[Interview] A Little Bit On: Gameboyone
You may have seen some of her awesome pixel graffiti featured on our Daily Graffiti segment or our gallery of 20 Awesome Pieces of Pokémon Graffiti. Now, the Toronto-based street artist talks with us about how she got into graffiti, her influences, her crew, and, of course, Pokémon.
How long have you been been hitting the streets?
Wow, it’s hard to remember to be honest. I’m pretty sure I did my first piece in Summer of 2009.
Absolutely. Toronto has a great graffiti scene. I’ve painted with different writers before and I’m actually in a crew called KAC. There are a lot of really good Toronto crews.
KAC? What’s that stand for?
Well, the C is for “crew”. The KA originally stood for “Konstantly Abusing”, haha. I wasn’t a member at that point. Now it just stands for whatever you can think of, really. That’s the case for a lot of crews; the acronyms don’t stand for anything in particular, or else they stand for multiple things.
Are there any other girl graffiti writers in your area?
Yeah, I’m aware of a couple. I haven’t met any of them personally, though.
So, what got you interested in street art in the first place and what influenced you to do graffiti based on 8-bit sprites from classic video games?
Well, I was first introduced to graffiti and street art by a friend of mine who is a writer. He encouraged me to get into the scene. I’ve always been a huge video game fan and I decided that instead of doing traditional lettering I’d like to try doing pixelized characters instead – I love the old school aesthetic. That’s what I’ve been doing ever since!
Are you into any current games? And if so, what have you been playing lately?
Yes, I play games from every gen. Lately I’ve been playing Fable 3, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, and Amnesia: The Dark Descent. I usually play a few games at time.
What are some of your favorite games of all time?
Oh, this issuch a hard one. As youmight have noticed I can’t get enough of Pokémon. Pokémon Blue is definitely one of my favourite games of all time. I also love Streets of Rage (1 and 2 especially), Super Mario World and the obscure Keitai Denjuu Telefang. More recently I’ve really enjoyed The Witcher for PC. It’s really hard to choose only a few!
Now, you have a lot of pieces up on your Flickr. Like.. a LOT, so you must have gotten caught at least ONCE, right? (If so, can you tell us about it?)
Haha, I’ve actually never been caught! There have been one or two close calls but I’ve been pretty lucky. I stay out of trouble by sticking to spots that aren’t too populated.
Are there any characters that you’ve always wanted to put up on a wall, but never got around to for some reason?
Oh yeah.I keep a list of potential projects I want to do. I keep putting off doing a sprite from Dragonball Z: Hyper Dimension. That game is full of such detailed and awesome stuff. I’d like to do Samus at some point too, and maybe something from Contra or Metal Slug. I’m open to suggestions.
Describe your typical graffiti run. Do you get dressed in all black, scope out the spot weeks in advance, sneak around in cardboard boxes Solid Snake style? Take us through that process.
Hahah, it’s not really a huge deal. I usually pick out my spots in advance so I know that there will be enough room for my piece. I just wear clothes that I can get dirty, bring a backpack of paint and supplies and that’s it! Believe it or not I do almost all of my painting in the daytime. You just have to know where the spots are that you can spend a lot of time at without too much risk. Painting can be a very time consuming process depending on how complex the sprite is.
Have you ever thought about doing canvas pieces or maybe putting together your own gallery show?
Yeah, I’ve had a few requests to do canvas stuff. I very much prefer to do stuff outside on buildings, trains and bridges etc. It’s a lot cooler to see video game characters out in the real world! I’m going to start doing my own original characters soon in addition to the stuff from actual games. At that point I might put some more thought into gallery and canvas stuff.
I’m a huge fan of ANO, who I believe you’ve featured on your site before as well. He’s been a big inspiration for me to do what I do.
Do you have any favorite female street artists?
Not really.I’m not really interested in the gender of the artists I like, it’s the talent that’s important.
Now, you might already know from checking out our site, but we’re really into Pokémon, so your Pokémon pieces are my favorite ones so far. Do you plan on doing any more? If so, you should totally do a Poliwrath because I have him tattooed on my foot and he’s my favorite. Or a Starmie.
I’m always open to doing more Pokemon pieces! Maybe I’ll get through all 150 one day, that would be insane. I’ve been considering doing Missingno for a long time for a laugh. A Poliwrath would be cool though, for sure.
Since I’m clearly making requests now, would you ever consider doing our logo, the Albotapus? I mean, I’d do it, but I’d rather leave it to a professional like yourself.
Sure! That wouldn’t be too hard. Maybe I’ll give it a try. I’ll let you know, haha.
Who’s your favorite Pokémon?
Bulbasaur! No doubt about it.
What would you say to any girls out there thinking about getting into graffiti, but might be too scared since it’s not typically considered “girly” and is such a male-dominated scene?
Haha, there’s nothing to be worried about. All the graffiti/street artists I’ve met are really supportive and encouraging. You have to be willing to get dirty when you’re doing graffiti though. There can be a fair bit of climbing, fence hopping and running involved. I’m not “girly” in the least though, so maybe I’m not the best person to ask!
What’s the most important thing you’ve learned from doing graffiti over the years?
Don’t be afraid to go big. That, and pixel art looks really good on walls!
Any last words or nuggets of wisdom for the people reading this?
If you elect me as Prime Minister of the Electric Monster’s world, I promise you that I will build a curry store right here in this Tulunk Village!
For more Gameboyone, be sure to check out her Flickr page HERE for a faceful of radical.
