Chances are - if you're in to or involved in the Miami cultural scene at all - that somewhere, at some time you've come across his work. During a typical Miami day, with a typical Miami backdrop, I sat down to speak with this not so typical visual artist. Here's a little glimpse inside the mind of everyone's favorite Unkle.

Randumb Miami: Where did Unkle Luc come from? How did you get started?

Unkle Luc: I found, I forgot the brand, but I found a camcorder in my mom’s closet. My senior year, 2006.

RNDM: A VHS camcorder?

UL: Yea, mini tapes. I used to make little stupid little videos, shorts films. Take pictures on it and edit on Microsoft Windows Movie Maker. I became popular during my senior year because of it. Because people watched my videos. Before I knew about YouTube, I would just put [the movies] on a CD and just put them on all the computers in the school and people would find out about it.

RNDM: Did you ever get in trouble?

UL: Nah. The teachers loved the videos. I ended up making two senior videos with a slideshow of pictures and different clips that I recorded throughout the school year and from there it just took off.

RNDM: Would you say that you always liked doing videos or did you start off liking photography and it just went from there?

UL: I started off liking videos because that’s all I used to do. I ain’t have a life when I was younger so I would just be home watching TV. Later I picked up design because [my friend] Cruz was using Photoshop. When I was younger, I used to want to be like him. Everything Cruz did, I did. I dressed like Cruz. Cruz used Photoshop, I used Photoshop. He used to help me.

RNDM: Primarily, where do you see yourself drawing from for inspiration? Is it a, a random thought, something that you see, a particular artist that influences you… the majority of times.

UL: That’s kind of hard for me to answer. Musically, I can transfer inspiration that I hear in music… RadioHead, Coldplay, J Dilla. Him I just found recently. Like a couple years ago. Different bands, different music. It just depends on how I feel. If I’m feeling lazy, I’m not gonna do anything. Sometimes I get angry when I see something dope that I can’t do so I feel that urge to be able to accomplish the things that I find dope. Til I feel like I’m capable of doing that. Then I move on the next thing I want to do.

RNDM: What inspired you to start you 365 project initially?

UL: Flickr. That's something a lot of people were doing on Flickr and there was people that couldn't finish and i was like damn, this would be sick to do with some Photoshop. [The summer that] I left school to improve my Photoshop skills, I started doing my 365. It was a completely different idea and I did something wrong in photoshop and my head ended up on the wall and i was like that looks dope and that's how it began.

RNDM: Did you have a goal with the project?

UL: I used it to get better at design, to challenge myself. To force myself to do [something] everyday. I could experiment while doing it.

RNDM: What did you take away from doing the project?

UL: That i could do whatever I wanted. It taught me how there aren't many rules to making things. When I started, I felt like there was a guideline I was supposed to be following and as I kept going I started to realize that there wasn't. And that was exciting for me... to be able to do what I want. to have control.

When I started no one really knew what I was gonna do, no one was paying attention. Then everyday, more and more people started to catch on. By the end, I got like 10,000 hits on my blog which was dope for me because I guess I could say I wasn't really no one to look at it and it was cool that I was able to get there.

RNDM: Are you planning on doing a part two? If so, what differences can your audience, the people who are interested in seeing it, expect between 365 part 1 and 365 part 2?

UL: Yes. Before, I was just going along learning but people weren't around to see you learn. It's [already] a year that i finished it. A whole year that I've been learning, picking up new things, new story lines to incorporate, things to bring back. For the people that were there through the whole thing that were paying attention will be able to appreciate when they see the 365 project part two. There's gonna be an overall theme as always but there's probably gonna be different independent story lines along the way that I'll find a way to connect. That part, I'm still deciding on... so we'll see.

RNDM: What do you see as the benefits and/or pitfalls or downfalls that being primarily based in Miami have on your work or on you as an artist? On your exposure... on any/everything. How does being from Miami affect you, positively and/or negatively?

UL: The scene is really new. Everybody knows New York, everybody knows Los Angeles. [Those] are probably the two most respected places in the United States as far as the art scene goes. Everything dealing with art and expression, those are like the Meccas. Those are the places people run to when they graduate or they don't wanna go school they just go and start there. That's what I wanted to do. Then I realized that I wanted to be here when everything was starting off. I wanted to be recognized as possibly a pioneering figure in the event that Miami somehow became an epicenter of swag. It's already getting there. In 2010, I felt like a lot of dope musicians and people that were doing photography and people that were doing music videos started to rise outta Miami. I wanted to be a part of that but it's tough cause it's already established in New York and LA and people are already connected there. Being from here, I don't have access to the people that a lot of people want to see.

It's pretty fresh here. There's not too much competition. Being that this scene is so new, and there are so many people just starting, I don't have too many big fish to have to deal with down here. and all the big fish that are already established down here I've maintained a good relationship with. I do feel like if I went to any one of those places the only thing I would be missing to hit the ground running is the connections. I've had people in New York tell me that if I went up there I'd probably do a good job. I feel like if I went up there and I had the connections I could go up there and wreck shit. But I don't want to. I wanna be down here andI wanna see what happens.

