Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Uakari Cuts. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Uakari , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

Before I started making art, I was a producer. In fact, the reason I got into collage art was to create artwork for my beats! Collage art is very similar to sampling – as a producer I loved taking the old and creating the new. Now I just do that physically with magazines and paper. Unlike using hardware and software, though, where i had to comb the internet for tutorials and spend countless hours perfecting and tweaking mixes, sitting in a computer chair with awful posture and staring at a screen, now I spend countless hours creating however I want. Collage art has given me the creative freedom I so sorely needed after conforming myself to making mostly one genre of beats for several years. It’s engaged my ADD-riddled brain in a way that production just was no longer satisfying. I didn’t have to spend long stretches of time studying to figure out how to use things – I just had to get a pair of scissors and some glue and brute force it by hand. In June 2021 I created my very first physical collage, and it happens to be one that I still love and that others say is one of their favorites. There were steps I could have taken to speed up my learning process, though. There are many mediums that I don’t touch because I have never been a traditional artist. This is my biggest 2024 goal – incorporating more mediums and techniques into what I create. I feel like I am at a point where I’ve developed my style as an artist, mostly influenced by my reasonable collection of Nat Geos, and I feel more confident branching out. I no longer feel like every collage HAS to count and be post-worthy. My most recent accomplishment has been working on pieces larger than 8×10 – most recently I completed a 20×24 piece with my girlfriend. That was a large undertaking but it was very fun and rewarding to have something that large as part of my portfolio. My biggest obstacle is me, and my procrastination. 2024 is shaping up to be a truly transformative year for me, and I am excited to continue to dedicate myself to improving my craft!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Uakari Cuts. For those who don’t know what a Uakari is, it is a new world monkey local to the Amazon forest characterized by their bald heads and bright red faces. I decided that my art should represent and incorporate one of my biggest passions – primate conservation (hence the name). My eventual goal with art is to be primarily focused on providing conservation, sanctuary, and deforestation information through my work. I create collage art, and while the overwhelming majority typically is not monkey themed – my future will be filled with many more pieces that i plan to use as a way to help stop the decline of primate populations in whatever way I can.

I used to consider myself solely a producer but after 2022 set me down the path of primate conservation, 2023 has transformed into being a multimedia collage artist first and foremost. I barely make beats anymore, but any releases I currently have planned will also be accompanied by a physical artwork component, so it’s definitely not something that I have given up. I changed my name to Uakari Cuts to encompass both my music and art back in Spring of 2023 and have already released a few tracks under this new name over the past 6 or so months with more on the way. I would describe my current sound as very “vaporwavy” with lofi elements thrown in, although I have many other tracks that are WIP right now that sound totally different. I also co-founded a (mostly) monthly producer/beatmaking event group called Beat Circuit, where we throw shows to highlight the best of Texas’ (and sometimes beyond) producers with my friend and associate Stark Nova.

Two years ago I would have highlighted all of this as my main priority, but this year I will be more focused on my art and how I can contribute to helping primates, even moreso than 2023!

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My biggest creative goal is to be have my vending set up be heavily conservation focused – with less of an emphasis on my art and more of an emphasis on providing information and partnering with sanctuaries if possible. This is something that I am maybe a year out from doing as it requires a complete overhaul of what I currently do. For right now, though, my goal is to just be better. I want to be more consistent, procrastinate less, and learn new techniques and mediums that I can incorporate into my work!

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect, easily, is when someone purchases or is given my art and I get to see how they include it in their own space, whether it’s their living room, their studio, their bedroom, or even if it’s a commission and I get to see them use it and be excited about it when they post it or use it. It really does make me proud, knowing that someone is using my art to decorate their own space with. Another rewarding aspect is getting to talk about monkeys when someone purchases a primate print or original piece!

Contact Info:

• Website: Uakaricuts.art
• Instagram: Instagram.com/uakaricuts
• Facebook: Facebook.com/uakaricuts
• Twitter: Twitter.com/uakaricuts