I started painting graffiti when I was a little kid mostly because it was a bit of fun and involved a lot of running and hiding like any other children’s game. It sort of started out as just painting quotes or offensive phrases and then as I got older I got a lot more creative and sort of branched out my painting spots.
For awhile I liked to find places where no one went because it gave me more time to paint and look over my stuff. Now I think I spend about 90% of my time thinking up ideas or matching colors – though I usually only get to paint about 2% of what I want to.
A lot of people think the hardest part about it is not getting caught and that’s true, though getting caught isn’t bad at all most of the times. If people don’t like what you’re doing they usually yell a whole bunch at you before they’re even close to you so it gives you a lot of time to get out if you want to. Usually though people come across it and kind of look on or smile…or warn you about the police. A few days ago I met a guy out walking who stuck around for awhile and talked with me about my stuff and said he really liked them which was pretty cool. Really the hardest part of graffiti for me is getting the spray paint because it’s illegal for kids to own it let alone buy it so it can get kind of tricky.
One of the best experiences is going out with others and painting somewhere, it can either get really fun, and 15 minute raids will turn into huge collaborations ending in the morning, or really nerve racking (someone starts climbing streetlights/walls or crossing rivers/highways).
Really I think the biggest motivation for painting graffiti is that it sort of runs on your ideas, anything you think of can be put up and if you pull it off it can be an impressive experience. It’s really calming too, once you get into a piece you really start to run on impulse and don’t really stop until everything you brought is rattling empty.