A large part of this blog is about sharing the stories of the artists who create the stickers I find. Whether that's through linking to their site, sharing a small blurb they shared with me, or with an interview, I want to make sure that credit is given where credit is due. Granted there's a lot that I haven't been able to find sites for but I always hope that things will naturally make their way to the artist, giving me the chance to get the story then. One little rule that I've kind of held over these past couple of months has been that I wanted to do my best to reach out and promote the local artists and businesses that I find. Not because I don't want a more in depth story for those stickers that have managed to make it here to Pittsburgh, but I felt like in one way it was slightly more fitting. After I started looking into tonight's sticker, I knew there was no way I could write this post without reaching out to the artist behind it.
While I'm sure I could easily go on about the "Love Me" sticker, the one I really ended up focusing on was the Robots Will Kill. As you will remember I am a super nerd with a penchant for the macabre, so of course I wanted to find out more about this sticker. Pulling up their site I have to admit that I was rather surprised by what I found. The Robots Will Kill site and Facebook page does a lot to promote their work and tag but it also does a lot to share the work of others. According to their about page, the original website was established back in 2001 with the goal to share with the world the works that people tend to miss. Over the years they have shared the graffiti and artwork of people from all over, giving them much deserved attention and allowing them the ability to share their stories. So I knew that I wanted to reach out and get a bit more from the artist. Chris from Robots Will Kill was gracious enough to answer a few questions over email. So again tonight is a little long but I'm so glad that I got a chance to share another pretty amazing story with you. Your tag is chrisrwk right? Yes. Over the years I've had a few tags. I started with graffiti when I was around 11. But Robots Will Kill started around 2001 and is the name most people know me by. Looking through your website and Facebook page it looks like you're located in New York City. Are you originally from there? Yes. Born, raised and ruined here. What were some of your early influences, in graffiti and the art world? My brother and his friends did graffiti. That was around 1988. Before that I mainly paid attention to cartoons and comics. For me they were art. The design of the imagery and the story they could translate. Especially someone like Gary Larson. He did in 1 panel what most people couldn't do in 3. So cartoon and comics really influenced me early on then graffiti kept me interested in art then that led to fine art. Are you a big sci-fi fan? Is that a reason for the robot? I've always liked sci-fi. I watched all the old movies and shows with my dad. We'd watch the universal monster movies, the B movie stuff. Then I got into Star Wars etc. so that could've been a subliminal influence. The name Robots Will Kill kind of came from a different meaning though. Why did you call your site Robots Will Kill? For me the idea was when you do something so much it becomes robotic so it kills your drive for other things. So when you do something like work so much it'll kill your drive to do the things you love. I saw that a big reason you started your site was a desire to share the works of artists that people tend to overlook. Do you have a favorite story you've shared? I think my favorite thing is hearing people say how much they grew up on the site. How much time they spent on it and the influence it had. Stuff like that is insane. Especially artists that I respect. Do you get the chance to collaborate with the artists you feature on your site? Absolutely. That's one of my favorite things. I've been honored to collaborate with so many great artists. When did you start to create stickers? What method do you use to create them? Well stickers have always been a thing I collected. Going all the way back to when I was a little kid and I'd be at the grocery store with my mom and I'd ask for a quarter for the sticker machine. Didn't even matter what kind they were. So when I was doing graffiti I'd draw on any stickers I could get my hands on. When I was around 17-18 I got my first stickers printed. Once I figured out a way to do that I'd get ones printed and do hand drawn ones. The printed ones are fun to design but doing hand drawn ones will always be my favorite. Love just sitting down with a stack of stickers and some markers with music or television on in the background and just get lost in making them. I see that you do a lot with graffiti and spray paint outside as well as the creation of stickers. Do you have a preferred medium? Not really. I always love doing stuff with spray paint but I definitely do more stickers and drawing. Mainly because of availability. I can always sit down and draw or make stickers. Even at my 9-5. Do you place stickers when you travel, leaving your mark in each city? Or is the placement of stickers done by your fans? It's a mixture. Back in the day when people would trade it was more genuine. You'd send people your stickers and they'd get them up in city that you might've been been able to get to and vice Versa. I know you get examples of graffiti from around the world that you share on your site, do you get photos of your own work sent to you? Haha yeah. Always funny to see. Where's the favorite place you've shown your work or found it? I've never had a favorite place really. I think just passing stickers, murals etc that I've done makes me smile.
2 Comments
4/13/2018 01:08:21 pm
Artists in this day are all afraid of people stealing credit from their art. As some of the art these days are often posted in the internet, someone can just grab the photo and use it for their personal business. This is why they use watermarks in their art photos to make sure that their name will be included in every grabbed photo. It makes me very unhappy to know that this art thieves doesn't care about the artists at all.
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Maggie Ondrey
An amateur photographer and writer capturing a small portion of the city. Archives
August 2017
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