Interview by Dominic Ciambrone
Photos by Dominic Ciambrone
Photographer’s Assistant: Bryam Villacres
Key makeup by Dominique Lerma
It all started with doodles. You know, those totally mindless little drawings we all make in the margins of our papers when we’re bored. For Crime, doodling was much more than just a pastime, it was an all-encompassing passion from which he rose into the art world. Dominic Ciambrone sat down with Crime to talk about his artistic journey, the importance he places on famous architecture and more.
How did you get into art?
From fifth grade on I always doodled on my papers and I eventually got each of my teachers used to seeing my doodles on my papers. They wouldn’t complain as long as they could see the work, whatever it was. If it was a story we had to write, or even a math or science test, I would scribble on it and then they would be okay with it.
would you pass the test
Yes. I got straight A’s when I was in fifth grade, literally straight A’s. it was crazy
What was your earliest artistic inspiration? What were the doodles from?
dogs, cats, buildings. Always buildings. Any building – the school, a house. cars, faces. I was never good, I just always wanted to paint. I never felt that art had anything to do with being able to draw. I should actually quote that.
Photo by Dominic Ciambrone
So after doodling, when did you first start painting?
For my sixth grade presentation, I was Leonardo DaVinci and I took my mom’s VHS camera and we videotaped me standing in front of a canvas pretending to paint the Mona Lisa.
That is sick.
Yes I know. I’m telling you if we could find this video and I could post it, it would be one of those things that would be legendary because my mom even drew that little fake mustache on me.
Can you describe how you paint or what the process is?
I feel like I can describe the way I paint as myself. And when I paint something, I paint it according to what I think the painting or the object just needs… not the bare minimum, but the object just needs to be, “that is the.” So sometimes when it’s a car, you know it’s going to have two wheels and a door, and there’s going to be some kind of box. The reason the Empire State Building always caught my eye was that it was the one that had all the layers. I feel like all buildings after the Empire State Building are the Empire State Building’s children.
To date, my mother has never been to New York. And growing up, I never thought I’d make it to New York. As a kid in Los Angeles, I thought, “I’m going to live this life and maybe go to New York once or twice in my life.”
People traveled and brought postcards with them. I learned what the Eiffel Tower is from a postcard, not a book. As such, the Eiffel Tower has always been the most inspiring travel destination I could imagine, more so than anywhere in the world. I thought you could tell if you made it in this life by visiting the Eiffel Tower.
Photo by Dominic Ciambrone
This is profound. That’s how it started with the postcard and…
So it started with me getting postcards and then scribbling what was on the postcard. And over the years I just kept painting privately for myself, not for anyone. Then I moved to downtown LA around 2012 and had the opportunity to have two lofts, one for Crime By Design, my clothing brand, and one for my paintings to paint. I would be in there just painting and painting and painting for years. And during those years I was always posting about art and Art Basel and all those things through my Instagram. I think in 2017 we had dinner with Perrier-Jouët in Miami where I was showing my art. It was just me and about 20 of my friends and I had art on the walls at Bagatelle. It was the first time I showed my art to the world.
That is amazing.
And then I fell asleep it again! I went back to just making clothes, posting on Instagram, painting privately, and then started selling paintings around 2019.
Photo by Dominic Ciambrone
How do the fashion and art worlds connect for you?
I’ve always painted on clothes. When I went to Coachella in 2010 I painted my jeans and my clothes and stuff. People liked the fact that I painted all my clothes. They knew it was mine. They knew I was the one to do it. I drew on my shoes and on my clothes and I thought well I could make clothes because I knew how to print on shirts and stuff like that. But I’ve always had this massive feeling of procrastination when it comes to making clothes because I never wanted to be seen as just someone making clothes. I knew first that I am an artist. And I said I have to make sure the world understands that I’m not a fashion designer who also paints. I’m an artist who makes clothes.
“I’m an artist who makes clothes.” I like it.
Yes. I’m not a fashion designer who thinks he can paint. I’m an artist who sometimes makes clothes. I will say that.
Photo by Bryan Villacres
I have it. What similarities and differences are there in your approach to imagery and clothing?
When I make clothes, I always want to enhance the sophistication of how we talk about what we do. I want people to understand that there is actually thought when we choose clothes. Be it a pair of pants, be it a shirt, be it a pair of shoes, we actually think about it. We actually consider how people react to what we wear because sometimes we are treated differently depending on what we wear, but we actively choose what we wear. It’s the same when someone chooses what they’re going to put up in their home, so I always like to put myself in the position of the person who’s going to wear my clothes or have my art in their home. Do I want this to be part of my collection? This is another statement: I do not consider the people who buy my art and clothes as customers or clients. I consider them collectors.
Photo by Dominic Ciambrone
How has your artistic inspiration translated to the tattoos you collect?
I would say the only thing we can tie in with the earlier part where we talked about the Eiffel Tower and how it relates to Inked Magazine is that I’m someone who really, really thinks about my tattoos and really think about branding overall, because branding isn’t just about your product, which is separate from you – you are a product yourself. I want the world to know my love for buildings, including the Eiffel Tower and the Empire State Building. And that’s why I get them tattooed on me.