Nastya Kivi

1. Thank you for agreeing to this interview with us, could you tell us a bit about yourself, where you are from, how you got started, how long have you been painting, any crews you are in?

Hello, I will be happy to answer some questions!

My name is Nastya and I write “Kіві” it is Ukrainian letters, and many people read it as Kibi, but it means kiwi as a fruit :)

I’m Graffiti girl from Ukraine, I was born and live in Kyiv. I have been drawing and painting since childhood, not only Graffiti, I graduated from art college and university.

 I have been painting Graffiti specifically since 2011. I don’t have crew.

 

2. We saw from your Instagram you promote a lot for fundraising for Soldiers currently in Ukraine. Could you tell us a bit about that?

I am very grateful that you have shown interest in this. Thank you! I constantly raise money for my friends who are in the frontline zones and defending the borders of Ukraine. There are many of my friends there who are the same ordinary Graffiti writers as I am. But they were forced to go to defend the country from our idiotic neighbor. Unfortunately, in war, ammunition, medicine, weapons, and vehicles always quickly run out or you lose something while performing combat missions. And I, being in the rear, try to help as much as I can. That’s why I often raffle off some art objects from the war or canvases to attract people to donate. Anyone can always take part. Unfortunately, it’s not easy, but there is no choice. That’s how it is.

 

3. How has life been as a female Graffiti artist in Ukraine, before and now during the currently ongoing conflict?

I can’t call it just a conflict. I consider it an invasion, as if someone came to your house and started to destroy everything, beat you and kill your children and then live in your house.

My life was not very easy even before the full-scale invasion, I had many problems in my life but it is not comparable to what is happening now. These are two completely different realities. I live as if in surrealism where children play war games in real pillboxes, it is so surreal that children during school, instead of lessons run to the shelter during an air raid. I see steel anti-tank hedgehogs on the streets of my city. I see broken houses and holes from shelling in them. Every two or three days an air raid alarm sounds and I hear the sounds of flying missiles crashing into residential buildings, hospitals, schools, etc. 

I hate curfew. Because from 12 midnight to 5 am I can’t go outside. That was my favorite time to paint Graffiti in the city. I miss it a lot.

I think I have a lot to tell and it would even be possible to make a TV series or a multi-part film about my life before and after the war.

For example recently I was walking home in the evening and looked at the sky and sincerely believed that I saw a falling star and began to make a wish, but later I saw that the star had a tail of flame and it turned out to be a ballistic missile and then explosions were heard and it makes me damn angry.

I can’t relax. Never. Not even when I go to bed or when I eat or when I walk. The only thing that saves me now is Graffiti and that’s the only thing that distracts me from this surrealism.

 

4. You’re sponsored by Kobra Ukraine? How did you become linked with them?

Yes they support me and I really appreciate it! First of all we are friends and I have been painting with this paint long before I got sponsorship. :) Since about 2016 I have been using only Kobra. This paint appeared on store shelves and attracted me 600ml high pressure of different bright colors and for a long time I painted exactly 600ml. A little later I found Kobra on instagram and started tagging their page with the goal of showing other artists in Ukraine that there is such good paint and I like it. It was just a recommendation without any intentions. Kobra added me and we became friends. A couple of years later in 2020 we organized festival with the support of Kobra @spray.k.event in the parking lot of the main stadium of the country. It was really cool and it was my first festival organized by me.

Of course, not without the help of the distributor of Ukraine @tygearhill and my boyfriend @amzer_brg, they helped me a lot then and it was not as easy as it seemed. But everything was cool. I’m very happy about it. We had plans for further festivals in Ukraine, but unfortunately the war started, and everything was put on hold. Who knows, maybe it will continue. In 2021, I received official sponsorship, which I’m very happy about and to this day I love this paint and Kobra for me are family, I really love them and it is a little more than just sponsorship!

 

5. What are your favorite surfaces to paint? We see you hit a lot of freights, walls and some crazy ones like RPG tubes!

I like the long freight cars the most, we call them “grain trucks”, they are semi-circular and quite long, there is room to paint, but they are not as common as the famous freight cars called “Kovalska”, they are also semi-circular but a little smaller, I like them. But they never stand for long, you need to paint on them quickly. Somewhere around 30-40 minutes maximum.

I naturally like the walls but I’m more interested in those walls that are illegal and maximally visible. Unfortunately, with the curfew it has become more difficult to paint in the city because of the large number of national guards and police, but I manage :)

As for RPGs, I paint with acrylic markers with aerosols, it’s just something non-standard. I can also paint shell cartridges. I can freestyle on any size and on any surface. It’s cool to draw on military things, I think it will go down in history someday, and it’s like a kind of memory, like an old photograph, that it was during the war, I drew Graffiti everywhere. I also draw canvases. It’s important for me to share part of my art with other people. So that these people could touch it, so that my art would evoke emotion. This is important to me.

 

6. Whats the craziest situation, good or bad that you have been in?

NOW craziest situation is happening now. I am painting Graffiti during a real war with a curfew when rockets are flying and the air raid siren is buzzing. It crosses out any situations. If someone told me about this a couple of years ago, I would never have believed it! :)

 

7. What is the scene like where you are from, what was it like in the past and what do you see it being like in the near future?

There is so much to talk about. The situation is not calm and stable now. Sometimes it seems as if the ground will go out from under your feet. There used to be more confidence in the future. Now there is none. I do not know what awaits me tomorrow and how to build my life further. You could say that I live freestyle. I would like the war to stop and I feel terribly hard thinking about how many deaths it took. I do not know but It seems to me that these are all games of evil people for their own purposes. No one thinks about ordinary people... And what? I just paint and enjoy it while I can. That’s all.

 

8. We wandered what artists inspire you? Where do you look and what advice would you give to upcoming writers?

I have not been inspired by other artists for a long time, I like someone, and they are really good! But. I am inspired by myself, no matter how egotistic it may sound, I am inspired by my works and achievements. When I manage to paint or create what I have planned, it makes me very happy. And when I fail, I am very sad and criticize myself too much.

I would advise other aspiring artists to paint a lot and sometimes drive themselves out of their comfort zone and try paint in unusual places.

Just love what you do and then everything will work out. You don’t need to paint what others will like, the only thing that matters is what you like.

Don’t listen to everyone in a row, only those people who have achieved more than you, give really good advice.

Appreciate freedom and enjoy life.