We got an interview from Johan Karlgen and asked him what the main goal of his street art is and how he got into art: "To make myself and other people happy. It's been a lifetime love story. I studied arts in high school just to be able to go to another city to live and skateboard. But in the end, creating stuff with my hands and mind ended up being my calling."
We asked the artist what the most difficult part of creating his art pieces is: "The craft in creating Perler creations is the ironing part. That’s what you can get really good at."
Johan shared what topics he likes to create about: "Anything that makes me feel something. It could be anything from childhood memories to politics or people doing awesome stuff that I wanna interpret." The artist also mentioned that the style of his street art is quite playful and fun: "I don’t really choose what to create. My work is sprung from playing, and I’ll try to go with the ideas that come up in my head."
"I started doing this in 2015 or something. I got tired of shooting my stuff in my studio and moved outside. I’ll continue till I run out of ideas."
Johan tells us what keeps him inspired to create: "The fun of it. Since it’s a hobby that got out of hand, I promised myself to only chase the fun of it. Luckily I’ve got people supporting me cause my kids can’t eat likes."
"I’ve never had a bad experience in the streets. I call my street art 'civil disobedience with a conscience' meaning, for example, that I don’t paint on people's private property but focus on weird, broken (often ugly) things in the streets. And that’s probably why no one minds."
"Make things that make you happy," said Johan when asked what advice he would give to artists that are just starting out.
The artist gives us some facts about himself and his life: "I’m a father of four who loves gaming and skateboards every now and then. My wife has come to terms that I’ll never fully grow up."
