THREE ACES: SUNK

Sunk is a Dutch writer which has, as he himself says, been “doing his tricks” since 86. He is a member of the crews FHJ, PFP, LVC and DTS and here is his three favorite pieces:

‘To pick 3 pieces wasn’t easy for me… After more than 30 years of graff, many pieces are long forgotten, others I have in mind as clear as if I painted them yesterday. The adventures and experiences painting them mean a lot more to me than the actual pieces. The ones I chose are all ace to me, but for different reasons.’

• The first one is a piece that I think is from 1996, from some pieces I don’t exactly recall the year and the rail is blocking the year that I wrote on it. A photo from an old blackbook before the digital age. It is a fast and simple freestyle to kill a bunch of scrap cans. Normally I sketch my styles, but in this period I painted a lot and I also freestyled my pieces sometimes. I like it because of the flow in the S and K, and the U and N connecting the whole thing. It has that nineties feel, I can see that I was inspired by Odem: readable letters based on classic fonts. Rough fatcap fill, fast lines, colours that work. This one shows me the importance of feeling free while painting. A lesson I keep repeating to myself.

• My second pick is one from last year when I was with CryOne in Ibiza for a few days. Good times painting in the sun, driving to the beach afterwards to swim and eat fresh fish with beers. I like this one because to me it’s the classic joint: a nice piece with a dope character. The piece is how I like it, semi-wild, still readable, in motion but balanced. The colours of the frunchy fill go well with the 3D and the background. Spongebob has been painted many times, but I wanted to do my own version with a more angular face like the oldschool b-boy characters, and that’s why I also added the Kangol hat and the big sunglasses. And a spraycan, a character should always hold a spraycan, when the boomboxes and the UZIs are sold out.
  

• The third one is the wall I painted for my wife. She died of cancer in september 2014. I wanted to paint a massive tribute to her but I wasn’t ready until summer 2016 to do it. Normally I don’t really plan an entire wall or backgrounds, but I spent a lot of time preparing this one as I wanted it to be the best ever. I really like how her name came out, Paola with the big star in the middle, the letter A in two different flavors, the overall shape of the piece, the stance, the connections, the movement. I painted it in colours she loved, and the background as a bright universe that I hope embraced her. The other side of the wall is my piece in an opposite universe, in colors and in a world that was turned upside down. The two of us in the middle together, connecting everything. The left part of the wall has the names of our daughters that were 3 and 5 years old when we lost her. I spent a few days painting it in summer and it was a zen experience to do it. There is a lot of love in this wall, also because my new girlfriend understood my process and came with my girls to bring me food and cold beers while I was painting. The love and the sun felt like a blessing: the past, the present and the future all connected.