the street is our gallery

Meet street artist Sfhir, a very active painter that has created many complex and realistic murals around the world. Find out how it all started for him and how it evolved to become his absolute passion. 

(ISSA) – Introduce yourself to us with a few words.

(Sfhir) – Well….the phrase that defines me would be “I just know I can not stop”

– Where does your tag name come from?

Where my artistic name comes from has  a nice story. It was 1995 when I got caught painting a graffiti in high school. The director called me to his office with the intention of expelling me for several days, then the art teacher interceded for me and called me to his office to tell me that he was going to remove the punishment from the expulsion. However I should  paint the graffiti again, but this time with Planning a preliminary sketch and with all the time in the world to do better. He also lent me a book about the beginning of graffiti in America. That book fascinated me, especially the mythical Zephyr who inspired my name with his super powerful lyrics for the time always embodied on train wagons.

-How do you define yourself? Artist? Street artist? Anything else?

The truth is that I do not really like categorical definitions.
I think I would define myself simply as a person who loves what he does.

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

I could not tell you exactly the moment when all this began. However, since I remember I was always near a notebook and with some crayons. Maybe It was crucial the moment when some of my friends, who always skate, showed me a spray.
And at that moment I discovered the power of the propulsion paint and the comfort of being able to always carry it in my pocket.

That’s how the game started to put your name everywhere called graffiti. The higher, more dangerous and greater your work was, the greater the satisfaction of getting it.
Another point of inflection was when I decided to sell the computer company I had created with a colleague to dedicate myself 100% to the art. Thus I began to employ all the days of my life at work. People think that I am a workaholic but what they do not realize is that for me it is as if they will pay me for being on vacation. To this day I try to keep that essence in each project basically having fun with what I do.

– What is Street Art for you? What impact did it have on your life?

For me, street art means breaking the boundaries between the studio, the artist, the galleries museums and so on to democratize the art plasmandolo in the street and make it available to everyone. In this way, anyone from the social class can become an art critic or simply a spectator.
Basically the street art revindicates the public spaces legitimating what I have always been passionate to do what is to  to make more beautiful  spaces by providing something more after my work

Describe to us a bit about your creative process while creating a piece.

I like to think well every project to maintain a dialogue coherent with space so the round idea can appear instantly or be expected. I prefer to leave a project stopped while I’m not clear how to approach it. For me a great moment of inspiration is when I am about to fall asleep and try to solve the riddle of the noise of daily life.

-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?

I’m open to discover new artists or new styles of music. However, while I paint I´m not only consume music  I  also really like listening  documentaries or radio programs I love the mystery podcast or the programs of scientific divulgacion.

-In all forms of art, inspiration is crucial. What is it that inspires you?

It is very difficult to define where your sources of inspiration come from, I believe it is a mixture of everything that stimulates you.
For me the inspiration means to connect with the unconscious that sends you a message in the form of an idea

-What is the hardest part while working on a piece of art?

For me the creative process must be continuous and the hardest part comes when in the middle of a project problems begin to arise that slows down the work. I find it very frustrating to see clearly the objective that I have to stop in the process due to technical impediments

-Do you have an artist(s) you admire and what for?

Of course I have them for example LOOMIT. I discovered his work when the streetart spreads internationally through specialized magazines that you bought in the graffiti stores.For me it was like a dream come true when I met him in an exhibition and we made a mural together.
Another artist that I admire deeply and with whom I share crew is Belin whom I met through the Internet and made me put my technical goals by the cloud. Another reference that I have, even though not an artist, is my father, who taught me how to solve all kinds of problems and develop great skills with the tools. At home everything could be fixed even if we had no idea how to do it

-Which cities are the most inspiring for you?

The city that has inspired me most is Berlin I spent a season living there and there was no day to go out on the street did not surprise me with the shop window with a painted facade or concerts in the most unlikely spaces
A city to which I have special affection is La Bañeza, it represents the example of how a rural area and very disconnected from the street art can become a great reference of the peninsula in this discipline.

-What other passions do you have apart from art?

I have always liked action sports since I was 9 years old I lived on skates until adolescence.
To this day I practice sports like soccer or cycling. Another great passion I have is traveling and thanks to graffiti I have managed to carry out projects all over the world.

-Do you have a wild project that you dream of achieving some day?

I can not think of a concrete goal beyond growing every day. If someone gave me the surface of the Moon to paint it, I would surely want to paint the entire Jupiter the next month.

-Tell us about your art, does it include symbolisms, messages or repeated patterns?

I really like to introduce messages in my works but not in an obvious way. I believe very much in the free interpretation of each person as opposed to the closed speeches about a work
I think the works are built from the outside, it is very nice to contemplate how people interpret your work differently by offering ideas which ones you would never have imagined and  how this become dialogue between work and viewer.

– How long time does a piece of art work of yours usually survive for?

I think graffiti teaches you to value the moment because the works are like people, are born, they grow and they die. Some works have been standing since I started painting and others fall into tragic circumstances even before they are finished

-What do people first think of, or feel, when they see one of your works on the street?

I like to move people. I try to emphasize in an environment in which it tends more and more to do the things in series revindicating the paper of the artisan that puts a special pamper to each work. Each person is a world, it is incredible to see how the same work can anger or rejoice, as some sage has said before there is nothing worse than indifference. I will never forget when in Salamanca after making a mural in tribute to the late grandfather of a friend a lady began to cry with emotion to remember the scene I drew as his.

-Do you have a secret you would like to share with us? 🙂

I once wrapped myself in cellophane to build a life-size human body model. Aside from almost drowning my clone has given more than one shock to the visits because they believed that there is a corpse out there

-What are your creative plans for the future? 

Right now I am focused on finishing a 3200 square meter graffiti in which I have spent hundreds of liters of paint and the summer is presented with trips and huge facades that is what I like to do.

-How can we be informed about your next actions? 

The most up-to-date information channel I have is my social networks
Www.facebook.com/sfirart
Https://www.instagram.com/sfhir/
Https://twitter.com/sfhir

However you can also check my website
Www.sfhir.com

-Is there a specific thought or message you would like to pass to our audience out there?

First of all, I would like to thank I Support Street Art for the great work they do by spreading and making street art known to everyone. On the other hand I would like to share the link of my last video which meant a month of work frame by frame with the technique of lightpainting next to my companion of battles in this photographic world Frodo Álvarez

– Thank you! It has been fantastic to know more about the mind and the person behind such talented and inspiring works. “I support the art of the street” team.

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Author: Estela Rojo

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