Inside The Belly Of The Beastman

By Niall Roeder

Beastman, aka Brad Eastman, is a mural artist hailing from the burbs of Sydney. His art is abstract, often fractal and chaotic, he works the trippy relationship between simple shapes then tars them with the rainbow. His art comes in many forms; print, clothing, street and indoor murals, rugs and most recently lighting as part of Vivid Sydney.

He currently resides in Bali with his wife and two sons. We caught up with him for a Q & A to find out a little more about the guy that’s doing Sydney proud in the art world.

What’s the Beastman art story? 

It all just kept developing from a love of drawing as a kid. I was obsessed with skateboarding since the age of 8, so skate culture had a huge hand in nurturing my creative side, it took me on a journey of self expression, travel and of course experimenting with all types of artmaking – illustration, painting, graffiti, photography, design and film making. Then I just never stopped exploring my creative interests, and it eventually lead me to my artwork today.

Did you study art?

I studied graphic design in the late 90s.

Biggest influences?

Over the years I have always been influenced by nature, patterns, geometry and contemporary design aesthetics.

Which contemporary artists do you like?

So many amazing artists out there making work at the moment – some of my favourites are Revok, Mark Whalen, Satone, Vans The Omega, Numskull, Bruno Novelli, Kofie, Dave Kinsey, Reka, Pose, Sam Friedman, Richard Colman, Phibs, Trent Whitehead – and many many more…

I would describe your style as modern abstract with DMT. How would you describe your style?

Your description sounds pretty good to me! Its always hard to describe my work, it is what it is…

How did you go from street art to rug designs?

It actually went the other way around, I was doing design and graphics long before I was painting murals. I always enjoy applying my design skills to my artwork, working with brands to create products and other projects.

I noticed you just started doing some clothing too?

I have been designing t-shirt graphics for many years working with a range of different brands, mainly Element Skateboards.

You mentioned you’re living in Bali – Is that for work? Any murals lined up?

Yeh currently living in Bali with my wife and kids, its great to be here in a more relaxed environment. The opportunity came up to move here for a while, and we jumped at it. I have a studio here so am just going to be making lots of paintings here for the next 6 months.

What’s the state of the Aussie art scene?

Its really thriving at the moment, both locally and globally. So many great Australian artists are doing great things all over the country and around the world.