Straycat is the studio of creative, Roy van Wezenbeek. Educated in Fine Arts, his love for drawing and printmaking are key features in his output. In his practice he aims for an intuitive and direct approach, with the elements of surprise and opportunity being motivational factors.
After achieving his degree, Roy partook in a few exhibitions, hoping to help cover his rent. However, he struggled to make ends meet solely making art, and instead started working in vintage furniture restoration. Roy says; “For quite some time I happily executed that work, I really enjoyed being among craftsmen and learning from them. Nevertheless at some point feelings of unfulfillment crept in.” Thus, Roy rented a small atelier and started making things again, constructing ideas to make a more sustainable practice.
“Even though I studied fine arts, I always thought of myself as more of a draftsman or illustrator” describes Roy. As a child, he was fully immersed in the world of skateboarding and alternative music, to which he still feels an incredibly strong connection to today. Highly fascinated by the graphics of skateboards and the album covers of bands he listened to back then, particularly Punk Rock, Roy decided to go back and focus on his passions. “I started to dive into Adobe again and applied for internships at studio’s I liked. Next to my day job as a furniture restorer I spent nearly all my free time getting to be better designer” states Roy. For 3 years, he worked at various graphic design studios one day a week, and slowly the idea for his own studio, Straycat, was born.
One of Roy’s favourite projects he has recently worked on was the designing of graphics for new Dutch skateboard brand, Become Skateboarding. He was tasked with creating 2 graphics for decks, and other merch including t-shirts and stickers. “I was so excited that I was working on this like all the time” describes Roy. Instead of creating just the 2, he made 5 graphics as he had so many ideas he wanted to work with. The skateboards are currently being produced, and Roy is “as excited as a kid in a candystore” to get his hands on the decks and skate with them.
Another exciting project he recently finished is a commissioned artwork for a documentary about rock schools for youngsters in former conflict areas in Kosovo and Macedonia. Roy says; “Music connects people and that’s what this documentary basically is about”. He is also currently working on infographics for a brewery; “I wanted to make an infographic where you can discover the process of beer brewing in an exciting way”. In this commissioned work he aimed for something both informative and fun to look at.
As a draftsman, Roy is a huge fan of Raymond Pettibon, Marcel Dzama, Daniel Johnston, and David Shirgley, as well as outsider artists such as Henry Darger and Willem van Genk. “Mostly the more naïve work seems to really attract me” states Roy. He also continues to be inspired by the gig posters, album covers, and band tees of the more obscure music genres he loved as a teenager.
Always working in a love/hate relationship with the computer, Roy aims to find the right balance between analogue and digital in his works. “The computer has to be a tool in the same way a pencil or a hammer or whatever is” he describes. When drawing, he uses a variety of ink pens, ballpoints, pencils, gouache, and oil and water pastels, emphasising his love for these textures. “I think my scanner is my biggest friend these days” says the illustrator. All sorts of things have been under the hood of his scanner; flowers, sandwiches, jeans, strawberries, you name it.
“For me it’s really important to play like a child and try to be as open as I can be to new possibilities in the process of anything. Designing things just has to be fun. I think if I didn’t have any fun in the process the design would be be dead.”
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