The consequences of gatekeeping street art
An interview with Spaz
Photo credit: Spaz
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This artist creates street art under the pseudonym Spaz. His legal name and the location of this piece will be kept confidential to protect his identity.
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Asha Swann 00:05
On this episode of Toronto's Artery, I spoke with an artist who creates under the name Spaz. We talked about how Toronto's art scene compares to Argentina, where he's originally from, we also discussed the impact of gatekeeping street art, and what it means for artists who struggle to get the city's permission to create on abandoned walls.
Asha Swann 00:25
First, how long have you been doing street art around the Toronto area?
Spaz 00:29
I've pretty much been doing it almost my whole life, I first got into it when I was like maybe 12 or 13 years old, I really took an interest in it. So I just started drawing it on paper and all that. I wasn't allowed to go out, my parents would be like, "No, I don't want you like getting in trouble or anything." So I kind of just slowly introduced myself into it like later on into high school. So I really started fully putting my art out around like 16, 17 years old. And I just kept going. I took a couple breaks from it, and I just got back into it. I kind of went all over the arts of it for a while.
Asha Swann 01:09
Were your parents very supportive of you having an interest in the arts?
Spaz 01:14
I mean, my dad's a mechanic. My mom is like in food and nutrition. So like, I was kind of like that apple that fell far from the tree. So they never really hated that I liked these things. But they never said like, "Oh, you should do it, I'll push you to do it." They kind of said, yeah, "Be secure. And do this and sort of like concentrate on this and pursue it." So it's kind of like in the middle somewhere.
Asha Swann 01:45
Is that still their attitude today?
Spaz 01:48
Oh, yeah. They always felt like that. They never, like they don't, I don't feel like a parent will fully understand what it is to be an artist. It's hard to have like a full-time job and be like, "Okay, I want to work. I want to work on these things as well." It just kind of takes away a lot of time from what you actually want to do. I'd rather be able to just only work on that. So it's very hard to think about what their mentality is.
Asha Swann 02:15
What would you say has been your favourite art medium to use, like spray paint or physically on paper, or what's your go-to?
Spaz 02:22
I actually, I also do canvases. So I mix a lot of media, even on a wall. If I'm doing spray paint, I actually mix other things. I've done like a bit with brushes, I've used the actual paint markers. But I never really stuck to one thing, I really liked to put my own style into everything.
"Stupid" in spray paint
Image source: Spaz
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This piece, done by Spaz, shows the word "stupid" written in spray paint, with the letter "u" being replaced by a demonic face. The art has many elements, including geometric shapes in the letters and white highlights.
Asha Swann 02:40
Do you have any goals to go outside of the city even more or even outside of Ontario, and to do any art there?
Spaz 02:47
Yeah, I've been wanting to take it to different countries. But before that, actually, I want to go back to Ottawa, get myself out there. I want to be able to just start selling my canvases online as well.
Asha Swann 02:58
Have you been back to visit Argentina much at all?
Spaz 03:01
Yeah, I have actually. It's interesting going back there. Actually, even the street art over there, I've actually been to a whole meeting of different artists. And they took over an entire wall, just painted the entire thing. And it was really cool, I actually stayed there almost the whole night while they did the whole thing. And there was a whole mural at the end of it. Laws over there even are very different. If they see, oh you're a good artist, they won't even look at you. It's like, "Okay, that's amazing. Cool, keep painting." It's fun being over there.
Asha Swann 03:28
Do you find that Toronto's more strict about what the city is gonna allow on their walls?
Spaz 03:33
Definitely. And I also think that there's a lot more vandalism here in Toronto. Back home, like in my city, at least you see people just writing random stuff on the walls. But then you also see a lot more art. For example, on buildings, if someone passed away, they'll do a huge mural of that person, just on a huge side of a residential building. But it just looks amazing because that's where the person was from. And it's just really appreciated by the community. And then you see here in the city, and you'll see tags everywhere, overlapping and overlapping. And like sometimes certain tags aren't even that nicely designed, right? I feel like because of those factors, it makes this city feel like everything about street art is vandalism, even if it's like a crazy mural made after like three days, sometimes someone will come and be like, "No, you can't be doing this." Well, now you have a half thing painted that doesn't look good, when you could have let someone take their time and cover these bad things. They kind of like correlate good art with bad art.
Asha Swann 04:33
Have you ever gotten in trouble mid-doing a piece?
Spaz 04:36
I didn't get in trouble per se, but it was a full open thing. It's actually on Spadina, there's this little thing that you can walk into. It's completely covered in art, in paint, and everything. So I'm like, "Okay, maybe there's time to, like, take my time on something." It was like a whole movie scene. I just left, it got way too intense. I was there mid-painting, one guy came started yelling towards me, I'm like, "Okay, I'm gonna put my stuff away." I'm like, "Well, that's unnecessary," like, so I just went away from their jurisdiction. I just never went back. I saw them taking out batons. And I'm like, "Well, that's unnecessary."
Asha Swann 05:14
What do you feel like the city could be doing better to support local artists?
Spaz 05:19
If there's like, an alleyway beside a store and there's no windows, there's nothing that you can connect to that wall to the store front, they should allow people to paint, at least do pieces. "You don't need to pay me I just want to be able to cover up this bad art that was put on." What's really cool about street art, what people don't speak about is if an actual artist is better than those bad tags, they will not go over the mural. It's just how it is. If you allow someone to make something good, that will stay there for years until a better artist comes by and make something even nicer. They should try to concentrate more on what that is then like say, "No, everything's just vandalism." They should give more of a chance, they should give more licenses to be able to paint on walls like that.
Asha Swann 06:10
You've been doing art for so long. How would you describe you that your art style has changed over the years?
Spaz 06:16
Honestly, I feel like it just expanded. From a young age I got into letter design, like even just doing just classic things like Old English text. I've always loved doing all those things like calligraphy. Just recently, I really got into trying to make letters into abstract. For example, making each letter made up of different shapes. Rather than like you being able to read S-P-A-Z, I'd rather be like two semi-circles, for example, keeping it simple.
Asha Swann 06:44
Do you think there's anything that you wish people knew about street art? Or do you wish people knew about art in Toronto that you think is important to share?
Spaz 06:53
The word graffiti is very broad. Graffiti could be vandalism, or it could be graffiti art. Just because you can't read it, it doesn't mean that it's not art. It's just an abstract piece. Like if you go to a museum and you see a bunch of paint thrown at a canvas, you don't call that vandalizing or ruining a canvas, you say, "Wow, this person was angry. They had to whip paint at a canvas." That's the way that we feel we're gonna design a certain letter a certain way, because there's actual rules in street art. They should try to pay attention to "Oh, okay, this person is not vandalizing, I'm not gonna yell and be like, Hey, why do you do that?" Are they doing something that's trying to cover the bad art? I feel like just this sense of appreciation. Pay attention to more, I guess, of what the artist is doing rather than judging that it's going to be another bad thing.
Asha Swann 07:50
This has been an episode of Toronto's Artery, a podcast about art in the heart of the city. For more episodes, and to see a map of the art we discussed in today's episode, head to torontosartery.com.
Thanks for listening!