Peace-
Emenfuckos!
(spelling errors and fragments included!)
MN1- Whats up yo, we have known each other for a few of years now and I think this interview has been long over due. Recently you helped me out with a shoot I was doing for a project which turned out to be really great.
Saro- Yea helping you out with the project was cool; I like doin stuff for people in school. I think that they (school) don't really touch on graffiti and certainly not street art. I've also always wanted to go to college or art school rather, to get some kind of direction and easier methods of doing the things I do...
MN1-here are the flicks from that shoot
MN1-where are you from and what do you write?
Saro- anyway I'm born on Chicago’s north side and I go my the name Saro. I started playin around with graffiti in high school...writing Fetus haha, and that was around '99. I got in trouble for writing shortly after starting in school. What happened was, in gym class we were to climb the rock wall and as a prize or whatever, we were givin sharpies to write our initials on this wall just below the ceiling along with every graduating classes before us to prove we did it. Being a lazy, procrastinate asshole, I was last. My teacher said he'd fail me and yadda yadda yadda, so I climbed the wall super quick and busted out my jumbo pilot marker and wrote fetus about a foot tall and 2ft long in thick blue letters. The whole time I was getting screamed at by the coach, sayin that “years and years of traditions are down the drain because you want to be an asshole!" Haha that was awesome. I didn't do shit after that
MN1-When did you become part of the graffiti/street art scene and who were some of your influences.
Saro- Graff wasn't that interesting to me until my A.D.D. set in, and that was winter of 05 when I started writing saro. Artists that influence me still to this day are choke, Jackson Pollock, temper, stomach, 80s pop culture, horror movies, 7ist, taboo things and things that make the general public uneasy like... pentagrams! And yes...even (at times) the grimiest of em all, Viking. I think if you keep some of these guys in mind, and look at my stencil work and backgrounds, you can see some Pollack, choke and vike in em...but def with my own flavor on em.
MN1- You have been a part of the Chicago street art scene for a number of years what keeps you going?
Saro- Yea I guess I have been involved in this "scene" awhile. Its cool seeing artists come and go. Crazy talk, hellfire, lost, magicats, and even orkid. Those are some people you don't even see up anymore, but there are some bad aspects of being around for awhile. Because then you have to see things like don't fret and that dude that does the Blago stencils...ugh, haha. I'm sure they're good kids I just don't care for em and it seems a lot of other artists don't really like em either. Anyway, what keeps me going is progression. We all progress...eventually. So it’s like wine. Things get better with age ya know? Street art and graff is like this, it’s all been done before so its all about who can eat and swallow what's been done and regurgitate some hot shit.
MN1- There are alot of different mediums out there, are there any in particular that you like best??
Saro- My fav thing is boards for sure, then stickers. I wish this was the type of town we can run around with the stencil in hand and can of paint and stencil directly to surface but we can’t really. But yea, boards for the win.
MN1- I notice you have a website called artbysaro.com, is this a place where people can buy your work or even hire you to create custom work?
Saro- Artbysaro.com is def the place to pick up whatever you might want. And as I get more time, ill be updating it more frequently. Yea custom work seems to be the most favorite thing, I get a good amount of custom requests, whether its photo or stencil work.
MN1- Can you tell us a little about "The World Record Postal Combo Project." It has been going on for a little while now and I am curious to know if the end might be in sight any time soon and can you tell the readers how to get a hold of you if they want to participate.
Saro- Haha the world record postal combo project. Yea that's this sticker project I started a few years ago. What I wanted to do is take one usps postal sticker from each artist out there and put up a giant ass sticker combo here in the chi. I think it'd be sick to see over a thousand artists all at once on the street. Kinda like uniting graff and street artists from all over. I want at least 1000 stickers and I'm pretty close...maybe like 850artists? There's a flickr group www.flickr.com/groups/streetarthistory dedicated to the (slow) progress of the group. People that haven't sent me a sticker can get the address by getting in contact with me either via flickr, email, or my site, be ready for a few questions to make sure I don't smell bacon. We hope to be done with the collecting part of the project by spring, and then we can start getting things ready for a full color book and art show. It’s going to be sick man, giant combo, art show, and a book?? It'll be bananas
MN1- Any last shout outs?
Saro- Big ups to my girl for putting up with spray paint at odd hours in a tiny apartment, what's up to my buddy in New Mexico, rip solve and free drug.
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