Can you present yourself? How did it all begin Muretz? I am from Sao Paulo, Brazil, and I’ve been working as an artist for many years, here and in the UK mainly. I am quite new to graffiti, been painting for about 3 years only. I began doing it just for fun, and seeing the reaction from people to my work got me addicted to it. I like to express myself with my art and found in graffiti a great way of doing so.
You live in Sao Paulo, you work doesn’t seem to be influenced by the vivid local scene. Could you tell us what are you main influences? Well I think the local scene is mainly about tagging and putting an art piece out there just for the fun or beauty of it. But I always thought street art is about communication, sending a message to the people out there and few local artists do that in their work, so I decided taking that path. My influences are mainly outside of the graffiti world, they go back to when I was a children’s book illustrator. I am also a big fan of TV cartoons, so a lot of my inspiration comes from that I suppose.
One of your iconic image is the red and blue 3D glasses. Do you have a childhood memory of these glasses like a 3D movie maybe? I keep a pair of those glasses at home as a decoration piece and one day I thought about doing something about it. I thought it would be interesting to put it out there and have done a few versions of it. People seem to have fun with that so yeah, I guess its one of my favourites.
If you could explore and paint anywhere in the world, where would you go and why? I want to go to the Middle East. I have never been there but I know it would be a great place to spread my art.
-Please, tell me a few words about yourself. -My name is angeltoren. I’m from Murcia in Spain. I discovered graffiti in 2003, but I started doing my first pieces in 2007.
-What does inspire you? -I am inspired by linear artists typerfaces
and architects. “Hans Vredeman de Vries” is one of the artists in my
current job references (fullines) apart from futuristic retro style.
– Do you enjoy painting with other artists? -I love painting with my colleagues and everyone who is willing to paint a mural.
-What do you do when you’re not painting? -I work in a company making 3D designs for processing stone and when I do not work prepare my next designs for my walls.
Can you introduce yourself ? Where do you come from?
I come from the Czech Republic but I currently live in Indonesia. Yogyakarta is the City where I study indonesian painting and batik at Institut Seni Indonesia. I am a painter based on the esthetics of graphic design which I did more than 10 years long and almost 20 years I deal with graffiti, street art and murals.
You are now living in Indonesia. Is it a good place to paint ? What are the main differences with painting in Europe?
One of the reasons why I’m here is absolute freedom in street painting. Here there are not something like illegal graffiti because it isn’t considered like an act of vandalism. Local people consider it as an art and the police also has more important things to do such as fining people on the street and standing at waroeng (local fastfood). Art has a long tradition here. Jogja is a cultural and artistic center of Java, if not the whole of Indonesia. Another advantage is the wild urbanist of Asian cities and Jogja is one of them. There are many places for painting like narrow streets and abandoned houses. But in the other hand i have to be more patient because of Tropical climate with strong sun and high humidity, which makes it very difficult to paint during midday and afternoon. Everything takes more time.
Is there a local graffiti scene or are graffiti only made by strangers?
I was surprised by the size of the local scene and its diversity and the proof is there are eight graffiti shops in the city. In the city it is also possible to meet world-famous names of graffiti and street art.
How would you describe your style? What are your artistic influences?
My work is basically abstract. I used to paint and deform letter but at the moment I fall in love with number eight which is also the symbol of infinity in a horizontal position. This describes my relationship to painting; infinity work, infinity satisfaction, infinity adventure etc…
I am inspired by contemporary grafffuture movements and the work of a lot of abstract muralist like Momo, Hense and many others. I am also inspired by the Poland scene and by my colleague LUDEK aka KEIM who stays at home with his family whom i collaborate with in distance.
What do you do when you’re not painting?
Travel, travel and travel. There are so many wonderful places that are awaiting to be visited for example volcanoes, temples, waterfalls, beaches, caves and many more. And of course sometimes i have to show my face at the school.
What aspect of Czech Republic do you miss the most in Indonesia?
Things work in a different way and pace here. I have to be extra patient when i want to buy something, fix, manage, or even dealing with bureaucracy. Sometimes the Indonesian exaggerated politeness combined with laziness and special logic can turn into hell on earth. And last thing that I miss are good beer and fine wine. Indonesia is an Islamic country that is why it is difficult to get a good quality alcohol. Lot of things which I don’t miss me more than that i miss.
Interview of Finsta on vltramarine.ru (formerly codered). Short one in English & fully illustrated one in Russian. Wallpaper of Finsta illustration above: 1280×800 – 1366×768 – 1680×1050 – 1920×1080.
