Local graffiti artist part of new art exhibition
Paul McDonald proud to display his toy-sized trains
KITCHENER — Little boys seem to love trains but how many decide that a train car is really just a rolling art canvas?
“I’ve always loved trains,” said Paul McDonald, a Kitchener graffiti artist who has transformed many a drab old boxcar into a work of art.
Is it illegal? Well yes, but a true artist will do just about anything for his passion. “It’s deeper than just the art,” said McDonald who makes his living from more legal pursuits as a graffiti artist. He will be part of the Art$Pay Juried Art Show & Sale Friday and Saturday, an event featuring 120 regional artists.
McDonald is proud to have been asked to submit to the show, though the four trains he’s submitted are toy size. The pieces come as something called “platform toys” one side moulded to look like a train car but blank and the other side hollow.
“They’re 20 inch ABS plastic and the medium is spray paint and paint markers,” he explained. These train models are his canvas, albeit considerably smaller than the real thing.
As a graffiti artist, McDonald said the objective is “to put your name everywhere” meaning your work should appear on buildings, overpasses and, of course, trains and every artist has a distinct, recognizable style. In terms of the train cars, there are hobbyists who practise “benching” taking photos of passing cars decorated with graffiti, photos which are then posted on social media. McDonald has seen images of his work end up on train cars as far away as California.
He’s 40 now, a father of two and a working artist so he hasn’t risked spray painting trains in a long time. Besides, his legitimate work as a graffiti artist and mural painter is much more in demand
and he’s not alone.
McDonald is part of a local graffiti artists collective known as The Firm whose numbers can vary anywhere from a couple to nearly a dozen. Usually there is at least four, all artists who love to use outdoor spaces as their canvas.
Exactly how he came to this unusual artistic endeavour had to do with a stressful job and a very insightful aquatics director.
The lousy job was as an account executive with an insurance company, a job he left in November 2016 for stress. While trying to heal and consider his next move, McDonald was working
with other artists hired by the City of Kitchener to paint a mural on three sides of the Wilson pool building at the Kingsdale Community Centre in Kitchener.
He said it was the aquatics director who noticed he was on edge.
“She said ‘I can tell you’re not happy, you should be doing this full-time,’” he recalled. “It was just the kick in the pants I needed.”
McDonald officially quit his day job and let his artistic talents take him in a creative new direction. He is now earning a good living, actually more money than with the insurance company. And of course, he’s much happier.
“You’ve got to come out of the fog,” he said. “There were some tight months but I refused to give up.
“The scary part is the leaving but once you leave, you’re soaring.”
It was a decision he has never regretted.
Being a graffiti artist, particularly one in Waterloo Region where the art form is still relatively new to the public, sometimes means explaining yourself.
“When we’re doing murals, 60 per cent of the time is spent painting and 40 per cent talking to the public,” he said.
There is this misconception that graffiti is always an illegal act of vandalism where there has been no thought put into the work. Splashes of paint on walls are in fact the work of taggers who are most often young people brimming with mischief and armed with a knapsack full of spray cans. Graffiti as an art form is a way to spice up a dull wall or public space that has previously been defaced by a tagger.
Tagging had become such a problem in the region it led to the formation of the Waterloo Region Anti-Graffiti Alliance. Their focus, other than to engage and educate the community, is to encourage sanctioned public art, the kind of work done by McDonald and his fellow graffiti artists.
In downtown Kitchener, the city has commissioned the artists to paint murals and they’ve been allowed to cover up tagging, though the later is done voluntarily, no pay. For artists like McDonald, such opportunities are a way to give back while enhancing the city, a place he sees as a giant canvas.
“We’re trying to turn the city into a mecca for murals,” he said. “We have talented people here.”