Toronto Graffiti: The Human Behind the Wall

By Yvette Farkas

Toronto Graffiti is a 520-page coffee table book that is a profoundly insightful and authentic work with significant sociopolitical, anthropological, and historical perspectives. It is a compilation of 21 precedent-setting artist interviews, 1,000+ full-color photos, maps, timelines, definitions, and opinion pieces.

A rare and powerful book documenting the history of graffiti in Toronto, Canada, containing inspiring stories, realities, photos, and records dating back to the early 1980s. The book explores opinion pieces by community members, legal, health, and safety sections, a Memoriam, and a photography section. Artists provide an in-depth look into their background, art, legal and safety implications, personal lives, their views on graffiti, and many other exciting topics.

Artists interviewed include Ren, Bomba, Hope, Daser, Sec, Graffiti Knights, KidC, Kane, Skam, Case, Teck, Duro3, Insight, Soy, Sader, Wysper, Junction Joe, Mediah, Elicser, and Cola. The artists speak for themselves and share relevant information about graffiti and the topics directly impacted and intimately intertwined with it.

Readers derive insight into graffiti's longstanding debate while engaging curiosity and appreciation for this incredibly complex and little understood genre. Toronto Graffiti has been featured in the Globe and Mail, CBC radio, and local, national, and international media outlets. It is used as reference material by the City of Toronto. It was sold at Chapters, the York University bookstore, and picked up by professors at the University of Toronto, Ryerson Polytechnic University, and showcased at Centennial College. The Toronto Public Library purchased several books to add to their collections. Toronto Graffiti is also a part of The National Library of Canada.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Yvette Farkas
• Release date: May 17, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005819675

Yvette Farkas

Yvette grew up in Toronto, Canada, after immigrating from Hungary. She is an explorer, writer, yurt owner, gardener, photographer, and budding beekeeper with a background in the martial and healing arts. She believes in the inherent interconnectedness of all things and enjoys inspiring others toward their highest potential. Her work is meant to shed light on that which people rarely see or understand, uplift their Spirits, and inspire their hearts.

Book preview

Artist Profiles

Ren

Daser

Graffiti Knights

Kid-C

Sec

Bomba

Hope

Kane

Skam

Case

Teck

Duro3

Insight

Soy

Sader

Wysper

Junction Joe

Mediah

Elicser

Cola

Name: Ren

From: Parkdale

Crews: TCM, DOH

Yvette: Do you remember the first time you saw graffiti?

Ren: In 1980 I went to New York to visit a childhood friend. It made an impression on me. That was actually what got me into it. I was already kind of interested in graffiti, but after that trip as soon as I got back to Toronto I started doing graffiti.

So from 1981 – 1983 I did it fairly consistently. Then it just became kind of pointless because no one else was doing it so I stopped for a while. It was around 1986 when I saw someone in Toronto other than me doing more than just a few tags. That was Kid-C. Almost right away…I went to a hardware store, bought a can of paint and then at night I went out and did it again! Then I noticed he started talking to me and it just kept going.

Yvette: …through the walls?

Ren: Yeah. That was around 1986.

Yvette: Who else did you notice in the eighties?

Ren: I remember being downtown and seeing this guy AO1. I’d see his stuff around. He used to do these really cool, quickly drawn T.V sets and things on the wall. He’d get them around right downtown on major corners and then he’d sign it – AO1. It was a triangle with a square and a rectangle.

I didn’t meet him until about 1989. I was around Spadina one night, and I walked into a doorway to do a tag when I noticed the doorbell had AO1 on top of it.

It was way too late to ring it so I came back the next day at six or seven o’clock to ring it and this guy comes down the stairs. I introduced myself, I’m so and so and I do graffiti and I noticed your tag… Right away he was like, come on up! So we hung out at his studio and talked for hours which was kind of neat. He did graffiti from around 1983 – 86’, maybe a little longer – and then he stopped. He got caught a few times and moved on to other things I guess.

In 1984 I noticed the work of a writer named Trax around the alleys near Queen and Dufferin behind an old club called The Bedrock. It wasn’t until the late eighties that I realized he was a pioneer of graff from Scarborough, and had artwork still on the RT line.

Yvette: So you’ve been doing this fairly consistently for nearly 30 years?

Ren: Yeah. It’s been a while. There’d been a gap between 83’- 86’ because I was mainly being a punk rocker, occasionally I did some graffiti but not really that seriously. I think graffiti for me was a way to find my own social scene. School was horrible for me, I was not popular. Even the punk scene I thought was too conformist. It wasn’t my thing after a while, it was other people’s, it was really clique. So I think graffiti was a way to make my own scene. I guess I succeeded in doing that.

