1. To start off, thanks a bunch for taking the time to do this interview with us. For people who aren’t familiar, can you tell us what you write and how long you’ve been writing for?

It’s my pleasure! I’ve read a lot of interviews on your site so it’s pretty cool to be doing one myself so thank you. I write Marcher Arrant. I first started writing my name about 15 years ago but my progress has been slow.  

2. Walking seems to be an integral part of your creative process. Could you explain how this came to be?

When I was ten I got really into skateboarding. My friends and I would skate and walk all over the city looking for new spots to skate.  We had no bounds for how far we would travel.  We would walk 4 hours to a spot, skate, and walk 4 hours back.  I didn’t understand it then but I realize now that it was the traveling and searching for spots that was the real joy. All along the way we would get into dumb shit like climbing onto roofs, stealing candy from gas stations, meeting street charecters, exploring buildings that were being built, bombing hills, tagging, hanging out under train bridges, throwing rocks at trains, etc.  It got to the point where we were walking 15 miles to downtown Columbus, Ohio, a 5-hour walk. Then we started walking there and back. 

As I got older the walks got even longer. I began embracing the walking for its own sake and not as a means to an end.  At one point I was living in Boulder, Colorado and I did my first 24-hour walk. I had walked the tracks to Denver a bunch of times which is a 12-hour walk.  One day I decided to walk there and back non-stop.  After that, I started doing multiple day walks and sleeping outside.  I wanted to escape time and the mundane and the repetition of normal life. I would eventually walk across entire countries.

I eventually moved to Paris and it was there that I did my first walking art project of walking the entire length of every street in Paris.  At this time I was not doing graffiti yet or physical art (besides the map pages I used for the walk which was just for me at the time).  I had this romantic idea that the walking itself was the art and the fact that I did not make anything and did it just for the walk made it pure. For the longest time, I was even against taking photos on my walks because I thought it divorced me from the purity of the walk.  I still love that idea, and I think there is something to it. Regardless if there is something to that idea, I eventually had to admit to myself that I wanted something more. I wanted my walking art to be something more than just my own experience.  There was a philosophy behind my walking and a depth to it and uniqueness and I was feeling the need to share it with others but didn’t know how. 

Then in 2010, I met Curve TGE on the streets of Paris. We became friends and would explore and paint together.  I had been a fan of graffiti and toyed around with it since I started skateboarding but I had never become a real writer.  It was inspiring to be around Curve because he is such a great writer and artist.  I was impressed by how cool he was with me even though I was just a beginner. He taught me things explicitly, and I learned from just being around him and observing.  He encouraged me to find my own unique thing with graffiti. These times with Curve of learning to paint, along with his encouragement to find my own thing are what eventually led me to come up with a name that fit who I was, Marcher Arrant, and a form of painting that was me and also matched my lifestyle. All I did and wanted to do was to be always on the move walking.  An art form that required lots of sitting or staying in place was not an option. I needed an art I could do on the move. I also needed a simple art.  If you are walking 12 hours a day you can’t be carrying around 15 cans of paint all day. By doing a character I could get the most out of having a few cans of paint on me and keeping my bag light.  My favorite part of my art is the sentences, and I can come up with those as I walk so it’s just perfect! I have an art I can do on the road and it suits me so perfectly, I love it.

3. That’s crazy that you were able to meet such a good writer who helped show you the ropes. Not many people are lucky enough to have that experience, did you just see him tagging on the streets or did you meet online?

