Zoom on the creative process of Stew
Can you remind us who you are and your artistic practice?
My street name is Stew, my artistic practice is multiple, I’m mostly known for my bird stencils, but I consider myself as “Infograffeur”, mutation of digital and graffiti.
What is your background, how did you start creating?
I think I’ve always been attracted to creating art, but the first time I saw graffiti was in ‘Noway’, a skate magazine in the 90′ and then there were the railroad tracks of Saint Lazare, LUS, P3K, 73 AUDIO, the tags in the cars of the suburban trains and then the appearance of the internet, my first computer in 2001, my registration at the house of artists in 2002, my first stencil in 2006, the “blue heron” in 2014, and then my workshop in the Village in Ivry-sur-seine 5 years ago now.
In your daily work as an artist, what inspires you?
Travel and people inspire me a lot, but at the moment it’s rather difficult. In general it’s a lot of nature and Japanese prints, heroic fantasy novels, music… but it’s the street that inspires me to paint, the public space is a playground that is familiar to me and that calls me, a beautiful metal door, there is nothing better !
What is the trigger for the creation of a work?
There is no real trigger, I always want to paint, unfortunately we don’t always do what we want in life!
Can you explain to us the way in which you build a work? What are the different stages of creation?
In general I document myself, I scribble on a sheet of paper, then I go digital, I draw with illustrator, I test the colors, I print the size that suits my illustration and I cut it to make a stencil. From then on I try to be as spontaneous as possible in my choice of colors and location of the work.