Monday, September 15, 2008

Graffiti And Me.





I know that the majority of society does not like what I do, because one day they walk past a blank wall and the next day that wall is covered by one of my pieces. This scares the majority of people because it breaks up the predictability of life, and life has become a very routine based affair. When that routine is broken panic and anxiety hits. The media have always loved to grab hold of these moral panics, and blow them out of proportion. This is the culture of fear we live in, and graffiti is just another vehicle the media can manipulate to scare society. We are scared of what we don’t understand, and instead of taking time to study graffiti and understand why it is taking place the general public decide to disregard it as mindless criminal behaviour. If I am painting a wall that doesn’t belong to me then what other terrible crimes must I be committing?

The truth is graffiti is a complex social movement that is full of meaning and requires a highly motivated person. Think about it, I have to stay up to 2am on a weekday and then go painting in areas, which are generally dangerous, difficult to get to and are usually places that any normal person wouldn’t want to spend any time after dark. I have to put up with over zealous security guards that never quite made it to the police force, I have to put up with police on a power trip because they have finally graduated from security guards, and angry passers by who feel the need to make a citizens arrest. I have to dodge passing trains, angry dogs, and make sure I look over my shoulder every two minutes. Then on the way back to my car I have to walk the long way, zigzagging through peoples backyards, across train tracks and in general avoiding any main streets making it hard for anyone following me to keep up. On the way home I have to deal with being pulled over by the same newly graduated police officer I was dodging before, who has seen my P plates and wonders why I am on the road so late. I then have to sit there answering their questions, attempting to look calm, hoping they do not open my boot which has roughly 100 used spray cans in it from the past month. Then when I finally manage to get home at around 5am, I am feeling sick from the fumes, covered in dirt and paint and have to get up in a few hours and act like I was sleeping all night.

The next day there is a high chance some disgruntled citizen will paint out my work from that night. Then if my work manages to avoid this angry citizen there is a high chance some rival graffiti writer in his jealousy will paint over my work sometime that week, so the cycle begins and I feel the need to go out the next night. If I paint one piece, it may get erased. If I paint ten, maybe five will get erased. If I paint twenty maybe ten will survive and so on. Thanks to graffiti, I have pissed off girlfriends, parents and friends. I have rolled ankles, fallen off too many fences to count and in general put graffiti before almost anything else of importance. The amount of money I have spent on overpriced paint and even more overpriced petrol getting to where I want to use this paint is a bill I refuse to calculate as it would probably just send me into a deep hole of depression.

My point, if there is any (or maybe this is just some angry rant) is graffiti is not some mindless act, this is something that I and other writers spend a lot of time on and put a lot of heart into. I would not go though all the risks and sleepless nights for some night of random destruction. So if graffiti is crime, like you all seem to think it is I am cool with that. Just at least give it the merit of being labelled organised crime, as opposed to some reckless and mindless act of destruction.

In fifty years time, who will be remembered? The graffiti writer who was part of a modern day social and artistic movement? Or the office worker who sat at their desk counting someone else’s money?

"i'd wrather write on their walls than write their cheques. i'd wrather write on their walls than be the cause of their deaths"
kapowtwentythree..x

Monday, September 8, 2008

Sebastian Sasquatch (mupét)

Meet Sebastion,
He is an above average intelligence Sasquatch.
His best friend is a canary called Edie who was
named after Edie Sedgwick for her wild ways & infectious good looks;)
Be on the look out for their upcoming adventures into
the worlds of Art, Pop Culture, Sex, drugs & Rock n Roll!

;P spoken for mupét

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Boyd

Brandon Boyd frontman for Incubus

Singer,
Painter,
Poet....

A true artist

LEFT: One of his pieces in current LA exhibition.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Monster Concrete Crayons

The lads were spotted supporting the new local gallery Concrete Crayons for the launch of Monster Children #20 & some of Chris Searls dope photography.