Tinker Brothers: The Notorious Gems Of The Art World
The Tinker Brothers (Noah and Liam) are contemporary pop artists based in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.
The brothers have a fire that burns inside and are done with playing it safe. They torched all the layers of ‘false’ identities and every limiting belief about themselves and now, live the “art of the possible”.
Here’s our chat with the bros…
Q ~ Addicted: Can you please tell us about your upbringing and how you came to be artists?
A ~ Tinker Brothers: Both of us always had the sense of being destined for something greater in life; a hunger for greatness. Up until early 2012 we were living the lives of average-Joes; studying at the University of Technology and the University of Applied Sciences, spending most of our time walking the line. We don’t know what inspired it, but we remember lighting the match that burned our diplomas and started the adventure of the Tinker Brothers. We dropped out of school and quit our jobs. We got rid of all the baggage; the stuff that weighed us down all those years. We started anew. Like so many others we had been sleep walking for so long, trying to make a living — playing small — not realising there is so much more to life. We decided the time to follow our dreams, to follow our heart, is now. That decision changed everything. It served as a catalyst for our personal awakening and the discovery of our life’s purpose: to be warriors of light — art turned out to be our weapon of choice.
Q ~ Addicted: Can you tell us about the process you went through to find your style?
A ~ Tinker Brothers: In a nutshell; it all boils down to following your heart. Despite all the rejections, the hardships and obstacles on the way we kept digging until we found the gold. What turned out to be a process of years, growing through different styles and media we eventually discovered our signature style of invisible paintings: white on white remixes of comics on canvas. Merging the rawness and honesty of stencil art as a technique with the punch of pop, subtlety and profoundness of minimalism.
Q ~ Addicted: What do you want people to feel and take away from seeing your art?
A ~ Tinker Brothers: We often imagine that laying your eyes on a Tinker is like laying your eyes on a priceless diamond. Imagine owning one. We aspire to be the notorious gems of the art world and our art is created to inspire the rebel, the poet, and the joker within.
Q ~ Addicted: What do you listen to while you’re creating your art?
A ~ Tinker Brothers: Anything from Kanye’s Waves to Hans Zimmer’s Planet Earth II Suite — fill in the blanks.
Q ~ Addicted: How do you tune out other influences and listen to your own inner voices?
A ~ Tinker Brothers: Middle fingers up! Listen, smile, agree and then do whatever the fuck you were gonna do anyway. It may take a few years to master, but once you get it down… No, but seriously, the more you love, the easier it gets. The more you surrender the more you discover that everything is connected. Once you get accustomed to following your heart it becomes natural — like breathing.
Q ~ Addicted: You reach that moment of flow and someone interrupts it, what do you do?
A ~ Tinker Brothers: When John turned around, Mike floored him with a sucker punch. Surprise motherfucker.
Q ~ Addicted: Do you collect other artists work?
A ~ Tinker Brothers: The only thing we can say is that we’ve got a highly guarded vault in Atlantis only we know of.
Q ~ Addicted: Which artist would you like to bring back to life and why?
A ~ Tinker Brothers: That’s a no-brainer; 4 o’clock teatime with Dali, conversations about the rhinoceros and shit. Or a tootski with Pablo. Wouldn’t that be marvellous?
Q ~ Addicted: Who’s your favourite boy or girl band?
A ~ Tinker Brothers: That’s a very personal question.
Q ~ Addicted: What was the best thing before sliced bread?
A ~ Tinker Brothers: Moonshine.
Q ~ Addicted: What’s your favourite 80s or 90’s song?
A ~ Tinker Brothers:
Q ~ Addicted: What one song, movie scene, or TV commercial jingle can you recite?
A ~ Tinker Brothers: “You want to see the most beautiful thing I’ve ever filmed? It was one of those days when it’s a minute away from snowing and there’s this electricity in the air, you can almost hear it. And this bag was, like, dancing with me. Like a little kid begging me to play with it. For fifteen minutes. And that’s the day I knew there was this entire life behind things, and… this incredibly benevolent force, that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever. Video’s a poor excuse, I know. But it helps me remember… and I need to remember… Sometimes there’s so much beauty in the world I feel like I can’t take it, like my heart’s going to cave in.” ~ American Beauty
Q ~ Addicted: What would you do if you found a penguin in your freezer?
A ~ Tinker Brothers: The guy who wrote the questions for this interview; give him a cookie, he deserves it! In answer to your question; Bob has been living with us since early 2007. Nobody knows where he came from, nobody knows how long he’s been living in the fridge before we found him, all we know is that Bob is a gift and he makes a damn good lasagna.
Q ~ Addicted: What’s next for the Tinker Brothers?
A ~ Tinker Brothers: Taking the world by storm with our ‘invisible paintings’; white on white stencilled pieces on canvas. Just wait until you see one in person!
