cnskillz crew. graffiti. for real.
graffiti art by ate1 graffiti art by efas graffiti art by meric graffiti art by moritz graffiti art by neck graffiti art by scien & klor graffiti art by seak
news

Win original artist canvases by Neck.CNS

June 19, 2006:

Just subscribe to the neckcns.com newsletter before August 31st, 2006
to enter the sweepstakes and take your chance to win one of 10 original
canvases by Neck.CNS! Get more info here.

Graffiti styles, pieces and murals from the graffiti photo archive of Neck.CNS

May 2, 2006:

ILoveGraffiti.com is the online graffiti photo archive of Neck.CNS. All the pieces and murals that I've taken pictures of since i began painting in 1989 were starting to collect dust in the attic. So I got the idea to open up my graffiti archive and share all these amazing graffiti pieces with you.

 

interviews

Moritz, in Subworld Magazine #1/1999

when and how did you start?
i started writing around 1989/1990 after watching a short report on graffiti at a local tv station. i also recognized the first pieces around my hometown dˆºsseldorf and that's when i got hooked.

in the beginning i just used to tag along and did sketches on paper, but after a period of about two years i went out to do my first piece -very bad i've to admit at this point. nevertheless i stayed with graff and i'm still down with it until today...

the story behind CNS...
well, it all began in late 95 children (just a silly remark for you editors ;)), when meric, efas, neck and me founded CNS. after a few months our buddies seak&ate1 from cologne joined us and at the end of the year scien&clor from france gave CNS the international touch. most of the time the group tries to paint together, but as you you can easily see it's not that easy, because of the great distances and the different personal involvments with other tasks like work or study. but we try hard! that's the reason why for example meric nearly quit writing and the other ones have off-times or at least times when painting business is on a downlow.

old-shool vs. new-school...
huh, the big all-time discussion. i'll try to give just a short comment on that and that's "know your roots and show some respect"! that doesn't mean that you should take everything the old-shool says for real or as the undeniable truth, but you should learn some history and know where it all began. but it's also important to keep pushing the limits and be open-minded, because in my opinion stillstand means set-back. always try to hit the next level and never be satisfied with what you've reached... (hey, that was pretty short, or?! ;))

my vision of graff.
hey, this one could get very philosophical! hmmm, the dream of my personal vision of graff is that everybody would get alomng with each other. no quarrels and fights, constant evolution of style, people would try to get to know each other better and learn from them...oooh, i nearly forgot: naturally there wouldn't be any punishment for graffiti writers and nobody would be harassed by the police, but well as i said in the beginning that's just a dream... :( but hey, who knows, perhaps we can work on that one...altogether.

what about portuguese writers?
aahmmm, i have to be honest. i didn't knew any portuguesian writer before we met. after studying subworld for the first time i recognized that there are plenty of talented and inspired writers down there. and well, i hope i get to know some of those writers and the scene as a whole a little better when i come down to portugal in november.

bombing in general.
hmmm, i'd like to skip that one... ;) no, it's just that i'm not into bombing anymore. you know it's always the same old story -getting older and wiser (and lazier)! well, perhaps we can put it that way: there are a lot of different directions in which you can go and i decided for myself to get more experimental and trying to find new forms of how to express letters, because that's what graff is all about (and what unites all those different aspects of it). word!

what kind of brands do you use?
(hey, is this advertisement or what?! hmmm, then i'd like to get paid for that... ;)) most of the time i use belton, they've got nice colors and the pressure is also ok. for more detailed works i spray with sparvar, because you can regulate them better. but nevertheless i'm not stucked to those brands and i'm always keen to try different and new ones... think that's enough about the technical aspects of graff, or?! :)

making of... big murals
ok, last one for today...have to go to bed now. in the beginning there should always be a plain idea or even better a detailed concept. it's all about bringing your ideas to live and try them out. are they good? will they fit in and work on a big wall?? finding the idea is always the hardest part, the rest is "just" pure serious work. but, you can't always do burners and from time to time you've to relax and get inspired again...and don't deny the beauty in quicks and other stuff that appears to be oh-that's-all-so-simple at the first look...

