Mr Dheo is the pseudonym used by this urban artist that does not intend to hide behind anonymity, instead serves to reaffirm his originality and versatility of this graffiti and more recently the videos he makes. Forms of artistic expression that he uses to transmit alert messages to an increasingly chaotic and dehumanized society.
Your urban graffiti is art?
Mr Dheo: Graffiti is street art. In fact, it is the main exponent.
You think you have a defined style as a writer and what is that in your view?
MrD: In my opinion it is almost impossible to be original. When there is a relatively new junction is always the result of several things that have been made. In this sense I can never say that I have a style 100% created by me. But I have built my language and even if it had no signature or any reference to my name, could be easily recognized anyway. Over the years I've been collecting a lot of visual information, not only in terms of graffiti, which was shaping my work and how I express myself and that sets me apart. I seek, above all, be a complete and versatile writer.
Do you define yourself as an artist? Is the natural evolution that you wanted in professional terms? That is, it was part of the purpose of your life, or was something that just happened?
MrD: Today is my profession, but I did not plan it. So much so that I never studied art. As a child and throughout my youth always I had a strong connection with the design but never crossed my mind living of art. The passion and dedication that I have always had for the graffiti opened me many door to and gradually I realized that this addiction could turn into a way of life. And without ever forcing it to happened.
You think the only way to survive as a writer is to make your art into a commercial product, as you have done it?
MrD: My art did not become a commercial product. I chose the harder path, which is to accept to sell my work just like it is and how people see it on the street. I rejected several studies simply because they were not creative works, with the freedom that I think I should be given it. Brands and companies I work come to me thru the street art because they want me to conceptualize and create their image. And that's the only thing I do accept it. There are illustrators who have never done a work on the street and caught the wave and called themselves "street artists" and gain mighty bucks. These are commercial and are the ones that in months destroy what has been built for decades.
What kind of themes you like best to address, I noticed in your work trying to pass a social message, or not?
Mr D: Always. I think this is the purpose of intervening in public spaces. I discuss different topics but all my works convey a message, mostly social.
The videos are also your natural course?
Mr D: There are many areas that I like but never had chance to explore, such as photography and video, but gradually I trying to learn. I thought that in some of my work made sense to record video, it shows much more than a simple snapshot and can be spread in a more explicit concept and shows the creative process. I bought a camera and I was doing some filming and trying to edit them. Usually I use the video in my travels and record some of the work that is most important to me.
The video you have done of the violence on the roads is very poetic; you lost someone important in your life, hence the warning?
Mr D: Hopefully not, but we tend to think that only happens to others and had a few scares so I am more alerted to the dangers of driving on the road. The idea came to me one day and I knew I could only send my message through a video. I had about 58,000 views in two months, and this gave me the assurance that it never hurts to reinforce the message and that way that we give our personal contribution to warn people.
Do you think that the graffiti as a way of expressing an alternate world that will disappear, due to its increasing acceptance in society in general?
Mr D: I think not, and I do not know to what extent we can assume that it is a mode of expression of an alternative world. We consume graffiti in movies, in the clothes we wear and advertising that we see at least for three decades and possibly even realizing it. The trend is that the graffiti is seen in a positive way by imposition of the society in general, but it will never cease to be alternative in nature because it is made, mostly illegally. This factor only makes that a lot of these works never come to public attention, being and existing only in the world of writers.
www.mrdheo.com
