Conducted by Bill Kendrick. Posted June 13, 2024.

"Safe In Your Skin" (tattoo designed using Tux Paint)

"Starting Over Everyday"

About Lau

What's your name?

My name is Lau Mota, also known as L444U. I'm 20 years old, I'm a multimedia artist, researcher, and curator from São Paulo, Brazil.

Do you have other artistic endeavors?

My main artistic practices are video art and tattoos, but I also do performance art, illustrations, writing and always explore new stuff.

Do your clients know you use Tux Paint to design their tattoos?

When I'm doing text designs, I usually do them for each client together with them, so they usually see that I'm using Tux Paint! Most of my clients are nerds (like me), so a lot of them ask if it's a Linux program and feel super curious/nostalgic about it!

What are your other hobbies?

My favorite hobbies are watching movies and going to the cinema. I usually do them one to two times a week when I can.

Where can people find you online?

All my social media is @L444U_, and my tattoo account is @t444tu on Instagram.

Discovering and Using Tux Paint

How and when did you first learn about Tux Paint?

I learned about Tux Paint in computer class when I was around 6 years old. The teacher used to make us play with it and teach us to do stuff like mandalas (for some reason). I started to become obsessed with it, and every time I felt insecure or nervous about going out with friends during lunch break at school, I would go to the computer room and draw in Tux Paint.

Did you stop using Tux Paint and come back to it later?

Yes, I stopped using Tux Paint when I was around 11 and moved to Brasília. My new school didn't have computer classes, so I forgot about its existence. When I moved back to São Paulo in 2017, I started playing with it again during lunch breaks to escape from bullying in the computer room and eventually downloaded it to my computer to use at home. During that time, I started selling prints of my paintings, so I used Tux Paint a lot for inspiration.

How do you usually interact with Tux Paint?

I use a mousepad or a Wacom Intuos. I usually use Wacom for the typography, but I lost the cable, so I'm just using a mousepad or mouse now.

What are your "go-to" tools in Tux Paint?

My favorite tools are the calligraphy tool, the 3D brush, and the stickers (I import a lot of stickers and backgrounds myself as well). I also use a lot of the gradient/radial bucket fill tool and the text tool.

When I started tattooing in 2023, I made a lot of flash (that means artworks that are pre-made to be tattooed) with the Calligraphy tool, and this writing style has been a significant part of my tattoo portfolio.

Is there something you wish Tux Paint could do that it can't?

I honestly thought about this for a while but i like its simplicity. Makes my process more “childish” and intuitive. Limitations are good sometimes.

What other kinds of art tools do you use?

I use a lot of Photoshop and Premiere for my digital and videoart stuff. I also use other software like Kidpix. For physical media, my favorite tool is oil pastels.

Do you ever edit your Tux Paint art in other drawing programs or vice-versa?

Yes! I usually edit them on Photoshop, to fit my tattoo ~aesthetic~ more.

What tips or tricks would you like to share with other aspiring artists?

Experimenting is always nice :~) don’t feel pressured or obligated to do something big or revolutionary, doing art instinctively is so inspiring <3

What piece of art, or other creation, are you most proud of?

My favorite work I’ve ever done is my videoart “sometimes i feel like i never existed”, and this tattoo saying “I Exist” (they feel complementary)

Style and Inspiration

What would you call your art style?

I'd call my style post-internet art. This is like the current wave of artists who use the Internet as a central topic of research and production. I like to focus on trauma and nostalgia as the main topics for my work.

What artists do you look up to?

I'm inspired by a lot of people. Currently, my biggest references for my work are Hito Steyerl, Harmony Korine, Maya Man, and Sion Sono because I'm focusing more on video. I feel heavily inspired by other tattoo artists that do experimental work, like theantsarecrawlingundermyskin, horrrhaus, fun_n__games, xobaia, bug_____1 and many others.

What other things inspire you to make art?

I'm obsessed with Internet culture and 90s/2000s software made for kids. My artwork relies a lot on nostalgia and memories, and I try to find ways to explore these memories in my work to represent my experiences as an online kid. For me, software like Tux Paint, Kid Pix, etc., allow me to produce in a very childish-like flow without thinking too much about technicality or what I should be doing. It makes me feel connected to who I was 15 years ago; for me, they are some of the last remnants of the open internet.

I also feel inspired by music. I'm currently listening to a lot of Fugazi, Neu! and Sonic Youth to produce.

Have you ever published or exhibited your art?

In 2021, I was invited to my first exhibition, and I used Tux Paint as one of the tools for producing the work I was showing. After this, I've been a part of multiple exhibitions showcasing Tux Paint art.

I'm directing a film right now :—)

Wrap-up

If you could interview me, or someone else who works on the Tux Paint project, what would you ask us?

I wanted to ask you something for a long time, actually! Do you know the impact you made in so many artists' lives? For me, Tux Paint was my first contact with visual art. I feel so inspired when I'm using it, and my work would be so much less if I couldn't. It has been important for my artistic practice since I was a kid, for more than 15 years, and helped me learn a lot about the computer itself. And when I asked my friends worldwide, many of them also had similar experiences with Tux Paint.

When you started developing it, did you think it would become something big? And also, did you expect it to run for over 20 years? What inspired you to start building Tux Paint?

Bill: I get asked this a lot. I certainly expected (hoped, at least) it would still be around for a long time, because I released it under an Open Source license. I originally made it simply to fill a need for Linux-using parents.

I definitely did not expect to still be working on it myself so many years later, nor how big an impact it would have on people's lives. I figured it would be a niche Linux app that a few kids might play with, but it blew up really quickly once it landed on Windows and Mac.

All the kids who used it in the early days have grown up, and now I'm stumbling across them on social media, and seeing the amazing things they can do (inside and outside of Tux Paint).

PS - I had a feeling that some day I would discover someone with a Tux Paint related tattoo, but I never expected to come across a tattoo artist who used Tux Paint to create tattoo designs! 🤯

"Sapo" (Frog)

Archive of tattoo designs in Tux Paint