If magazine articles were scratch and sniff, then this interview with Angry Woebots, aka Aaron Martin, would smell like fried chicken.

Contrast rapped with the 31-year-old, urban fine artist at KJ’s, a ‘hole in the wall’ eatery known for their deep fried poultry, two scoops rice and mac salad meal. The chicken joint is located in the Kane‘ohe Shopping Center which is 10 minutes away from Martin’s studio in Kahalu‘u. His east side workspace is a tribute to Martin’s success in the fine art community.

Art is Aaron’s career/passion and with every new project, Martin is putting Hawai‘i on the map. His artwork has a strong following across the spectrum. Whether it’s the vinyl toy community, street wear retailers, or the hip-hop scene, Angry Woebots is blowing up.

Recently Martin’s been touring the nation with his Pocket Full Of Monsters crew of artists. Live paintings. Signings. Group Shows. Collaborations. Custom orders. Dude is in high demand and is spending less and less time on the islands, making Angry Woebots a hard cat to nail down for an interview.

Big ups to KJ’s fried chicken deliciousness because it gave us an opportunity to sit down with Aaron Martin to ask him about his artistic inspiration, the reason his pandas look so gnarly, and the current state of the art scene in the islands.


Contrast: You’ve been an established artist for the last six years, but how did you first get interested in art?
Aaron Martin.: The main inspiration that sparked it all off was when I was in 1st grade. My classmate’s brother had stolen a book from the library: Spray Can Art by James Prigoff and Henry Chalfant. It was sick! It had all these classic graffiti legends. He let me borrow it, I took it home and I bit everything in that book. I copied everything, traced everything and anything I could do because I loved that book so much.

I guess imitation is the highest form of flattery. Sounds like your childhood paralleled the rise of hip-hop culture?
With that [book] came Beat Street, Breaking and all that. I grew up into it and the whole hip-hop thing took off. I was into popping, I used to draw on the cardboard. I used to draw my name in bubble letters during class. In elementary I was tagging in crayon. What was fucked up about it was, I was tagging my own name. So, there was ‘Aaron Martin’ all over school and on the walls and shit. [laughs]

You must have been a favorite among the faculty [Laugh]. Where did you grow up when all this was going down?
We lived in Kalihi and our house had hella termites. Because we had termites, sometimes we would try to write on the wall and the fucking pencil would just cave in. So, there would be a big ole hole and fucking termite shit would come pouring out. It was pretty classic.

That’s hilarious. Did any of your family influence your passion for art?
Growing up, my grandpa ran the paint shop at Kam School. He painted everything from the buildings to the buses. He graduated from Farrington high school in Kalihi and he was a skilled calligrapher so he was really good with hand styles and paint. When he was a kid, he was full into drawing, painting and stuff like that. Growing up I would come to visit my grandparents. My grandma would be cooking and he would just be in the corner rocking oil paints and acrylics and stuff. To me, all the talent came from him. He even did some work for the Honolulu Academy of Arts. He had a couple paintings and some group shows. But, he was a ‘working man’ so he worked to help the family out. It was like a hobby and some kind of therapy. He would listen to jazz records and just paint.

Does gramps trip on how hard you blew up with your artwork?
He trips out on it because it’s a reoccurring theme. It’s an icon. It’s a panda. So, when he sees that stuff and how far I got with it he’s stoked. He’s definitely happy that I’m doing this shit. It’s trippy for him because in his day you would paint all kinds of shit and it’s different now. He’s stoked for me because I’m actually doing something he was hyped on. At one point in his life he probably wanted to pursue an art career. It’s all from his blood, so it’s tight.

It’s sick that you can carry on his legacy with your career. Angry Woebots is widely known for his panda artwork. What made you paint the Asian bear?
The panda was a mistake. I was painting at these live poetry slams and originally I wanted to paint a grizzly bear. All I had was black and white paint and some random colors in little tubes. But, I only had mostly black and white and I was like, “Fuck it, I’m just going to paint a panda bear.” I painted it and people were bugging out on it. Months later, after I painted the panda, people would ask, “What’s up with that panda?” “Can we commission you for a panda painting?” That happened three or four times after so I started drawing it more, painting it more, and it just caught on like wild fire. My first solo show I painted like, 80-something pandas, and sold ‘um for 40 bucks each. Boom! I sold every piece at that show and people were bugging out on them. Usually I don’t like painting the same stuff, but people dug it, so I kept painting it.



Image: Lancifer Visual


You don’t really see too many aggressive pandas in the world, why do your bears look like they’re ready to destroy?
When I first painted ‘um I was painting them still life from pictures I found on the Internet so they look more realistic. As I got more into it they started taking on a life of their own. I got the idea of the angry panda because I used to paint grizzly bears. If you look at a super pissed off grizzly bear his mouth is flared out, his lips are flying off his face and you can see his gums. So, then I imagined a grizzly bear in a panda color way. Pandas do get pissed off. You can look it up on the Internet. So I took the grizzly facial expressions and I put it on a panda bear and that’s how they came out. I like painting them pissed off because in Asian culture you see them on cookie and candy boxes, and they’re all happy and shit. That’s the only picture. So, when people see them pissed off, it stops them in their tracks. People look at it and do a double take.

They’re eye-catching, for sure. How did you go from graffiti, spray paint, and walls to fine art, acrylics, and canvas?
When I started painting these pandas, making a transition from spray paint to actual canvas, I was using paint marker. When most graffiti artists get into fine art they go straight into paint marker because they don’t know how to use a brush. When I was doing a lot of stuff for Andy [Howell], he gave me a lot of pointers and I learned how to paint better using a brush. Plus, you learn the lifespan of a painting. You understand why people use more expensive paints because it lasts. You don’t want people to have a painting that falls apart.

You’re getting paid for your passion and others in the islands are following in your artistic footsteps. It seems like you needed to blow up in the mainland before you could blow up in Hawai‘i.
I started this whole art thing because no one else was doing the same things I was into. It was hard for me coming from traveling on the mainland and getting inspired because when I came back to Hawai‘i nobody was into painting or the art I was into, except for my homies that had connections on the mainland. So, I started networking and trying to get into group shows on the mainland. Being [on the mainland] is better and worth more because you get to shake hands and chop it up with people and that makes the network even bigger. Early on, that was out of my pocket, I spent a lot of money on it. Dude, I worked three jobs before I started doing this and it took me six and a half years to get where I’m at.

We know you did work, son. How do you feel when you come back to the islands after doing all these art shows?
Coming back to Hawai‘i and seeing kids totally lost in their art is cool. When I first started I’d wished there was an art community. I’d wished there were groups of people doing the same shit I was doing. I’m not doing this for myself. I’m doing it for the ‘aina. I want it for Hawai‘i. I want kids to be inspired and hyped. So they say, “dude he did it, why can’t I?” It’s cool now because young kids look up to me and ask me questions. Shout out to Light Sleepers because they’ve been doing it for a while and shout out to Ground Up because they’re taking it to the next level. I like the community because it promotes art to kids and promotes creativity.

Besides inspiring kids, repping Hawai‘i and the obvious scrilla, what’s the big payoff for you with this art thing?
Just traveling, meeting cats, and doing shows keeps me going. I think a lot of the main pay is meeting people. Stars are one thing, but being in the same venue and standing next to them is trippy. I’m not going to lie, I make good money, but a lot of the pay is just meeting cool people.


Watch Aaron on Contrast TV!