Winter Garden artist mixes street art with SOBOCycles

If you’ve walked into Winter Garden Wheel Works lately, you’ve probably seen a colorful bike frame, designed with the concepts of graffiti, urban art and cubism in mind.

It’s one of the countless works Winter Garden resident Luke “Lsos” Sosinavage has completed since getting serious about art as a profession a few years ago. The Philadelphia native always welded his life experiences together with his knack for creativity.

“When I was in early school, instead of doing my subjects, I was usually always drawing,” he said. “(I was inspired by) a lot of early influences like movies, music and some friends I met through skateboarding. I was always just drawing and got into different mediums.”

Sosinavage, 40, credits getting into skateboarding and being in uptown Philadelphia as one of his earliest introductions to urban design, graffiti and street art.

Additionally, his passion for comic books served as another inspiration to the type of art he wanted to create.

“I have a simplistic basis for what street art was to me,” he said. “As far as a following with graffiti, I was influenced by people in Pittsburgh when I was younger — deejays, musicians and activists. It was almost a schooling for me.”

Although he began studying graphic design at one point to try to get work, he ended up moving to Florida to be closer to family and dive into fresh inspiration. The move also sparked new connections with other artists, as well as his willingness to get out in the community and do art shows or paint in public. 

“Right now the work ethic to what I’m doing is to accomplish something, or if people are interested in purchasing art. that’s a benefit. I have to be thankful, because I’m not a ‘starving artist.’” — Luke “Lsos” Sosinavage

“Probably about 2005 was when I got serious about art,” he said. “From 2005 to 2009 things resonated a bit, and then I just saw what other guys were doing, and it made things click a bit. Getting out around the community and painting other places and doing art strolls or shows (helped me) get back with other artists.”

Sosinavage currently paints mainly with acrylic and aerosols, paint markers and permanent markers. He creates on anything from sketchbooks to canvas to discarded furniture or cabinets. From plein air and abstract expressions to nature-inspired pieces with bright or earthy colors, he is spontaneous with whatever technique he feels best for a given project.

“I go with impressionistic values and my technique has impressionistic qualities,” he said. “As far as realism I might paint characters. For landscapes or patterns, I (use) graph cubism. For most patterns, I use a lot of lines, and I’ll spot paint.”

Most recently, he was asked to paint a SOBOCycle for the Winter Garden Art Association, along with five other local artists. The name of his piece is “chik3n scratch dragon junk trance,” and it was put up for auction toward the beginning of the month. He used aerosol paints, paint markers and a sealer to finish his cycle, which he estimates took about 10 hours of work.

“Right now the work ethic to what I’m doing is to accomplish something, or if people are interested in purchasing art. That’s a benefit,” Sosinavage said. “I have to be thankful, because I’m not a ‘starving artist.’ … There’s a lot of people who create art, and they’re good. It’d be nice to prosper a little more than what I am now. … I resonate with painting a lot, and I’d like to be able to communicate with people and have a positive influence.”