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T.J. Black mixes art and blues with pleasure.

The double-threat graphic artist/musician has become de regeur in Baton Rouge, and here is T.J. Black, paying the bills with abstract, pinwheel-colored pop art and spending his nights singing street-walkin’ blues as frontman for The Black Sound Parade. 225 caught up with the New Orleans ex-pat to find out what makes him tick.

You grew up in Texas, in Corpus Christi and San Antonio. What did your parents do for a living?

My mom and step-dad, who I spent most of my life with, owned G-M Steakhouse right across from The Alamo. I did some time there, bussing tables.

What pop culture did you get into as a kid?

More than I’d like to admit to, cause right now I don’t have a TV—on purpose. But my brother and I had a huge movie collection, everything from Bruce Lee movies to music documentaries, concert movies and movies about artists and tortured people in general.

Did you have any older siblings or relatives who were into art or music?

Nearly everyone on my mom’s side were artists, and a few on my dad’s too. But my mom grew up with nine brothers and sisters and at least five of the nine are really great artists. Different stuff, pen-and-ink stuff. But I never thought about that. It’s almost like I woke up one day, at 21, and decided to paint a bunch of paintings on a whim. Which is strange to think about now.

Before then you were all about music.

Got my first guitar at 8, and got serious about it a year later.

What were you into then?

It was all blues. Stevie Ray Vaughn, Albert King, all the mean blues guitar players. I spent most of my high-school days in my room playing along with the CDs and watching concert footage in documentaries. Until I was about 18, I was thinking, ‘I’ve got to be a huge musician.’ Then you get a little older and reality sets in, and your goals change, and you start to realize ‘I’d be completely content to make my living based solely on my art—just a place to play gigs and sell my paintings.’ Can it get any better than that?

Did your parents encourage you?

Yeah, they just said, ‘Work as hard at music as you would at [college].’ They didn’t give me too much heat about not making the same decisions they would have. They knew I took music seriously because I practiced my ass off every day.

What role did New Orleans play in your development as a painter?

I was waiting tables on Bourbon Street, and I got so sick of that scene. I quit my job, and with about $100 I went down to Jackson Square with five paintings. I sold a couple that first day and started throwing shows at my house. I had never painted at all, just drawn things, but I really started to like it. It was like my meditation period. It allowed me to clear my head. I made a living just doing that, and moved here after the storm.

So whose work did you really take note of?

Off the top of my head, Basquiat and of course Warhol. But not so much. I would just see art, and I’ve always had a knack for being able to see how they did it or how it was put together, where their head was, and more than anything, being affected by color.

T.J. Black shows 225 one of his star tattoos.

Warhol used iconic faces, and you do, too, occasionally.

Yeah, that’s relatively recent, though. I’ve really started to get into the musicians. That one-color silhouette image has become more powerful, and I don’t know why it’s so effective to me, but I keep doing it. I’ve done a few nudes like that, but mostly it’s musicians. So yeah, maybe you’re right. Maybe he’s creeping in more than I think.

I’ve seen your work featuring Beck and Thom Yorke. Who else have you done?

Three Bob Marleys, Johnny Cash, Warren Haynes, Stevie Ray Vaughn, two Professor Longhair pieces, Kermit Ruffins, Dr. John. Mick Jagger I’m about to do. James Brown, Iggy Pop…

Are stars and guitars your logos?

They’re my Blue Dogs [laughing]. The guitars, those have always been in there, and the stars. I’m obsessed with stars for some reason. I’ve started to get into this drip-painting style, which is much more like graffiti than anything else I’ve done.

I see you have a star tattoo.

I’ve got 13 of them.

What else do you have?

I can’t stop getting them. I have “Strength,” “NOLA.” Eventually I’m going to get more lettering [on my forearm], a passage of some sort.

What have you been listening to while you work?

In New Orleans I would just put on WWOZ and leave it on all day. Everything from Radiohead to Wilco. The new Kings of Leon album is great. Some drum and bass, ambient type stuff, New Orleans funk.

Does it affect the outcome?

All the time, I put lyrics in the paintings. A lot of lyrics from [Wilco’s] Yankee Hotel Foxtrot made it into paintings. Especially if I’m painting a musician, I’ll put their stuff on, but visually, I don’t think so, just the lyrics.

You said art is meditative for you. How would you describe playing music?

It’s a very necessary part of my soul. If I don’t play on stage for a while, I can feel it. I need to get in front of people and play. It’s medicine. It’s every hour of every day that I’ve wanted to do this. I feel like I’ve finally become comfortable enough on the instrument to be able to express how I feel at that time. It’s more of a live music thing. That’s the real joy, playing a show. Afterward, I feel better.