Sometimes people get upset because they are not invited to some aerosol wall because it is about that top tier representation. Other people are upset because their mates won’t even paint with them on a low stakes spot. I got a couple of mates who feel that. It is for different reasons and none of this is new.

I remember being in crews when I was young and seeing people want to climb the ladder of crews and reps. When I was seventeen the fashions and ladder climbing stuff irked me. When I repped a crew it was more about a way of doing things. For example EPS was a creative crew so I thought of it as about that. 

Of course everyone had a different experience of it and years later I grew out of crews anyway. Also my mates thought I was nuts because they would complain that so and so didn’t invite them to paint on a wall and I would say something like “good, at least you don’t have to paint with dickheads.” 

It isn’t that Sydney aerosol writers are all dickheads but the amount of dick gagging moves that go on leaves you wondering. I never cared because I was one of those guys who wanted to build my own legacy. I felt I didn’t need other people’s approval or blessing. It wasn’t arrogance but a way to approach life.

I wanted to make myself through hard work and dedication. I thought if I go for it the respect will just come naturally. Also nobody could fault my drive and I was so determined to make a name for myself. At the same time I am quite grounded and after I stopped illegal work my focus changed.

Also after 2013 I treated every aerosol piece I did as possibly my last. I still do that today. I have done more than enough aerosol art. What kept me going was that a good friend had spots that he wanted me on. My other take on aerosol art is everyone is in a different lane. We all have different legacies and ways of working.

A lot of the top tier stuff is great but it’s not for everyone. I want grime and a bit of chaos, not a twenty colour wall that looks like modern computer graphics. I mean I am an analog era artist. Computers in my day were green screen terminals with a command shell. That is probably why I still use Linux. I love computer terminals and glitches by default, not design.

Also everyone is busy too. A mate they always talk to invites them to that low stakes spot and they just do that. It isn’t personal. I was talking to someone today at work who was saying I do aerosol work to their colleague and I was saying how I would never want my work to be everywhere. Some graffiti styles are made to be done en masse and they take over spots.

The stuff I do today isn’t about endless reproduction, it is about that one in a million work which in the parlance is known as a rough diamond. Most of what I do is a one off. That’s it, I am not doing that again. There is a process that isn’t just about brands or hierarchies. I am not here for that. I am just unearthing things.