Hello My Names Is: Wegas

Name: Wegas
Crew: FAST DRIPS, ORG, DRAS
City/Country: Leipzig, Germany.
When did you start writing? Pretty late, probably round 2005

What’s Graffiti for you?
My daily life. It affects everything I do. The people I’m hanging out with, the places where I’m going for vacation, even before I move to another city to live there for a while I’m thinking about how it is to paint trains there.

Influences?
Dirty Handz 1 & 2

Tell us about your city, how is life and graffiti there?
Right now I’m living in Barcelona. Life here is good. Sun pretty much all year long, always a reason to drink beers and many friends from all over the world coming to visit. Leipzig is different from that, way smaller. 500.000 people are living there. After Berlin it’s the city in east Germany with the biggest and most active graffiti scene. Few very famous writers are from there, and the city is painted everywhere. A big thing are huge chrome pieces in the streets. It was like this before I even started painting myself and it’s still like that.

What keeps you still writing?
The goals I always set myself. New spot, new system, some mission that maybe nobody has done before. I always need to do stuff and can’t stand myself when I don’t paint in a long time, so I just need to paint to calm down.

What first made you interested in graffiti and how did you end up on that track?
I started writing in school, when I was 14. I was living in a smaller town outside of Leipzig. There was not really much to do. I remember going to the big city as often as I could and just riding around with my bike and taking photos of all the pieces I could find. I had so many. I started painting my own stuff, but then after 2 years I stopped for a while. It was my punkrock youth, I was interested in other things. Then I found my way back to graffiti when I was 20 and since then it has been with me all the time.

What trends are you seeing now in the graffiti world that you don’t like?
Jealousy. There is so many people talking shit behind other people’s back, which they haven’t even met before. Everything is only about having the biggest dick nowadays. It’s very unusual to get honest respect from other writers.

What do you do when you’re not painting?
The last 3 years I did nothing else than that. I was traveling all the time, had no apartment, just living the “Gipsy Life”, only painting, painting, painting. Right now I’m more chill. I really enjoy not having that pressure in me that I have to go out every night. If I’m not out painting my life is kind of normal, I would say. Working as less as possible, going out to drink, and spending my time with the few people that are not totally annoying me haha.

How would you describe your style?
I would probably say it’s kind of “basic”. I’m painting metros most of the time and there you don’t have time to do crazy wild styles or whatever. I like that my pieces are readable for everybody and try to make it recognizable with colors or same filling effects, even if I write different names from time to time.

Can you remember the first piece you did?
It’s kind of sad, but I actually don’t. I have pretty bad memory in general. Same with my first train. I try to have everything in photos and have a well-organized archive, but there also I have no idea about the first one. Besides that, I’m sure that if somebody would show me a train I did during the last 10 years, I could definitely say where and when I painted that one.

Future plans?
Going to places I’ve never been before. Europe is kind of boring now. There’s not much left I’m interested in.

Do you adapt your pieces and tags to the spot/surface?
Sure. I think everybody does. In Copenhagen for example where you have that fucked up footstep on the S-train, which is totally shit to paint over, I try to make my letters fit, so I have to paint on it as less as possible.

What are the best and worst aspects of graffiti?
The best for sure is that you get to know so much people. I have been in so many places, so many different countries, and almost everywhere you meet friendly writers that are motivated to help you out. Some of them became really good friends to me. The worst part is that it catches you so much. Even if you know you have to go to work the next morning, there’s still something inside of you that keeps you sitting 4 hours in a metro tunnel, just to wait for the perfect moment to put your 15 minutes piece there.

Who do you paint for?
Only for myself. I’m old enough now that I don’t have to prove anything to anybody. I don’t care. Of course I like if I get positive feedback from people, and I also publish a lot of my stuff on the internet, but that’s just a small part of it. If I wouldn’t enjoy it anymore I wouldn’t do it. It’s not like I have to paint a lot because people expect that from me.

What writers have inspired you?
My friends and crew mates. I think it’s the best when you inspire and motivate yourself in your own little circle of friends. Like pushing each other forward and developing your style together with them.

Can you ever feel tired of graffiti?
Maybe feeling tired of other writers, sure. Graffiti is still interesting for me, every day.

What do you hope people will think and feel when they see your stuff?
I want people to know my name I don’t really care if people like my panels or not, style and taste is different for every one of us. But if people know my name, like “yeah that dude did this and this crazy stuff”, that’s cool.

FIVE FAVORITES
Spray Paint: Montana Black
City: Copenhagen & Marseille
Markers/pens: Tippex
Surface: Steel
Cap: Pink Fat

Instagram: Forever_X_Vacation