FIRE AT WILL: LOAD 42

“Creativity is born out of necessity.”

• Name: Load 42
• Crew: 42, ROC, Secret Crime
• City-country: Bogotá-Colombia
• Active since: I remember my first strokes were around 2004.
• First piece:
• Favorite piece: Every piece I paint is a totally different learning experience; more than the work per se, it is the experience and the context of where it is done. I also try to make variations in terms of the shapes of the letters, colors, subject matter, etc. I don’t like to paint the same thing all the time. That is why I don’t have a favorite piece. When you think you have reached the end, you realize that so far it is the beginning of something new; it is a process of building, destroying and rebuilding: it is a personal evolution.
• Style: I don’t like to categorize what I do in a specific style, but what I must say is that when I started I was directly influenced by the style of hip hop and the structure of classic graffiti letters.
  I try to keep the essence of what I got hooked on when I started, but I don’t want to limit myself to that; I’m always drawing and absorbing all kinds of information that can feed my process.
• Partners in crime: My brother Deo42 despite the distance. I’m used to painting alone.
• Favorite cap: I don’t think I should limit myself to one specific cap. For me a true writer is versatile and adapts to the tools that are available, thus being resourceful. There are no excuses for not doing things well when they are done from the heart.
  
• Personal motivation: When I paint, I am trying to find myself. At different times in my life, I have changed internally and I still don’t fully understand myself. I paint to understand who I am at that precise moment and to get out of whatever mental labyrinth I may find myself in. For me it is an exercise in which talent is not enough, but it requires many more things, such as discipline, dedication, perseverance, self-motivation, courage, and humility, among others, to conceive it.
  In my opinion, what is important is the creative process that you undergo to reach the idea that you want to get across and when this process is done consciously, you will probably be able to transmit its magic.
  “I come from everywhere, and everywhere I go. I am art amongst the arts; in the mountains, I am a mountain.”
  (José Martí, Versos Sencillos)