Interview with SCRATCH

Partial Transcript: Butch II (B): Welcome to the Bronx Graffiti Arts Documentary Project. My name is Butch2 and I am joined by Jenny SCRATCH. Please introduce yourself!
SCRATCH (JS): Hi I'm SCRATCH, I'm originally from Stockholm, Sweden and I started writing graffiti in 1989.

Segment Synopsis: Interviewer Butch2 introduces himself and the narrator SCRATCH, a graffiti writer and muralist from Stockholm.

Keywords: Oral history

Subjects: Graffiti; Graffiti artists; Scratch (Graffiti artist)

Partial Transcript: B: Can you tell us a bit about your parents? Family history?
JS: Yes so my mom is Swedish, my dad is Italian. I was raised by my mom in Stockholm so I don't speak Italian.

Segment Synopsis: Scratch introduces her family and her early life in Sweden. She was raised in Stockholm by her Swedish mother. Her Italian father did not live with them and thus she does not speak Italian. She comes from a blended family which gave her 7 total siblings. Her mother worked nights as a Nurse Assistance, while her step-father, who she was living with, was a Computer Programmer. As a girl she went to horseback riding lessons and spend summers in the country where her grandmother lived. She was a very active student. Experiences in high school led her to do an intensive one year of university and got a certificate in advertising which brought her to New York with an internship.

Keywords: Education, Higher--Sweden; Stockholm (Sweden); Stockholm (Sweden)--Buildings, structures, etc.

Subjects: Education--Sweden; Girls--Books and reading--Sweden--History--20th century; Sweden

Partial Transcript: B: Now I wanna backtrack for a minute and ask you about that "Infamous Graffiti School." Could you tell me about that?
JS: So back in 1989 back in Stockholm, Sweden, around February they opened for the public.
B: Who's they? The Infamous Graffiti School you're talking about?
JS: Right, so what they did was, it was a few different organizations who went together and they somehow came up with this idea to do this school, I don't remember if it was a writer. Someone came up with the idea to do it.
B: Was it something like what the Hall of Fame is like? They just had big walls for everybody? Nothing like that?
JS: No, so what they had was they started it and they hired one artist that was kind of considered like a street artist. He started and he got like a bucket and brush and paint on the walls in Stockholm. His name was the Hulk, the Swedish name for the hulk, Hulken. The Hulk in English. And they hired some other artists to help, to teach, right? So they gave us a space it was an abandoned school, cause they figured, you know, there might be some destruction I guess. They have us like an old workshop school classroom that we were in and they gave us paint, you know.

Segment Synopsis: Scratch was working in advertising as an art director for a graphic design firm. In Sweden, a few different organizations created a graffiti school which hired artists to teach graffiti to youths in an abandoned school and sponsored by paint companies and the swedish transportation authority (which did not quite achieve its goal of keeping graffiti off the trains). Back then she painted solely panthers and when she went bombing she wrote PANTHER. At the time SCRATCH was a purely legal-wall name. When she came to New York she passed the Five Pointz building and was put on to the spot. Every day she would stop by and practice on a particle board.

Subjects: Five Pointz; Graffiti; Stockholm Graffiti School (1989-1990); Swedsh Graffiti

Partial Transcript: B: Were you ever into racking paint? Did you ever rack paint?
JS: Well, remember back then you used to have all those big bomber jackets and you know
[mimes throwing cans inside jacket]
and then you'd walk like this
[waddles]
So yeah I might have done that.

Segment Synopsis: Scratch talks about the free "graffiti classes" Meres would put on at the Five Pointz which is where she really learned how to do her letters.

Keywords: Shoplifting

Subjects: Cohen, Jonathan; Five Pointz; Meres (Graffiti artist)

Partial Transcript: B: Let me ask you though, coming to the US through the school program, did you have any problems with immigration or trying to get your visas?
J: I mean it's a process, I mean I had I don't know how many hoops to go through. People don't understand how expensive it is. Cause you need to get the lawyer. And then it's like first you need this form, then you need this one and then this one and you need that. And it's a lot of money. I spend probably 10s of Thousands of dollars to get my papers.

Segment Synopsis: Scratch speaks about the difficulties she encountered while immigrating into the United States. The primary difficulty she mentions is the financial cost: she paid over $10,000 in the 1990s to get all the necessary papers.

Subjects: Immigration consultants--Legal status, laws, etc.; Immigration issues for the 1990s; Immigration issues in the United States

Partial Transcript: JS: I met James first at Five Pointz.
B: There's another Five Pointz now did you know that?
JS: Yeah, well, you know Bushwick Collective also used to be called Five Pointz? ... For me there's only one five pointz, when I was there. Call it something different it's not Five Pointz. That Five Pointz doesn't exist anymore. To go back to the Hall of Fame, I had contacted James about something, and then he was like, "hey, we have this Hall of Fame meeting you should come." And I went to the meeting and I ended up getting a spot.

Segment Synopsis: Scratch speaks about her involvement with the graffiti hall of fame, where she painted multiple times. She met James Top (who ran the hall) at Five Pointz. She went to a meeting for the graffiti hall of fame and ended up getting invited to paint. Typical for graffiti, she mentions how hall of fame spots always caused drama.

Keywords: Top, James

Subjects: Graffiti; Graffiti Hall of Fame (Harlem, N.Y.)

Partial Transcript: B: I wanted to ask you about what did your family feel about you leaving Sweden? Did anyone come with you? Did you open the doors for anybody to come through?
JS: No I'm the only one. I'm the only one. My dad did not like it, he tried to stop it. It did not work, because I'm more stubborn than he is. I was like, "nope, I'm going!"

Segment Synopsis: Scratch is the only one of her family to make the journey to the United States, and actually her family did not originally approve of the move.

