CONCRETE WALLS PROJECT. FEAT: ARYZ

We’ve been awaiting excitedly… and now finally we have the first chapter of the CONCRETE WALLS PROJECTS series, with ARYZ, sponsored by the independent clothing brand HEROKID, in collaboration with MONTANA COLORS.

Painted walls always caught my attention, ever since I was small. I remember every time I’d go to school, with my brother and mother, we had to pass by this wall that was behind the building. I have it saved in my memory as the most interesting and entertaining part of the whole journey. Whenever they had painted something new, it felt incredible for me to see it, and if they were in the middle of painting, I would happily wait and watch to see the whole process; watch how they gave form to it, how they introduced those colors, and how impressive it was to see them create those lines which were so straight.

When I went to high school, later on, I got together with people who had the same interests as me, and who also breakdanced and rapped, and basically everything involved in hip hop. One day we decided to paint a wall properly. We went to that same wall that I had always liked, which was behind the building, and when we began, I saw that it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. Even though I’d studied all of the gestures, movements and colors, actually picking up the can of spray is a different story altogether. I remember that it was a total disaster. I went back the next day to try and fix it, but I just ended up making it worse.

After a while, I got together with more experienced people on the graffiti scene. I was in charge of doing the backgrounds and characters for the pieces, but after a while I felt that doing that wasn’t my reality, nor did it express my feelings. Whether or not I was enjoying myself, I wasn’t expressing what I wanted to say.

So, now I try to capture my ideas in one way or another. I struggle with the paper I use, in trying to give form to the ideas that I have, in trying to express them on the wall. But that’s the battle.

A lot of the time, once I’ve finished doing a wall, I have that same sensation of failure which I had after I painted that very first wall. In a way, that feeling helps me to continue trying to improve, to find new forms and content. Aryz, 2010