Samara Blue - My Way Of Art

This façade has an interesting story behind it, which Ben Mathis was kind enough to share with me.

The original plan was to paint only the first floor. However, once the entire building had been covered in scaffolding by the city, neither Ben nor the residents wanted to miss the opportunity. A new concept had to be developed.

The paint originally available for the design was not sufficient to cover the entire façade. With the support of Klaus von Ilusta, an elderly artist who coordinated the collaboration between the city's cultural department, SWD and the participating artists, a simplified version was created instead. This ultimately became the colourful pixel pattern that can be seen today.

According to publicly available information, Mr. von Ilusta still lives at Kiefernstraße 19. He is also said to have played a significant role in the artistic design of houses 1 to 5.

The floating Buddha was requested by the residents as a kind of trade off for allowing the entire façade to be painted. Ben Mathis had not originally intended to include it at all. In my opinion, however, this once again resulted in one of his characteristic paradoxes: bringing together elements that seem completely unrelated at first glance. It is an artistic approach that runs like a common thread throughout his work.

It therefore comes as no surprise that the perfectionist Ben Mathis also incorporated the architectural features of the building, such as its columns, into the overall design. During our telephone conversation, he told me that he prefers working in a minimalist style. As mentioned before, he is fascinated by apparent opposites: on one side the strict geometric grid, on the other the floating Buddha as a symbol of a free spirit. The red dots visually connect both elements and "ground" the Buddha, preventing it from appearing completely detached from the building.

According to Ben Mathis, creating such a grid requires surprisingly little paint. The entire project used only two or three buckets of primer and around 40 to 50 spray cans for the grid and the Buddha. Even with these relatively simple materials, the impressive façade was completed in approximately two weeks.

When I asked what kind of "pattern" or template was needed to create such a design, he smiled and explained that the technique itself was actually quite straightforward. He simply used a stencil measuring approximately 70 × 100 centimetres. As long as it was positioned accurately, the grid could be applied to the façade step by step with remarkable precision.

Once again, I discovered another fascinating technique of street art. By now, I am convinced that there are at least 1,001 different ways to transform a façade, and I am already looking forward to discovering the next one.

Krefeld, June 2021

Revised edition: August 2026 (language revision and adaptation to the current website design).