Nick Walker

Nick Walker Interview

"In 1992 I began to combine stencils with my freehand work which allowed me to juxtapose almost photographic imagery with the rawness which evolved from conventional graffiti styles. Stencils introduce an impact element to my work. The appeal of stencils is that they allow me to take an image from anywhere - dissect any part of life - and recreate it on any surface."

Youtube : Nick Walkers Solo Show at BRP

- Do you have any new concepts that you are trying to achieve in your present art?

N: Not really, I think it's more of a case of exorcising the demons within. Sometimes there is a bit of a message inside but mainly, I like to play with irony.

- How would you say that streetart & graffiti has evolved over the years in Bristol?

N: In the past five or six years there seems to have been a rise in the interest and the number of people doing streetart in Bristol compared to 15 years ago. From what I have seen, there are a lot of creative college kids who start university in Bristol and then want to try their hand at streetart.

Some might say that this is a bad thing, but I think it's good as it brings a more quirky style to the playground.

- Do you think that the spawn of the internet as a marketing tool for an artist can effect the progression of creativity for that particular artist?

N: If you understand that the internet is just a marketing tool that can help you to promote, then you can keep it separate to your research into what other artists are doing. It is harder to be original as you can see so many different artistic styles online that may stop you from exploring that "concept", but on the flipside, it can also push you to work harder as you see how popular that particular style or concept is.

- Stencil graffiti has been around for ages; since the days of Blek Le Rat in the early 1980's. Why has it only just recently become a popular medium to use in the street?

N: I think that although Blek and many other Parisian artists can be deemed the pioneers of the art-form, it's actually the way Banksy and his team of merry men have worked the media. It's to the extent that Banksy is now a household name and the general public have started to notice and respect stencils as an art-form. Its popularity can also be attributed to the fact that itﾕs a very quick and easy way to leave your mark on the street. It can be applied and sprayed to a wall in a few seconds and then you can leave very quickly.

- What made you progress from doing traditional graffiti and trying your hand at stencils instead?

N: When I first started doing graff, stencils weren't common at all and were almost seen as forbidden. It was all about clean lines, can-control and having absolutely no drips; basically fine-tuning your freehand abilities. I first saw stencils being used in the early 90's by a Bristol artist called 3D (Massive Attack) and that made me realize the potential of the stencil. I had a couple of projects going on at the time that needed a photographic realism look and so I tried using stencils to create that effect. Since then, I haven't looked back. Using both crisply cut, fine lined stencils and merging that with freehand, fuzzy or drippy work looks great together.

- Speaking only in terms of London streets, there seems to be a lot less volume of streetart compared to around four or five years ago. Why do you think this is? Have we reached a "peak" in creativity?

N: There will always be artists working off the streets and there will always be a few who will remain consistently painting on the street. Other artists will come and go as these "trends" happen in waves. Another reason that there could be less on London streets now could be due to the growing number of CCTV's watching us but this, in turn has made artists look higher up to do their work. There are a lot more rooftops being hit, away from the prying eyes of the cameras.

In terms of reaching a "peak" in creativity, I think that the media may have realized that they have oversaturated the markets with their "graffiti"-type images; five years ago, there were a lot more adverts with "graffiti" elements and at the same time, it was reflected on the street as there was a lot more streetart then too. However, in terms of artists producing work, I definitely don't think we have reached our full potentials. Graffiti, Streetart and Fine Art are all going to merge and then go off on their own tangents, but they will always be here; as Norman Mailer once said, "Graffiti is Contamination by Association".

The actual word Graffiti has this air of taboo about it and will always have an appeal to the young generation.

Website : http://web.mac.com/nickwalkerz

Written by Selph