The Oracle: How did you first come up with the idea for your artwork?
Vincent Bouyssounouse: I do a lot of these abstract faces, but it all really stemmed from how I used to copy my favorite cartoon characters. I was really into that because they’re really expressive of emotions. So it evolved from that, and I started adding my own style to it.

TO: How did you first get into art?
VB: I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember. You do so many arts and crafts projects in elementary school, and that was just my thing; I was really into it, so I just continued to draw. My family was supportive of it, and I really enjoyed doing it.

TO: How did you decide to make stickers out of your art?
VB: I wanted a way to be able to share my art with people, and it’s kind of weird to just give out printed photos of what I’ve drawn. Stickers are really cool because you can put them on anything. There’s a big community of artists on Instagram who draw on stickers, trade and mail them to each other. So I kind of found that and knew that I wanted to do that. I actually don’t do stickers that much right now, but I’ve gotten a lot of designs printed, so those are cool. And my friends really like them, so they encouraged me to keep doing that.

TO: What would you say inspires you in your art?
VB: I’m inspired by a lot of different artists—a lot of minimalist and abstract [artists], a lot of French artists. What inspires me in general in art is the connection you can have with your audience and how you can relate to someone on a really deep level. You can’t really do that through many other mediums. You can do it through music, or writing or visual arts. That connection is really cool to me, and I want to be able to connect with people like that.

TO: What would you say the artistic process is like for you?
VB: I pretty much never use pencils anymore, I don’t know why. I guess I moved to pen a while back and really liked it, because it forces you to think more about lines you’re making, whereas with a pencil, a lot of times it will be a lot sketchier and you’re not thinking as hard. With a pen, you’re committing to every line that you’re doing. I pretty much always listen to music and most of my drawings aren’t planned out beforehand; I just kind of go with the ow and see where it ends up.

TO: Do you have any future plans with art?
VB: I’m definitely looking for an art-related major at one of the UCs here, but I haven’t decided on anything at this point. I’m looking at design, industrial design or graphic design, but nothing decided on yet.