Tech Moon
Transforming the streets of Bournemouth one mural at a time, the sky is the limit for local artist Krishna Malla. Better known as Tech Moon, Malla specialises in large scale street art across the UK. Here, he reveals everything he knows about sausage dogs, biscuit tins and getting over his fear of heights.
Hi Krishna, we'd love to know your story. Can you take us on your creative journey?
I grew up in Cornwall with parents who work in medicine, so creativity was never really highly encouraged when I was young. I’d always had a passion for it, which they supported but other academic subjects were seen as a safer focus, which to some extent may be true. After my A levels (mostly science) I decided art was definitely what I wanted and moved to Bournemouth to study Illustration. I did ok, not great, I got too distracted by the student life but had a great time and graduated with a 2/2. I’ve never stopped drawing though and used to do a lot of life drawing while I was at uni.
I then became the president of the student union at Arts University Bournemouth between 2009-2010, where I began working on bringing live art into Bournemouth. I ran an event for 7 years after, giving artists a platform to draw on stages in nightclubs which was hugely popular. At the same time I started painting small murals in bars around here. Smokin Aces was one of the first and things kind of snowballed after that. The better I got, the bigger the walls got and now I travel around the country painting for all kinds of people and businesses. It obviously wasn't an overnight thing and I supported myself with bar jobs or other things until I could eventually rely on it. In 2014 I designed biscuit tins for a year when the painting stuff seemed to be quiet, but apart from that I've always worked for myself regarding art.
What is your biggest inspiration?
It was family holidays in Spain that woke up my thirst for graffiti and street art. We’d go there every year and always drive from the north to south coast so we would see a lot of the country. I used to get so excited seeing these huge pieces and it definitely had an impact on me. I’m completely immersed in the culture and that is pretty much all that's in my social media feeds.
Regarding what I paint, wildlife definitely inspires me a lot and I have been painting all sorts of animals for years. I am at a point where I want to start painting more portraiture though so you should start seeing more of that soon.
How do you keep a healthy work-life balance?
That can be hard to do when you're self employed and it’s hard to switch off. Im very strict on my routines now though, it’s mostly a 9-5 and take weekends off. Churning out imagery all the time is a hard tap to control and creative blocks do happen. When it does I just need to switch my focus and come back to it later. Because I've turned a passion into a job, I now look for other ways to entertain myself and try to learn something new every year. I'm a big climber which I do a few times a week, and that was something I started to get over my fear of heights, which didn't help to paint big walls. I now also play golf a lot, basketball, rollerblading, and something I've done since I was a kid and am pretty good at is ten-pin Bowling. I have trophies for that. Currently trying to learn the guitar but that's easily the thing I’m worst at.
Can you share a single memorable moment in your career as a street artist?
There’s been a bunch of good memories in this job but one that sticks out is a huge sausage dog meet up in front of the giant Dachshund I painted in Bournemouth. What's not to love about being surrounded by a load of sausage dogs in front of a giant sausage dog. The piece was also only meant to be up for 2 weeks but a petition got started by the public to keep it and it's still standing 3 years later. That was very humbling.
What is the future for Tech Moon?
I guess things I'm looking for in the future would be to paint bigger walls abroad. I've covered every corner of the UK but really want to travel further with my art. Gallery work I'm really behind on and also need to just give myself more studio time so I can start to plan my first major exhibition. But even if things just keep ticking over as they are, I’ll be happy. I love my job!
Do you have any advice for people who want to follow in your footsteps?
Make mistakes and don't give up. It's easy to get downhearted when things don't go to plan, a project folds, or the work doesn't look like you think it would. You soon realise this happens a lot and is just part of the journey. If you do anything enough times you will get pretty good at it, and people will notice.
Instagram → @tech.moon
Website → technicolourmoon.com
