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 REAL
started out like almost all graffiti artists - spraying his tag on
walls. He was part of a crew that had their patch in London, but who
occasionally went up against other crews in turf wars.
"Graffiti was a good way of expressing myself," he remembers. "But
I got fed up with spraying for the sake of it. I wanted people to
appreciate my work."
Unfortunately society as a whole doesn't appreciate graffiti art,
meaning works are scrubbed out or painted over in short periods. The
desire to have his works recognised and seen prompted him to start
experimenting with other forms: drawing, working with canvas and so on.
But it is stencils where he's in his element.
"I was using stencils for my graffiti," REAL says. "You cut it out,
put it on the wall and spray. It's real quick. But I realised I could
use them in other ways."
The process is akin to printing. A card is produced that has the
area to be put down in one colour cut out. The card is sprayed over, a
different card being used for each colour. In this way the image is
built up from layers of colour. Inspiration can come from many sources:
from major political and celebrity icons to photographs of people taken
in the street. The style is, he admits, still influenced by the street.
 At
first he was working for his own pleasure. It wasn't until he was in a
bar in Bounds Green that the dream of having people see his work
started to come true.
"I was drawing in my block book," REAL recalls, "when the manager
came up and started looking at my work. He asked me if I had work he
could put up on his walls. That's how I started selling."
Sales have been good, with REAL unable to keep up with demand at
times. He's also been asked to display in another bar, although time
constraints mean he's yet to do it. However, until he can find suitable
studio space he accepts he won't be able to work full time on art.
His work isn't only sold through the bar. He also accepts
commissions, some coming from his website, other through contacts made
at the bars, some from word of mouth. One commission saw him producing
a piece as birthday present for a DJ at the Trash night-club.
 "I
was asking by Erol Alkin's cousin to do a piece for his birthday," Real
says. He avoided the obvious approach of producing a picture of rubbish
by letting Warhol's film Trash inspire him.
Uniqueness is important to REAL. When enquiries come in about
commissions he won't let himself be drawn in to producing "another"
copy of a past work. Instead he'll rework the piece to make it special.
That way his client can be sure he has something special on his wall
rather than just print. He'll even destroy stencils.
Where next for REAL? "I want to get bigger," he says. "And I want to exhibit in a gallery. Ideally I want my own show."
For now he'll keep plugging away. His current experiments involve
screen printing on to clothing, and he's planning his own range of
clothing.
 As
an artist REAL has probably moved away from his graffiti roots,
although there's still elements of street style in his work. It comes
across as if this is what he wanted to do, what he was willing to give
up for his art. Perhaps his view of graffiti sums it up - "If you're
spraying on walls and cars for the sake of it that's vandalism. If it
makes you think that's art!"
Amen to that.
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