theinspiration.com: Where do you find inspiration? |  | Parra: I really don’t know specific where it comes from… I know it usually comes out in the morning shower or just when you wake up in that half dream situation… Those moments I mostly solve my ‘problems’ or get ideas… I think I just collect a lot of randomness in my head and when I’m totally relaxed, like in the shower or half asleep all those images and random things that seemed to interest me pop up in my thoughts and I connect them into a silly image or idea… I believe it’s very hard to be inspired when there is a lot of pressure around you, that might come from the odd jobs or those 45 emails you did not answer yet… I get distracted a lot of the time and sometimes those distractions are sometimes really helpfull… I think I get distracted most when I’m against a deadline or there is peer pressure… It’s like the brain goes on strike or tries to save you from doing hasty bad work… It’s complicated… haha | |||
Left: “Bar Party” – 2010 / Right: “Leaving you” – 2009
theinspiration.com: Who has been your biggest influence? | | Parra: | |||
Left: “Bike Girl” – 2010 / Right: “Snoot Nozzle” – 2010
theinspiration.com: Are there works by someone else you would like to have done? | | Parra: Ahh yes… The dropped ice cream cone sculpture by Claes Oldenburg, red rock falls painting by Milton Avery, the ‘Fell in love with a girl’ song by the White Stripes and so much more… | |||
“The not so happy bird” – 2010
theinspiration.com: When and how did you realize that you wanted to be a designer? | | Parra: When I saw my first skateboard magazine (might have been ‘Thrasher’) in the small village I lived in at the time… I was about 12. I know it looks like it has nothing to do with what I do now, but it kind of does… Skating opened up a whole world for me in where I could be myself and experience freedom like I never knew… It was and sometimes still is a very influential part of my life… You see I grew up in small towns, moving along with my father who is an artist and who never stayed longer than 3 years in a place… The small town way of life for an early teen is pretty boring, you go on the football team or do something else in team spirit… I never really was into that… With the discovery of skating it busted me free form any team boring things and let me choose my own friends who were also into skating and the music and everything surrounding it. Sometimes it meant I had to hitchhike a couple of hours to find those like minded people but it was all worth it. | |||
Left: “Tarzan Interrupted” – 2009 / Right: “Dancing Pear” – 2009
theinspiration.com: If you were to do something else, what would that be? | | Parra: I was thinking about starting something at the bottom and working your way up… I’m pretty bad at cooking so it would be amazing to start that whole process of learning from a chef and eventually becoming one yourself… | |||
“‘The not so happy bird” – 2010
theinspiration.com: Are there certain moods or surroundings which facilitate your best creative work? | | Parra: Half asleep or in the shower… Or sometimes working on something in the end stages for instance tracing my drawings and the actions become so repetitive my mind is already working on something else combined with some loud sixties garage rock song… | |||
Left: “Money” – 2010 / Right: “I want you” – 2009
theinspiration.com: What is the best advice you have ever received? What advice would you like to pass on to upcoming talents? | | Parra: The best advice was from my father, he calmed me down when I was stressing about my work and he said to me, “just keep on playing son… Just keep on playing”. That really helped me because sometimes you start to believe a bit too much in yourself and you forget it was a fun thing when you started… Should be fun now too.. | |||
“‘Fly new coffee table” – 2011
A big thank you to Parra for being so nice, even when I kept annoying him about this interview. |
