Interview with CesarOne.SNC
1. Please tell us something about your background and your art journey so far.
My artist name is CesarOne.SNC and I am living in Frankfurt, Germany. I am a self-taught artist and I am 48 years old. I came into art through a fellow student, who took me with him to do Graffiti- this was in 1999. Since 1999, I have never left Graffiti, so this year, in 2024, I am celebrating my 25-year-anniversary. My first solo exhibition was in 2023 in a city close to Frankfurt, together with my friend, Mind 21 and my first group exhibition was in Dornbirn, Austria in 2002/2003. My art is about graffiti letters and comic puppets. Since 2012, I started to do comic puppets and it is always a lot of fun for me. I have travelled within Europe to a lot of places, i.e. Austria, Switzerland, Albania, Italy, Belgium, France, Portugal, Croatia, UK etc. This year, in March 2024, we did a huge 25-year-anniversary-wall during a Graffiti jam, which I have organised in a city close to Frankfurt, Germany. I hope that my art journey is not gonna end and it will continue…
2. Describe what a normal day looks like as an artist.
As I do art as a part time job and not as a full time job, I can only do my art when I am on holiday or on the wekends. I do commissions in the area of Frankfurt/Mainz/Wiesbaden, the so-called Rhine Main Area in Germany. I do paid and free commisssions and I like to do free commissions because I can mostly do whatever I like, even when I do not get any money or some small money.
Now to my usual working day as an artist:
When I am driving around within any area and I see a place which could be nice with a Graffiti of mine, I look for the owner and ask, if he/she would be open for a graffiti design on that surface. Then, we are discussing about the wall and what he/she would like to have on it and I am sketching. After that, I send the sketches to the owner. When he/she agrees with these, I start and look fort he colours I need and I order the ones which are missing. When everything is complete and the weather is fine, I paint the wall with the coating colour. When the colour has dried, I start to do the Graffiti. This is my usual process…
3. Can you tell us more about the theme in your art and your inspiration?
My theme is mostly graffiti letters and puppets from comic art, I like to combine them and in contrast to earlier in my artist career, I can do walls or other surfaces without any Graffiti letters. I take my inspiration from my everyday life, everything I see or look at can be an inspiration for me- any medium…
4. How does your art life impact other parts of your life?
Due to the fact that I have a family with a wife and a small daughter, I cannot easily find lots of time to spraypaint but I try hard to live my artist life. Another thing is that I do art as part time job and I have another „normal“ full time job…
5. Could you share any difficulties and hardships you had to face in life and how or if you managed/overcame them?
My hardship was that, personnally, my art is unfortunately not seen very positive and that I have since always to fight for some recognition as a Graffiti artist within the Graffiti scene. But throughout the years, I got a thick skin...
6. Tell us about your best experience in the art world so far.
I loved to travel to countries where Graffiti and Streetart is not very well-known, like Albania where I spend 2 holidays in September 2018 and in January 2019. Within europe, everybody knows Graffiti and Streetart- people do not pay so much attention to this art, which I cannot understand. In continents like Asia or South America or Africa, they hardly know Graffiti and Streetart and the perception is completely different…
7. What practical advice can you give to fellow artists?
A) Know your history! B) Respect other artists! C) Be smart, be intelligent and try to think big! D) Try to think out-of-the-box! E) Networking is important!
8. Is the artist life lonely? Please share your thoughts and experiences.
It depends where you are living, it depends which type of human being you are (which personnality you have), artist life can be lonely or can be more fun… you have to travel, if you got some money, in order to meet other artists…
9. What are you working on at the moment and are there any upcoming events you would like to talk about?
I am working right now on a project, where I spraypaint the puppets of the cartoon series „Spongebob“, I do one side of a tunnel only with these puppets.
Next project is a Skate and BMX park and the third project which I have to do is a memorial site for a sportsman which was murdered by the Nazis.
At the moment, I am not planning any events but you never know, what comes next…
Instagram: @cesaronesnc
Facebook: www.facebook.com/snc1999