“Smile more, be happy!” This is the slogan of the artist who goes by GoopMassta. In this article, however, I will refer to him as ‘the artist’ in order to set him apart from his character with the same name, GoopMassta.
The artist was born in New York City. At the age of 2, his family moved to Miami where he grew up and spent most of his life. At 20 years old, he went back to New York to see where he came from and to link up with relatives. One day he doodled around while on a phone call with family… and suddenly GoopMassta was born!
Art had always been part of his life. He told me how his mom would do handicrafts with him for every holiday, which ingrained in him the passion for using his hands in creative ways. Growing up in the eighties and nineties, he was influenced by TV shows, particularly ones on Nickelodeon. As a fellow nineties kid, I understood how these shows seep deep into our collective subconscious. Coming from Germany, I recognized most, if not all the shows he listed, such as “Rocko’s Modern Life,” “Hey Arnold!,” “CatDog,” “The Rugrats,” “Doug,” and “Ren and Stimpy,” — also The Simpsons, Looney Tunes, The Flintstones, Taz-Mania or The Jetson’s. All important influences that formed the artist’s creative viewpoints in his childhood, both toward the world and eventually the creation of his character GoopMassta. “We were born in the product zone, they shoved it into your face. I’m totally a wild and crazy 90s kid. And the 90s are a reflection of my art: fun, wacky… I’m just a product of my environment.”
“We were born in the product zone, they shoved it into your face. I’m totally a wild and crazy 90s kid. And the 90s are a reflection of my art: fun, wacky… I’m just a product of my environment.”
However, it wasn’t all television sunshine. Growing up in poverty and finding his way into the graffiti scene early on, he was familiar with the underground culture and the grittiness of urban America. “The graffiti scene is the underbelly of the world.” he sums up, “It’s a different lifestyle: Either you get stuck, or part of it or enjoy it or kinda just emulate other people.” That is inevitably a side effect of that scene. Sure, the artist wasn’t an angel, either. But his love and passion for drawing always trumped everything else. Before he dedicated his whole life to the art he’s making now, he was a tattoo artist. That was one of the more romantic jobs he had. Before that, he worked as a dishwasher, a retail worker and various other forms of general labor.
“The graffiti scene is the underbelly of the world.” he sums up, “It’s a different lifestyle: Either you get stuck, or part of it or enjoy it or kinda just emulate other people.”
Working in a tattoo parlor he was surrounded by “roughnecks, pirates, and bikers.” This environment taught him the critical life skill of “not to take shit from nobody.” Especially, when friends and family didn’t believe in him at times. However the one person who did always believe in him and supported him throughout the years was his now wife Lindsey.
They knew each other already from high school and lived a few blocks apart. But it took a couple more years before they started dating. That was in 2006, when they were both 20 years old. She just started out at North Florida State School and he was seen visiting campus often, although he never took any classes. Together 17 years, of which they are married 7, they have been a team ever since, supporting each other with their respective dreams. “Without Lindsey this would not have been possible. She embraced my art,” the artist confided.
Even during our interview, Lindsay was part of the process. She helped fill in the gaps, or at times corrected her husband when he claimed: “I painted this 30 years ago!” 30 years ago! I wonder… The math doesn’t add up, the artist is only 37 years old. So, his wife intervened: “You painted this 15 years ago maybe! Not 30!” And we all had a laugh. “You weren’t 7 when you spray-painted this on the walls of Miami.” But to the artist it feels that way. His way of telling a story is much like his art: fantastic, fun, and imaginative, told with a mischievous smirk. They both work well together: the artist lifts off and Lindsey pulls him back down.
He slowly warmed up during our conversation, and 2 hours in he asked innocently: “Do you mind if I puff?” I don’t. ‘Puff’ of course stands for smoking marijuana. But that’s about it when it comes to his vices – and maybe a cigar here and there. We had a lively conversation about street art, graffiti and what society considers art and what it condemns as property soiling tagging and how decades later it might still end up in some gallery, a la Banksy.
Working in a tattoo parlor he was surrounded by “roughnecks, pirates, and bikers.” This environment taught him the critical life skill of “not to take shit from nobody.” Especially, when friends and family didn’t believe in him at times. However the one person who did always believe in him and supported him throughout the years was his now wife Lindsey.
