TONA [itw]

We are very happy that the artist TONA, from Hamburg in Germany, contacted StreetLove so that we could organise an interview with him to promote his great work.

StreetLove THE ARTIST

TONA doesn’t want to tell us the story about his artist’s name, even if we promise to keep the secret? Ok…

He is doing graffiti since 1999, stencils since 2002 and slikscreen and linocut since 2008. He still loves trying new techniques.

He works alone and a lot with friends at the squatted Gängeviertel in Hamburg. He also loves to go pasting with some friends in Hamburg and Berlin.

TONA has already exhibited in galleries – you can take a look at his previous exhibitions on his Blog: tonastreetarts.blogspot.com but he’s always interested in doing some more 🙂

StreetLove THE ART

TONA is working on any supports, for exhibitions he works on any material he can find and he’s doing unique handmade t-shirts with his mate Kotton from Berlin.

He takes inspiration from everything around him…

His pieces are getting bigger all the time, so he is working from an S to an XXL size.

TONA, how many pieces have you already created? « uh, don’t know. Quite a lot I suppose… but it can’t be enough ever! »

In how many cities/countries? « I put paste-up and installations mainly in Hamburg and Berlin and some in other cities in Germany but also in Athens, Valencia, London, Vienna, Paris (thanks to UrbanHearts and his project « Street-art without borders »), Tel Aviv (thanks to « inspirecollective »), and more to come! »

« Most of the stuff in Paris was put up by UrbanHearts but there’re also some stuff put up by some other street-art friends of mine :). And big thanks to all my folks who put stickers all over the world 😉« .

Regarding street-art style, TONA prefers paste-up, stencil, installation, graffiti, waste and trash… and about the theme, he likes working on people, animals, portrait and typography.

StreetLove THE TECHNIQUE

His favorite support is mainly walls, signs and traffic lights.

To work, he uses his hands, his brain, cans, stencils, some glue, paste, markers, swabs, waste, trash, paper, wood, plastic, cutters, his macbook and a lot more!

How much time do you need to put a work in the street? « It will depend on what I’m doing… but I try do be fast 🙂 »

StreetLove THE FUN

TONA always brings with him some music, time, incitation, matetea or other tea, smoke…

He has no prefered color, it depends on what he is gonna use it for.

When he puts a piece in the street, he only takes a photo of the ones he likes the most.

A message for the StreetLove team?
« Keep it up, greetz and love from Hamburg« .

To have more info about the artist, take a look at his Blog, check out his photos gallery on FlickR  and join his group, still on FlickR.