5 Questions with BlackCat Stickers

The 2095 chick first started to notice BlackCat Stickers just about everywhere she went. Difficult to exactly pinpoint exact time and locale cause when she says "everywhere", she means EVERYWHERE.

On poles, on windows, on doors, in doorways, on railings on mailboxes.  Initially always entwined with DogFight Stickers (and yes!  There is an upcoming interview with Dogfight Stickers so stay tuned to this station!)

Or with Cherry Bombs

Ashamedly, the 2095'er must admit that initially she really didn't understand what she was photographing.  To be absolutely honest, the "Spread the Love Project" appeared to be promo for an upcoming gig, but given the 2095'er love for her own black cat (fondly referred to as The Boof) she felt almost duty-bound to capture the image and then continue on her huntin expedition.

It wasn't until a return visit to her beloved Inner West, that she started seeing stencil like images appearing on quite a breath taking scale

artists: Rotar Uno, BlackCat Stickers, DogFight Stickers

and as with many street art experiences, once you see one, you see "hundreds" and this time, the 2095 chick knew what she was looking at it and started to quickly fall in love with yet another artist's clever work.

Again through the marvels of social media, contact with BlackCat was made and the chick will use this delightful segue as an intro to her 5 questions with the artist known as BlackCat.

When did BlackCat come in to "being"

I've always loved and appreciated street art and graffiti, but only started participating a few years ago influenced by my fella (a fellow street artist).  He got this gamer nerd off "Call of Duty" and outside! (finally!  the 2095 chick has found another chick who loves first person shooter games!  But for the 2095'er it has to be Battlefield 1942 Desert Storm: LOVE that adrenalin rush)

I just love going sticker bombing!  In our free time it's always sketching, creating stickers and going on sticker runs.

I love this city...Sydney...and I live in the thick of it!  Navigating the city is now a friendly experience.  I have met a number of Sydney sticker artists and traveling through the city I am welcomed by their familiar characters or lettering; always excited to see a new sticker they have slapped up.  I love seeing the back of a sign that began with a few sticker then in a week's time everyone's stacked on and completely collaged it.  It usually gets buffed pretty quickly but it's great interaction.

I truly believe that street art makes the world a better place, so I wanted to be part of turning this sometimes cold concrete grey city into a living breathing colourful and continually changing landscape in to an outdoor gallery for the people instead of a grid for corporations who get us to focus on their marketing and their "almighty" dollar.

My first sticker was a white cat with the text "Black Cat".  A lot of people ask why I create a white cat for Black Cat.  My cat is a fairer skinned indigenous cat like me; I wanted to put up a sticker that represented me like it was an introduction "Hi!  I'm here!".

Stencil, stickers of pasteups: do you have a preference or do they simply "present" themselves once you have formulated a theme

I love stickers!  Stickers are the best!  I love them because you can get a heap up at a time, so it increases the audience.  You can sticker up numerous stickers before you have even finished rolling paste on a wall or cut out a stencil. 

I also dislike cutting out stencils...too many years of gaming....my hands are stuffed!

I do like experimenting and love the variety that making stickers gives you.  For instance: the canvas...stickers, vinyl, shipping labels, anything sticker you can get your hands on.

The materials you can choose to create with: such as spray paint, block paint, lino prints, screen prints, digital prints.

Then finding the perfect place for them: I think the cool thing about the street is that while anything in a gallery space allows the work to speak for itself, it's the street that adds context: humour, rebellion, surprise, impact etc.  

A gallery is very static while the streets change and move and I love it when I see a sticker that has been left up for ages with the rain washing out all the colour, or it has faded over time from the sun: torn and weathered over time.

Even if it is capping an advertisement in a particular place it could totally change the meaning of the image.

Stickers never get boring.  I love seeing other street art stickers' progression: how the characters or lettering develop and change over time.  It's fun to put your sticker next to theirs and they will hopefully see it as you saying "hi" on the streets, then meeting them at a street art exhibition and say "oh so it's you who does those cute little characters"!

I haven't traded stickers much since I started but if you have the cash and send packs with some extra prints it's amazing when you receive return packs from all over the world.

When I was in primary school I used to write letters a lot to friends in Spain and Melbourne and I used to love checking the letterbox and receiving mail that was personal, pretty, colourful and fun.  People don't send letters anymore, so it (receiving sticker packs) is a return to that excitement of receiving mail that isn't just bills and junk mail.