Yvette: I think you definitely succeeded.

Ren: Not to take credit for what’s out there now, but all the vocational graff from the 80’s to the early 90’s I definitely was a moving force for it for sure.

Yvette: You laid quite the foundation. And you’re still doing it. That’s longevity.

Ren: When you really enjoy something, you just keep going. Time can fly by. Though there were times I would doubt myself.

Yvette: Really?

Ren: Yeah. I can clearly remember a few times on long tag runs thinking, where am I going with this? So many of my original graff partners have stopped or slowed down, yet, I just keep doing it. It was just so strange.

Yvette: What was it that drew you to it? The process, finding a wall, connecting to people….?

Ren: I think all of those things. I think the thing that really made me different than many writers – and I’m finding this out now – is that I took it so seriously that I developed a method to doing it really well. I just know how to do it. I know how to read the situation. I know how to get away… probably because of bad experiences. I learned from those experiences how to read a situation well.

Yvette: I heard from another artist that you are a master of flow. Traffic flow, people flow…it’s like you have a sixth sense ah crap there’s someone coming by in two minutes…!

Ren: Yeah, it is like that. You’ve got to be able to climb really well. The only drawback is that after years of that it’s definitely taken its toll on my body. I had to give up climbing in 2003 because my legs are getting all really messed up. I would literally jump off two stories, and climb the craziest things you could imagine. I’d hide from people for hours in the most uncomfortable positions!

It’s kind of fun though. It’s like an adventure. It’s also that I just like being out late at night. That was a part of it and graffiti gave me something to do on long walks.

Yvette: What’s your favourite surface to paint?

Ren: It’s not about the surface; it’s being an active force in an environmental aesthetic. A participant in an ever changing urban landscape.

Yvette: Do you have any favourite colours?

Ren: I like all colours. I like contrast, that’s mainly what I’m after but I can pretty much work with anything if I have to. Kinds of paint I tend to like are rust paint like Rusto or Painter’s touch. I kind of like some of the new Montana’s but I do miss the days of just getting commercial paint and just trying to work with it. Sometimes I like markers more. Especially for tagging. There’s just something about them that I like. I like how they’re small and compact. You can get rid of them if you have to.

Yvette: What do you write besides Ren?

Ren: I’ve had a number of aliases but Ren is my overall thing. In the early days the tag that I took all city was Swirls. I actually got caught doing that so then I decided I needed something a little shorter. Ren just sort of came to my mind. It was a name I never heard of but it sounded cool, it was only three letters so I started doing that.

Yvette: How’d you think of it?

Ren: It just literally popped into my head. It almost has an Eastern philosophy sound to it. Kind of like Zen – Ren.

Yvette: Does your graffiti background and fine art side intersect at all? Does one influence the other?

Ren: I think they do in some ways. Graffiti enabled me to really work with colour without much worry about wasting canvas and it was pretty carefree. I could work large and under crazy conditions like painting in the dark. So it’s had an effect. I used to keep it away from the gallery. Especially in the early days because people just didn’t seem to get it. They didn’t take it very seriously. Hope told me that when he was in art school all his teachers ridiculed it and didn’t want him to use it in his art projects. Then when he left school and it started to become popular they were calling him back to teach graffiti.

Yvette: Going into the future, do you see yourself doing more of the fine art?

Ren: Yeah. I’ll never stop. I’ve been doing it just as long as the graffiti so it’s not something new to me.

Yvette: Did you have training in that or is it something you picked up on your own?

Ren: I’m self taught. I’ve learned from people around me, particularly my parents who are artists. I never had the resources to go to school, I just dove into it.

Yvette: When you go to a wall do you have a preconceived notion of what you’re going to do?

It’s definitely taken its

toll on my body.

Ren: It’s fifty fifty. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. In the early days it was always planned but as I got better at it I started getting into free styling where you just make it up on the spot. In some ways that’s better because then you’re working with the environment you’re in. It matches the wall more than trying to impose something on it. For example, if there is a steep hill you can make the letters look like they’re rolling down the hill, you know what I mean? It isn’t so rigid. Usually with a sketch, it never comes out the same anyway. You end up adding stuff. It’s just the way it is I guess. But everyone’s got their own way of doing it. I think it’s a mix of some formal rules and no rules. I think a lot of art’s like that.

