The Bite Magazine - Spring/Summer 2023 - Issue 33

biteartistprofile grandmas pass by, and they say, Thank you very much, and stop to chat. They're very nice. What is your most loved piece? Man-Knit-Pulation in Miami. I have the one on the street that I did and another on canvas, which is more because the one I painted in Miami was quick. It's a nice topic. Where is your most famous piece, in your opinion? The most famous one because it's enormous and it's been there for a long time is in Croydon. It's 12 metres by 7 metres and on a nice building in front of a concert hall that belongs to the coun- cil. It's been in different publications by the press and has links and followers online. And AmyWinehouse, because it’s been there for a while, and no- body has touched it. It’s very uncommon that after 20 years, it's still there. Another is the couple kissing at the Horse & Groom pub on Curtain Road, Shoreditch. I did that in 2013; that was a commission by the owners who wanted me to paint Romeo and Juliet because the manager saw my previous drawings on Instagram. He invited me to do something relating to Romeo and Juliet because, behind that building, they found ruins of the theatre where Romeo and Juliet was first performed. Do you get a lot of commissions? Yeah, I get different commissions for canvasses, drawings, and walls. How many have you done to date, in how many countries, and have you done all the continents? I couldn’t tell you how many pieces I’ve done to date. I don't know, hundreds in perhaps fifteen countries. Yes, all the conti- nents, even Africa [including] Kenya and Nairobi, in a shopping centre next to the embassies. That was a nice experience; it was cool. Street Art Berlin invited me because they were inviting German artists and, as I'm known by a German name, they asked me to be part of an artist exchange. I was invited to paint the shopping centre with an artist for eight days. It was fun, and I managed to do my job quickly; then, I went on safaris and had fun. What is your reasoning for selling your street art in a gallery? You can't be only a street artist; that's very limiting. You can make your money in galleries. That rule of only being a street artist is not my point of view and not what I follow—also, that kind of art where they hide their face that's ridiculous. Just to sell more? Like Banksy? No, I'm not like that. I don't need to hide my face. What is the process of replicating a street piece for the galleries? I have an idea, I do the sketch, take pictures of it, then pass it through the computer, and if I like it, I do a canvas through a stencil. I make stencils with a computer program called Altocut and cut them with a laser. I did a big stencil for Amy Winehouse (because there was more detail), but I usually do free-hand. Sometimes I do it first on the canvas, then on the street, or first on the street and then on the canvas, but the decision is down to whether I love the design first. If I like the sketch, I take it over to the streets. Do you have a replication of everything you’ve done on a wall on a canvas? No, that’s because sometimes it’s something quick or a stencil piece. The stencil is effective because I can paint little spots. It can take me half an hour to paint the sunsets; with the ribbons, that will take me much longer. What’s the worst thing that’s happened to any of your street art? Jean Bishop (the famous late Bee-Lady artist and campaigner from Hull) painted a wall on Retro Street in about 2014. A guy