Who or what inspires your creativity

I am inspired by computer game graphics, comic books, art books and looking at other peoples art.  So far I have created a few different cats and some stencils/paste ups of images that I think look iconic and strong.  They appeal to me, so I hope they appeal to other people.

Collab or solo

As my partner is a street artist too, we collaborate quite a bit in the process of making them (stickers, paste ups etc).  For instance, we might choose to lino print stickers so we will sit and cut out our prints at the same time and give each other suggestions.  

We have done a few collab stickers and I am definitely interested in collaborating with other artists more.

I also collaborate with my crew at Cherrybombs.  Admittedly not as much as I would like...mostly we are in different states and countries, but we have a couple of crew stickers we put up.

Massive shoutout to Beryl, Kwad, Missfit, Pat and Kicks!  You can check out their incredible work at our Cherrybombs page "here".

What can we expect to see from BlackCat in the near future

For "pasteys" (as I like to call them), I am keen to create warrior superhero women images.  For stickers I am currently working to refine my prowess in digital art on Illustrator and Photoshop.

I also dabble in photography so you my might encounter my photos in an exhibition or two.

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A perfect ending for a perfect interview with the feline provocateur known BlackCat with enormous thanks for giving the 2095'er time, insight and sharing some photos for this interview!

5 Questions with Fezwitch

It would be almost impossible for the 2095'er to NOT refer to that "thing" she went to time and time again....you know.....PM3.  For this was the place that she spied THE most amazing sticker which was provocative, profound and hysterical all bundled in to one.

With each return to Cockatoo Island and as part of her mantra to 'capture as much as I can', the 2095 consciously sought out other pieces by this artist.  

So many amazing pieces to be had & captured in this extraordinary location, almost mind bending at times.  But deep within, the 2095 felt compelled to continue on this journey and rather than fight against the tide, she simply let this compulsion lead her where it may.

irony being this is now strangely appropriate given our current embarrassing political state of affairs

With the boldness and safety behind the fibreoptic, the 2095 made contact with the Fez and from there (once again thanks to social media) a connection was made which leads us beautifully in to the 5 Questions with Fezwitch

When did the world of Fezwitch begin

It all began in 2006.  Prior to that, I expressed my creativity through corporate Graphic Design and clients who I had no real connection with.

Street art was a great way to get my own ideas out there, so I printed a few paste-ups and went for it!

"Maggid" means storyteller and my name references like "The Maggid of Mezritch" is in relation to a respected Polish mystical scholar in the 1700's.

I use visual communication and humour to tell my stories and illustrate my obsession with classic computer technology.

Much of your work could be perceived as reactionary to current political events.  Is this the main drive behind your works, or is it more of an innocuous thought that "appears" from an off-tangent musing, observation or experience

My intention is to make people smile and rethink the accepted stereotypes that popular culture wants us to believe.

Many pieces of mine contain that cynical vibe that pokes fun at the consumer brands we all live and breath by.  Also personal interests and observations form ideas, which are then translated in to a piece.

Do you see yourself as a political satirist

Overall no, but I do like playing with politics as a subject

You had a fantastic project where there public were encouraged to send you the good old floppy disc decorated free form and then placed in various locations around your former stomping ground.  What was the inspiration behind that particular activity

I'm just slightly obsessed with used and abused floppy discs.  I use the disc as a tag with an easily recognisable shape and form that represents the speed of technological advancement.

They all hold some unknown piece of data (be that 100/200kb) and each time a disc goes up, so does a piece of information that someone needed at some point of time in their lives.  Including the public is a way to remind people of this and get involved in street art.  Discs also make cute canvases.

You recently relocated back to the UK.  Is there anything about the street art scene in Australia you miss, or are we somewhat lagging behind Europe and the UK

The sheer population of the UK allows for a larger volume of art, artists and exhibitions, but I do miss a small city with less CCTV cameras and easy parking.

Still early days, but I prefer the Melbourne scene as its more laid back and seems to be thriving with great art in the suburbs you wouldn't expect to see.

Ask me again in a few years

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And the 2095 will hold you to that!  Huge thanks to Fez for allowing this "international" interview courtesy of the fibre optics and we miss you already!

But we are safe in the knowledge that you are keeping a watch on the hood

5 Questions with Mizter Crystalface

My first introduction to Mizter Crystalface's work was (like with most things street-art) and accidental.  I was wandering around the dock yard area of Balmain, it was raining, I was once again getting hopelessly lost, and to cap it off I had the flu: it wasn't a great day.  

