Fran Feo from Lanzarote begins to stain his hands in the world of art through graffiti on abandoned houses and walls. His talent takes him to countries like Italy or Greece
Under the pseudonym of fEOfL!P, originally from Lanzarote and with a degree in Fine Arts in Barcelona, Fran Feo took his first steps in the world of urban art during his childhood. Like any child, he drew and painted. He took his first steps in abandoned houses with a spray in hand and in the form of mischief, secretly. After many attempts, in the year 2000 he managed to finish his first piece. During the last three years, Feo has painted murals in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Munich, Hamburg, Leipzig, Budapest, Greece and Napoli, among other places. His influences were not within graffiti, because he was looking for something more personal. As a child, the painter admired Cesar Manrique, one of the greatest artists that emerged in the Islands and who carried respect for the environment as his flag. Not only does his inspiration come from there. «I am also influenced by the music I listen to, the movies I watch, the books that I read, the landscape and so on,” he says. The walls, in the case of Fran Feo, somehow speak to him and transmit emotions to him. «Those walls seem to whisper to me, every time I pass by one of them again I see them out of the corner of my eye, dying of boredom and crying out for a little bit of colour».
The choice of canvas is a primary task when creating a work. Given the choice, the artist prefers a neglected wall with identity. When painting, the details of the wall emerge. “You look at the traces of the plaster and the flat, the cracks, if it has half-torn posters, how the colors fade and nuances appear, the traces of humidity…”, details the artist. Like Ione Domínguez, Feoflip starts from an initial sketch, but always prefers to let himself go in the moment and let his creativity run wild.
In addition, the artist carries out a very thorough preliminary study of the place to analyze its characteristics and adapt it to that location. “When it’s a large mural, I carry out research that makes me learn from the cities I visit, I visit libraries, I look for music, sometimes I translate lyrics to contextualize, I ask people about popular history and I take photos,” he says.
One of the bases of muralism is the claim and Fran Feo has also delved into this field. “The mural is not only an aesthetic proposal, it is a demand for art for everyone and to share, transform and, in addition, it is a reappropriation of the public space dominated by multinational brands and advertising,” he asserts.
“The figure of the graffiti artists has been criminalized because it is visible to the whole world and it is easy to accuse,” he stresses. For Feo, the graffiti is what really shows the problem of neglected and abandoned facades. That is the end that many artists seek, to capture the attention of public administrations.
Feoflip earns his living through jobs done in schools and buildings. In each mural she embodies her identity with his style of protest, although her true essence is found in destroyed places.
