Art Crimes

Page 3
How & Nosm
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Bogata, Columbia

       

Continued...

AC: You painted with Os Gemeos in South America?
Nosm: No just in Portugal and New York.

AC: So tell us about that, everyone in the world wants to know about the meeting of the twins.
Nosm: There is a festival in Portugal. We were invited, along with Tasek, me and my brother, Os Gemeos, and CMP. We got there the day before everybody. So the first thing we did was go check out the train system and we've gotta buy paint. So we ask the organizer, and he says that there is no paint to find. We met some toys who said they could take us to get some. They had all Montanas. So we bought some cans. Tasek and Gemeos came down the first night. We were sure it was just going to be us and Os Gemeos that night, which was cool. I don't know, it's like a chemical we all have. It's weird. We showed them what were going to do, and we went the next night. It was lovely, we did a nice subway car. The next day they had to leave, they were only there for two days. We did a few murals with Swet and at the jam.
We stayed a week, because after that we went to Athens, Greece to another little event. Bates was there, Kacao from Berlin and some other writers.

AC: So do Os Gemeos speak German?
Nosm: We speak Spanish, it's pretty close. Because they live in South America they can speak Spanish.

AC: When I've seen Os Gemeos paint, they don't talk much. They don't have to, they just start painting and keep working. Is it the same for you?
Nosm: Of course. But, I tell my brother before we go what I'm going to do,and then he knows. It is the same for them, I guess. But when we painted with Crash and Daze and TATS, they talked, they're cool.

...

AC: You guys are still active on all parts of graffiti, it's not just productions. People know your productions. Do you think that'll ever change? Where you just do canvases?
Nosm: It changes when you get older. You don't want to have beef with the cops. You get a family. I don't know. I still have a lot of time. I know different writers have comebacks, like Seen... .

AC: Stay High.
Nosm: Yeah, he just came home and he is everywhere tagging. 52 years old. He had a big break. But people get their flashes and they have to do something again. If you're a true writer, from the bottom of your heart, you're always going to do something. Do a tag, 'cause that's the way you start. A lot of people start and just do legal work, I respect that, too. It's graffiti, of course. I had the experience of painting trains, bombing, tagging and now that I've done it, I don't want to miss it. It's definitely more fun than doing a big production. People who blaze trains, "That's graffiti!" I mean to do a nice wall, with a big production, that's nice. If you only do that, you need something to explode. I need a balance. I need a balance.

AC: Do you want to do canvas more?
Nosm: No. Not really. Sometimes I do a lot of canvas. I don't do canvas for commission. I just do something nice for myself, and if someone comes around and they ask, "How much?" I tell them to just take it. I'm not a gallery guy. The whole TATS crew isn't into galleries. We've done one here, one there. Daze, Crash, those are the original pioneers. Not to forget Taki, Stay High. They never made it into galleries. That's their [Daze's and Crash's] section. I'm missing a big part of history, so I don't even get into it. I don't have any value in the market. If my canvas is next to a Lee? It has no value. It might be nice, but it has no history, no name. You always pay for the history and the name.

AC: Is there stuff that you want to do? Sculpture, design?
Nosm: Sculpture sounds nice, but it takes a lot of time. It's a way different media. I've done stones, different letters. I gave them away.

AC: Is Europe different, are they trying to find ways of making it legal or accepted?
Nosm: It's the same as here. If you ask someone if they like graffiti, they'll so no to tags. But if you show them a piece, they'll say, "That's nice! That's not graffiti." And if you start explaining to them, "It starts with a tag." They so, "No, this is art."

AC: You guys have been doing 3D styles for awhile. Was there any one person that got you doing that?
Nosm: Not really. I of course got influenced by Daim. Delta was doing it before. And Erni, of course. But [Daim was] so realistic. The productions were amazing. Even here in New York, everyone was like, "3D? What's that? Nice" I was doing semi-3D stuff. But he had the light and all that, definitely I learned from that. And then Loomit inspired us a little bit for awhile. From there we just did our own thing. But I like to do not only 3D. Sometimes I switch, just plain. Sometimes 3D with outlines. I mix it, so I don't get bored. I've done so many walls.

AC: From a pure letter standpoint, who influenced you. I've noticed recently you're stuff looks softer, a little more legible. More old school looking, but you're still doing all the fancy no outline stuff with them.
Nosm: You always go through phases. I was getting better with my styles, so I was, "I'll do this, I'll connect this." You go crazier and crazier, until you think it's a little too much. Some people will notice it, some people will like it. But you have to notice it and slow down.
So we've been doing different stuff and I'm probably a little bit lazier.
You also need to switch around to evolve.

AC: Do you wish you could do trains the same way you do your walls? Do you wish you could spend as much time on a train? Nosm: Sure, but I wouldn't do the same thing as I would on a wall. That doesn't belong on trains. It's too fancy.
The productions that are coming from Europe have too much kitsch. They're trying to perfect it too much. I like it a little more rough. The New York flavor, I guess.
I would never do a 3D on a train.

AC: Is there anything else we should talk about?
Nosm: We have a video coming out. Me and my brother have been planning a video for awhile, almost a year. For along time a lot of graffiti videos were coming out. So we thought we should wait a little bit and collect some more stuff. There's a lot of people on it. It's not going to be a How and Nosm video. We've got a lot of different countries: Italy, Greece, Portugal, New York, Argentina, Australia, Canada, Germany... you know mixed up. We want to make it international. There is material from about one year. There's some older stuff from Australia that hasn't been seen. Not a lot of people know about what's going on in Australia, so we definitely wanted to put in on there. It's definitely a fat scene.
We went it to be a little different than the typical graffiti video. That's why we've been working on it for so long. I have to be satisfied, or we won't bring it out to the market.
We also have the website coming out. Some guys from Toronto are putting it out.

How and Nosm

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