Can you present yourself? What initially brought you to graffiti? And when did you make the transition to painting portraits? Hendrik ecb Beikirch, traveling the world. Currently living and working in Koblenz, Germany.
I started in 1989 with classical graffiti, but within a short while changed to more of a unique approach.
Back then my concepts where more focused on graphical shapes whereas nowadays the ideas of my work have more of a fine art approach focusing on textures, showing expression within my portraits through a more painterly means rather than just using spray.
Who are the people you paint? In both my large-scale murals and canvases, I want to paint people whose faces tell a story; therefore I take inspiration from accidental and brief encounters.
Taking life back to the streets. Real expressions, faces with stories to tell.
Digital media has changed the way we see beauty anyway. Most faces we see printed in public like on billboards or ads appear unnatural.
Are your faces always related to the place where you paint them? The faces are not always related to the place where they are painted.
The portrait has to fit the wall and vice versa, this is a lot about that first feeling.
From a distance, I hope it reads as photo-realistic perfection, yet somewhat unreal due to the drips and abstract textures.
My goal is one should relate so much to the painting from afar, that once he/she stands close, it becomes vague and abstract again.
Can you tell us what we will find in your book: Blurring Boundaries ?
documents on 208 pages my achievements of the last years. It captures the two fields I worked on: Fictional faces and portraits of real people, both on walls and on canvas.
Was it difficult to select the photos for the book?
As I do spend a lot of time on the photographic documentation of my woks it was kind of tough to select the best photos.
You’re known for painting large scale paintings. I can imagine it is very satisfying when the work is done. But do you really take fun painting these big walls? It is what I love to do. In fact painting big walls is relief and fun all at once for me.
When I am in the cherry picker basket – even if I paint quite fast, like doing the side of a 12 story building in three days – a day is less hectic and stressful just like when smoking from a CBD Cartridge.
If it comes to art in public space I believe you got two options to go for: Clandestine, small, hidden and tiny or as big or tall as it can get.
Art has to compete with architecture, advertisements, and passers-by attention in busy city streets.
You only got a few seconds to catch the attention, to get this first impact.
That’s why I go for the bigger the better.
When you have been asked to paint that 70m high wall in South Korea, have you instantly accepted or have you hesitated? When I first saw a photo of the wall, I was instantly stoked. Arriving at the site it was even better.
The Daniel Libeskind skyscrapers in the background offered a perfect background, both on an aesthetically and content level.
I can imagine you don’t suffer from vertigo… ? I don’t suffer from vertigo, but as the cherry picker basket was open on the front the view down was something I had to get used to.
Are you sometimes tempted by adding colors to your portraits ?
No, not really.
If it comes to capture emotions in a portrait I think black and white is the best way to go, plus with the big walls you have to break it down to a only a few shades anyway.
And just black and white are so strong by themselves..
What does inspire you, and who’s work are you into? My art teacher in school had lived in NYC in the early eighties.
In our drawing room hung a poster he had brought from over there with photos of painted subway cars on it. I was totally fascinated by the Lee Quinones “Stop the Bomb” wholecar.
Besides that the installation Gottfried Helnwein did in Cologne in 1988 in memory of “Kristallnacht” (The Night of Broken Glass 1938). A hundred meter long wall of pictures with large images of children’s faces, in a seemingly endless row. When I saw this back then it blew my mind.
Nowadays Gerhard Richter for his realism and diversity. Richard Serra for combining art and physical experience as well as for the way he works with public space.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years? Nothing last forever.
In the end all you have is what you stood for. I am trying to get this right.
BLURRING BOUNDARIES by Hendrik ecb Beikirch
208 full color pages
Publikat Publishing
ISBN: 978-3-939566-32-8
Please, tell me a few words about yourself. When and how did you discover graffiti? I’m from Italy and I started painting in 1994. I was just a kid but I already knew graffiti, it really started when someone painted the school facade. That summer I met the authors and I did my first piece. Twenty years later I’m still a kid.
– Your work is going more and more abstract everyday. Do you still have the feeling to write letters? Is the next step to go totally abstract? – I always begin with writing letters. My way of doing leads me to consider writing as an act of painting and painting as an act of writing. I think letters are abstract themselves.