RNDM: So you're definitely planning on staying and spreading your roots here.

UL: Yea.

RNDM: You've had a chance to work with a lot of local people and many different types of artists. What has been your favorite experience and your favorite project that you've worked on.

UL: My favorite experience has been Personal's 'Goodnight Goodbye'. I met him in august 2009. He told me about his album and what he wanted to do with it. He told me he wanted to do a movie for his album. That experience was fun because I never filmed that much stuff in such a short period of time. When we were done filming we had the deadline that we had set for ourselves. His album was supposed to come out. I had the pressure to edit the movie and he had the pressure to finish his album before the date he had set. I was editing the movie at my house. Then the next day, the second day of editing, FPL came and cut off my electricity so we had to pack up and go to his house which is like 45 minutes away so we stayed at his house there for another day. and we edited at his house for a couple days. It took like three days, between two different houses... back and forth back and forth. Trying to build anticipation for it. Then finally dropping it cause we were worried whether or not people were gonna watch it.

As soon as we dropped that, we averaged a thousand views a day for the first four days and we got reviews on dope websites. People that we thought wouldn't care were telling us how much they loved it. We were just happy that people were understanding. You know some people they felt certain ways about it. We had people tell us the movie didn't mean shit, that it was just random and it wasn't but it was fun because the majority of the people who told us how they felt about the movie they felt how we wanted them to feel and they came up with their own ideas. Some people came up with even doper interpretations for some of the stuff that was in the movie. That was fun because we didn't really want people to feel like they were wrong in whatever they perceived about the movie cause you know how it is with art and shit. It's really your own interpretation. That's the fun part about expressing things.

J.Nics is also awesome to work with because we understand each other. We're usually on the same wave length when it comes to doing a video. He'll come to me and he'll send me a song and he'll be like, "Yo let's shoot a video for this" and he'll tell me his idea and it will probably be the same thing I was thinking. Probably be some weird shit, something outside the box as far as not going too literal with what the lyrics might say. He's always down for it and it's not really a struggle. We could just bang out a video in one day.

RNDM: What's the worst part about being in the limelight and having your work put on such a public display and having people either criticize it or love it?

UL: I got used to that early because doing the Photoshop shit everybody who would give me tips were people were from the Internet. The people from the Internet are gonna be more harsh than people you see in person because they don't have to deal with any type of back lash. You can put something on the Internet and somebody can say oh this shit is wack and they can't get punched in the face. So every time I would Photoshop something, I would put it on forums and I would have people tell me that it sucked all the way to the point where people finally thought I was good.

When people I don't know criticize the stuff that I do or that I do with someone else, I don't really care. It usually hurts more when it's someone you know. But all of it, I use it as motivation to get better.

RNDM: What's the worst part about what you do in general?

UL: The worst?

RNDM: Your least favorite.

UL: Working with people that aren't that good. Or, when I have to deal with people that think I'm benefiting from doing things for them [for free].

RNDM: Let's talk about what else is in store for you. Who is your biggest wet dream of a visual partnership? Who do you wanna work with in the future?

UL: Wow. Well, I would probably wanna work with Yelawolf. I love Yelawolf's music. I wanna work with Kid Cudi. Now, if we go to the other side of the spectrum. I DEFINITELY wanna work with Andre 3000. He's one of the best MCs. I wanna work with Lupe Fiasco Kanye West. I wanna work with Radiohead. That's stuff that I wanna save for later. Stuff that i feel like, if i'm in my prime, you know, the sickest motherfucker out there, those are the people I wanna work with.

RNDM: Yea, that would be really...

UL: Swagged out.

RNDM: Well, that would be really awesome. Are there any women that you wanna work with?

UL: I would love to collaborate with Vashtie. There's other people... Why am i losing my thought right now?

RNDM: Cause we're girlies and we make you feel all oogly woogly inside.

UL: YEA.Well, there are, i just can't think about em right now. OH! M.I.A. too.

RNDM: So... big picture. What do you want to accomplish with all of this. What is your main goal?

UL: When I die, I want to be recognized as one of the most innovative people. Right now I'm at a stage where I'm trying to recreate things I was influenced by growing up. I'm learning things as I go. As soon as I feel like I can master every element that I could have learned from other people, things that people have already done and doing it in my own way, I wanna be able to say, or have other people say, that I did something that nobody every did. I certainly haven't done that yet but that's what I'm aiming toward right now. Being able to be named with people like Stanley Kubrick and all those motherfuckers. All those directors and photographers that people revere, I wanna be one of those people.

RNDM: So would you say that that's your goal: to be a director? Do you wanna have your own studio company, you wanna be the director, the photographer.... studio master?

UL: The Swagmaster

Hop on over to www.unkleluc.com for samples of work and contact information.