FIRE AT WILL: TIZTA

• Name: Tizta-Amatizta
• Crew: I've been in a couple of crews and I have very good memories, I can't deny it. But sometimes they end because of the members’ different views of life and things that go beyond graffiti. My crew is called KBRS, which means “goats”. In Chile we call groups of young people cabros or cabras, meaning “goats.” There are four of us, three girls and transgender person, and we’ve been friends for over 10 years, before we even started painting graffiti. Not everyone is painting actively, so more than a graffiti crew, we are actually more like a family that shares a love of painting and much more.
• Country-city: Chile-Santiago.
• Active since: 2016
• First piece: In 2012 I went to live in Buenos Aires, Argentina to study acting at a public university. This is not possible in Chile because we have a system of shitty private universities that end up leaving many young people in debt. By 2016 I began to get closer to graffiti and make my first pieces alone -without understanding anything about shadows or proportions- but I remember that in an abandoned square in the Parque Patricios neighborhood, near Constitución, alongside my partner back then, I painted my first large graffiti and also my first extension in the same spot. We had taken it over and I really liked the color palette. Ever since a very young age, when painting pictures, I always wanted to take a more “artistic”approach to my graffiti, and despite the fact that I felt criticized at first, I maintain it to this day.
• Favorite piece: This piece is one of my favorites (number 1). I painted it in Berlin together with some very dear friends. The spot is very cool: a space called Monopol where art is promoted and many Chilean artists have been given space there. The walls are above a ceiling and I wanted to leave the background clean so that the piece would stand out more like an adhesive. As for my favorite color palette, I don't know if I mentioned it before, but my pieces almost always contain my favorite color: red.
• Style: I think my style is particular because, despite having a throw-up for a long time, I always try to do different things, different letters, different sizes. I like to explore textures and color contrasts. I like strange color combinations. I don't paint Wildstyle or stricter types of graffiti, even though I greatly admire those who do. I'm more about throw-ups, strange pieces and tags. I love taggiing and I love taggiing big.
• Partners in crime: It’s most always been my female friends, because at one point it was difficult for men to give you the space to paint with them. Anyway I have really good male friends, great writers from whom I have learned a lot, but in general, it’s always with my female friends: Some who paint everything, and sometimes not only with the members of my crew, but with other girls who make characters or have their little drawings already established, with whom you can connect online. I have also painted a lot in social movements, in neighborhoods, and in women's prisons, as a way of speaking out during the social outbreak, together with the Graffitodas Chile collective, which was where I met many of the writers from Chile and all of Latin America. The dynamic began in the pandemic and many writers from Chile, Peru, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia were able to stay active during lockdown with workshops and conversations on Zoom. Then the years went by and it was back to the street again. In each country they continue with their organization of todas_ (plus the acronym of the country).
• Favorite cap: I have two: Skinny and New York. I like outlining with both. It also depends on the space, but I like clean lines or just drips with a "grave pick" as they say in Chile, which in English is “aiguille,” but it’s also fun when you do it old school with a roller and black ink ❤.

by mtn-world via Montana World