Sebas Velasco talks to ISSA

The work of Sebastián “Sebas” Velasco includes a wide variety of themes and techniques, which range from contemporary figurative painting to illustration, using spray, oil and many other materials, but it is in the streets where he finds inspiration, let’s have a chat with Sebas.

ISSA – Hi Sebas, What would you like to drink? Coffee, Tea, Beer, Soda or something else?

(Sebas) – Coffee.

– Can you introduce yourself?

Sebas Velasco, Painter.

– Where does your tag name come from?

I’m now signing with my name, but in the past I used to have tag names.

Sebas Velasco

– What do you consider yourself? Artist? Street artist? Anything else?

Perhaps I define myself as a painter who paints walls, but I’m not worried to fit into any category.

– How did it all start for you, and what it is today?

Since I was child I liked to draw, but I started painting in the street with a group of teenage friends from the neighborhood of Gamonal (Burgos/Spain). They used to do graffiti near train tracks. When I started college in the Basque Country my perspective was opened tas I met more people.

Today I am interested in Street Art mainly because it allows me to face larger formats and different approaches. It’s very different to work in the studio, it also brings communication with people and with my street art colleagues. I like to make interventions with friends is an opportunity to meet with them, travel to see new places and integrate them.

Sebas Velasco – Djerbahood Project

-What Is the first thing you do when you get up in the morning?

Fruit juice, coffee, bread with olive oil and tomato.

-Street Art is mostly a form visually stimulating art. To add another meaning to it, what music would you choose to accompany your art work?

I listen to any type of music, I would not select a specific type of music.

-In Any form of art, inspiration is critical. What inspires you?

For me ,inspiration is rather a natural thing, a spontaneous process, my experience in the street creates this process, for example when I go out to paint with other artists I take my camera and take photos to remember the “ambient” that I can later use in my paintings. I really feed my art with many references from cinema to literature. Lately I focused my work on concepts such as the night.

-Before Going to paint, what is on your checklist to take with you?

My MP3 player.

Sebas Velasco with Telmo Miel

-Which cities do you think are the most inspiring for Street Art?

Victoria and Belgrade, for the quality of their graffiti.

-Do You have other passions besides art?

Movies, music, literature and football are some of my hobbies.

– Which is your dream project – ignore costs, realistic thinking and all means.

More than a dream project, I focus myself in getting more power and quality in my work.

Sebas Velasco in vitoria-gasteiz

– Does your art include symbolisms, messages or repeated patterns?

Well there are a number of topics that remains such as everything related with abandonment, the nocturnal etc. Also aesthetic elements such as the feeling when you agitate the paint.

-What Is your reaction when you realize that someone has vandalized your creation?

It depends on the type of intervention, I accept the risk of painting in the street, the circumstances surrounding it.

-What Do you believe people first think of, or feel when they see your works?

I do not know what they might think, I suppose there are some people who don’t even noticed my work and others that might be attracted somehow.

SebasVelasco & Axel Void-Djerbahood project

– As an artist, do you feel having some kind of responsibility towards Society?

I am aware that working in the streets carries some responsibility, just as you can use it to transmit messages in a more direct way.

-Do you have any Interesting projects for the future?

I have an exhibition project in China, another in Bilbao and proposals for painting in Germany. I’m just finishing a mural in Zaragoza (Spain) for the ASALTO festival.

– Thank you Sebas 🙂

Find out more about Sebas Velasco here.

You can also follow him on Instagram and Facebook.

Portrait of Sebas Velasco by Ura Iturralde.