Water (Toronto) Graffiti Writer Spotlight

How long have you been writing for?

I would say since 95 so about 23 years. But I would say its more like 20 years total because I took some time off to focus on digital VFX and 3D animation work.

Where are you based out of?

Currently I have been based out of Toronto for the past 17 years. I started in London
Ontario but moved to Toronto back in 2001.

Which writers influenced my style?

From the early days back in London Ontario it was Donse and Jedi (GNF crew) that influenced me coming up. When I was going to art school at Beal Art, many of my friends were writing graffiti and all of them had a very different and unorthodox styles that had a big influence on me. In early days of Toronto it was Ren, Hope, Virus, Duro3, Case, Insight, Skam, Other, Mediah and Elicser to name a few. Some of the early US writers that I looked up to were Emit DF crew, and Kuaze One ATT crew.

Talking about my style:

I think I was very fortunate to grow up where I did and at the right time. London was a bit of an island separated from the rest of Ontario cities. We had a very limited view of the outside graff world except for a small handful of magazines, and the few freights that rolled through town.

When Fatso moved from Halifax to London it was another turning point. Fatso had such a fresh new motivated outlook on graffiti that all of us picked up on. He was a big influence on my style and helped elevate the scene in London in many ways.

When I first met Duro3 it was another big turning point. At the time I was painting a ton but Duro3 taught me to focus on my style and to push my shit more than ever. He actually convinced me to start writing Water, which is funny because I found out later that my last name means “middle of the river”. He put me down in kwota crew (later TDV crew) and brought me to Montreal where I saw a whole new crazy side of hardcore Canadian graffiti. We got to paint with so many great world famous writers and there was always something big on the horizon.

Later on Duro3 introduced me to digital art and after seeing him rock some crazy new digital mediums I decided to go to Digital Media Arts at Seneca to pursue 3D animation and Visual Effects. For the past 7 years I have been running my own VFX/animation company (Kerosene Visual Effects) but I still try and find as much time as I can get to go out and paint.