.: Exclusive Interview With PUAK!!

http://www.bombingscience.com/index.php/blog/viewThread/4139

Exclusive Interview With PUAK

Bombing Science: First things first, state your name player and what you rep.

Puack: I write PUAK or PUA(C)K(S), and i represent the MOC-DNA’s.

BS: Does your name have any meaning? Where does it come from?

Puack: No, i didn’t pick my name because of the meaning or anything. At the time I just liked the combination of letters and the sound of it. After a few years I learned that my name means ‘tribe’ or ‘group’ or something in Indonesian. I started to write this name in 2002 I think. If I had tot choose a combination of letters right now, I would not pick the P and the U for example. Always struggling with those two. On the other hand, its my name, I have to deal with it. It forces me to find other solutions for the letters I find difficult.

BS: How long have you been at this?

Puack: I started writing in 2000, so I’m having my ten year anniversary this year! It doesn’t feel like a long time for me. Its only the beginning. There is so much I want to do graffiti-wise in the future, I can’t name it all. Exploring and developing my style is the most important thing. That’s number one. But I also want to travel more, paint with more different people and keep learning. I’m never done.

BS: How did you get in to this graff game?

Puack: I come from Nijmegen, a city in Holland with a big graffiti legacy. Back in the days we had a top-notch scene with writers like Marty64, Vision, Dragon, Wizard, Chas and Son103 just to name a few. We also have one of the oldest Halls of Fame in Holland and I used to live close to that. Marty64 and Vision did a big full-colour production next to one of the main roads in my town, back in the late 80’s, with a pissed off Cop next to the pieces (Dutch photo collectors definitely know this one!). As a kid I used to drive by there on my bike when I was heading into town, and I was always amazed by it I can remember. In the winter of 2000 I got my first cans of car-lack and began to do tags and really toy throw-ups. In spring I did my first real colour piece. After a few months some writers of the older generation (Part26, Focuz, Style) saw my enthusiasm and they took me everywhere they went and showed me the basics!

In the beginning of the 90’s the scene in my town was pretty much gone, due to a big police raid etc. Around 95’ some new crews came up (and they are still going strong!) and when I started in 2000, a lot of other kids joined. But, as always, only a few of that group remained painting.

BS: What would you call your style?

Puack: That’s hard. I really don’t know how people call it actually. I always try to do basic letters with swing and strong colour combinations and bits that are helping the letter. It has to be readable but at the same time interesting to look at. In my first years of painting I’ve done some wildstylepieces which nobody, including me, could read. That’s really not my thing anymore, but it was an experiment. Just a learning experience.

BS: Your work is very clean cut and precise. You also have very dope color combos. What inspires you to do these colour schemes? Do you have some sort of method or is it all just by feeling?

Puack: I always try to find the right balance between clean cut/precise and the swing of the letters/looseness. Sometimes I see pieces that are like stickers, but they are really not interesting to look at because everything is cut away, it looks too stiff and clean. The flow is taken out, its not spontaneous anymore.. Sometimes I look at photos of my own pieces and I see the same. Its just too much sometimes. Finding a good balance between that is really important to me, so that a piece is clean and well painted while in the same time it has swing and looks ‘loose’. About the colours, I don’t really have a method, except for the fact that I try to use opposite ( complementary) colors for the background and the fill-in/outline, but I think a lot of people do that. I read a nice article about it just the other day on Towns’s new website. Also I use several shades of one colour…that way you can do shadows and nice fading. Most of the time I just look what I have in stock and use it.

BS: What is your favourite colour?

Puack: I don’t think I have a favourite. I like most colours. If I had to choose its something like Pepperoni with some Lime….(and then a Black-red outline around it with some Shock-red in the 3D. Can’t go wrong with that.)

BS: What do you think about street art?

Puack: It depends on how you define street art. For me the most important thing is that everybody has to do the things they like. Besides that, I rather see a nice fatcap tag on the streets then a sticker. I’m much more into graffiti then I am into street art, but sometimes I see really interesting stuff coming from there. What I also like about it is the fact that a lot of street artists use their art for a political cause. Or maybe not political, but they often want people to look at it and start thinking about the subject. Global warming, the monopoly of the oil company’s, the illegal Israeli separation wall etc. The streets get more interesting because of it, and that’s a good thing in my opinion. Other artists don’t give a shit about politics, but they make the public laugh with some funny characters or sentences they put up in the city….it’s a good thing that people on the street react to different things other then what they hear on the news and stuff. In my city and also in other cities in Holland we had an artist who put up stickers with ‘Babylijk’(Babycorpse) on it. That was his name. The general public reacted furiously in a local newspaper etc. He reacted back to that with stickers and so on. Awesome stuff! It’s a good way to let people think, positive or negative. About the commercialism that is coming with it…I don’t care about that. If someone can make a good living out of doing stencil art, why not…it’s their life.

BS: Back in the day VS now.. what do you have to say about that?

