Our mate SEMOR recently copped an exclusive interview with Artillery Magazine.
Interview and foreword by Jamfingers exclusively for Artillery Magazine.
Artillery sketch by SEMOR.
Images courtesy of SEMOR.
I’m a longstanding believer that ‘if you paint what you feel, then others will feel what you paint.’
There’s a power every writer holds to communicate so much more than just their letters on wall, a creative license that can be easily forfeited with too much preparation. While ‘style’ (the individual edge that every writer strives to develop and establish) can be blueprinted by letterforms seen in an outline, there are so many layers of manic ‘on the spot’ energy hurled at the surface which define the end result. The way a writer reacts to their environment at the time of painting is how their style truly unfolds, but unfortunately for many observers this is sidelined by the finished photo as the final is what is most magificent. These momentary improvisations tailor the masterpiece to be exactly what it is; a semipermanent artwork that can never be flawlessly duplicated, even by the artist themselves.
SEMOR never takes a sketch to the wall. He’s all about the moment, pure creationism.
He is a positivist; an enthusiastic and soulful human, a go-getter with his sights set firmly on the things that matter most in his life. It’s a pleasure to promote the doings of those who’re so eager to give something back, despite the earth’s population at large often failing to see the bigger picture. You need only to take in a handful of his works to witness the nature of his character as I think SEMOR is exactly what he paints.
In the early stages of Artillery’s online digest I dropped a short spotlight on SEMOR’s work. This interview is a snapshot in time of what he has been up to since then, but more importantly, where his head is at in the grander scheme of things.
Where are you from SEMOR? Tell us more about your neck of the woods.
I’m from Germany. I moved from a smaller town to Hennef which is near Cologne (Köln). The scene in Hennef is very small, but there are also more artists in Bonn and Köln. I would say that Cologne doesn’t have that ‘typical’ or recognisable style like Hamburg or Berlin. Cologne has a nice mix with a lot of different kind of styles. People from different cities moved to Cologne to study and that’s why there’s a blend with different types of artistic influences. I really like that.
Was there a strong graffiti scene there when you were young?
The graffiti scene in the city where I was born was really small too. Close to my town was a writer named MAZE. At this time his characters and styles were insane. He’s now one of the most famous tattoo artists in Germany.
I started with some tracksides and also hit a small wall quite regularly in my town, but mostly to practice my can control. That was a great time, a time when you had to find out everything by yourself, experimenting with which caps you could use (hairspray etc)…
Click here to read more.
More info:
– ArtilleryMagazine.com.au
– Flickr.com/Mad_Semor