Yvette: You have to know the rules before you can break them.

Ren: Exactly.

Yvette: Would you pre-pick a location before you went out or did you always have something with you in case you were walking by and you thought that would be a great spot…?

Ren: Again, it could be a bit of both because during the daytime you’re always looking out for things, keeping a look out for them. It also depends on the situation, sometimes a wall is a little sketchy so you might want to go back at night just to check it out - without anything on you – because you’re going to climb and trespass and get a good look at it and suss it out. That’s what I did sometimes. But sometimes you go out, go on a run and just hit as you go. Usually that is good with one other person or a couple of people.

I think over time, I started to realize I was actually better on my own. Other people are a liability. Especially if the cops break you up and your stories don’t match. So I got into the thing of…having a reason for being in every spot I am. Having a story for it. When I look at a spot, I would look at the whole area. What if something happens, what are the ways out? What are things to watch out for? Are there dogs in the yards? I check everything out. Sometimes I’d even go so far as to set up a tripwire if the escape route was a little sketchy. Or noise traps in spots to let me know if anyone’s coming if there was a weird blind spot in the area.

Yvette: That is impressive forethought!

Ren: Usually with other people it’s harder to do all that. It’s harder to get consensus. Except with Daser. We did the story thing once and it saved our asses really well. Cops got us, they separated us but our stories were so airtight they were just like, alright, see ya later. They didn’t really have anything on us. They knew we were in a certain area with some cans. We had a story for the cans, we had a story for why we went through that area…for everything, really, so they just let us go. Then for a couple of months we never went into that area just in case.

Yvette: Tell me about TCM. How’d it get started?

Ren: A friend of mine, Cyber initiated the idea in 1988. Together we started a crew (The Crime Messiahs) that in those early days included the likes of Kid-C, Dino, Vertex and Blaze. By 1993 I was the only original left standing, so I reformed the crew. The second formation included Hope, Kane, Sec, Recka and Daser. This was a good diverse mix of talent and a lot of good times. Other definitions for TCM are; Transcontinental Mayhem, Taking Control Massively, The Chaos Masters and Therapeutic Creative Mischief.

Yvette: When you first started off, did you ever imagine that the scene would become what it is today?

Ren: I never thought it would get like this in Toronto.

Up until about 1993 it seemed like there were just a half dozen of us who were really doing it. The rest of the people weren’t as prolific. If you happened to see their stuff it was like, wow, he actually did another one! No, I did not think it would be like it is now. There were times when it seemed that if I stopped it then it would all stop. Now it’s a totally different scene I almost have nothing to do with. That’s what it feels like now. I don’t even know half the people anymore. I’m so out of the loop. I don’t know what the crew names mean…nothing. Which is good, I guess.

Yvette: You stay out of politics that way, right?

Ren: Yes. Exactly. I don’t need to know all that stuff .

Yvette: What do you say to people who are very hardcore and think it’s selling out if you make money doing graff?

Ren: I had that view for a while too, but then I got to the point where I was like, well, why not make money off of it…it’s my thing?! I’ve got to eat.

Yvette: What would you want people to take away from the graff when they see it on the streets?

Ren: I’d like it to make their day. To wonder what it is and who did it. To put a smile on their face. Simple entertainment. When I first started doing it I thought everyone was going to like it. I guess I was partly right, but I learned very quickly that a lot of people didn’t like it. Either through word of mouth or somebody sees you doing it and they’re like, hey! What the fuck are you doing?!

Yvette: What have you sacrificed for graffiti and art in general, since you do both graff and fine art?

Ren: I sacrificed a conventional life. That’s for sure. I put a lot of time into certain things when I maybe should have gone back to school. I think thoughts like that sometimes.

At times I still wonder why am I doing this? It doesn’t really give me a career. I didn’t even know there were times when I was positively affecting other people Yvette: It’s amazing the effect your work can have on others, and you wouldn’t even know it for the most part.

Ren: I think for me it’s that human beings try to create this utopia that is so perfect and sterile. It makes them lose touch with nature. To me graff is like weeds. It is wild and you can’t tame it. I think that’s good for the spirit.

I really like to

read science and

physics books.

If we try to control everything it would make us all sterile and boring. We’re always trying to weed things out. It’s like having all these perfect walls but if you get into a car and drive north and see these clear cuts it’s like, there’s something not right here. How come we can go out there and trash it (the forests) and then the city has to look all nice? I think it’s more about the political reasons…how can you have this false utopia and then trash everything else? I’ve seen some nasty clear cuts and mines…it’s just terrible that they can get away with it. Just…mowing down hundreds of hectares of forest as far as the eye can see.