Puack: Well, I’m not that old so I can only speak about the period between now and ten years back, but a lot of things changed of course. In this period of time graffiti commercialised, the cans got way better, the Internet exploded and there are too many DVD’s being released to watch them all. I don’t really have an opinion about it. This happens to most subcultures. Most of the things I like though. I like it when paint has good coverage and when I can do details because of the low pressure and the special caps. When I started, I painted mostly with Sparvar. After that the old Beltons and the old Spanish Montana’s. Nowadays the paint just gets better and better, but the prices are also going up. I’m not going to pay Eu. 4,50 for a can, fuck off. Luckily there are brands that get the message en deliver good paint for a good price again.

Mentality wise things have changed too in the last decade I think. Of course there was Internet and magazines when I started, but when you were a toy, you showed some respect to the older generation. You showed you were willing to learn and to put effort in your work, and it paid off. Nowadays I think that mentality is a little bit gone. A lot of kids (not all!) who start to paint aren’t willing to learn, they just think they can do an instant burner or a funky anti-style. They want to have it all at once, and when it doesn’t work out that way, they quit. On the other hand, it’s graffiti. Who made any ‘rules’ about mentality, right?

BS: What is your ideal painting sessions?

Puack: For me the most important thing is to paint with people I like. Besides that I have a lot of ideal sessions, it can be a full colour production, some silver and tar things or doing throw ups all day. It just depends on the mood of the day or night.

If I had to choose I would say a nice concept wall somewhere in a foreign country with cool people, a few beers, some bbq’s, some more beers and if its possible a little action on the streets. Lets close down with a nice party afterwards.

BS: Speaking of rules, do you follow the "graffiti rules"? If yes, what are the most important rules you respect?

Puack: I don’t know, as I was saying everybody has his own rules in a way I guess. Of course there are some ‘universal’ graffiti rules. I think the keyword in all of them is ‘respect’. That sounds a bit dumb, but I think it all comes down to that. Every so called ‘graffiti rule’ has something to do with it. I think one of the most important rules I grew up with is to respect the history of my town and its scene. Two months back we’ve had a reunion with some of the first-generation writers from Nijmegen, together with the writers that are active today. An old-to-the-new reunion. To see the blackbooks from the oldskool kings from back in the day was awesome. They started the whole scene around here, they were the first to paint! You got to have respect for that. A lot of younger kids do not realise this. On the other hand, a lot of writers don’t want anything to do with the so called ‘graffiti-scene’ and its rules. I understand that too. The scene nowadays is not the ‘hiphop-based’ scene anymore it used to be, with all the rules that come with it. So a lot of the ‘oldskool’ rules don’t apply anymore, they say.
People have to think whatever they like, but I try to treat people and peoples work the way I want to be treated.

BS: You seem pretty laid back and relaxed. What pisses you off the most in the graff game?

Puack: Arrogance, Internet Thugs and bad weather when I want to do a piece.

BS: Traveling is a big part of graffiti. People get up more in foreign cities more than their own sometimes. What spots are you itching to hit outside of your country?
Puack: A lot, that’s for sure! I really can’t name them all. I really want to go to China and Japan, but Brazil and the rest of South America is high on my to-do-list too! I just came back from Indonesia, but I only saw a small portion of it, so I definitely want to go back there. Closer to home I really want to visit the eastern block more. I’ve only been to Croatia and Slovenia, so Czech Rep. and Poland are places I want to go too, and Russia of course. Scandinavia is also a part of Europe I want to spent more time. So you see I have enough miles to go! It’s not only about painting, I’m really interested in all the different cultures, people, landscapes and cities. I’ve been to the States once, and that was great too...i have some relatives in Canada, so you probable will see some stuff popping up in Toronto too within the next few years…
Of course I also want to go to Australia to visit a lot of my crew mates and do some pieces and beers there!! I think I named almost every continent now…

BS: Who's work are you digging these days? Anybody out there you would want to paint with?

Puack: I dig a lot of different styles. Clean wildstyles, crazy Scandinavian stuff, Anti-styles, Oldskool flavours, U.S., European or Australia based styles….i don’t know, I try to look at every piece, tag or throwup on its own. Of course there is a lot of crap out there, but overall the standards keep going up I think. The quality and the versatility of the styles and techniques keep increasing, all around the world….i can enjoy a nicely done throwup or tag as much as a wildstyle full color wall. Nowadays the Internet provides us with a nice view on the things that get done. I see a lot of great stuff happening, I keep myself informed through a few blogs (like Spraybeast.com (TIP!)) and flickr’s I always check out.
There are a lot of people I still want to paint with. In spring I did a wall at a jam organised by Chas and Does (LL) in the south of Holland. A great line up, from all-over Europe. Nice to see all the different approaches for how to do a piece and develop Style. Really have to do that more often! Always like it to do a piece with Chas, learning a lot from him! Also I’m a fan of my man Rems. We have a really different approach to graffiti but we make a good team!