Friday ProFile: Earworm

First things first: you may notice a shiny new toolbar on the blog today. The “Choose Your Weapon” section acknowledges the fact that English is definitely NOT the only language. While the bar may be small, I’m hoping it will grow once I learn how to modify it. For now, you can read Illicit posts in Chinese, Korean, Japanese, French, Spanish, and German. Super! Now on to the post.  

I went to high school in a small town and the scene was pretty boring. Each discipline was confined to its own isolated corridor: math in the blue hallway, English in the green, and health hidden away by the guidance office. The art wing was so far away from my other classes that I never saw it. In my four years of high school, my schedule was too crowded for art classes. I regret never taking one; I feel like I missed meeting a lot of cool people. 
I wonder if a kid like Earmworm went to my school. This Dutch teen from Nijmegen is still in high school, but he’s already making a name for himself. He says, “I always made big drawings with many details in them. I’d fill two pieces of A3 paper totally filled with all sorts of little drawings. One day, I made a little drawing. It was a worm coming out of an ear. I thought, ‘Earworm. That’s a pretty cool name. I’m using it.’” While he dabbled in street art before, he’s been posting his wiggly critters for a year now. Nijmegen, Amsterdam, Eindhoven, Antwerp, and Cologne all bear the mark of Earworm. 
Street style inspired Earworm to create his own character. “I love the stickers, graffiti, and other art in the streets,” he explains. “I thought it was a nice idea to leave your mark on every place you’ve been. That was my intention: leaving my mark. It motivates me; every day you will see something new on the streets by all different kinds of artists. I think that’s just great!” Like fellow Dutch street artists Space3, Earworm hopes to invade everything with his work. 
Through his stickers, Earworm hopes to make his presence known and grab the viewer’s attention. “I want to make people happy and get them to relax for a second,” he says. Some of his friends also make stickers, but Earworm tends to work alone.  While he has yet to graduate from high school, he’s already planning ahead. “The first thing I want to do is put my stickers up everywhere,” he insists. “In the near future, I want to do some bigger things.”  What’s he working on now? “Lately, I’ve been working on big worm paste-ups,” he adds. “You’ll see.” 
Take a look at Earworm’s photos and drop him a line on MySpace. Thanks!