Hello My Name Is: Zurik

Zurik_HMNI_Insta-PUFF-02

Name: Zurik
City/Country: Bogota, Colombia
When did you start writing? I fall in love with spray cans and letters in late 2009.

What’s graffiti for you? Wow… graffiti… graffiti is everything for me, it is really hard to try to explain it but here we go: Graffiti is my first thought when i wake up and the last one when i go to sleep, sometimes a lot of ideas just came out meanwhile i am trying to rest and i want to get up and write it, ’cause i have afraid to loose it; when i started to paint it was about paint u know?, and being better and try to make the best letters in my city, but now 6 years later.. nothing in my life has sense if it isn’t related with graffiti. i can’t imagine how empty my life could be without it.

Influences? I got a big influence of graphic design (Even when i try to deny it), and i get obssesed with layers and fades, and how to loose letters inside of it, i always being heard:“ if u make graffiti u have to think just in the letters” and part of me was agree with it, but (at least in the beginning) i wasn´t worry about it and that gave me the freedom to experiment different stuffs and effects which now is the base of all my work. Also i got a lot of influence of some thoughts of Sofles and Bonzai and the way they see the possibilities of graffiti beyond the letters and that pushed me in the direction i am now, just experiment as much as i can.

Tell us about your city, how is life and graffiti there? A lot of people called Bogota as the capital of Latin American graffiti, and it is because there is a fine line between legality and vandalism; u just can’t see it, Bogota is painted everywhere! there is not too much police control here and even bombing in the middle of the day is possible, i am not saying is easy, but here it is easier than other countries where the law is hard against graffiti writers. Here there is not jail or fines to pay. If u dont live here and u just Heard or see this from outside looks like a graffiti paradise. every kind of spot is available, doesn’t matter if it is legal or not, but at least for me, graffiti everywhere is good for a while and then u start to loose ur mind on it, everything becomes to be the same over and over and your brain can’t breathe. I like how it looks like but when i travel my mind start to play when i see clean spots, and there is something magical on it too, because there is a balance on the game, and that keeps the emotion of everything. Some curious stuffs about Bogota that people always ask me and they stay a little bit in shock with the answer:
1. We don’t have a Subway or trains in the city or between the cities.
2. could be obvious but we don’t have seasons, and Bogota is cold all the time all the year. We are in the top of a mountain!
3. there is not cocaine rolling out everywhere  ! What keeps you still writing? I just can’t stop, i write because i don’t know to do anything else in life or maybe i just don’t want to.

What first made you interested in graffiti and how did you end up on that track? Before the college in middle school, i had a friend who make amazing bubble letters for valentine’s cards, and once she challenge me to make better letters than her did. And well… Since then i can’t stop. I started to draw letters at 16 years old but i got my first spray can at 19, and i don’t even know why that Little challenge blow my mind and now i can’t leave it.

What do you do when you’re not painting? Ammmmm what???? Hahaha, well if i am not painting i am drawing for piecing or…. eating… i also like to see a lot of movies, but most of them i watch it meanwhile i am drawing so… Just drawings.

How would you describe your style? My style is undefined, is like a girl and a boy at the same time, i am always changing the way i construct the pieces, sometimes is just a bunch of lines fading each other, or shiny circles… Other times simple letters, and the change to make totally abstract effects around a letter structure… i am still a baby playing with the possibilities, but as i said before my main interest is always in the lines.

Can you remember the first piece you did? Yeah, sure, i got a lot of pictures of the moment, i was so happy that day, it was like a first date, i know everything about that day, i made it the 4 of september of 2009 at 5:30 pm. After my last class in college one Friday, and i finished it the next day, making a line with brush and buff paint.

Future plans? Travel, go bigger and find my style.

Do you adapt your pieces and tags to the spot/surface? Sometimes yes, but occasionally i have some ideas to adapt it and somebody said: “¿What are u thinking about? That’s gonna look weird”, and u know? Sometimes i think they are right haha, so i keep it simple 

What do you think about the new generation of writers in your city? Well i am still a Young generation, i really don’t think too much about it. But i have a crush on a little boy (i don’t know him in person) because he have been tagging and making pieces on my neighborhood, and every time i walk around i see something new and better of his style, and makes me feel happy, because there is somebody who push his soul on this as much as i feel being so young (i am pretty sure he is not older than 16). So good vibes to him.

What are the best and worst aspects of graffiti? The best, the freedom u can feel around it, the worst… the stupid fight about who paint over u or ur “spot” sometimes is like a reality show all the time, and that is annoying.

Who do you paint for? I just want to feel alive.

What writers have inspired you?
BonzaiMaideTrezeSoflesZasDraisVRSMiedo12Skore79.

Can you ever feel tired of graffiti? Yes, but not about paint, feel tired of the scene sometimes, so i try to stay away in my own city.

What do you hope people will think and feel when they see your stuff? I hope they can see freedom, passion, love, rage and not just the letters, i hope they like it of course, and i know they can see the indecision in the style and thats good because is a way to remember that when u grow up paint is like a job, but beyond of it, is still just for fun, so, no rules.

FIVE FAVORITES
Spray Paint?
 Montana Colors
City? Guadalajara / México
Markers/pens? StyleFile Markers
Surface? New brick walls
Cap? Skinny Universal

Website: www.zurik.co
Instagram: @zurik_1

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