On the graffiti trail, family wall

 

Riding east along the Maisonneuve bike path there is an old defunct autoshop painted beige, its across from the Sherbrooke metro. The reason its painted beige is that the city will fine any property-owner who leaves graffiti up on their building. Hence, a lot of buildings are grey or beige in order to make it easier to paint over the graffiti. In the media, these are called tags, but according to graffiti lingo they are throw-ups, containing a fill. Translation: coloured-in bubble letters. This SODAX is new on the street, although PJD25 is well known by now. Oh, yeah... and there are beautiful autumn colours and a pastel sky in the background!

Beige autoshop throw-ups, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025 (No. 4858b)

You think it costs taxpayers a lot of money to clean up graffiti? How about the cost of the Big Owe... Olympic stadium that costs hundreds of millions per year. This location is near boisé Steinberg, a small forest that is now protected by the city. The location used to be an enormous train yard, located near the port of Montreal, but now it is an urban nature area with plenty of graffiti on the fences and backs of factories. PJD25 put his throw-up on a factory wall, while SODAX put her art on a yellow fence. I know SODAX by the way, but can not divuldge her identiy for fear of reprisals. I also saw JD CD initials here, they must be beginners... a beginner is called a 'toy' in the graffiti world.  

Graffiti walls and Big Owe, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025 (No. 4856b) 

On my recent mini-exploration of the Montreal Graffiti scene I have studied the art and some of the characters involved. I did't know what I was looking for, but today I found it. On the side of this building in the Steinberg forest area in Hochelage, you can see graffiti art by FRITZ, CILS, and their pet D-DAWG! Top right is the king of graffiti, PJD25, his partner in crime SODAX, and the new kids JD and CD. JEN makes an appearance, and hints of ANN and ROSS are behind the golden-Autumn foliage. Actually, I changed the real graffiti to represent some of my friends and family as you may have guessed. In doing so, I felt a warmth, a kind of connection to the graffiti wall. And just then, I truely understood what graffiti was about, a sense of belonging, recognition, and family connection. Then again, its also vandalism punishable by a misdemeanor charge. 

Family wall, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025 (No. 4855b)

 

Last time I was at the Rouen graffiti tunel there were just a few artists at work. Today there were dozens of them working in teams on their wall murals. Someone had painted over all of last week's work with green paint, and they were aplying new paint over top. I tried standing down-wind at first but the fumes were something else! This scene is standing up wind, looking east. You can hear the 'click clack click' of the spray paint cans shaking, and the hiss of the paint. There was a lot of shouting too. Most people were wearing chemical respirator masks but not everyone. Hip hop music was playing from a car radio. It looks like the Family Clan was here... big boss PJD25 at the top with SODAX, CILS, FRITZ, D-DAWG, JD CD, and JEN all present. 

Rouen graffiti tunel weekend, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, October 2025 (No. 4860)