I’m super lucky to have met such a good writer who is also a good person, super humble, and not too cool.  We met randomly on the streets near Place Denfert-Rochereau. There was a cool wall over there that had a lot of legends on it like Horfe and Saeio and Kuma. I think there was a Chino BYI tag on there too. I was taking pictures of the graffiti and this guy came up from behind me and said in French “excusez-moi, je ne parle pas français” (excuse me, I don’t speak French.). I was like “Me neither!”. It was Curve! We ended up walking around getting to know each other. There was this abandoned train track nearby that I had been wanting to explore and he was down. We ended up walking through these crazy long pitch-black tunnels on the abandoned tracks until night.  It was great meeting him because he too had just recently moved to Paris with his girlfriend and it was their first time living in another country too. It was comforting going through that exciting and intense experience with some other people from the same country. His partner is really interesting and nice and down to earth too. We probably hung out more with our partners, having each other over for dinner than we did painting. It’s great having nice friends like that when you are in a new city and country. 

4, What was the reason behind moving to Paris?  Was that your first time out of the country?

My ex-wife and I had gone to Europe before moving to Paris.  On that trip, we did farming in Sardinia and went all over Italy and went to the south of France and Paris. We loved it all. My ex is really into Romance languages and is fluent in French, Spanish, and Italian.  She also loves cooking food from those countries. She wanted to move to Paris to practice her French and learn French pastry.  I loved the city itself and wanted to get to know every part of it.  I also had a strong connection to Paris in particular and France in general from being into philosophy, art, literature, and Anarchism.  I wanted to live in Paris like Henry Miller who is one of my favorite writers. I loved Rimbaud, Van Gogh, Baudelaire, the Situationists, the Impressionists, the Paris Commune, May 68’, French Postmodern theory and so much more. It seemed that, by chance, most of the things I was into had some connection to Paris and France so moving there was full of significance for me. So it made perfect sense for us to move there. My ex got student loans to go to pastry school and that money gave us some cushion money to live on while we figured out how to make money there. We got a place in the 18th near Place de Clichy (which is one of the areas where Henry Miller lived!).

I enrolled in French classes at the Sorbonne to get a student visa. That allowed me to work 20 hours a week. I got a job teaching English to kids at Babylangues. We eventually came close to becoming homeless there but I ended up getting a great job with an amazing family being a nanny for their daughter. That family saved us. They owned an apartment right next to theirs and I worked for the rent there. The father was a diplomat and was able to get me a diplomatic visa! My ex hustled all kinds of jobs to make our money for groceries.  One of her many hustles was that she convinced a bagel shop that they should make donuts too since their logo of a bagel also looked like a donut. The owner was into the idea and she became the donut maker there. My ex is a total badass, a real hustler, so brave and hardworking. I owe my love of living in Europe to her. I don’t think I would have ever made the move if it weren’t for her.  We broke up after 2 years of living in Paris but remained close. After 5 years in Paris, I moved to Barcelona and she stayed in Paris another 5 years then moved to Italy, then Spain, then Italy, and now lives in Ibiza hahaha. I think she lived in India at one point too.  She is crazy in the most beautiful way.

5. Were you aware of the moniker subculture within graffiti when you first started tagging your character?

Oh yeah. I grew up right next to the train tracks and there is an awesome railroad museum in my hometown. Since I was young I was fascinated by hobos. My buddy Hisashi was deep into the Anarcho punk scene in Columbus.  He would have all kinds of travelers come to stay at his place. I thought they were so cool and interesting. They knew all kinds of scams like using tone dialers to make free calls on pay phones and receipt scams and knew ways to scam kinkos for free printing. All this made me really hungry to learn about freight culture but I didn’t know anyone personally that was deep into it.  When the book ‘Freight Train Graffiti’ came out, and the Film ‘Who is Bozo Texino’ came out I devoured them! They had all the information I had been looking for and I fell in love with it all. My art is hugely inspired by monikers. I love the simplicity of them. I love that it’s an art form linked to travel. My favorite part of monikers was always the autobiographical sentences people wrote and sentences about their travels.  That is why I made sentences the heart of my art.

