HOW I
GOT HERE.
I’m Mark. I paint murals for a living — walls, SlapUps™, workshops, the lot. London based, but I travel the world.
TWO BOOKS
FROM AMERICA.
Spraycan Art and Subway Art turned up over here and that was it for me. Proper graffiti books — people like Goldie, Chrome Angelz, all the names in them. I didn’t really understand what graffiti was yet. I just wanted to be part of it.
WE FOLLOWED
THE MUSIC.
I was in Dorset on a camping weekend with a mate, riding BMXs. We heard music, went to find it, and there’s two blokes painting this huge illegal piece. Still the biggest one I’ve seen, if I’m honest.
They let us hang about and showed us how they were using the cans. Next day one of them painted something on a bit of plywood for me. I made us take it home. My mate’s dad wasn’t best pleased carrying that thing back.
WE DIDN’T
TELL ANYONE.
After that I couldn’t think about much else. Me and a few mates got together as Hit and Run Crew and started painting — bridges, trains, vans, whatever we could get to. Kept it quiet. Didn’t want people knowing.
I was getting bullied at school around then, so this was my way out of my head. I’d wait till everyone had gone to bed, climb out the window, and go to the woods where I’d stashed the paint.
THAT’S WHEN
IT CLICKED.
Letters were fun, but characters were what I actually cared about. Once I started focusing on that, more people wanted to paint with me. Collabs, crew invites — it opened up. People just like characters on a wall. I still do too.
NEARLY TWENTY
YEARS OF THAT.
I worked the doors for just under 20 years. Cold nights, the lot. Then one club manager wasn’t happy with some artwork that had gone up for a hip hop night. I said I could do better, and he let me paint it.
When I’d finished, his actual words were: “Why are you standing on the doors in the cold having other people’s arguments when people will pay you for this?!†That stuck with me.
I started doing little canvases for mates for thirty or forty quid, then bedroom walls, then bigger jobs. One client told me he didn’t care how long it took or what it cost, just make it look good. Being able to take my time on that one properly changed things for me.
STILL ON
THE TOOLS.
I paint for homes, businesses, brands, councils, events — small rooms up to big public walls. I’ve painted abroad, done work for well-known people, even had pieces end up in royal palaces. Same paint, same process.
I’m not done with it. If you’ve got a wall you can’t stand looking at, send me a photo and we’ll talk.