MC What has been the most challenging artwork to make to-date both physically or psychologically? ↓ HOW and NOSM on the olympic stadium in Berlin HN Physically it’s always the large buildings, like the really big buildings obviously, because it takes a bunch of days and the sun hits you and you have to wear the mask and the life line around you, it’s a lot of physical work. Mentally, I don’t know (laugh) it is what we do, we draw and stuff, it’s a mentally… it’s not a psychological issue or a burden, it’s not challenging, not really. No it’s not challenging, it’s not like we’ve never done it, we have been doing it for so long so we have our routine and we stick to the routine and just get the job done you know. I mean, it might be sometimes stressful but I don’t know if it’s psychologically challenging or something (laugh). MC By the looks of your gallery work, it appears as if you are as comfortable with indoor artmaking as outdoor art making. Do your ideas for studio / gallery work stem from the same origins as your outdoor work? Do you try or want to separate them in any way or is it all the same visual conversation? If you look too much at other artists your work will change and starts looking like other people stuff HN We can use stuff from the studio to do outdoors and stuff we do outdoors we bring back to the studio. You pick up ideas and learn from certain mistakes like doing a wall or doing something in the studio you know. You applied it on both so. MC Is there any artist or art makers that inspire you guys a lot? Does art from the streets inspire you or is gallery work more engaging for you as viewers? HN There are great artists out there in general, regardless of backgrounds you know, artist graffiti or street art or fine art or anything you know. We have tons of books in the studio from all kind of genres of art you know. I guess that people’s achievements and work effects inspire us you know, when somebody does a lot of great projects you know, it’s like something to you know, just try for, do that too you know. There are too many artists out there to just pick one by now you know. If you look too much at other artists your work will change and starts looking like other people stuff so you don’t want that. It’s not inspiring anymore, it’s gonna influence you. MC We assume your move to NYC in 1999 and your work with the TATS crew must have been a massive step for your careers. But was it a big change for your life quality? Your origins from Spain, Germany and all the countries you have travelled to must have given you a sense of what it means to live somewhere else. What makes living in New York enjoyable for you? HN TATS crew definitely helped us a lot when we moved to New York, one, they gave us work so we could actually support ourselves. We have done tons of tons of projects with them hundreds of videos, I don’t know how many videos, but like ten fifteen videos for like superstar, musicians, we’ve done nationwide campaigns. So as far as the job was, it was very multifaceted and we’ve done quite a lot of that, but at some point it was just too much of the same work and it became less about what our art was looking like but it was more about what the agencies or the people that hired us wanted us to do you know. And at some point, it was 38 Interview HowNOSM IN PARIS
just pretty much paint by numbers, paint this and copy that and it just really started to neglect our own art you know. Like we didn’t develop you know or didn’t work on our development as individual artists. But never the less, it was a great experience and we’re still with the TATS crew and they’re still our family and we’re still bullshit (laugh). Even without painting New York is a great city you know, there is a lot of culture. I mean there is great art you know, and many people. I mean New York is still… We still like it, it has changed a lot, it has lost a lot of its greediness and maybe grime. That most people probably don’t like, but I kinda like it, it kinda gave New York it’s unique touch. Now it’s all become in a little bit too uniform you know, all the neighborhoods are starting to look the same and ugly building arises and stuff like that but I mean you can see that in any country really, like I’m sure here in Paris they do the same thing you know. But never the less, we like the attitude there, we like the food, our families are there, we’re still happy there. Are we planning to stay there forever? I can’t really answer that question. For now, we’re happy there. MC What has been your favourite place to paint? Which has been the worst? HN The worst? (Laugh) There’s no favorite, there is too many favorites. The worst is when we don’t get to paint, or when people who invite you just don’t have the stuff together and are totally unprofessional and of course I can’t do my job and that’s looks bad on me so… It’s not only a waste of time but also a waste of my money and their money you know. But a favorite place, I don’t know. We like coming to Paris, we like doing projects here, we have lots of friends… I don’t know, it’s hard to say really, we’ve been to a lot of places and have met a lot of great people you know. It’s hard to really pick one place. at some point, it was just pretty much paint by numbers, paint this and copy that Interview HowNOSM IN PARIS 39
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