HE’S OFF THE WALL
Graffiti artist Sam Earl creates abstract text on legal sites
The look of concentration on Sam Earl’s face is intense, even as he pauses to change the nozzle on a spray paint can. He is lanky and young — just 20 — and wearing a black J Dilla T-shirt, a maroon, flat-brim ATKGWFO ball cap and listening to Wu-Tang Clan through ear buds; a living, breathing billboard to hip-hop culture.
His strokes are precise, the painting motion not all in the arm as you might suspect. On the downstrokes, he often simply lets his entire body go limp, allowing gravity to do much of the work. His canvas is one of the legal graffiti walls on the concrete caissons of the Bronson Avenue bridge over the Rideau River, at Carleton University.
His work — he says colleagues would instantly recognize it as his — might be described as abstract text, a block of largely silver and black that viewers might stand in front of for some time, looking for something familiar hidden there. He doesn’t call himself a graffiti artist; he is a graffiti writer, and his creations have the potential to be among the most shortlived, each at the whim of others like him, looking for some space to fill.
Earl, who is a member of the crews MDS and SVR, and goes by the pseudonym ECO, began painting graffiti about four years ago, as he and some friends who had been drawing in sketchbooks together decided to “take it to the wall.” Of the legal walls, which purists might argue run counter to the culture’s ethos, he is supportive.
“It’s a better way to express yourself,” says the South Keys resident. “You don’t want to go and ruin the city, and it gives you time to get the art out without worrying about things like police and getting criminal charges.”
There’s a code among serious graffiti artists and writers, a respect for talent that will allow better pieces to remain on display longer, while lesser works will more immediately be painted over.
He posts pictures of his work on Instagram and Facebook, where the feedback of friends and colleagues are an important part of the process.
“I’m pretty obsessed with graffiti,” he adds, “and I love when people come by and see it. A lot of people talk about how Ottawa is really boring, but if you just apply yourself and do something, do some hobbies like graffiti, it’s not that boring.”