March 2010: 1010 in Hamburg

Last year at this time, I was getting ready to visit London and Berlin. That trip completely blew my mind. I feel like the more time I spend away from Germany, the more I miss. There's just so much street art exploding within its borders! Today, 1010 checks in as an ambassador from Hamburg to share his work and philosophy. He writes:

"I started graffiti in the mid 90s and pasted my first cutouts around ten years later in 2003. I live and work mostly in Hamburg, Germany."
"It's nice to go out painting with friends but I mostly work alone. I don´t have a partner in crime. Art and groups tend to be less dynamic and spontaneous. My style developed because I got bored by all the faces, characters and
their expressions. I wanted to explore some more abstract characters and more subtle forms of communication.
That´s one of the reasons why I leave out eyes, for example. They tell too much. I prefer the picture to be more open to different interpretations."
"Some weeks ago, I was lucky to have a whole abandoned office building for myself for a few days. Six stories of untouched rooms. It felt like being inside a huge sketchbook."
"So far nothing really crazy happened to me while doing street art. Actually, I find it a very calm and peaceful activity. It's all about finding the right spot and the right timing."
"I'm basically trying to concentrate on my next show at the ATM Gallery in Berlin in the beginning of June. But spring just popped up here after the longest winter in 20 years and I really feel like going out pasting more often again."

Thanks, 1010! For more photos and updates on the June show, pop by his website.

January 2010: Tona Goes Global

One of my favorite attributes of street artists is their drive to explore and get up in new places. Uncharted territory brims with new places to paint, stick, and paste. German artist Tona exemplifies this initiative. While he considers Hamburg his home base, you can find his work in many countries across several different continents. He writes:

“It all started with graffiti in 1999. In 2002, I began doing stencils; I’m still doing them.
”You can see most of my work in Hamburg, but I’ve worked in other cities like Berlin, London, Vienna, Athens, Paris, Valencia, Tel Aviv. Thanks to all my folks putting stuff up, I have stickers up around the world.”
”I do all my work by myself, but I love putting up posters with some other people. Doing collaborations other artists is also fun. There are some very nice t-shirt collaborations with my friend Kotton in Berlin. I like trading with people around the world.”
”I tried a lot of techniques to do stencils and every one is different, so I combine various styles. I love doing multi-layers, but there’s nothing as nice as a good single layer stencil!”

”One time, I was in Vienna driving around with a bike putting some stickers up. Suddenly, a police car stopped next to me and the police man shouted: ‘Stop! This is illegal!’ I answered, ‘Oh! Sorry, Didn’t know about that!’ When he heard my German accent, he said: ‘You shitty German! Just go to your fucking country and put up your stickers there!’"

”I love it when spots are high or little bit hidden for tiles or installations. Posters are most fun when they fit into the urban area.”

Wow, Tona! I'm glad you escaped the clutches of that angry policeman. For more photos from around the world, take a peek at his Flickr.