How do you label a work of art? "I consider myself a graphic designer first; everything else I do comes second," says designer-artist-creative force M. Tony Peralta. The brilliance of Peralta’s work not only covers the disciplines of graphics and painting, but also fashion and product design, including a recent collection of limited-edition men's sunglasses for Republica Eyewear.

Born in New York City’s emerging uptown neighborhood of Washington Heights to Dominican immigrant parents, Peralta was a child of the hip-hop generation. His love of hip-hop music and imagery, together with a traditional Dominican upbringing in the streets of NYC, fueled his early interest in visual art. "I was always a serious aficionado of graffiti and its graphic characters," he says. His first art influences were actually characters in Marvel Comics books and his early love of drawing continued to evolve throughout his school years. As a teenager, his eye shifted to graffiti and the work of New York downtown artist Keith Haring; at age 17, Peralta transferred his own artwork onto t-shirts, which he sold in his neighborhood.

Armed with a Media Arts degree from Long Island University, Peralta began his career as a Design Director at a boutique PR/marketing agency in Manhattan. His in-house work designing logos, Web sites and promotional materials for clients opened up outside opportunities to design graphics for fashion companies like Drunknmunky, Mad Soul, Snoop Dogg Clothing and others. From there, he designed boys and girls' accessories, then made the leap to crafting women's accessories for major fashion brands like Baby Phat, Kathy Van Zeeland and Oscar de la Renta.

Peralta's wild mix of creative influences – from seminal rappers De La Soul and their Native Tongues movement, to groundbreaking fine artists like Frida Kahlo, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Russian Constructivist painter Alexander Rodchenko – has continued to push him artistically, inspiring him to think outside the box.

Most recently 33-year-old Peralta has linked with The Sound of Art, an upper Manhattan entity that represents urban artists of different disciplines from around the world, and has been putting brush to canvas. As a result, he is developing a solid following and has sold several limited-edition posters and paintings. Currently he's chosen to express his art in the medium of screen-printing, Tony has developed a popular, street-oriented t-shirt line that is currently available at cool streetwear boutiques in the U.S. and Canada (select Peralta-designed shirts and hoodies have also been worn by music superstars Sean 'Diddy' Combs and Sean Kingston).

"Right now, I’m really focused on my t-shirt line and getting it out there to more stores," he explains. "I want my tees and art to go international." M. Tony Peralta makes art that defies labels or boundaries.