Yvette: What would you say to someone starting off in graffiti today? Any recommendations?

Ren: Play it safe is the main one. Know what you’re capable of and go that route. You need to be street smart - unless you only want to do legal work.

But then it’s not really graffiti. Use your wits. Don’t hang out with stupid people. Don’t get inebriated. Keep alert. Do that stuff after you’re done. Do what works for you. Use your own methods.

That’s how I did it. I was totally self taught so there is a bit of trial and error. There is no one way to do it. When I’ve gone writing with people I’ve just met and see how they do it, it’s very different usually. I don’t criticize; I just go along with it. Unless it’s really dumb.

Yvette: Have your priorities changed over the years in terms of why and how you go out?

Ren: It certainly has. You evolve as you get older. Your energy levels change, and one must adapt to changes in the urban environment. For instance, the entertainment district along Richmond Street between John and Peter is an area to stay clear of at night, but in the early days it was super chill.

The writers have changed too. It’s not the same as when I first started. It was much more innocent. You didn’t take people for granted and there wasn’t all this bickering and warring going on. Even if some people were kind of odd you sort of put up with them. It was totally different back then. Now, there’s fighting going on and that kind of stuff. In a way I don’t really know what the scene is like now as I’m far removed from it because I went solo for the most part.

As you get older you change anyway. You have to move on. Life is full of change.

To me graff is like weeds. It is wild and you can’t tame it.

I think that’s good for the spirit.

I think the power of graffiti is its ability to surprise. Especially with freights or trucks or a moving object that catches you. That element of surprise is nice. I also like the look, the energy it gives. The walls are just more interesting with it. Once you start looking around for it it becomes this great adventure. There’s also a lot about it I like that I can’t explain why for. I mean, I don’t really know what attracted me to it in the first place. The fact that it’s not sanctioned so it can have a lot more freedom of what the artist wants to do on the wall, it’s not filtered out. That’s what I like about it whereas billboards and ads are not very inspiring. In fact, they’re usually just annoying.

Yvette: And prolific.

Ren: Yes. Especially in certain spots and cities. I’ve heard that in São Paulo, Brazil, all advertising is banned so all you see is graffiti. I can’t imagine what it would be like not seeing billboards in the city that is ten times bigger than Toronto.

Cities are very different regarding what goes up, whether it’s legal or illegal. Toronto is run by developers in my opinion. The politicians - somewhat – but it’s the developers…the way they buy up land.

To sum up, I think graffiti is a way to live in a world that has no direction and is on the brink of chaos.

Life With REN

By Mina

When I moved to Toronto in 1987 I went to an alternative school in the west end, called City School. In the area I started noticing REN’s various tags, as well as some others, not really realizing how many of them were his. It turned out that one of my schoolmates was a graffiti writer who wrote GONZO, and so was his older sister who now writes BOMBA.

I was impressed by all the spots they managed to hit up, and the shear number they got up. It didn’t matter where you were in the city—they had been there too. SWIRLS, JADE, RAW, GONZO, NEXT, AZTEC, GALOOCH, PEZ and many more plastered all over the city. Maybe not as overwhelming as NYC was, when I visited my relatives, but it still made you sit up and take notice. All the graffiti added to the gritty, funky feel of Queen Street West back in the late 1980’s. Now the alleys are full of graffiti. Back then the writers were all pioneers, spreading the ‘word’ of hip hop while it was still underground.

Two years later I had moved on to yet another alternative high school, Inglenook Community High School, and this one also had graffiti writers. The tags I remember are CYBER/JOLTZ, DINO and a guy who liked to do little characters, light bulbs and various animals. It got to the point that the school decided to put up a Graffiti Wall in the student lounge to help control what was getting tagged up. Luckily the teachers were into the creative aspect of it, even if the school board required them to keep it off the walls, etc.

Somehow there seemed to be this network of people I knew through the multiple alternative schools that my friends and I went to over the years. One guy I knew brought me over to GONZO’s in the spring of 1989. I met REN and GALOOCH hanging out there. They all seemed pretty cool, and wow! was REN ever hot! I kept thinking about him every so often. Then one day a couple of months later he walked into my school to visit CYBER. I saw him across the lounge, but ended up going outside with a friend. When I came back in, REN was on his way out so I reintroduced myself, and we exchanged numbers.

