GUES

GUES – I am writing since the 90s with different partners and crews such as SDK and PAL. Europe for trains, Paris and its suburbs for the streets, and now somewhere else where I can live new adventures. These last years, I am focused mainly on throw-ups, waiting to want to paint strange letters as before. As long as I don’t get tired I keep looking for new surfaces and new spots to paint. I keep an eye on what’s happening around the world. As I said before, I am focused on throw-ups, looking at my archives from the ’90s. I am interested in what happened in New York in the ’70s/80s, not by the beautiful pieces but by unrated documented throw-ups, by Scandinavian writers, and by what happened on my suburbs trains lines when I was younger. Now, I like the way BTM and 246 are hitting the streets and the European freight scene. I am glad to know that I still have a lot to discover from places, such as Oakland for example. It’s a never-ending story. I don’t admire anyone but I am influenced by the people I paint with, and the way they move and look at things. My style, if we can call it, comes from my left hand. I am not able to see what I am painting, so I choose to paint my letters in reverse mode, twisting my letters to get something simple and recognizable. I try to push it as much as possible, to exhaust it with different tools and in different sizes. When I am painting something else than my throw-ups (I use different aliases to try stuff), I prefer not to make special effects or shades. I want to keep it simple, playing with colors, most of the time 2 or 3, and shapes and sometimes a character. Over time, painting letters is an excuse to simply paint outside, in large format. It has become a necessity.