Going back a few years I kick-started a regular peice on ironlak.com called your “Favourite Writer’s Favourite Writer” where we’d talk with some of the best in the game and asked them which graffiti writers rocked their world. YFWFW proved to be one of the most popular written content peices ever for Lak, hitting a truck tonne of eyeballs week in, week out. It was a fun concept to be involved in. I enjoyed getting a deeper insight into artists I admired and many others did too.
Moving into 2021 , in the interest of evolution and broader horizons, YFWFW is making a come back with a new name, Your Favourite Artist’s Favourite Artists, and a new home at sprayism.com. Keeping it to graffiti writers contained the concept in a box. By leveling up to feature artists, the scope of creativity that can be explored opens right up. The shackles are now gone, YFWFW has grown up, and is ready to return unrestricted.
I’m hyped to pass on that we have a line up of great artists who have kindly put their hand up on invitation to particpate in upcoming “Your Favourite Artist’s Favourite Artists” . We are fotunate to be able to share with you the influences, motivators and day makers for resoundingly talented and applied artists from across the globe.
To commence a good thing we have a good guy, my friend Weam One from Germany. Weam is top of the list for his dedication, attitude and skill. – Jim
WEAM ONE
I would like to distinguish between writers who have influenced me so far and those whose work i appreciate very much. I’ll start with the ones that have shaped me up to this point. Of course, I had some partners in my early years, but hardly anyone of them still paints actively. Writers like SKEMA, BOKER, Dr. DOSE and many more. SKEMA was definitely the most present person in my early years, from whom I also got the name WEAM. I liked his letters and combinations to connect them. He was one of the few people around me at that time who had a certain flow and knew how to make letters dance. Of course, my first pieces were very inspired by him. The use of color and the eye for the whole picture or the end result was certainly an aspect I learned from him.
However, after we parted ways at some point, this position then took Wute and taught me some illegal things and integrated me into his crew CRN. Which to this day is our common crew.
I like his attitude towards line pieces. That the first row has to be colorful and you shouldn’t do things halfway. When you do something, it should be well thought out and you should always do your best. If something is not feasible, there is no quick action needed, but it is considered how to implement this in the best possible way to paint this spot. I think his style has a high recognition value, which for me is one of the most important things in the graffiti business. His never ending drive to go out and represent the crew again and again has my fullest respect.
Later Town aka RISM came into my life and took me to a new level. He has been in the game constantly for nearly 3 decades and has my fullest respect for this. I also really appreciate that he is always willing to push new people and pass on tips and tricks. I was stuck at a certain level at the time I met him and wasn’t really progressing. He taught me how important designs and other details/accents are to the final product. I still apply these until now in each of my pieces. He showed me that the background is also important for the overall picture. I like his connections and that you can still read which letter it is. This is for me as much as I like wildstyle but still the most important aspect in graffiti. You can paint abstract letters , but you should still recognize what letter it is. Even if some productions are a nice end product, I can´t deal with it if I need an hour to read what it means.
Let’s move on to writers I don’t know personally, but I like their work and the direction they have taken.
Number one is KAWS. In principle, I still think that graffiti belongs on the street and not in the museum, but he has found a nice middleway. I think you can see where his roots are and in the compositions of his work you can see that they are somewhere from graffiti. It is not a style graffiti, however, I can imagine very well to have something like that hanging in my living room. As you can see from my pictures, I put a lot of emphasis on the use of color and KAWS is one of the most capable people in that area.
While we’re on the subject of color, I’d move right on to the next dude: RIME. MSK was one of the first crews that fascinated me outside of Berlin and Germany. The whole crew is great. ROID, REVOK, EWOK, ASKEW, AROE or POSE … , each of these writers is really champions leaque and no one has to hide there. What I find so special about RIME are the curved letters and the use of color. He knows how to make legible letters look very stylish and that even people who are not from the graff scene can read them. This is often not so easy. He has certainly not invented it, however, I noticed for the first time that the outline is partly not really present. The smooth transition to the background was completely new to me and had impressed me a lot. I also really like his works on canvas, as these are also a good balancing act between street and museum.
Now I come to the next and also last writer which I find very impressive: DOES.
The first time I noticed DOES was a wall with REVOK. I like his style and the integration of underground and his piece. I find it impressive how much thought he puts into designing a coherent end product. I like the fact that he uses a wide variety of materials that are otherwise rarely used, or that no one else normally uses. The actually very simple, but very playful letters are certainly outstanding for me. Somehow a good mix of abstract but still recognizable. His use of color is also exemplary. Also the new things from him are again a bit ahead of the time. I like it when you think about how you can bring the overall graff thing to a new level. I think he makes graffiti so more accessible to other people but still remain style graffiti.
Follow WEAM on instagram @weam.one
Check out the artists mentioned in this article
- SKEMR
- BOKER
- Dr. DOSE
- WUTE @wutecrn
- RISM @rism_is_a_dancer
- KAWS @kaws
- RIME @rime_msk
- ROID
- REVOK @_revok_
- EWOK @ewokmskhm
- ASKEW @askewone
- AROE @aroe_heavyartillery
- POSE @tenderj
- DOES @digitaldoes