Roadsworth • "Graffiti" • Road Artist

^Intriguing Vandalism^

Roadsworth began painting the streets of Montreal in the fall of 2001. Initially motivated by a desire for more bike paths in the city and being a cyclist himself, he wanted to shine a light on the positive effects of alternate transportation. Politicians have been encouraging us for years to adopt unconventional modes of transportation as a palliative to the problems associated with smog and green house gasses, because he had something like an anti-car obsession. He continued to build a buzz around town with his street markings and other elements of the urban landscape using a primarily stencil based technique.

Around 4AM on NOVEMBER 29TH 2004 [FOUR YEARS AGO TODAY], Roadsworth was arrested by the Montreal Police after being caught spray painting a Christmas ribbon at a popular intersection. With all of his nocturnal projects, he was charged with 53 counts of mischief. Despite the threat of heavy fines and a criminal record he received a relatively lenient sentence which he attributes in part to the public support he received subsequent to his arrest.

The news of his arrest acquired a certain amount of public support, and what some might describe as “free publicity”. Chris Hand of Zeke‘s Gallery launched the first, and perhaps most significant "Save Roadsworth" campaign on his blog. [Thank God for the Bloggers! HAha]
Since that time, Roadsworth has received various commissions for his work and continues to be active in both visual art and music.

“To express oneself outside of the "accepted" context however is to risk a certain amount of criticism. After all, who am I to impose my opinions on others? I don‘t pretend to have answers for anything and the complexity of the world is beyond the scope of my understanding but I still believe that I have the right to ask "Who are you to push hamburgers on me?" or "Who are you to pollute my air?" or “Who are you to tell me to go to war?" Despite my cynicism, I feel that whether motivated through a sense of self-preservation or that of future generations, there is nevertheless a growing recognition that an industrial-age mentality is no longer adequate to the challenges that humanity is faced with. Though maybe not purely altruistic, there is an awareness that the interest of others could also be in ones own interest. Big words for a vandal.”

*After looking at this, I feel like these little clips that I've pieced together, so I could show alot in a little space, takes away from his work. I would highly suggest clicking on the ROADSWORTH at the beginning of the Post, so you can get a better example of his work.