Demos

 I got into hip hop when I was young and it was thriving in the mid to late 90’s. I bboy’d a bit, but sucked at rapping and never had the tech to make beats but fell in love with writing my name on shit.

It varies,  I’m always scribing shit but the older I’ve gotten the more methodical I’ve become picking spots.  I feel like free time is harder and harder to come by as the years pass so I try to make it worth my while to paint instead of just leaving the house with a bag of spray and no real plan in place besides linking with friends and seeing where the night goes
I’m well traveled and have been to 40 plus countries and done a good chunk of North America.  Everywhere I go I like for differant reasons.  I was brought up being a traveller and explorer so sometimes I travel places for reason not related to graffiti at all.  

Bangkok, Mexico City, Bay Area, Toronto are a few I’d love to go back to.  
 For some reason vancouver was heavily influenced by New York style graffiti when I was coming up, which didn’t make sense to me since Vancity is on the west coast.  The life style I lived was extremely west coast from music I listened to, outdoor activities I’d do, food I’d eat, so I naturally gravitated towards west coast style graffiti.   

When I was younger and before everything was on the internet the only way to see new styles was in a zine or in person.  Tits crew from the sea-tac area were doing things, and I was always into old msk, Lts, and Kog styles.  

I’ve never perused a career in graffiti and always tried my best to keep the 2 separate.  I remember looking at OG’s of mine and seeing peoples hobbies turn into their source of income and losing the passion they had for their hobby in the first place.   As it was something they now needed to do for work instead of something they do for fun in their free time.   Not saying there isn't  some success stories out of some of them who took that path.  Many Non graffiti related and some art related ,but I consciously made that decision to not go down that path.  I was making good money with different hustles and never needed to. 

Of course it does.  There is a place for anything in a gallery.  Life is art.  I just think it really comes down to how someone presents it.  There are alot of cringe stuff I see and it’s tricky to translate certain aspects of graffiti into a gallery but that is the job of the artist to do.  
Hands down the roller and bucket paint.  I find it so versitile and cost effective for me.  It allows me to do large scale and brings a different texture to walls and trains that you can’t get from just only using sprays.

 
I never really liked this question.  The fact is the internet happened and everyone’s lives have changed because of it.  This question stems far past graffiti to life before hand held devices, Amazon, eBay, social media and wether our lives in general are ruined by technology or enhanced?  I’m not going to start by saying “back in my day…..”.  Lol.  But I could definitely have the convo with someone!   I think if you weren’t one to embrace it then you got left behind or missed out  capitalizing on its positive aspects and prolly just complained about the ways you saw it negatively affecting our subculture.  
I really want to get back to Europe and explore more.  Italy and Eastern Europe are on the list, Iceland and Norway aswell.  In the US I want to hit Nashville and New Orleans.  In Canada Winnipeg.  In Asia I want to do more of the Himalayas, and in South America Columbia and Argentina. 
I don’t play that game.  Onwards and upwards. 
It’s all balance.  I’ve had years where I’ve made big bank but didn’t have the time to do what I wanted, and then years where I didn’t make shit and couldn’t afford the things that I wanted.  So I’m constantly trying to find a balance between the 2.  Besides that just try to stay positive and enjoy the short time we get here by experiencing as much as you can.  Tell people you love them while you still can, and learn from your mistakes.  Or even better other peoples! Lol

I think that it comes from our culture in general these days that everybody wants everything right away.  From Amazon, to food, to fame.  You can’t become a black belt over night, you got to put in the work.  I think some people can be too focused on the endgame but not appreciating the journey, the hardships, experiences, shit you need to go through to get there.  So just stay humble, and put in the work.  
Thanks to all the foos that showed me love over the years.  I appreciate y’all.  

Thank You for the time MR. DEMOS......