Gomer (Paris) Graffiti Writer Spotlight

I have been doing graffiti for more than 15 years now. I moved to Paris years ago, but i am originally from Lyon.

Usually, the style of writing i like is dynamic, original and with a strong sense of colors. I am not going to name anyone specific, because i am sure to forget someone, and i think inspiration should come from everyone’s own journey, not from the list of someone else.

But growing up doing graffiti, i was looking up to writers from my city, my country and from Europe. I dont have the Style Wars-USA fascination thing. It happened too long ago for a kid my age, and way too far away from my place, so i could not really relate. A book like ‘Kapital’ about the Parisian scene had a much more significant appeal to me, because i knew the places it showed.

Nonetheless, i started to write really classical graffiti. Big strong letters, shiny colors, fat outline, some characters sometime. Halls of fame in the week ends, trains in the week nights. The classical graffiti kid, nothing too crazy crazy here.

And i think i got a bit bored of it, of the scene, the mentalities. I was seeing graffiti as something free and full of intellectual liberties. But the more i was involved with the scene, the more i came upon people in a hurry to box and label everything: ‘If there is not 45 arrows, this is not a wildstyle. If you dont do trains you’re not a writer. If you dont do subways, you’re not a writer. Your outlines must be black. Your highlight must be white. You got to have a crew’. You know the lyrics. Everything i wanted to avoid and escape from regular society.

So i got bored of doing almost the same piece all the time. Yeah sure, colors, shapes and locations would change. But it is like eating pastas everyday just changing the sauce. You’re still eating the same shit everyday. (I love pastas to death though, please forgive me Pasta-God)

And then i met two dudes, Lek and Dem189. And they showed me their way of freestyling their pieces. Doing literally whatever the fuck you want. Whatever. No letters, one piece regardless of how many people are painting, go over anyone line and shapes, lets just paint together. I then discovered the difference between painting NEXT to someone, and painting WITH someone.

When you are painting next to each others, there is no real exchange. Come on man, your background cant touch my background, thats gay, leave one meter between our pieces. Creatively speaking, it is as good as painting alone. But when you mix everything up, you never know whats it is going to look like, and you really have to adapt yourself to the other people painting, every step of the way.

And that’s how writing became fun for me again. I dont care about my name. It is just painted lines on a wall. Not a Nobel Peace Price. You wont bring your fame into your grave. I would rather have fun along the way, trying to do something today i haven’t done yesterday. Thats is my mantra: When is the last time you did something for the first time ?

Life is too short. Dont mind the rules, dont mind what people say. When it comes to creation, do whatever the fuck YOU want.

Gomer