Just as I was ready to concede defeat, I spied a weird little freehand on a wall & felt myself being drawn towards it.  Not wanting to defy the street-art-gods & being subject to their wrath, I took my first photo (of turned out to be my then latest and yet still current obsession) Kois.

On the ferry back to 2095 I attempted to get the pronunciation correct: is coy'is or Ko (as in Do Re Me) Is. Eventually shrugging my shoulders with defeat, I got home, switched on my PC (which the 2095 must proudly shout that she now has an Mac!) uploaded the image, entered the tag and that was that.

My next encounter was at Chippendale. Same style but totally different tag name.  

It was breathtakingly beautiful.  A defining moment as I was then presented with another pronunciation conundrum: Soke-eye.  Socke-ee.  Rather than continue with the "how do I pronounce it game", the 2095'er made the monumentous decision: it's Sokei.  Turns out I was right!

Here are my 5 questions with the man behind the Sokei and Kois: Mizter Crystalface

Your work is so intricate, the point of being hypnotic. How long does it take to create a piece such this?

Well making them is very hypnotic.  I get in my own head-space when I'm doing them and I don't really notice how much time goes by.  It's very therapeutic.  I think my current profile image (as seen above) took me about 2 months.  Most works take a couple of months, others (like my latest) too me well over a year AND I'm still working on it.  But I don't worry about the length of time.  I just really enjoy doing them

You also have other personas.  What is the genesis behind each of their street names?

Yes, my other "personas" haha!  I've always liked the idea of hiding behind a strange name and no face.  I became recognisable under was the graffiti writer KOIS.  I wrote Kois when I was pretty down on life and sort of screwed up in the head.

I painted faces without the tops of heir foreheads, or scars across their skulls as though their brains had been altered.

I'd write things like "Kois eats razorblades","kois the psychotic meds junkie" or "i like pain".  I thought that stuff was very funny. And back then graffiti was a great outlet for me.

SOKEI became the new graffiti word when I started getting a better name, more positive understanding on life.  I chose the word "sokei" after I heard about a man who started the first Zen Institute of America.

His name was "Sokei-an".  Later in life he got arrested by the FBI because the American Government though he was an "enemy alien" working with people who orchestrated Pearl Harbour (which he wasn't).  I'd write stuff like "cellar door" next to my faces or "hive mind".

I chose "crystalface" after some amazing experiences in 2011.

I became interested in dreams, meditation, transcendental philosophies, geometric patterns, numerology, mandalas, colours and the subconscious mind.

I decided that I'd try to pursue a career through making pictures and try to incorporate certain ideas in to them.  (I don't actually remember why i chose "crystalface" but I think it had something to do with seeing crystals everywhere).

When you are a on creative roll are you a "do not disturb til I'm done" or do you focus to the point of insanity?

I'm always drawing.  I am drawing when I'm around my friends.  I draw at parties.  When I'm lying down in bed.  When I am on a bus or plane or train.  And I've especially begun to enjoy drawing while I'm camping at bush doofs and festivals.

I would say that creating pictures has become an addiction and obsession for me. I feel I'm wasting my time if I'm not drawing or doing something constructive.  I'm definitely NOT a "do not disturb" kind of person.  I always enjoy company while I work.

You also enjoy collabs.  What can we look forward to in the near future?

Yeah collabs are great.  I've done a few small ones in the past with Cheungha Lim, Slug, Animal Farm, Texas, Joe42, Air Space Ark, Andros, Clint Bautista, Terrible Horrible and a few others.

Painting Grounds 2011

I've also tried to organise some with other aritsts like Yvette Marie Tziallis and an artist from Sweden that I really like to call "Johannek".  Still haven't got around to doing those just yet.

How often do you get back out on the street, or do you find yourself now studio-bound and restricted by time frames?

I've always got time and freedom to do things and I still go out and do a little stuff on the streets....just not so often anymore.

I think my drive to do "street art" has pretty much gone.  I still do commissions and paint people's walls, vans & bedrooms (usually for free if they provide the paint), but I find drawing and making posters, t-shirts stickers for people much more rewarding.

I still love graffiti and using spray cans and paint brushes, although I enjoy using pens and digital mediums a lot more now.

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Massive thanks to Mizter Crystalface for not only sharing a bit of your story but allowing me to use some of your photos in this blog

Mr Crystalface