GraffitiStreet

Hey Keya, You are known through your illustration, comic drawing, street art murals, film and music. You are very creative! Is there a particular medium you are more attracted to? or do you enjoy the variety?

Keya Tama

I am interested in knowing many different creative mediums in order to have a sense of the potential of my artistic vision. Especially when collaborating. At the moment, I have been almost entirely focused on canvas paintings and murals. The other realms of creative output acting as a light-hearted addition that cushions my main practice. Eventually, I aim to bring them all together to create a fully immersive environment.

Keya Tama. Photo credit Just_a_spectator

GraffitiStreet

With reference to your illustration and comic drawings. Which cartoons inspired you as a child? Any illustrators or animators you admire?

Keya Tama

Hayao Miyazaki films, Akira, Tekkon Kinkreet, Invader Zim, Samurai Jack, graphic novels by Daniel Clowes, specifically Shaun Tan’s “The Arrival”
I wish the show over the garden wall and adventure time existed when I was a kid.

GraffitiStreet

Like your parents, you were a part of the graffiti scene in Capetown and Johannesburg, what age were you when you started to experiment with your style with spray cans? Can you share any of your earlier work?

Keya Tama

I was always around graffiti jams growing up, and I would mess around with spray cans to entertain myself while my parents painted. Around the age of 9 I started using the name jack fox. Here’s a picture of my first wall I painted that year.

Keya Tama.

GraffitiStreet

There have been many studies on how much creativity is attributable to nurture and richness of the environment, and how much is hardwired in our genes? Having very creative parents do you feel that creativity is in our genetic makeup, or is it something we learn?

Keya Tama

I think it is fundamentally, everyone has the profound creative wealth to contribute, it expresses itself differently according to the environment you are raised in and how your philosophy surrounding creativity develops in reaction to your surroundings. For me, I felt a deep need to have my inner world as a child manifest and have its closest approximation represented in the physical world. This was the impetus beyond creativity. It was the need to not let what I saw as magic die. The environment was ideal, and I don’t know if I would be the same if I was brought up in a different space. I did have a lot of time alone and bored as a kid because my parents were teenagers when they had me. I think there is an intuitive nature that exists in artists who were lonely kids. In some way, the quiet leaves enough space to create a genuinely unique inner world.

Keya Tama. Photo credit Just_a_spectator

GraffitiStreet

You've painted murals and shown with galleries around the world since the age of thirteen under the names Cashril Plus and Jack Fox. Now you use your given name, Keya Tama. Does the change in monikers reflect your transition in style/age?

Keya Tama

I felt that I needed to change my name so that it would age along with me. At the time I made the decision I was 19 and was just about to move to Los Angeles, and I felt If I had to start again from scratch I needed to use my real name and be a more current version of myself.

Keya Tama. Photo credit Just_a_spectator

GraffitiStreet

You have travelled extensively across the world, how has painting in different cities and being amongst different cultures shaped the art you create today?

Keya Tama

Travelling to such contrasting countries from the age of thirteen took away a lot of the subconscious cultural expectations that otherwise I might felt a responsibility to conform within. It gave me a deep sense of how similar and different simultaneous versions of reality could be. It gifted me with a great sense of curiosity, respect and freedom in the world.
The most important cornerstone to my art practice I found when travelling was the concept that contrast in visual style is the best way to bring the past and future to the present.

Keya Tama. Photo credit Just_a_spectator

GraffitiStreet

What/who are your biggest influences; travel, people, movements, styles? And how would you describe your style?

Keya Tama

The people who have inspired me recently are Ellena Lourens, African Ginger, Afrika 47, Linsey Levendall, Jeand Dewet, Paul Senyol, Black Koki, Ricky Lee Gordon, Johnny Allison, Obey Giant, Osgemeos, Blu, Squid Licker, Jason Pulgarin, Andy Dxn, Meiow Mix, Ruo Han Wang, Poni, Laura Berger …But to be honest the list is infinite!

I describe my style as Ancient Contemporary minimalism.

GraffitiStreet

As mentioned earlier, you are also a musician/producer. What kind of music do you listen to when you paint on the street?

Keya Tama

I listen to French rock from the ’60s and ’70s especially Jacques Dutronc, I listen to soviet pop from the ’80s a lot of American Bioconstructor, British and African contemporary rap and alternative artists like Slothai, young thug, Dee koala and S.E. Rogie.
But mostly I listen to podcasts, my favourites are Russel brands “under the skin”, Duncan Trussel’s “family hour” and Jordan shanks “friendlyjordies”.

Keya Tama. Photo credit Just_a_spectator

GraffitiStreet

We've seen you paint some huge murals in Portland and more recently for Wide Open Walls. How do you decide what to paint on that scale? Do you plan with sketches, or are you spontaneous and influenced by the energy of the place, of the day? Please describe your creative process?

Keya Tama

It’s always different. But normally there is an initial design that changes a lot as the wall goes on. This is an intuitive process that is deeply related to the environment.
My favourite way to paint is to have no plan and let the environment and the concept of balancing the environment determine the outcome of the piece.

GraffitiStreet

You have collaborated with fellow street artists such as Elléna Lourens, Caratoes. Is there anybody that you haven't worked with yet and would love to and why?

Keya Tama

I would love to work with Shepard Fairey because he has played a major role in the way I have formed my creative vision. Andy Dixon because he seems like a wholesome individual and his work feels like it needed to exit now specifically. Danny fox because his process is intriguing and his worK is liberating and intelligently naive in the most vividly contemporary way.

Ellena Lourens and Keya Tama Flint Michigan 2019

Ellena Lourens and Keya Tama Flint Michigan 2019

GraffitiStreet

We loved the collaboration with Anthony Cannarella from Dance Graffiti recently. He even colour coded his attire to your mural. How did the collab come about...

Keya Tama

It’s actually so random, Dance Graffiti DM’d me the night before asking if they could take a photo in front of my wall, so I brought with this patterned elephant outfit I had made previously.

Elephant pattern outfit. Photo credit Keya Tama

When we were about to wrap up I suggested that we try to do a dance video of him dancing also while I filmed from the car and he just came up with an entire routine on the spot, we ended up getting it on the second try.

GraffitiStreet

You're painting a smaller wall in Manhattan. This mural is much more involved with many characters and detail compared to your recent wide Open Walls! Can you explain more about the difference in details?

Keya Tama

This wall was deeply calming in comparison. The main thing that is exhausting beside scale is working within a tight timeframe. So working smaller was cathartic in that sense.
But overall it feels like two separate entities. Large scale murals have enormous power and potential, whereas smaller murals have it in a more personal and specific way to the people it connects with. With both murals the communities were very supportive and happy with the result, so that was a positive coincidence.

Keya Tama. Photo credit Just_a_spectator

GraffitiStreet

2020 has been a tough year for most, especially creatives and many projects being cancelled. How has the pandemic affected you in terms of projects, and have you got anything planned in the near future?

Keya Tama

I have an exhibition this month on the 29th October in Portland at talon gallery, and I have a large mural project in Arkansas I am about to start in a few days.
But, otherwise, it has mostly been a year of getting back to the basics and being content with smaller short term skill-based goals. Based on expanding my skill set. It has been turbulent this past year, but it also feels like without it a part of my consciousness might have been lost laying dormant in my shadow self. Instead, it has been a profound year of acceptance, presence and valuing friends and family.

Keya Tama. Photo credit Just_a_spectator

GraffitiStreet

Do you have a favourite motivational quote?

Keya Tama

“You’re under no obligation to be the same person you were 5 minutes ago.” Allan Watts