Portrait #4 Waldo: the Maestro of birds and other colorful creatures 🐦

Hello Waldo, can you tell us more about the person behind this pseudonym? As well as on the choice of the latter?

39 years old, tall and thin, of Norman origin, living in Angers for 6 years, multi-artist around singing, chronicles, and I have other things under the "mimine".

This choice of Waldo, obviously I won't tell you how I ended up with it, but at least how it started. When I started doing pixel art, I returned to the Nintendo universe that had inspired me during my childhood. I really liked Wario, Mario's double villain, for his naughty side. And so that's why I started thinking about Wario and then, little by little, I went towards Waldo.

What was your first contact with urban art? What made you want to get into this?

It was in 2009 that I installed my first mosaic. It was the year I arrived in Nantes, I should have been around twenty, 25, and I loved the city and its history. I wanted to discover everything, to know everything about this city that made me love it. And little by little, I started to get interested and see the street art that was in the streets, and in particular mosaics of Pacman, so in pixel art too which had a bit to the right, to the left. There was some news that was popping up and I was really like a fan. I collected photos of it, I tried to spot it in the news. And then, at one point, I saw that there was a mosaic store, a wholesaler, in the heart of Nantes.

So, I bought my first mosaics. I made one that I glued to wood. It was nice, but actually, it wasn't enough. And I said to myself, why not stick one in the street? And that's how, near my home, I got up at 3 a.m. to go and stick my first mosaic.

I started with Mario's mushroom, then the entire Mario universe. Because it was easy for me, because I could take one pixel equals one mosaic, so I didn't need to really create. I could reproduce models by making small modifications if I wanted to. In any case it was easy for me to get started like that.

If you had to define your style in 3 words, what would they be?

My style, in three words, is difficult. But I would still say simple, colorful and unexpected. This is to say that each time, it's a bit “random”, you never really know what I'm going to do.

Can you tell us more about your creative process?

That’s kind of really what’s coming to me in my life. There are things that really appeal to me and I tell myself that it could be cool if I did that. Sometimes, it was linked to the current news because I made somewhat political mosaics, but overall, it's a bit of what happens along my path and that I remember and off we go.

For the creative process, the idea is that I don't even make a drawing, maybe I should sometimes, but in any case it's from a photo of what I want do or whatever, that I go into Excel, I transform all the cells into squares and I color the boxes to start preparing a visual and see if it holds up. And when it looks good to me, I take real mosaics, I place them to see if it looks pretty much the same and I make modifications. And then at one point, I validate and that's it, I can prepare the mosaic.

Can you tell us about your first mosaic (from the idea to its installation)?

I woke up at 3 a.m. to do this, really, it was a stone's throw from my house, with a stepladder, at the entrance to a college. I put the mosaic on the wall and I think it must have dripped a little because the glue was too liquid. I held back a little, I was just straightening it, and then, at one point, I let go a little, I left it like that. My first mosaic was a bit dirty, but it was Mario's mushroom, there must have been around 70 squares.

But after that, that was what was great. The next day, to see that my mosaic, my colors, this thing which is basically virtual, enters the real world and that it stays on the wall, that was great!

And in fact, since then, it hasn't left me. I've always made lots of changes in my life, I've traveled, I've changed jobs and all that, but I've always kept the mosaic through street art, and that's really my favorite . As soon as I arrived in a town, I started putting mosaics.

What cities and countries have you invaded?

Invaded is a very big word, because in certain cities, I only installed two or three mosaics, but invaded, we could say at least Nantes, Angers and Nancy. I must have put at least twenty there each time. For example in Angers I am at a good thirty.

And then I put it everywhere. I put some here and there, in Poitiers, in Paris I have around ten. I put some occasionally at La Gacilly for example.

I'm starting to spread more and more, and this year, I'm off to a good start. Normally, in winter, it's cold, I don't wear anything and now, I'm quite warm. So, I have already asked around fifteen at the start of the year.

Do you have any idea how many mosaics you have installed?

I shouldn't be far from 200, I think I shouldn't be far from that. So, not all of them stayed, but I think I'm at least in there. Because I don't do a post every time, if it's a mosaic that I've already installed and I just installed the same one in another city, I don't do a post again. So, yes, we can easily say 200, 250, that’s it!

What is your favorite mosaic?

My favorite mosaic is the pelican that I made the first time in Angers, which was removed, which I remade south of Angers on a bridge, and which I also went to install in Paris.

And that's really my favorite, because I based it on an image of a pelican, and, in about a good hour, I managed to pixelate something really nice. Finally, I was quite surprised to have succeeded, and so, I really made it my own. And then, in addition, little by little I made small modifications, for example now the tips of the wings, instead of doing them in black, as at the start, now those are colored rays. So, I really like her.

The bird side, the colorful side of the feathers, it really appeals to me.

Do you have a bad experience to tell us?

Yeah, so there, even if I got “caught” once by the police, but ultimately, it wasn't bad, what really pissed me off was in Nantes. When it was really my debut yet, I prepared Link in mosaic. So, it was still a good piece, it was still quite big, and when I put it down in the street in the morning, everything fell on my face.

By the time I put it on the wall, lots of mosaic tiles had become blocked. It didn't last and it really pissed me off because I wasn't expecting that and it was the first time it had happened to me.

So, yeah, I would say that anyway, it's maybe the strongest experience.

What are your artistic projects and your desires for this year?

In fact, since October, let's say, I have fully put myself into self-employed artist mode. So, I do guided tours. I had already been doing guided tours on street art in Angers for 3 years, and then what I developed here was pixel art workshops. I go to schools, to educational establishments, and then, there you have it, the children can make their mosaics and generally, we can then put them on the walls of the school.

So I still have a few contracts in relation to that and it's true that it's still a lot of work. It's difficult now to differentiate between work and leisure.

And regarding my desires, it's true that I might want to make a large mosaic on wood, for example like 1.20 meters by 1.20 meters, that would make me really enjoy doing that. I wrote down like this, on a piece of paper, the 2-3 things that would make me really like it but there you go, as long as I don't put next to the dates to do that, I will always have things to do on the side.

Your wildest dream?

My wildest dream, well, for me, it would be to find myself on a big stage with a big audience, or at least the most achievable, it would be for me to do a sort of “one”, a single on stage, of a time when there would be music, dancing, singing, imitation, humor.

But my wildest dream would perhaps be to be a bit like a rockstar, to have a music group, to have an I don't know, the Olympia, a big stage in front of me and to sing , throwing energy and fun like crazy on a song.

And finally, which artist would you like me to interview for the next portrait?

I don't know, it could be @art_no_b who is also in Angers, who does very cool things.

How to follow you (site, Instagram account, Flasher nickname, etc.)?

I have a blog , but hey, for some time now, I haven't been updating it much.

So, it's more Facebook , I have a page, my page is WaldoPixArt or otherwise on Instagram of course.

See you !

----

Thank you Waldo for this interview with you, good luck to you!

Photo credit @Waldo