One major theme with the artist is hard work. “Hustle” is a word he uses repeatedly during our interview. “Everyone has great ideas, but not everyone brings them out,” the artist explains. “I, however, will find a way.”
At first hearing about an artist that built his whole career on one character might sound monotonous, but not GoopMassta! GoopMassta is everything but dull. The artist reinvents his character over and over: GoopMassta as a Gucci pimp. GoopMassta as Mona Lisa. GoopMassta as a Greek bust. GoopMassta as Mickey Mouse. GoopMassta is whatever you want him to be without ever losing his essence. “My character is very gaudy,” the artist clarifies.
No art genre or tool is foreign to the artist. Everything from spray paint, to brush, to pencil to a tattoo needle are part of the artist’s tool box. He works with resin and fire, sculpts with clay and foam, wood, and 3D prints. And – he is an autodidact!
He’s made a ship in a bottle. A Goopy snoopy canvas. Goop stickers, Anime-Goop, Bart Simpson – Goop, Goop sculpture, Goop plushie, even a goop rug! An homage to Keith Haring’s dancing figures – but as Goop. Goop backpack, Goop healing stone figurines, I have never quite seen an artist with such a high creativity and productivity index. Their house is full of canvases, art, toys and merchandise. And everything is Goop. But that is not always obvious. Sometimes you have to look twice to discover Goop underneath other characters. In one painting I discover Goop as the pupils that are jumping out of Bugs Bunny’s eyes. It’s almost a treasure hunt: Where has the artist hidden little Goop this time? “The creativity to me is the art; you create something from nothing. (…) How do you speak? Maybe you speak through motions, through your body, through words or through tools.”
The artist, along with Lindsay, has managed to create not just art but a flourishing creative business. To find this intersection and to turn it into a successful enterprise is what many artists aspire toward but few achieve. Yet somehow the artist manages to find a balance in all of it – while still loving the work! “I like working, I like doing it, I like being involved.,” he said when I asked him about the marketing and retail part of his business.
The artist reinvents his character over and over: GoopMassta as a Gucci pimp. GoopMassta as Mona Lisa. GoopMassta as a Greek bust. GoopMassta as Mickey Mouse. GoopMassta is whatever you want him to be without ever losing his essence. “My character is very gaudy,” the artist clarifies.
What is obvious when you look him up on Instagram is that he doesn’t hide behind his character or his paintings like many artists do, being the introverted, shy species of our society. Rather, he plays a big factor in selling his products. Funny, silly and definitely quirky is how he comes across in his posts and videos. “I’m just driven like that. You shoot for the galaxy, but you aim for the stars.” A mantra that seems to have brought the artist far in his endeavors. “It’s always business-related. (…) It’s been hectic, it’s been fun, it’s been fulfilling, it’s been tear-jerking.”
Goop already appears on numerous walls in LA, Miami, New York, Boston, Chicago, Sacramento, London, Paris, Bristol and anywhere in between. The artist and his wife love to travel and wherever the artist goes, there goes Goop. Being a street artist comes with certain advantages. Walls are everywhere and the artist breathes life into them. There isn’t one vacation spot where the artist doesn’t try to leave his mark. Sometimes he has to get creative, when he wanted to paint a mural in Chicago and learned that spray paint is illegal in the state of Illinois, so he had to go underground to buy some cans on the black market. (Talking about the illegalization of the street art scene. The mural itself wasn’t illegal at all: The wall belonged to a restaurant whose owners gave the artist permission to paint it. In the execution of it, however, he had to do an unlawful thing. The stigma persists.)
“Your point of view determines a lot of things”, the artist concludes. “What I think is right, might be totally wrong to you, right? We create our own stories.”
“Your point of view determines a lot of things”, the artist concludes. “What I think is right, might be totally wrong to you, right? We create our own stories.”
And the artist surely does just that. Today he has fans and buyers of his art in many different countries: Japan, Italy, Dubai, Australia, Germany, Puerto Rico, Canada… And the list goes on. “I’m blessed to have people who enjoy my work all over the world.”