REN called me the next day, and where did he take me on our first date? First stop—under the Dundas Bridge to see his graffiti! Guess he wanted me to know what I was in for. Much later he told me that at the time he thought I wasn’t as impressed as he’d hoped, I think I was actually in awe. His home was also filled with graffiti; his tags and his buddies’ covered the bedroom door, with any sketchbook or loose paper tagged up too.

When I first met REN he stood out with his pink Converse shoes, ripped-up black jeans and a jean jacket covered in graffiti. It had a mix of full pieces, tags and props to the hard core band Bad Brains. Often he’d wear blue Doc Martens and button-down shirts. He projected a sense of being a creative rebel, up for adventures in urban exploration with a sense of humor thrown in.

After REN and I started dating I met more of his graffiti buddies, especially his good friends PEZ and MATRIX who lived in his neighborhood. By this point they had both pretty much stopped writing for their own reasons. REN also hung out with LA BOMBA, whom I’d met through her sister and brother GONZO years before. I remember being over at BOMBA’s place with some of my girlfriends, checking out her comic collection. She had all these ‘Love and Rockets’ comics that have these tough chicks going out on graffiti runs together. We thought BOMBA was super cool, what with playing bass in a band, doing graffiti and sewing her own mini-skirts.

Sometimes I would tease REN when he got off the phone with someone like CYBER. All I could hear was something like this: I got up a bunch of throw-ups, and there was this really nice wall for a piece. I’ll have to go back with more paint. Then I was tagging this doorway and had to watch out for the five-oh. You get the idea. Most people wouldn’t even know what they were talking about. It’s gotten to be a joke between us. There’s a nice wall…(for a piece) or It’s a nice night out…(to go do graffiti). These things mean something else to a graffiti writer.

In the early 1990s, after backpacking in Alberta and B.C. together a couple of summers in a row, REN and I decided that if we could travel together we could try living together. At one point his mom said she wouldn’t have to worry about him being out late doing graffiti anymore. Then she looked at me and realized I was now the one hoping he hadn’t been caught by the police, or targeted by some angry drunk on the street. I was trying not to picture some mishap in the freight yard or while he was climbing something. Luckily REN has always been smart in assessing situations and keeping safe. Often even helping others be safe. Certainly living up to the nickname ‘Hero’ he earned from our friends while hiking in the mountains of Jasper Park. He was always ready to climb a tree to put the food away from bears, or crossing rivers to help the rest of us.

REN kept the graffiti scene in Toronto going during the droughts between waves of writers. At times he was a one man graffiti scene, getting up multiple names just so that no one specific tag was too ‘heat-score’, drawing the cops’ attention. He was covering his tracks with overkill; and having fun trying out new handles, keeping some and ditching others.

In 1994 DASER moved in to our place, subletting from me while I was in the States for a few months, studying with herbalist Susan Weed. While I was away REN and DASER had a chance to indulge their freight craze together. They would walk over to the freight yards every chance they got, pulling all-nighters to get up as many pieces and throw-ups as their paint would allow.

At the end of 1994 REN and I moved to Parkdale, his home turf since his family moved here from Chicago when he was a kid. I remember hanging out in a neighborhood park, Wabash Park, with REN, SEC, KANE and HOPE while they were painting a wall. At one point we were sitting, having a break, and suddenly two cops came from opposite ends of the park. We kept cool and stayed put, so one of the police said I guess you guys must have permission, since you didn’t run. Luckily, TCM Crew did have the owner’s o.k., since some neighbour had called the police about the ‘vandalism’.

In the next couple of years there seemed to be a lot more graffiti writers coming up. I always liked the variety of styles, everyone had a different flavor. Over a period of time REN and I met SKAM, WYSPER, AC, RCADE, TASK, BACON and the KOW Crew - KWEST, SESK and JUNCTION JOE as well as others. The KOW boys were ready to go rock freights at the drop of a hat.

Around this time it really started to sink in for me just how much respect and hero-worship these artists had for TCM Crew and REN especially. Up until then I knew many people thought he was cool for being so talented with his graffiti and abstract art. Now there were people who would do little bows when they saw KING REN, and a lot of their respect came from doing graffiti themselves and knowing the dedication he put into his art, as well as understanding his obsession.