Subjects: Swedish American artists; United States--Emigration and immigration

Partial Transcript: B: So when you got here where did you first land? I mean you came here to New York, your first apartment?
JS: So when I first came here, because I was in school, we were in a dorm in Brooklyn Heights and I went to Pace University. We used to walk over the bridge to save tokens, it was still tokens back then.

Segment Synopsis: Scratch speaks about where in New York she has lived and what she remembers from the early days of her time in New York. She first lived in Brooklyn Heights and eventually moved to East Harlem, and been in the same apartment ever since. She recalls fondly the token days of public transport.

Keywords: Brooklyn Heights (New York, N.Y.); East Harlem (New York, N.Y.)

Subjects: International Student Exchange; Pace University

Partial Transcript: B: As you see new artists come on the scene you wanna know where they're from, what inspires them. When you paint just off the top of your head do you have any inspirations other than your panther? Any other things you like to draw like scenes, lettering?
JS: Yeah so I always loved comic books and fantasy and I'm almost inspired especially way back by how creative the graffiti artists were. Because in Sweden we don't call it graffiti writer, we call it graffiti painter. That's how the translation [is]. And some of them they were so talented they had calendars, they had full production walls on buildings back then! So I always wanted to learn how to do production walls, the characters, the letters, everything. And now you see crews like Tats Cru, FX crew, and UW like all those production walls.

Segment Synopsis: Scratch speaks about her inspirations in style and in content. She speaks about how graffiti for her is art first, which comes from her experience in Sweden where graffiti writers are not known as writers but as painters [målare]. Large scale production walls which she saw from her childhood were what drew her to graffiti, and she wants to legitimize them as a major part of the practice of graffiti instead of a illegalist purism where tags and throws are king.

Keywords: Tats Cru (Group)

Subjects: Graffiti; Mural painting and decoration, Swedish

Partial Transcript: B: You've been involved with a lot of things. You're involved with a lot of crews, you've painted a lot of walls.
JS: Only one crew!
B: What crew is that?
JS: TOP. That's it, probably. 'Cause James put me down with TOP because I used to help him with a lot of shows. I used to do the posters for him, like the flyers and stuff. So I used to help him with doing that. I used to help him with a lot of shows, I don't even know how many shows over the years.

Segment Synopsis: Scratch speaks about her connections in the graffiti world. She has only ever formally been down with one crew, TOP, which is headed by James Top, who runs the graffiti hall of fame. She used to do the posters for James and he repaid her in kind by featuring her in shows, in the HOF a number of years, and generally keeping her connected. She also used to have a close relationship with FEVER.

Keywords: Fever (Graffiti writer); Top, James

Subjects: Art -- Expertise; Art--Influence

Partial Transcript: JS: And I also do, now what I've really started enjoying doing, is a lot of graffiti workshops and live painting at events. I do a lot of those and then you work with kids and they don't want you to post that stuff because parents don't want their kids on social media. I've done a lot of those.
B: How'd you get plugged into that?
JS: So it's also through my friend Angel. She used to do this for this company in Brooklyn. She moved to Florida so she recommended me so I ended up doing it too. So it's kind of cool actually yeah!

Segment Synopsis: Scratch speaks about her present engagements, the biggest of which is her educational work doing graffiti workshops and live painting, mostly with children.

Subjects: Art education in action; Art in education

Partial Transcript: B: So what's some of your most proud work that you've done? What have you done that impresses you?
JS: One of my favorite walls that I've done is I did a Ninja Turtle wall at the Hall of Fame in 2014. Because usually when you get a spot and that's it. And for some reason this year I had this idea and I showed it to James and he gave me this little spot. And then suddenly it was a little more, and then a little more, and then a little more, and then I'm like alright! So I just went in and did a full production all by myself. So that was kinda cool because the character, the background, the piece. That was my favorite. I really like that.

Segment Synopsis: Scratch speaks about her favorite examples of her own work. The number one is the Ninja Turtle wall she painted in 2014 at the Graffiti Hall of Fame

Subjects: Graffiti; Mural painting and decoration--21st century

Partial Transcript: B: I got a question for you. Could you tell me about that Creative Firecracker?
JS: Yeah, so Creative Firecracker is my company I started in 2005 to do freelance work and contract work in art direction and graphic design. But then lately I've started getting more art projects, you know do murals, so I kinda just expanded on that. I think my experience as an art director and as a graphic designer in the advertising really helps when you do murals. Usually you get commissioned to do it and they want you to communicate a specific message.

Segment Synopsis: Scratch speaks about the company she founded, Creative Firecracker, which she uses to do graphic design, art direction, and murals. She also speaks about how her experience in the advertising industry has affected her artistry.

Keywords: Advertising; Advertising agencies

Subjects: Commercial art; Mural painting and decoration

Partial Transcript: B: OK let me ask you one more question. This is my last question to you. What does the Bronx mean to you? Bronx, New York.
JS: Bronx is the birth of graffiti and hip hop! I mean come on that's where it started. For me it's actually one of my favorite places to paint. There's just a different feel when you paint in the Bronx than when you paint anywhere else. I've been fortunate to paint a few different spots in the Bronx. There's a different feel how people respond.

Segment Synopsis: Scratch speaks about her feelings on the Bronx. To her, there is a different feeling painting in the Bronx and it is one of her favorite places to paint. It is also of chief importance because of its role as the foundation of hip-hop. Scratch stood out from her peers in Sweden because she preferred hip-hop to the metal which was popular among her age-peers and is grateful to the Bronx for originating it.

Keywords: Graffiti

Subjects: Bronx; Bronx (New York, N.Y.); Hip-hop

Segment Synopsis: Scratch writes her tag for the archive and briefly discusses the "Bastard was here" that she sometimes adds to her name.