Around the same time I learned about monikers I learned about my greatest inspiration, Kids DAC.  I came across his stuff in a graffiti magazine and fell in love.  I loved his name, the way his character looked, the fact that he was a hardcore traveler, and I loved the sentences he wrote.  I resonated a lot with the themes in his work such as dealing with addiction, mental issues, adventure, friendship, and being a kid. I ended up making a collage of his stuff from the magazine and putting it on my wall and it made me so happy.  I’ve gotten two tattoos of his work on me.  I ended up living in Pittsburgh where he lived for a long time and got to see the many pieces of graffiti he still has up there. I visited his grave there many times and have talked with many people close to him and got to meet his widow and his kids and they were so kind to me.  I think it was around 2008 that I first learned about him.  So many years later his work still inspires me as much as it did back then.  Jesse DAC was one of his friends and crewmates and he inspired me a lot too. He used to do these “Dear Mom” graffiti letters to his mom on the road and I love those so much.

6. You seem to paint a lot of cutty spots that are off the beaten path. What draws you to these unexplored areas? Longevity or just the exploration part?

I love everything about the cuts! One of the dictionary definitions of my name, March, is a piece of land in-between 2 countries that is not owned by either. It is a boundary, a liminal place, a no man’s land, the margins.  A Marcher is someone who inhabits those places. I love the exploration part a lot.  I pretty much have not changed a bit since I was a kid. Instead of searching for the treasures of skate spots I now search for the treasures of virgin spots to paint. And the search is a lot of the fun.  Many of the spots I hit have a story of a journey behind them for me.  The other day I was showing my girlfriend photos from a walk I did of the entire length of Portugal.  One photo was of a piece I did in an abandoned house. I had forgotten about the piece but when I saw the photo the memories from that trip and that spot came back to me.  I had entered that house at like 2 am and scoped it out to make sure nobody was squatting in there.  You could tell people were squatting it at one point but it was unclear if they were still living there. Since it was 2 am and I didn’t see anyone I figured nobody was living there. After painting for 30 minutes a Gypsy came in one door of the room, and another Gypsy came in the other door, thus blocking both exits. It was scary as fuck! The Gypsies are notorious for not giving a fuck and rolling deep and I was essentially in their house! I used gestures and said in a probably unintelligible mix of Spanish and French that I was going to leave now no problem. They were super cool and left and I quickly finished my piece and left. So anyway, I love how painting the cuts gives me a story to each piece. I love that getting to that house was after two weeks of walking across Portugal.

I also love the longevity of the cuts.  I love to imagine someone finding a piece of mine 100 years from now.  Some of the graffiti that gets me most excited is civilian graffiti from like 50 years ago. There could be the craziest burner ever that isn’t very old under a bridge and I’ll get more excited seeing ‘Jimmy and Starla forever 1972’. Longevity has a certain magic to it.  

I also get more of a high when someone sends me a photo from some crazy remote hidden spot deep in the cuts. I’m like “What the hell was that person doing way out there? It gives me more of a high when someone sends me a photo of something I did that nobody has ever found before than it does when 50 people send me photos of the same piece that I did in a non-cutty spot. 

I love the peace of the cuts. I like listening to music while I paint and drinking beer and smoking cigarettes and singing and talking to myself and just chilling. I also pretty much only paint during the day.  I have this curse (or blessing) that I cannot sleep once the sun starts coming up. If I go to bed at 4 am I will still wake up at 6 am when the sun comes up. All the homies will be able to sleep until 2 in the afternoon and get a full night’s rest but I will be awake at 6 on two hours of sleep feeling like shit the whole day. I’m old so getting no sleep makes me feel extra shitty. It makes me feel hungover even if I wasn’t drinking, and I get the most depressed thoughts. So I only paint in the day and the cuts are best for that. 

 7. Walking long distances must impact what gear you bring with you, you touched on it earlier about not affording the luxury of 15 cans of paint like most writers do because of the weight. What tools have become your go-to for the walks? Stickers, Sakuras, type of markers etc? Any other favorite items you bring on your adventures that aren’t graffiti-related?