When WYSPER was living on Queen Street West his place became a hub of hip hop activity any time of night pretty much. One Christmas night REN and I were walking back from my brother’s place around 1:30 a.m. or so and we thought we would see if WYSPER was around. When he let us in his place was already packed with graffiti writers! I guess after being with family for the holiday everyone wanted to be with their ‘graffiti family’, talking about graffiti plans for spring, doing stickers and listening to music.

REN was always going for long walks, or ‘A Run’ as he would call it, super early in the morning on his way to work. Some days he would leave my place at 3 a.m. because it was so quiet on the streets at that time. It was a perfect opportunity to get up as many tags or throw-ups as possible and really get his name up. I think it is that consistency of getting out there, on the streets, alleys and freight trains year after year that has really made REN a legend in Toronto, and beyond. Everyone on the street recognizes the name, and some even stop to ask if he really is REN when he’s wearing one of his shirts. The funniest time was after telling some friends from the UK about his local fame. We all got on the subway the next day and some man came up to ask Are you REN? The guy said he had always wanted to meet him.

I’ll never forget in 1989, riding the 504 King streetcar past Riverdale Park and seeing my name in five foot tall letters, and full Technicolor, on the side of the pool. That’s one way to impress a girl. REN always likes to dish out the eye candy. Another showstopper was when REN and HOPE did some twelve foot high pieces under the Bloor Street Viaduct so the riders could see them from the subway as it crossed the bridge, back in the early 90’s.

Sometime in 2001 my mom was living in Tucson, Arizona and was stopped at a railway crossing, when suddenly there was a big bright REN piece going by on the train. There is something about the kinetic energy of a freight piece that never fails to impress.

REN has always had a relentless drive to check out all the nooks and crannies of this city and claim it as his. Sometimes with loud murals, or throw-ups on rooftops, maybe with a bright tag tucked away in a doorway where you least expect it, here was REN telling you he had been there to stake his claim. Hopefully his art livens up the grey monotones of the city and adds to the social exchange of its inhabitants.

Name: Daser

aka Ren.2

Started illegally painting in Kingston without a tag name, doing one piece the spring of 1983 inspired by the movie Dreams Don’t Die. Painted stuff like Funk Rules in 86’, Hip Hop in 87’ and in 88’. Came up with my Ren.2 name in the fall of 1988 and used it as my ID when piecing the word Hip Hop in the Ottawa transit tunnel in the spring of 89’ and elsewhere later. Started piecing Ren.2 on the Autoracks as Canada’s first freight piecer as of Jan1992. Came up with my Daser tag name in the summer of 1992. Corresponded through I.G.T that year; Phase 2’s world’s first Aerosol Art/Hip Hop chronicle. Got hooked up with writers all around the world, trading photos in the early to mid nineties, hooked up with some Zulu Nation people.

Have been an avid train watcher since the late 1970’s. Back when the trains were completely clean through the eighties till the early nineties. Myself, then Ren started out that business in this country. First graph crew I got down with was CMD through mail correspondence with a guy who wrote Tem from CMD in ‘92/93. The most important crew I rolled with and is my true crew to be down with is TCM. To this day I am a breaker, and mixing DJ, these other elements I have been practicing since 1984. I began recording radio mix shows via cable FM radio and got my hands on tapes floating around of Mr. Magic’s Rap Attack on WBLS, and most of all The Wizard out of Detroit. These cassettes have fueled me all throughout the years as a source of inspiration to practice some of the other elements. It’s 2010 and I will keep going for the rest of my life, more so as a soloist with vision because of the downfall of Rap into this Gangster Crap. The expanding redundancy of today’s Graffiti commercialization product type kids just gets in the way. Every kid is doing it these days so it would seem. I have to think about Hip Hop in a very protected manner because of the really high level of exploitation now. It’s all for sale Kid! Full pallet of paint. Low pressure cans, stolen name writers on the internet, fake fame mentality, YouTube suckers. You can’t fake or buy that 80’s style Bro, you had to be there.

Daser One

Canada

To understand the amount of graph there is today is to understand how little to none there was in Canada back then. When I say graph I mean the New York City Subway painting and wall Aerosol Art that

Reviews for Toronto Graffiti

[Zoe Wolf · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Truly, a one-of-a-kind, insider's perspective! Wow!
It's like you're a part of the conversation, hearing all the private thoughts and seeing the detailed thought process of the artists. I learned so much about a lot more than "just graffiti" by reading this book. This book will appeal to graffiti enthusiasts and those interested in art, history, an artists' inner world, and everything that touches upon that world - the legal, health, and community aspects. This is truly a fascinating book that every kind of reader will find something interesting in it for them.