We were lucky to catch up with Steeke recently and have shared our conversation below.

Steeke, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

I want to talk about a project I worked on earlier this year. It was quite unusual for me, and a few months before, I probably wouldn’t have agreed due to fear and doubts. But I did agree, and I want to share story about it.

In short, I was contacted by the manager of the music artist Le Youth and offered to work on promoting his new album. They had a concept to create several videos: an album announcement, singles, and the album release. I had to create a mural consisting of the tracklist, and separately, I designed lettering for the singles. They wanted it to look like street tags, in a different style. I also made several letterings with his name and the album title so they could use them on tour, for flyers, the website, and so on.

Of course, I was a little nervous, but I gathered myself and did what I do. It was an incredibly great experience. A whole studio, a big, professional team where everyone was part of one project. Everyone wanted to create something special and was happy to work together. The atmosphere was as professional as it was calm, where we simply supported and helped each other.

After a long day of work, they were just thrilled with me and said they definitely wanted to work with me again.

After all those videos were released, the result was simply incredible! I knew it would be cool because I saw these guys in action and the quality they showed in real-time, but what came out in the end exceeded all my expectations!

So, after all of this, Le Youth started their tour, and suddenly I received a message from the manager again. “We want to try live painting at two shows from the tour, do you have any free time?” OF COURSE! This is what I do it all for!

And a few days later, I was already in Denver creating art during a live performance, and the next day, we did the same thing in Austin!

Can you imagine what it’s like for an artist to share his energy, create his art in front of an audience during a performance by a cool music artist?

It’s all about love.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

When I was born, I was named Sergei, but a little later, another name came along, courtesy of the streets, hahaha. So, I am Steeke, and hello everyone I’m an artist!

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been drawing. When I was very young, I used to draw cars, then trees and flowers. I had a deep love for a comic book style (even though I hardly ever read comics) and animation!

Later on, my dad brought home a box full of markers from work, and a completely different story began: Graffiti. I started drawing on walls, and soon I began doing commissioned work, but for a long time, it was all about graffiti, letters, and streets.

Then, at one moment, I finally accepted the fact that I am an artist. I started trying my hand at a wide variety of things. As I mentioned before, I’ve always loved animation, cartoons, and comics, and more recently, anime joined that list. I honed my style and quality because quality in my work has always been essential to me. I wanted to do it the way I envisioned it because that’s how I share my experience, my energy, my love with the world. With each one of you. I started mixing different things into one, be it anime with graffiti letters, flowers, cars or motivational phrases.

I want the whole world to enjoy it, to Enjoy the Moment.

At the moment, I do almost everything: graffiti, murals, custom clothing, lettering, fine art. I have no problem with what I paint on. I want my art to evoke emotions. No matter it is a mural or water bottle(yes even paint on this). That’s precisely what I offer to my clients. When I paint for a client, whether it’s a private order, business, or community, the most important thing I give and receive is emotions.

Imagine doing what you love most in the world, and people thank you for it! They experience such powerful positive emotions that they give them back to me. This is my mission; this is my inspiration – people, nature, love, peace and positivity.

And of course, I want people to develop their talents, whatever they may be. After all, we are all creators by nature, and, in my opinion, we should remember that. Find it within ourselves, our true selves, and be in the moment, in the Here and Now. Because that is our life.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

This is a great moment, and I believe there’s something to think about. First and foremost, I think artists need to support themselves and their community. We need to understand why we do what we do. I have nothing against money, but it’s not the ultimate goal. It seems like everyone just wants to squeeze themselves in to make a profit.

In music and film, for example, there are countless globally popular artists from every generation and every decade. How many artists are known worldwide in the art community? People still approach this from either a commercial angle or with a “Oh, you can draw, draw something for me” mindset. Being an artist is probably one of the most challenging professions because it’s not just your skill that matters.

I want to take my art to a whole new level. I want to influence art; I want to give graffiti its due recognition. I want to tell everyone that you can do anything, everything you want! And society should appreciate this because we do it from the heart; we put a piece of ourselves into every creation.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Managing social media remains a somewhat ambiguous aspect for me. I’m not an expert in this field, but what I can say is that you should do what you want to do. Do more, do better, and showcase it to everyone. Don’t worry about the number of followers and likes. Share what you do and why you do it. The world is structured this way now, so you need to use it to your advantage instead of standing in the fast-flowing river. It will simply sweep you away.

Be who you want to be, right now. Don’t wait for the perfect moment; it’s here and now. Find your people who support you, support them as you would yourself. Learn from the best, and teach others as well.

At this point, I want to thank my friends from TGL (the good life krew). Thanks to them my life became much easier and calmer after moving from Russia to Los Angeles. I’m very grateful to all of you and wish you nothing but the best. Also, an incredibly huge thank you to my wife because being an artist’s spouse is not an easy burden. I love you all!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.behance.net/sergeisteeke
• Instagram: Instagram.com/steeke13

Image Credits
Sleepyiis_ Bryan_portray Shuttrskunk