From the time i set up my mind to do my project in a graffiti art form, I have been searching for well-known graffiti artists, I have come up with good results and wanted to share one of them with you.
Blek Le Rat is a graffiti artist who started to paint the streets in 1981. His first graffitis were rats, when he was asked why he chose rats, he replies
"I began to spray some small rats in the streets of Paris because rats are the only wild living animals in cities and only rats will survive when the human race will have disappeared and died out"
I'm gonna put some of his words on stencilry and his art, also an interview with Blek le rat. For more information just click this link http://bleklerat.free.fr
1983 the fisrt large figure in the life size I have make in the street. This is an old Irish man yelling against English soldiers in Belfast in the seventie's.The man is very brave because the soldiers are very nervous trying to shoot with their guns some guys from the IRA.The photo was incredible strong.I always been fascinated by the people at the risk of one's life do not hesitate to say what they think. I still use this image in this time and it is the image I have done the most in a lot of different countries.The man took many differebt aspect to the people sometimes he is an old man , sometimes people think he is Buster Keaton or Chaplin or a tramp or an anarchist.I like when my images take different aspect by the place where they are pasted 
1991 Joseph Beuys in Paris and Koln in Germany
*sorry for the huuuge sizes of the images, i have just formatted my pc and I haven't got any image editting program.
For more works you can visit his site that is mentioned above.
Interview with Blek Le Rat :
In executing your paintings inside the frame of daily life, you somehow force you art onto by passers. Do you think its necessary to get outside the frame of conventional art to make people think ? Or did you choosed this media in order to reach peoples who usually access the places were art is exhibited ?
Yes, urban art is really a new way for an artist to express himself, as for example when I leave an image in the street I know that the next morning thousands of people will have seen this image. I don’t know if people think more but they are confronted to a form of artistic expression they are not used to. Its changing their way to approach « artistic » images they usually see in galleries or museums. In the case of urban art, it’s the image itself which goes straight to them, and I think that it’s also erasing a bit of the concept of the myth of sacred art! And this is a good thing.
How do you choose the right context for each of your pieces ?
I noticed during those years of work in the streets that the same image, for example the sheep, can take complete different dimensions, depending on the place I will put it. If I place it under the street sign of the Rue Saint Exupery, there will instantly be a Little Prince connotation, if I place it in front of a restaurant the connotation of the sheep can be linked with food for exemple. I mean the great strength of urban art is that it is not static, its changing all the time depending on the place where its made and of the image which is left on the wall. I’m keen on playing with my images and the place were I leave the image.
Also, people who see my image on the wall have the possibility to create their own story of the image they see. For exemple, the old guy shouting in the streets I was doing during the 80’, for some people, was Buster Keaton, for some others he was a homeless, and for others he was an old anarchist shouting against society. I like to leave the possibility to the spectators to use their own imagination while watching my images.
Do you consider to « embellish » the places where you execute your pieces ?
To embellish, I don’t know, anyway we can as much say that the city in general is awfully ugly or wonderfully beautiful. It all depends of your point of view to say so. I don’t have the feeling to embellish the city, I just have the feeling to make the city live, to belong to the city and to leave my trace there.
Can we see a political dimension in your art ?
Social dimension, yes, political I don’t think so as I don’t believe in politics anymore
Do you perceive graffiti as part of a counter culture ?
Yes, certainly at this time but I don’t know if this counterculture will stay one for long as the society love to absorb all counter-culture soon or late. We will be a counter-culture as long as we wont be in the museums, the day we will, we will belong to the culture with a big C.
Finally, which artists inspire you, in graphic arts but also in music or in art in general ?
Today I enjoy rap a lot, I used to like rock a lot. I listen to a lot of rap that my son Alex give me, while I work. I always loved English cinema, I also like a lot English painting of the XXth century, the American and English pop art, and the Greek and Roman antiquity
And finally I wanna share a quotation about graffiti that was appeared on the famous alternative culture magazine, Dazed and Confused magazine --->http://www.dazeddigital.com/
“When you do something for society,even illegal things, people will support you as long as they understand why you’re doing it. When you are negative or attack things , this support disappears.”
see you <3>
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