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Bird272 - Interview
James Burgess aka Bird 292 (or Birdie) is a U.K. based graffiti artist and designer who grew up in Exmuff and currently resides in Wales.
La Famiglia- Introduce yourself if you could?
Bird272- I write bird272/birdie, I am originally from the south west of England, but moved to Wales in 2000.
La Famiglia- What is the art and graffiti scene like in your hometown?
Bird272- The scene is pretty small here a lot of the younger writers tend to come and go, but I enjoy painting with or without company.
La Famiglia- What was your first experience of graffiti?
Bird272- Racking some paint from motor world and doing lots of shit tags and weak dubs.
La Famiglia- How would you describe your artwork and style to someone?
Bird272- My style is aggressive and raw. I mostly paint 3d pieces with photo elements and graphic design based backgrounds. It is a symbiosis of the mechanistic and organic worlds which heavily influence my arts, sometimes I find it hard to describe my style sometimes I just paint pretty pictures.
La Famiglia- Do you work with a crew? Have you ever?
Bird272- Mainly paint by myself but I rep BSC, kolor blind designs and peaceful progress.
La Famiglia- Are there any artists that have been a mentor to you over the years and how?
Bird272- When I first moved to Wales I was pretty inexperienced in painting and a writer called “over” took me under his wing let me help him on some commissions and gave me a better understanding of can control and the planning and preparation that needs to go into a wall.
La Famiglia- Is there one thing you have struggled with pertaining to your work?
Bird272- Writing answers to questions that make me think about why I do things.
La Famiglia- What artists have have inspired you over the years?
Bird272- I have bee inspired by many writers over the years I think meeting ramelzee motivated me to get more abstract with my work and really think about what I am trying to achieve. The list is long but a few writers and crews off the top of my head include: The Wallnuts, Msk crew, Totem, CNSkillz, Insa, Astek, Tpn crew, Shok 1, Part 2, Daim, and the Maclaim crew...
all my friends and to some extent everything I have seen.
La Famiglia- Is there any specific artist or artists you would like to collaborate with?
Bird272- I love a lot of what’s coming out of Europe at the moment always loved fuckones graphic and type based pieces but anyone with a good attitude really.
La Famiglia- What do your parents think about your graffiti work?
Bird272- I think at first both my parents were quite anti graffiti but my granddad is an artist and my mother does calligraphy so over time and with the increasing popularity and mainstreaming of street art they have come to have a better understanding of what I do
Although my dad said to me the other day “Why cant you be more like banksy?”
La Famiglia- Tell us a little bit about your design work…what have you worked on, what
have you been working on, what would you like to do, etc.?
Bird272- Recently I have been working on some t shirt designs for my summer collection, also doing more web and graphic design based commercial jobs
Ideally I would like to do more work in the Snow/skate/surf industry doing board graphics, designs, etc.
La Famiglia- When you were a little kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Bird272- At school I was always quite academic I wanted to be a lawyer, it was only until I stumbled upon graffiti that it helped me explore my creative side.
La Famiglia- What has been your fondest memory of painting over the years?
Bird272- There have been a lot of good times through painting, there has not really been 1 piece as such more a culmination of all the places I have been and people that I have met through graffiti that make it special for me. For example I got invited to paint at a lot of festivals over the summer last year this is a very fond memory getting to party for weeks on end and getting to paint was a bonus.
La Famiglia- What is one thing you would like to do in the future?
Bird272- I think just to travel and paint as much as I can, and to try and develop my style in new directions.
La Famiglia- What are three things that irritate you?
Bird272- Liars, Emulsion, and Money!
La Famiglia- What do you like to do with yourself other than paint?
Bird272- I think graffiti has taken over my life I don’t really have any other hobbies, although I still skate and snowboard as much as I can and when not painting I try and sketch, do canvasses and computer based arts as well.
La Famiglia- Do you have an crazy stories from working in the streets?
Bird272- I have had many crazy situations through painting, most of them involving copious amounts of alcohol, typical chase stories; getting busted Christmas Eve was a good start to an Xmas a few years back.
La Famiglia- Any last words?
Bird272- Shouts out to everyone that knows me,
Check my site: www.bird272.com
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