Our friend Ster from Bulgaria painted EVERYDAY for the last year. We had to interview him. I mean, who else can claim such a rampage!
Ster is from Sofia, Bulgaria, and has lived in Russia for a long time aswell. For the last year, he has painted every single day. 365 days. Now that’s dedication. Or is it obsession? We got down with homie to discuss the process, joys and difficulties of being constently active. We would like to thank him for the never-seen-before 35mm film photos and the interview below.
BombingScience: First off, BIG UP. I mean, lots of writers are active, really active. Others make a living out of graffiti. But I doubt any of them can claim they have painted EVERY SINGLE DAY for a year. That’s a MINIMUM of 365 pieces, and I know you’ve done much more.
Ster: Hello, thanks for the attention. Really it’s a funny story how I started to paint every day. Me and my friends from Ukraine and Macedonia were in Skopje and we started to discuss what is being real active in graffiti. One of them says that to be active is to paint once a week, and other two-three times at week. But I said to be really active is to paint every day. And from joke to reality I started to paint every day.
In fact I have more than 500 pieces from this marathon. I never counted it, but every time it was not enough so I painted more and more. Sometimes I made more than 5 pieces a day. After New Year’s I kept painting every day. I am addicted 🙂
BombingScience: You must not sleep much, right?
Ster: In the beginning, yes. But after a while I needed to sleep normally, so I started to play dirty. I paint day time when people come back from work.
BombingScience: Are you on drugs?!
Ster: No. I don’t drink alcohol and I don’t do drugs. Only sometimes cheap energy drinks.
BombingScience: How do you manage to finance such a big bombing campaign? Do you steel? Do you do legal murals and keep the extra cans? What’s your trick?
Ster: I want to keep my conscience clean. I don’t steel. For a long period I lived in Russia. Legal murals are well paid in this country and there were times when I didn’t have to buy any cans. I have lots of lots of spray cans, I even sell them to other writers. Today I work a lot to buy spray cans like a normal citizen.
BombingScience: I strongly suggest Molotow, Ironlak, or any other spraypaint company to sponsor home boy Ster. He will put in more work then a dozen of your team members. Did you ever try to get some sponsorship?
Ster: A couple years ago I had a small unofficial talk with guys from Molotow, but nothing happened.
BombingScience: I sometimes get annoyed of painting the same letters years on. After doing so much Ster pieces, don’t you ever get bored of your letters?
Ster: No. Every time it’s different styles. These four letters are part of my life, and every time I paint, I feel that I make something new, something different. If I get bored, I change the style totally.
BombingScience: Who are your favorite partners to go paint with?
Ster: I like to paint with APL from Ukraine (FAT315). He is like my brother.
BombingScience: Worldwide speaking, which writers impress you, in terms of aesthetics and quantity?
Ster: I was very impressed by NESAR and SOMA from Canada. We live so for away, but we have a same lifestyle. Also I was very supported by BUNY (KR2) from Spain.
BombingScience: Any stories you’d like to share with our readers? I mean, you must have tons, painting everyday for a year comes with a lot of anecdotes!
Ster: Interesting is that for this year of painting every day, I was never busted. I have one interesting story when I did a rooftop while my friend was painting ground-level. The cops came and caught us. While they were checking our documents, I started speaking with them about art and architecture. At the same time we heard over the police radio that another patrol car was coming for us. They said that we were cool, gave us back our documents very fast and told us: “get out of here, right now”. We stood there and could not understand what had happened. Cops repeated “get out of here, fast-fast.” We got away and after a few seconds I saw the second cop car pulling up at the place where we painted. That’s how I avoided to get arrested, because in Bulgaria, when 2 patrol cars come for you, it means you have to go to the police station, that’s the law. This was the first time police saved us from other police.
BombingScience: Shouts?
Ster: Big thanks to people who support me, and who were with me for the last years: GORE, XPOME, TEXAS. And respect to everybody who paint on the streets and trains.
BombingScience: Last but not least, what’s your bombing science?
Ster: Graffiti is for fun, but the approach needs to be serious. Less talk, more action.
