Must have books for street artists = European Street Art Tour Episode 03

This isn’t just another travel blog. It’s not a how-to or a top ten listicle. This is a messy, loud, colorful snapshot of my life as a designer, artist, parent, and sometimes accidental philosopher on the road. Welcome to my European Street Art Tour of 2025.

Over the past three days, we have traveled from Latvia to Poland and now Slovenia, where the small town of Loče is located an hour’s drive from the capital, Ljubljana. It’s Easter Sunday. As a family, we are coloring our eggs, getting ready for those traditional egg fights.

Remember the ostrich egg from the first episode in Warsaw — Street Art in Warsaw — we are going to attempt to crack that open as well with an axe of all things. That will be included in this video.

Watch the Street Art Tour episode 3 via YouTube:

Right now, we are taking a break and I wanted to talk about and be clear with you guys — why am I even doing this — YouTube and street art. Well, firstly, it’s an extension from graphic design work and my Mustache Men paintings. All my works up and till now are one of a kind and unique, making stickers lets me multiply them in hundreds to thousands. Possibilities to leave them all over Europe just seems a lot of fun. Also, my first YouTube videos were just time-lapse recordings of my post it drawings, I called THE POST IT MONSTERS:

It was in 2009, like 16 years ago, OMG! Time flies when you’re having fun…

Later on I moved to larger canvases, larger drawings, and even hung them on street polls. After that, I started making DIY stickers that I have some left upon till this day – but let’s leave that story for another day, shall we?,

I fell in love with this street art world back in 2007. Back then, I was just starting out at my first graphic design job in an agency. My girlfriend at that time was writing her bachelors degree in modern street art and graffiti culture. That gave me free access to loads of information that was gathered from different sources. At that time, we didn’t have Amazon to order books, so we had to rely on what was available in local bookstores. Good that street art was starting to happen in Riga, so we had some paper back goodness to explore.

That’s when I found the work of Tristan Manco. His books hit me like lightning, that’s a bit exaggerating. Street Logos, Stencil Graffiti, Graffiti Brazil, Street Sketchbook – these weren’t just collections of cool images. They were a giant inspiration that there is a whole world with ultra talented people who are not afraid to showcase their stuff on the street. With no Instagram or Flickr – how the hell would I even get to know them? They did their part as artists and Tristan did a wonderful job of publishing them, introducing the next generations with amazing art done by humans all over the world. Nonetheless, it’s a disappearing art, so it needs to documented as much as possible. And Tristan did just that throughout all of his published 10 books.

After a few years, I fell off the street art world and moved more towards graphic design and drawing. DTG — direct to gourmet printing started to appear, so I switched my attention into making t-shirt designs for a local company, earning $1 from each sale, which was very proud of.

I did some street art, I started YouTube for the second time up until 2015, but I still was looking for my own style and uniqueness. Nothing satisfied me, everything felt wrong. I even painted metal roof examples that I got from my buddy. You kind of can see some detail traces from my most recent paintings in this, crazy.

Now, I am creating my own interpretation of what those books inspired in me. I am no longer afraid; I have discovered my unique style. I have restarted my YouTube channel, opened my Etsy shop, and begun writing this blog. I even have a Patreon account—this time, it’s do or die!

Sometimes it feels silly. Like, who am I to think anyone will notice a tiny sticker on a lamppost? But then I remember how I hunt for those same kinds of marks, how excited I got when I found something left behind by another anonymous artist. Maybe someone will find one of mine and feel the same, and people do! I got many DMs on my Instagram account where people send me pics or ask if this is me. Someone even sent me an image that he’s going to keep my sticker for his bike.

In this episode, we’re not actively searching for new art. We’re taking the day off, spending it as a family. But of course, I still brought my art box. Always do. Inside are my street art arsenal to leave around the city we’re exploring:

• My sticker packs (now available on Etsy, by the way!)
• Signed prints in plastic framing
• Clay tiles I’ve painted with acrylic markers, specially prepared to survive weather, time, and hopefully curious hands

These tiles are a new experiment for me. Usually, I paint on canvas or paper, but this time I wanted to create something more permanent. So I prepped the tiles with weeks of sketching, scanning, and marker work. TikTok folks seemed to love them. I just hope someone who stumbles across one in a random alleyway in Ljubljana or Warsaw will feel even a spark of what I felt while making them.

And that’s what this whole tour is really about. Not just leaving a mark, but also finding others. I’m photographing every artist I come across. If they have a tag or a name on their piece, I try to track them down and give them credit. Some people leave Instagram handles, others just a symbol. It’s like a treasure hunt.

Street art is this crazy mix of graphic design, traditional painting, sometimes even sculpture.

And yes, sometimes a little vandalism. But it’s the purest form of expression I know. You give your time, your energy, your creativity – and then you let it go. You might get fined, your work might get destroyed within hours, but that’s part of the deal. It’s the art of sacrifice. And also, strangely, of connection.

There’s something else I’ve been thinking about lately. YouTube.

I started posting videos not because I wanted to become a content creator, but because I wanted to share this wild mashup of life I live. I have ADHD, so every day is a blender of chaos. One moment I’m sketching, next I’m cooking, then I’m scanning art or filming or buying groceries. It might not be clean or cinematic, but it’s real. And I think people are hungry for real.

I don’t want my videos to feel like a Netflix show. I don’t want perfect lighting or clickbait titles. I want to show how I crack an ostrich egg with an axe, how I get excited over a book I bought 18 years ago, how my kids laugh when they find a chocolate egg under a chair on Easter morning.

The artists I admire most are the ones who let their personality bleed into everything. Whether it’s Jeremy Clarkson planting potatoes on Clarkson’s Farm or other YouTubers like Art by Tuna drawing at her kitchen table, what pulls me in isn’t the polish. It’s the person.

So that’s what I’m aiming for, too. A little messy, a lot creative, and always honest. I’m still over polishing everything, but I hope with time I will learn to let it go.

If you’re still reading this, thank you. Really. This tour is a personal dream and a creative challenge rolled into one. I’m doing it because I love street art. Because I want to show my kids that making things matters. Because I want to connect with other artists, other weirdos who feel the same pull I do to put something real into the world.

And if you want to support what I do, you can:

• Grab a sticker pack on [Etsy]
• Join my Patreon Sticker Club
• Watch and share the videos on YouTube
• Or just keep following along and saying hi!

Next stop, Ljubljana, Slovenia. And who knows? Maybe your city is after that.

Until then, keep creating. Keep noticing. And if you see a sticker that looks oddly familiar… you just might have found one of mine.

Thanks for being here.