Mossy Giant is one of our most frequent collaborating artists, and for good reason. Not only does Mossy, whose real name is Pieter van Tongeren, create some of our favorite captivating illustrations, but his passion for cannabis and community resonates deeply with our mission and goals. In this first-ever edition of Behind the Bag: Conversations, we visited Mossy in his natural habitat, his studio in the Netherlands, so we could sit down with the man himself to explore his Giant origins, his artistic background, and his relationship with the plant we all love.
An Athletic Start
After growing up in the Netherlands, Pieter made the move to the United States for college. He’d been offered a full-ride scholarship to play basketball at the University of Evansville in Indiana – not entirely surprising given the fact that Mossy Giant is, in fact, a giant, standing at 6’ 11” (2m 9cm). While in college, Pieter came to realize that his true passion lied with his main area of study – graphic design.
“As soon as I graduated, as soon as I was finished, I played my last game, I decided: basketball, that chapter is done in my life, I put a period behind that sentence and became an artist”. Wielding a degree in both graphic design and marketing, Pieter was living with a former teammate who introduced him to cannabis and psychedelics. “He put the book by Jack Herer in my hand – The Emperor Wears No Clothes. […] He saw that I had the talent as an artist and he said ‘let’s put your talents to work for this plant’”.
“We travelled to San Francisco. I did everything that an athlete is not supposed to do, because I was now out of school and I had to rewire myself.” Pieter’s journey of self-discovery included street art and graffiti, drawing every day in an attempt to figure out what the next chapter would be. He soon came to an important realization: he didn’t want to work for a company, an agency, or have a boss. He needed to be a self-sufficient, self-employed artist.
Artistic Aspirations and Finding Self-Employed Success
When his visa ran out, Pieter returned home to the Netherlands, where some expressed their doubts, insisting that he should have continued playing basketball. Instead, with a bet on himself and encouragement from his supportive family, he has now been a self-employed artist for 12 years. Today, he gets to work on projects he’d never dreamed would be possible.
A recurring feature of Pieter’s artwork is characters that find their way into multiple pieces across his portfolio. These include frequent appearances by two in particular, which he simply names The Bear and The Hippie. “Well, the reason I draw The Bear, The Hippie, and of course the whole plant kingdom around it is because I simply really love drawing these two characters. The Hippie and The Bear bring me tremendous joy.”
Mossy Giant’s Signature Style
Mossy’s artwork is instantly recognizable, both for these recurring features and his specific style of illustration. “When I finished school and I was now a self-employed artist, I had to develop a style. I had to develop a body of symbols, of icons, of things I wanted to draw. It was by pure practice, and by doing it, and by filling sketchbooks that I slowly got to a point of ‘oh, I want to work with ink – black lines’. […] I call it low-brow illustrative art. It’s the Robert Crumb lineage in a way, definitely inspired, but also the European cartoonists, the French cartoonists. It’s all stuff from my childhood that is being mixed up and juxtaposed into something new.”
Pieter’s body of symbols and icons is now familiar to many: archaic cars (Econoline trucks and VW Buses especially), The Hippie, The Bear, plants, trichomes, things that dwell in the soil. “If I don’t know what to draw, if I have no inspiration, just start with a car, a bear, and a hippie.” To Pieter, The Hippie also represents a recognizable archetype that appears across cultures and through time – the ‘wise old man’.
Grove Bags x Mossy Giant
Pieter’s artwork can be found in many different forms, from large scale canvases and prints, to rolling trays and stickers, and of course on several limited edition TerpLoc® pouches, a format where he can bring beauty to another purposeful, reusable object. “[Grove Bags] make functional, incredible storage containers. If you also add the artwork to that, you have a very valuable piece that people will cherish, and I hope will keep with them for a long time.” Our latest release with Mossy Giant, a quarter-pound pouch titled ‘Living Soil’, is yet another beautiful addition to any collection – one that we hope protects fine flower around the world and is appreciated for years to come.
Mossy’s work with the community, above all, puts the plant first – something that resonates deeply with all of us here at Grove Bags. If you find yourself in Spain, be sure to go see the latest exhibition of his Grand History of Cannabis project, in partnership with La Crème Gracia in Barcelona, soon to feature his next chapter depicting cannabis history in the United States. Beyond being a collaborator with us, we’re proud to consider Pieter an excellent advocate for the community, one of our industry’s finest and most in-demand artists, and of course, a friend.
