Bondi Local | Nick Hernandez aka Chocolate Einstein
Bondi Local | Nick Hernandez aka Chocolate Einstein
Nick is an artist who loves to paint. He and Melanie met at the Porch and Parlour on the corner of Ramsgate Avenue and Campbell Parade.
Nick has a stall at the upcoming Finders Keepers market at the Australian Technology Park in Redfern on 11,12 & 13 December 2015.
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Can you tell us a little something about your background?
I guess my family story is my dad was working from a young age coz he lived with his aunties. He was entrepreneurial. He was born in Chile. He was 28 years old when he came out on his own followed by my mum, who he had just married, a month before. I guess with his chopping and changing jobs, going from construction sites to owning a laundromat on Crown Street, to then coming home one day and saying “I’m going to buy a restaurant” and my mother saying “you know nothing about cooking!” but he said he would learn and the next thing he came home and put the day’s takings on the table and mum thought, well maybe there’s something in this after all!
We were living in Coogee at the time and the restaurant was out in Bankstown so he was commuting many hours a day. He did that for about 6 months but then they thought ok we have to move closer to the restaurant. I was only 7 and didn’t really know what was what. You just go where your parents are at that stage.
Was it a Chilean restaurant?
No, Mexican. It was just a business but at least we spoke Spanish. I did years 3 to 10 school out there. Then Mum and Dad wanted to buy a restaurant in Manly. We ended ended up in Newport and I finished high school at Pittwater High. And then I did a couple of years just hanging out there before the city started calling me. So I would venture into town to go out but then go all the way back to Newport. Eventually I moved out and moved into Elizabeth Bay. From there and inner city living and meeting amazing people and growing – my inner-self awakening! I did the Byron Bay thing in about 1993.
Were you doing your art at this point?
No, I guess, my art history is a very simple thing. My art is very colour driven so I just remember loving colouring in when I was in primary school. My brother is also an artist but he always had more technical skill. He had more of an affinity for it than I did. It didn’t pull me towards it, I was more outdoors. He was happy to sit inside and just draw. But I’ve always had a thing with colour. The way that I dress and present myself – there’s always colour involved. But painting and all of that came very late in my life. I came to art 6 years ago when I broke my ankle when I was out one night. The universe told me to go and jump on a swing and I did. The universe wanted me to change the course I was on. So I was housebound – the house was on the top floor with no elevator so. Unless I really had to leave I wasn’t going anywhere.
A friend of mine, Ray Lalotoa, came to visit me and I had a few doodles lying around the house that I had done on odd occasions and he said “who’s are these? They’re great, why don’t you do some drawings while you’re incapacitated.” And that’s how I started painting. I popped my leg up on the couch and had an easel in front of me. It was like therapy and it was an opportunity to discover my style. My style is symmetry and colours and I call it kind of urban native. My colour is my art. I finish everything with a black outline so it takes it back to the primary school colouring in stage. It’s quite instinctive now. I very rarely have something pictured in my head when I sit down. I just put the pencil down and it develops from there. I started to post a few of the pictures up on Instagram and Facebook just to say what I’ve been doing and people would respond saying they loved this or that.
It was quite a brave (but worthwhile) thing to do wasn’t it?
Well it was a cheap exhibition. And it got me thinking about how I could make my art have a longer life than one canvas. You sell it, it’s gone. Plus I didn’t think I could make a living off just my art realistically. I thought I’d try to make clothes [which Nick does under the label Chocolate Einstein] but maybe it’s too loud for adults and so that’s when I thought that I could do kids’ clothes. The parents can live vicariously through their kids’ crazy outfits. But as it’s turned out I get a lot of adults asking for me to make larger sizes so now I’ve introduced a small range for the adults to keep them happy which I call The Big Kids. So that’s where my art is taking me.
Amy Finlayson is a local artist as well and she put an exhibition together at the Sun Studios in Alexandria with a lot of local talent and asked me to exhibit. This was more scary than Instagram! But I said fuck it, I’ve been to other exhibitions where someone has spilt a coffee cup and put it in a frame and called it art so I thought someone’s got to like it. People were coming up to me on the night and saying they loved it. I was there with my partner and my baby and the baby was getting restless so I walked them to the car. When I came back in I felt a little more relaxed as I didn’t have to worry about them and socialising. Then I made my way to where my paintings were hanging and there were 2 red dots! And I was like “wow!” A few more wines and a bit more mingling and I went back again and there were another 2 dots. Out of 11 paintings in the end I sold 8. It was a great feeling and it’s inspired me to work towards more exhibitions, maybe mid next year.
What gets you to Bondi?
Well when I was living in Elizabeth Bay and going up to Byron Bay, I went up and down a few times because I was trying to run away but then I realised I had to do something. Bondi was there. It was mid 90s. I came down once but it didn’t work out with the people I was living with so I went back to Byron Bay. A friend from Bondi was up there said that if I was ever back in the city that I could have a room and a few months after that I moved down and living with him. For me it was that balance of city living and then the nature that I had gotten used to up in Byron, and the ocean that I reconnected with. I hadn’t surfed for 10 years. Even up in Byron Bay I wasn’t doing anything like that. I was swimming naked in Bilongil Beach but not surfing. So I think it was all of that.
And now I’ve seen the evolution – I’ve been here 20 years now – you get the old true locals but the new local that I love is a transient local but it says something about Bondi, the energy that it has, the persona that it is, that no matter what town or state you grow up in there’s something inside the individual that says this is where they need to be, that they need to live this life. So you have to be happy that we create that and attract it as well. I’ve met so many cool, amazing, inspiring people. I love the playfulness as well. It goes from one extreme to the other being that – I hear stories about people who bought semis in the 80s for like $23,000 – stop telling me that! But you know there are these really amazing creatives who are making a motza who just want to whack on their Vans and roll on a skateboard or ride a BMX or something like that but then jump into a beautiful Audi and go off to their job. Like-minded people, it’s really cool. I like it for that.
And yeah it just keeps on growing. I used to call it Never-Never Land where no-one wants to grow up. I live across road from the beach above the chicken shop and if I get up at 5 am and I look out the window it’s jam packed out there. People are keeping fit and so therefore keeping their youth and that’s the spirit of Bondi. Everyone’s got a pep in their step. Like those beautiful elderly people who I’ve seen for years, the little groups that they have and now they’re a lot older but they’re still doing their morning walk. It’s inspiring. When you see other people who say “I don’t do that stuff” and then you turn around and they’re giving it a go. Keep on going!
We are at the Porch and Parlour, so is this a favourite? I see you’ve done some of their branding.
Yes, I’ve done a bit of branding for them. I used to work here and I’m always on call just in case. They’ve been really good to me as well, as neighbours and as friends. I also worked in television and film as a production assistant/ runner/ jack-of-all-trades but that work can be a bit sparse so I would work here as well. They closed for renovations a few months ago and Sam and Sarah asked if I would do some artwork for them. So I did the coffee machine for which I did a design to ratio-scale and it was laser etched into the machine so it looks really cool. And I’ve done the wind-breakers and the sandwich board. So that’s my neighbourly contribution. They look after me!
Is there anywhere else that you go?
Not really. I’m pretty devoted to my local. I don’t like mixing it up. I find it very daunting when I’m in a new town. If anything, if I’m in the middle I’ll go to The Shop. If I want a burger and beer I’ll go to The Stuffed Beaver. That’s about it really.
Do you have a motto?
Yes: “I’ll give it a go.”
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Full interview on SoundCloud below or HERE