– Some of your latest pieces reminds some works from the fat315 crew from Ukraine. Who or what influenced or inspired you? How did you develop your very personal style ? – Fat315 crew… I think their style is great. There are a lot of good artist in Europe, lately I enjoyed some works from Eastern Europe and Russia. Philosophy, literature, cinema, architecture and artists from XX century is what mostly influences me now but at the beginning only a couple of local graffiti writers inspired me deeply… Omaek193 above all. I have always considered graffiti as chances for changing in general. Sometimes I’ve moved ahead other times I’ve looked back but I always pay attention to the sign. It’s not only about technique: when I let the drips touch the ground or cover other materials, the piece seems to me real and unreal at the same time. I have developed Abik as a parody.
– What are your preferred methods of production and what materials do you like to use? – During this last few years I have focused on strokes. Basically I do a first monochrome layer with paint roller. When I paint walls in my town I wait for a few days or weeks before going back to the wall to make a second one. Sometimes I don’t come back at all. I like the fact that every step could work by itself… I want to feel time, for example in winter the weather creates some unexpected effects. I often use sticks to scratch the piece and eventually I add fast outlines… then I rest again…
– Which artists from Italy you like or could point out? – Most of my favourite writers stopped painting at the end of the nineties… recently, I rediscovered some works of Lemon (Milan)… unbelievable.
Won ABC has just released Zombie Love a new book published by Publikat. I took advantage of the book to ask to Won -a true european graffiti pioneer and zombie fan- a few questions.
Can you present yourself? What initially brought you to graffiti? When did you get down with ABC crew?
Hi, my name is WON from ABC crew Munich Germany. I started graf in 1984 like most europeans by the legendary film Wildstyle. I founded the abc crew in 1987 together with Cowboy 69 from Munich.
What does inspire you, and who’s work are you into?
Most inspiration comes by travelling around the world and life itself. Visual artists i like are: Hieronymus Bosch, Caravaggio, Robert Williams, Mucha, Michelangelo, Goya, HR Giger, Robin Page, Dürer, Leonardo Da Vinci, Simon Bisley, Bode, Milo Manara ….and some more.
You’ve been painting for such a long time. How did the way you see graffiti change over the years?
It became large over the world over the years, but it still does not get the respect it should earn.. but time will come soon.
I do remember when I saw for the 1st time on a magazine your famous dragon end-to-end. It has been a real shock for many of us. Can you tell us a bit about this piece?
I did 2 parts on train of that steel ta2 dragons in 1993, the third one was unfinished only outlines cause I had to escape , the main thing was to fill up a big surface on a train by just an image and not with letters, steel ta2 was a symbol for ta2ing trains with Canz.
I think you have been able to paint it again?
That is a funny story. The blue dragon was running for one week then the authorities buffed only the face of the dragon and let the train run damaged again, some day later I was so lucky by accident to find exactly this one in a train-yard and repainted it like before, but I forget one tooth, in my book colour kamikaze you can see both versions…just count the teeth.
There are 2 part in your new book “Zombie Love”. The 1st one is illustrations/comics about Zombies, and the 2nd one is about your graffiti work. Can you tell us the concept, or at least the idea of this book?
ZOMBIELOVE story covers 73 pages. Chapter one sets the scene for a zombie story in 2101, featuring a versatile character through various types and techniques of illustration. A scientist accidentally brings dead people back to life. The problem this creates for the citizens of Paracity goes beyond the zombies’ passion for graffiti and vandalism. By biting humans the zombies multiply and become a zombie epidemic, which soon threatens to exterminate humanity. The second chapter of the book features an 80-page retrospective of my work over the last 13 years in symbiosis with the storyline of ZOMBIELOVE. There are paintings, sculptures, train graffiti and other activities. Countries such as the United States, Cuba, Jamaica and many more have been infected…
On the 2nd part of the book, we can see many photos of your graffiti work with you or friends wearing zombie masks. Do you make the masks yourself?
Half and half, I modified existing masks the way they should look, an easy and fast way for me.
At the beginning of the book, there’s an enthusiastic message of one of your art-school teacher. What did the time spend at the Royal Academy of fine Arts in Munich bring to you?
He is a good friend of mine. At the Royal Academy of fine Arts in Munich I was able to realize my projects for 6 years without thinking too much about money with the student status I got some money each month, I only went there for half an year for some lessons, you had to do no tests. My teacher told me we can drink and paint together but this school system is shit. And that is true. You cannot learn to become an artist.
If I visited Munich, which are the places I shouldn’t miss?
Octoberfest and my studio.
Are you busy with any new projects you can tell us about?
I have plans for a new book about travelling, animals and plants the rest is secret….
And finally can you list your best 3 zombie movies?
All stuff from George Romero, Nosferatu from Fritz Lang, and some stuff from Lucio Fulci.
