It’s been a while since we had a talk with our friend Priest!  The southern US based street artist has kept himself quite busy since we’ve last interviewed him and never fails to stir some controversy with one thing or the other. Priest is one of the most genuine artists we’ve got to know, so this little catch-up was long overdue!

“I have a job and hate it so I’m no different than anyone else. When I’m not working I’m doing illegal things and trying not to mix the two, which again makes me just like everyone else.”

So how are things going? Did you sell-out already?

Life is good! No outstanding warrants and I haven’t sold out yet.  I know having a gallery show and promoting it on the street is something you have to do before people consider you a real street artist, which is something I care about.

We’ve gotten at least three dodgy e-mails from people that were trying really hard to find you. Made some wrong friends?

Thanks for running interference.  I hit pretty high profile spots.

I realized we know very little about you! What do you do in daily life? Or is that something you try and keep separated from what you do on the streets?

Yeah I try not to divulge too much information about myself and I’ve said this many times on my facebook,  twitter, wordpress, flickr, tumblr, foursquare, tether ball, wall ball and hopscotch.

I have a job and hate it so I’m no different than anyone else. When I’m not working I’m doing illegal things and trying not to mix the two, which again makes me just like everyone else.

When are they going to invite you to MOMA or the Miami Art Basel or some stuff like that? I feel they’re missing out!

I did a group graffiti show in New Orleans and got to meet a lot of the writers I really respect. My shits kinda like that but-her-face with 2 fat friends on either side. I’m sure if you took my pieces off the crackhouses I paint them on and put them on pristine walls in Miami the curators banana hammock would immediately bunch in disgust. I have a friend down there and I was gonna go stay with him and paint massive rainbow flags in Key West with the phrase, “These colors don’t run, they ROLLERBLADE” but my friend got deported(sort of).

So when are you going to make it over to this site of the big pond?

This summer hopefully. Do you know any non-serial killers I could stay with?

Well, I’ve heard of this eastern European country.. other than that, what can we expect from Priest in 2012?

like the Mayans predicted, a lot of death but mainly just destruction.