Skount

We are excited to interview Spanish born artist, Skount who we have been following for a long time and admiring the creative style and symbolism in his artworks. Inspired by ancient cultures and masks that we all tend to wear in our daily life. He has traveled and exhibited around the World and now he is here on ISSA to tell us all about himself.

-What would you like to drink? Coffee, Tea, Beer, Soda or something else?
Coffee

-Introduce yourself to us – as if we had no idea who you were!

Skount (Raúl Garcia Pereira, Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, 1985), currently based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands but working worldwide.
With a background in Graffiti, my artistic expression spans paint, paper, and music, to video art, sculpture, land art and installation.
I am really inspired by the classical Spanish theatre of Almagro (Town where I spent my childhood), I usually paint oneiric masked characters beckon the viewer from the urban environment into their mysterious inner self. The great playwrights of my youth formed a lasting impression, where I regard life as a wonderful play, in which everyone has a role.

Humans all over the world, have used masks since ancient times for sacred rituals, as ornamentation, and in performances and theatre. The mask disguises the identity of its wearer, and symbolizes the need to hide or repress a person’s desires, fears and concerns. I observes that everybody carries a mask, with it we conceal our identity and adopt a more socially acceptable image to get by day to day. But we can also choose the moments and people with whom we can reveal our true nature, and take off our masks.
My irrepressible curiosity for other cultures has inspired me to travel and study different forms of creativity and traditions around the world. I’ve worked and exhibited throughout Spain, Europe, Israel, Kuwait, Bali, China, Japan, Australia, Mexico and the United States.

– Where does your (tag) Artist name come from?
I created my name around 1998 when i used to paint wild style, and it was created because i liked how those letters worked on my designs. Some years later when i started to travel, i discovered that Skount, already exists as a surname in Greece and also when I traveled to the desert in Africa, one tribe also call Skount (Voice sound) to a desert spirit that during the night accompanies the travelers.

-How do you define yourself and why? Artist? Street artist? Something else?
If somebody can really define himself, I would say that I am a person who love to travel, interact and discover things from other cultures, meet people, explore the nature, live every second as unique and enjoy what surrounds me and of course paint and create, give freedom to my mind and express through my inner filter what I get from different things that I see, situations or experiences lived
Artist, street artist… I think usually is other people who put those labels– How did it all start for you, and what is it nowadays?
I used to paint a lot when I was a kid, because also my mum used to paint. Later I started to paint graffiti influenced by the hip-hop culture and with the pass of the years, trips, studies, influences, inspirations…; I started to develop other lines of work, or a different artistic language to express myself, also I started to investigate other artistic fields and techniques.
My lines of artworks always are changing or evolving, because as every person with the years, we evolve with each experience lived and also our ideas change in different moments of our life.-What is the first thing you do when you get up in the morning?
Drink a coffee and go running.

-Street art is mostly a visually stimulating form of art. To add one more sense to it, what music would you pick to accompany your art work?
Difficult question, haha. Always depends. But i think something like ethnic/down tempo(Example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qI7ggkuz4I&frags=pl%2Cwn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5H3b_Hh0Lw&frags=pl%2Cwn )
. But when I am painting i like to hear diferente kind of music

-In all forms of art, inspiration is crucial. What inspires you and how does that end up in your art?
I think every single moment inspired me, every situation, experience, person that you have met, conversations, trips…. Everything is part of me and is recorded on my subconscious. So I get inspiration from every single thing even if I am not conscience of it.
Maybe because I love ancients cultures from different part of the world, and the different meanings of colors in all of them, different uses from masks worldwide… This kind of inspirations are more obvious on my work. But everything that is around me and interacts with me is inspiring.

-What is the hardest part while working on a piece of art?
Decide when the piece is finish, because for me the most important thing of a piece is the research, the process , may are this moments when I enjoy more the piece.

-Do you have any artist(s) you admire? Can you pinpoint what it is that makes them so special for you?
I can’t say that I have an artist that admire, because sometimes after admire you can idolize, and this is not a good thing.
I respect and like the work of so many artists, and also the way that some of them have evolved as artists. Most of the times I try to meet them in person

-Which cities are the most inspiring for you as an artist?
I don’t know if cities inspire me. I think it is more related with the people that surrounds you in the different places in different situations, or their cultures or ways of life. But I think I can point some places: Melbourne, Bali, Mexico, Barcelona, Tokyo, Beijing, Athens

-What other passions do you have apart from art?
Listen music, writing, cook, travel, trekking.

-Do you have a special project that you hope to achieve some day?
Many, but secrets ones ahaha

-Tell us a bit more about your art; does it include symbolism, messages or repeated patterns? How has it evolved?
I think every piece I create is a different world and tells or express something different from me or about specific theme I am working on.
For my most pictoric and figurative line of work, I like to use ethnic patterns, elements from ancient cultures adapted to nowadays and esoteric symbolism, always there is a message on my paintings.
On my abstract artworks, I use my inspirations from the landscape, nature, native plants, people, customs and cultures, from different places that i visit to créate different compositions and paterns.
My Works have evolved with me, i evolved as a person and my percepción of everything has changed, so my art has evolved with me. Also my “artistic” skills has improved with the years because i never stop creating and researching.

– How long time does your art work, on walls, usually survive for?
It usually depends, it is really difficult to know how long a mural painting stays in a wall. Depends of the project, or if the wall get cover after some years, if the wall is directly on the sun…
I have a mural painted 16 years ago that still there, and others that a month later are gone. I wish that my murals stay forever but if they disappear, is ok, is part of the process and the life of the environment.

-What do you think, people feel or think of, when they see one of your works on the street?
I don`t really know, I would like to think that they feel something or make them question theirself about different matters.
When I create a work, I do it because I need to do it and I need to express something. I don`t question myself if the people would like it or not, because I think if I start to do this, my artworks would change totally and for me is not going to be interesting anymore

-What are your creative plans for the future?
Now that I have a stable studio again, I will work in a new line of sculptures mixing object from the pure nature and new technologies, also start to paint and create a new line of canvas and murals… but still on the research process

-Is there a little wish you have that not many people know about?
To do the Milford Track in New Zealand!

-Is there a specific thought or message you would like to pass to our audience out there?
Be creative is one of the most beautiful things, doesn’t matter the field. Never let somebody or something stop you!

-Thank you! It’s been great to get to know more about the mind behind such talented works.

‘’I Support Street Art’’ team.