what about your style?
hell, that's a nice one...you're flattering me :) well, i'm just trying to be creative -try something new and reach different levels. it's not that i'm sick or tired of conventional graff (i really like a lot of the good old wildstyle pieces and respect them, because that's where it all started. all the old shool ny kings like seen, dondi, lee etc.), but i think there are already enough people who do this kind of stuff.

be true to yourself and try to stay open-minded, because that's how graff will keep evolving and reach higher levels. i don't want to start a revolution (for that i'm stucked too hard with the whole movement), but i want to add some new ideas to the whole thing that's called "graffiti". at least i hope i can... and after all, it's only about "writing your name in graffiti on the wall".

your favourite trip?
hmmm, think you're speaking of graffiti, right?! there were a lot fo great trips i've been on (and i hope there are even more to come), but i think one of my favourite ones has been that one to croatia. i toured from germany to croatia via austria nad back together with neck and we had a hell of a time. split was really cool (it was summer...you know what i mean?! ;))

and the stay at zagreb with the guys from zgbkaos was nice, too. it was all about painting and we met a lot of nice people all over the country. ooh, yes and i hope that the trip to portugal this year will be even as good as that one to croatia last year.

german graff?
what can i say about german graff?! it's the same with graff worldwide, there are so many differen styles and so many damn good writers that i wouldn't know where to start or whom i should name. i'll just skip this one right here, because otherwise i would be writing all night long... ;)

what are your influences?
hmmm, another tricky one...well, as i said before i really like a lot of the stuff from the old shool ny writers, but i also give credits to a lot of people who are up today. loomit with his mad 3d stuff, the berlin aism guys, some writers from eastern germany, daim and delta to name but a few. but i wouldn't say that they're influencing my work; they're inspiring... yes, that's pretty good -inspiring! it's because of those people i'm still trying to create different stuff and search for new forms to write letters, they're showing that there's still a lot to come...

lately i've started to let some of my education at university (graphicdesign) and my interests for new art forms trying to find their ways into my style of writing. i'm also interested in finding some more abstract and universal shapes for my letters...well, let's stop here i'm getting kind of philosophical and artsy again (perhaps it's just too late :))

future plans?
hmmm, i suppose you mean my future plans concerning graff, right?! :) well, can't say what i'm exactly up to...it's more like letting things come to me (you know i'm kinda lazy ;)). no, really i can't say right now what i'll do in the future -perhaps doing more canvases and trying to bring in even more of that typographical and illustrating stuff, getting even more abstract, less graffiti and more artsy... yes, that sounds good for me at the moment, but hey you can never tell what tomorrow's gonna be like.

connection between hiphop and graff.
first of all, graff is just one single element of hiphop, that's why you can't speak of a connection -graffiti is a part of the whole hiphop-movement just like rap, djing and breaking...that's the history! but if you ask if writers are also always straight hiphoppers i'd have to say: no! (and especially in my personal case that's true)

you know, i don't want to talk bad about hiphoppers, but there are so many ignorant and narrow-minded people in this community, that's why i took a step back and keep some distance. moreover i met so many writers over the years and got to know a few of them more personal and (nearly) everyone of these peops wouldn't say of themselves that they're true hiphop heads.

they're acting in that so called "hiphop-subculture", but they're not living it. they don't wear baggy pants, fat sneakers, listening to rap music all day long and talk the ghetto slang. these people are just ordinary guys with the love for writing -and that's more hiphop than most of the hc hiphop-gangsters will ever be...

last words...
oh god, i hope you don't expect me to say any wise words or some advices for the next generation of writers... ;) well, first of all i'd like to greet my crew CNS (efas, neck, seak, ate and scien&clor) and all the other writers with the right attitude (there are too many to name every single one, but i think you know who you are!)... and hey, it's all about being creative and having fun. don't spread hate but style!