Author: Clipper Arnold

Solomon Bobinac is a prolific 14-year-old from West Phoenix. He attends the Metropolitan Arts Institute. Much of his work has manifested as fliers and album art for local musicians. He’s made artistic contributions for Playboy Manbaby, Red Tank!, Captain Samurai, and Sore.  His art runs the gamut from digital collages which draw from a diverse pop-cultural milieu to stylized illustrations of blemished, bloated, or otherwise conventionally unattractive faces.

What kind of work are you currently making? What is your preferred medium?

Solomon Bobinac: I’ve currently been working on a lot of sketches and more minimal style works, and experimenting with different art styles and themes. For example I’ve been really inspired lately by a French filmmaker/writer A.R.G who wrote phenomenological novels, as well as bondage and sexual exploration through pain and such. A lot of the themes and aesthetics found within his work have been influencing me quite a bit lately. My preferred medium is pencil, or sometimes pen. I’ve also been making quite a bit of digital art as well which is pretty fun.

How has digital culture influenced your approach to art and design?

SB: Digital Culture has allowed me to experiment quite a bit with my work, and is a really interesting way to see how people respond to certain things I make and such. I make a lot of my art in different series, as in many of my pieces are made to represent a certain theme when viewed all together. It’s great to see how people will respond to the different themes, either positively or negatively. Digital Culture has also given me a platform to display my art to more people than I usually could just at an art show or something of that nature. It’s helped me create a bit of a name for myself I suppose.

Haven’t you also done work for some “more established” bands? 

SB: Yeah! It’s never been really them asking me for it but I’ve made more ‘fan art’ type things for bands such as The Garden, Fidlar, Meth Dad, Free Weed

Do they ever use them for flier art or anything? 

SB: Nah, it’s mainly been just me giving them/showing them art I’ve made for them and then they get really stoked on it haha.

What do you see your future education or career trajectory looking like?

SB: I believe I’ll probably still go to Metro for high school, and for college I plan to get a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Communication with emphasis in Graphic Design at NAU as a way to pursue a career in graphic design.

What’s it like to be making artistic contributions to bands or otherwise at such a young age? Do you feel like people treat you differently or are there some other imposed barriers? Some people are probably quite surprised to learn how young you actually are. 

I feel like people definitely treat me differently than if I was to be a young kid who just went to shows or something like that. Like, being so young and already being a ‘common’ sort of name in the AZ music/art scene is so surreal. Being so young and having a lot of opportunities to do art for local bands and having so much support from my older peers in the scene allows me to expand as an artist and helps me find new ways to branch out and experiment, which is one of the best things ever in my opinion.

What projects are you working on right now or what type of projects would you like to pursue in the future?

SB: I’ve currently been printing a lot of shirts and making flyers, which is quite fun and something I’d definitely like to do more in the future. I’m also in the process of creating some concept art for the local group Injury Reserve and for a Seattle band called Soccermoms. I think in the future I’d like to get more into mixing printmaking with my drawings , as well as getting more into graphic design.

Where can our readers see more of your work?

SB: You can find more of my work at @kindergarten.goth on Instagram or at pleasemurderme.bigcartel.com