UV: You are currently teaching an illustration class to teenagers. Your students work, as well as yours, is being shown at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Describe your approach to teaching and how you prepared your student for a public exhibit.
SN: Well, it's the "Young Artist's at work program" and the comic, "Young Artists Comix," comes out Aug 16th. We worked on basic cartooning for four weeks. We learned styles from Disney to Magna, focusing on individual body parts, to form, to original character. The next four weeks each student will be focusing on transferring their characters to a two-page narrative. This show acts as our midterm, giving the kids a chance to share their ideas with the public, and drum up passion for the comic creation part of the program. I prepared my students to be very verbal and expressive when explaining their process of creation.

UV: What are your thoughts on the environment of an art gallery and the politics that it creates?
SN: I think art galleries are very sterile environments. I think regardless of the art,the gallery is inaccessible to the common man and youth. As far as politics go, I focus my career on working with youth in order to avoid an art life of nepotism and wine and cheese. Working with local kids in the Bay Area gives me the opportunity to advance my career in a very rich way, rather than the gallery way.

UV: How much do you feel the aesthetic of Bay Area "street" art and culture has influenced your work?
SN: I have always been very anti-graffiti. My murals have been tagged countless amounts of time so I have a bitter taste in my mouth for anything remotely attached to graffiti. I try to never show with artists that tag or make graffiti in order to maintain my stance and not support a society that oppresses me. I was inspired by seeing Twist's show at SFMOMA a couple of years back. After I saw that show it encourged me to see cartoons hanging in a major museum. I have been a huge fan of his gallery work. My goal in art is to not be labeled or fall within a regional style. I appreciate the local "street" thing, but see it as a limiting fad.

UV: Is Lascivious a self portrait?
SN: Yes, I painted it after my 25th birthday. My best friend TR had a surprise party for me -- it reflects my state of mind and people and things that were around me on that day.