I always have a bunch of black and white Markals, a pen scribe, 2 cans of black for fills, and a can of white for outlines and sentences. I usually have a bunch of printed eggshell stickers and some Presto correction pens too. I make art on the road with maps I use for my walks. This is one way I fund my walks. I bring some Posca and Sharpie markers to make the art pieces.  

I always have an ultra-light bag, tent, and zero-degree sleeping bag. I always have a sleeping mat. Very crucial for me is to have a headlamp and extra batteries.  Also crucial is an external battery pack to charge my phone. I always have a fanny pack in which I put my markers, scribe, stickers, and headlamp. Very important for me is to have a rain jacket and rain paints.

I always have a Sawyer squeeze water purifier and also water purification tablets. Super necessary for me in cold weather is a wool underlayer shirt and pants. I always have something for self-defense, either bear mace or a smiley.  I love having an umbrella because if the rain is light then I can just use that instead of putting on my rain gear and getting all hot and sweaty. 

8. Someone mentioned to me you try to avoid driving cars as much as possible, is this true? How did that come to be?

I was born that way.  In high school everyone wanted a car but to me, it just meant more stress and complexity.  To me, it just means I have to work more to pay for a car, insurance, gas, tickets, maintenance, and accidents.  I didn’t have a car for 20 years. A few years ago someone gave me their old car. It was great in many ways and allowed me to do many things I otherwise could not. It also gave me a sense of security knowing I could live in it if I had to.  But mostly it stressed me out. When I was 19 my sister died in a car accident.  When I was 30 another sister died in a car accident. Driving makes me nervous. If you drive the speed limit people ride your ass. Then if you go over the limit because people are riding your ass then the cops might pull you over.  I hate how you are more vulnerable to the law with a car. I got tickets for things when I was trying my best to follow all the laws. One time there was a cop pulled over on the right side of the highway and he was in his car. I drove by on the right-hand lane and then he pulled out and pulled me over.  Turns out there is a law I had never heard of that if there is a cop on the side of the road you need to get over into the middle lane. The cop gave me a 180-dollar ticket. I didn’t have the money for that so never paid. Then I got mail saying they were adding money to my fine the longer I didn’t pay. So I guess I have a bench warrant in Pennslyvania. It infuriates me to think about it. Rather than have a car I just live in cities where you don’t need a car. All the best cities you don’t need a car anyway.  But I’m not some anti-car fundamentalist. When I walked the Appalachian Trail I had to hitchhike into towns to ressupply. I’m living in southern Portugal now with my girlfriend and we use her car sometimes to go to cool places and it’s great to have that option. 

9. I’m sure Europe is much easier to get around on foot than America. What’s your plan for Southern Portugal? How many different countries total are you at right now?

Europe is much easier to get around on foot. They have these trails called “GR” trails that go all over. Looking at a map of all the GR trails in Europe just makes me drool, they go everywhere! When I lived in Catalonia I would take these trails everywhere. If you want to go to Sitges, or Lleida, or Banyoles, or Girona or Montserrat there is a trail.  Before cars, there were just old trails basically, and many of them still exist. It’s cool because oftentimes you are walking on old Roman roads.

My plan here in Portugal is to spend time with my girlfriend, explore and paint and make art, get my shit together, and learn Portuguese. My girlfriend and I are working on this massive project of walking all the abandoned train tracks in Portugal. We are doing it in sections when we have time and have done 5 days of it. It’s fun. We went to libraries and did a lot of online research on the different lines and their history. Right now we are walking lines in Alentejo. I’m at a major crossroads here. My years of not giving a fuck have caught up with me and now I’m in really poor mental and physical health. I feel trapped by it. I’m 8 months sober and feel incredibly better than I did. But I still feel unhealthy. When I was still using I had the delusion that the shitty way I felt was because I was using and if I stopped I’d feel all better. It’s scary when you still feel bad after quitting, especially when you are broke and have no insurance. My goal is to get on my feet, get healthy, get some kind of stability.  I want to work on making a life out here with my girlfriend and become a legal resident. 

