BENDITO RAGE INTERVIEW AT LECTRICS

Rage is one of those writers who’s evolution of style never quits to surprise us, and not in a negative way. This is the reason why the web of Lectrics has made a interview with him. We bring you a selection of the essence of the article about this writer from Vitoria (Basque Country, Spain).

I write Bendito Rage (M1P, Take This, 104) and I’m from Vitoria. A beautiful city located in the north of Spain, near the French border. I started painting in 2000/2001, so not much long ago compared to many other writers in the game.

I wanted to experiment with a lot of connections, complicated forms, new effects… at that time, people like Revok, Saber, Kacao77, Wow123… were part of my references. Nowadays, I feel  calmer, relaxed… I am still passionate in graffiti but in a different way. And obviously you can notice this change in my style too. Now I admire more the NYC classics like Dondi, Serve, Case2, TFP’s (only to mention a few) as well as the european (Berlin, Amsterdam, Norvegian, Madrid, Paris) styles from the 90′s.

For me that’s the goal in graffiti; Trying to make something new, fresh, stylish but keeping it “simple”. I don’t like the pieces with a lot of light effects, fat cap traces, nonsense connections… Sometimes the reason of such superficial and ornamental stuffs could be that the letter style by itself is not strong enough…

I enjoy mixing traditional elements with the newest ones. I think that could be the recipe: tradition and innovation mixed in the same style. The key is to know the proportion of each one!

I know some people that keep re-doing the same sketch over and over, and I can’t understand that… so boring, no evolution! I appreciate writers who investigate and run risks with new forms.

I usually bring to the wall 3 or 4 different outline colors for chosing the best one. I also like to stare for minutes studying the piece and “hear” what it has to tell me, and change the forms, the colors, etc. as many times as needed. However, I think that the Style of the letters is the most important subject in this game, and everyone should be able to show his style with only 2 colors. 

I don’t do a lot of throw-ups or tagging, but let me explain this a little bit: In my hometown it is very easy to paint “illegal” stuffs, and usually we don’t have any problem with the police or the people who see us painting. It is crazy to understand, I know, but they see it as normal. So, if I see a cool spot, very visible in the city, I don’t need to go fast, at night, and make a one minute t-up, because I can go at 14:30 p.m. while people are having lunch at home and make a 50 minute piece and leave walking.

I spend all day painting decorations for other people, sometimes more figurative, sometimes more abstract, sometimes I like what I’m doing, sometimes not… But, I strictly separate the work from graffiti. I don’t sign that works with Rage, and normally those people who employ me don’t know my graffiti “career” and it’s much better that way.