and I feel honored to have been given the opportunity to photograph each of them in his or her element.” Artist David Sepulveda, better known as Don Rimx, is one of them.
Puerto Rico-born street artist Don Rimx uses the city as his canvas. His large-scale murals incorporate bold colors and richly detailed creatures, and dot the sides of buildings around New York. Rimx’s style incorporates elements from old school graffiti as well as his art school training, giving thought to composition and color theory as well as the placement on the outdoor space he works with. Though like all street artists Rimx has to deal with the difficulties of working with a large outside space, like weather and the eventual corrosion of the image, these days, he doesn’t have to worry much about finding a spot to work. He’s been commissioned by restaurant owners and realtors to add his work to their spaces. These days, graffiti murals can up property values, particularly if the art is by someone as well-regarded as Rimx.
“I choose my canvases depending on the project I’m working on,” Rimx explained to Brooklyn. “Projects usually already have the locations picked out. As far as the subject matter, it depends on the topic I’m looking to tackle or discuss and shape of the space given. It pretty much all develops organically from there.”
Most recently Rimx has worked on a mural for the Big Brothers Big Sisters project at P.S. 151 in Queens, painted the interior and exterior of Miami eatery the Biscayne Diner, and donated a mural to the Jose D. Diego Middle School in Miami to help raise funds to add an art program to the curriculum.
Though Rimx travels all over the country to do his artwork, he calls Bushwick home. “Brooklyn has a very big energy about it because it has been a city where many artists have developed their careers. That creative energy is very inspiring and motivating,” Rimx said. “The difficulty of living in Brooklyn is all the competition. But that’s also what makes it interesting. And that inspiration stimulates you to take the quality of your work to a higher level.”