10. What’s the closest near-death experience you’ve had since traveling around?

Great question, there have been so many! The first that comes to mind is when I found my first entrance to the Paris catacombs.  I was walking in this abandoned area in Paris and I noticed a hole in this wall not far from me. My first thought was that it was an entrance to the catacombs but I didn’t want to get my hopes up. I peeked my head in the hole and sure enough stone stairs were going underground! I climbed in and went down and viola I was in the catacombs! It was one of the greatest discoveries of my life because I had always wanted to go there and never thought I would ever be able to. I knew nothing about them or how to get there and it was just luck that I had found this entrance. I would later go on to find 2 more entrances and eventually met cataphiles and became a part of the community but this discovery was crazy because I didn’t have a map and had no sense of the place at all.  It was chaos to me on this first trip, just tunnels going every which way.  I was so excited I was there and wanted to explore it all. I remember hoping I would find some human bones, or some cool room, or the holy grail hahaha! I could not stop myself from continuing to explore each new tunnel I came to, to keep going deeper into the catacombs.

I was navigating in the most stupid way, just keeping track of which direction I turned at the last junction. I would just keep repeating to myself the turns I made. “Ok, I went left, then right, then left, left then left. Ok, I’ll turn right at this junction, so it’s left, right, left, left right.” I kept going further and after one turn I got nervous if I remembered the last turn correctly. At that point, I panicked and my mind went completely blank. My mind went into chaos and I could not recall the order of turns at all, it was gone.  I tried my best to stay cool but I was in a state of terror honestly.  I used intuition and guessing to get my way back to where I knew where I was. Actually it was graffiti that saved my life because it was recognizing certain tags and graffiti on the walls that would let me know I was in a tunnel I had been to. When I got back to where the exit was I was the happiest person alive hahaha!  After now having spent years going to the catacombs I know that I wasn’t really in a lot of danger.  Someone probably would have come through eventually. But I was there during the week which is not when people usually go. I was also in an area where people have parties but it is not one of the most popular places to go regularly.  

11. Thanks again for taking the time to do this interview, is there any advice you would like to give to younger people who might be reading this and interested in pursuing a similar lifestyle? Any shout-outs you’d like to give?  Where can people follow you to support your work?

It’s my pleasure! As far as advice I’d say if you want to make it a lifestyle it helps to have a job you can travel with.  For me that has been teaching English and nannying. It’s a great job because you can live anywhere in the world. Another piece of advice is If your parents are addicts, please don’t drink or do drugs, it’s not worth the gamble. I guarantee you that the bad feeling that you are missing out or are awkward is way less painful than ruining your mental and physical health by becoming an addict.  If you want to dedicate your life to walking and traveling you need all your strength. It’s easy and fun when you are young. As you get older though it’s hard because societal norms attack you more and become harder to resist especially if you are unhealthy.  The longer you go the scarier it gets.

The community helps. I have a community to an extent but I’m also incredibly insecure so it’s hard for me to be fully part of a community.  Books have largely been my community. Books can help you through the hard times.  Don Quixote is my favorite. Moby Dick. The Once and Future King. Picaresque novels. Wuxia novels. Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse. Rimbaud has been a great friend. Nietzsche. Thoreau. Robert Louis Stevenson. Vachel Lindsy. If you are going to spend your life in instability, broke and traveling, and doing graffiti then you need allies to help protect you from the dominant ideas of society which are sedentary philosophies and the opposite of what you are doing. Shout out to my crews Abe Lincoln Brigade and Poor Boys Gang. Shout out to Impeach, Hank, Alamo, Kentucky Kid, Vegan, and Rafi. Shout out to Curve. Shout out To Sad Dog. My family and friends.

You can find me on Instagram @marcher.arrant. I also have a website www.themarcherarrant.com. I have art for sale at marcherarrant.bigcartel.com.

Comments