Martin Whatson: It was always the local graffiti scene that drove me from the beginning! Of course, watching Style Wars and Beat Street was inspirational but I had started graffiti before I first watched any of them! I used to ride the subway between mine and my friend’s house.
Kendra: Being born in the mid-’80s and growing up in the ’90s in Norway, was there any American pop culture that drove you towards art or was it always graffiti that sort of sparked your interest? Always a pleasure to talk with someone as talented as such so sit back and enjoy this exchange between a street artist and a girl who can barely handle a stick figure. Street art ain’t what it used to be and because of that artists like Martin Whatson are able to bring imagination to cityscapes taking basic buildings and transforming them into colorful centerpieces for passersby to enjoy. While some graffiti is still revered as nonsense, there has been an upswing in the art community when it comes to acceptance. Just imagining those artists reaching incredible heights with nothing more than paint in their hands? It’s quite well, incredible. Anyone who grew up in a city can tell you there’s as much beauty in a piece of well-done graffiti as there is in a piece hanging in The Louvre.