Shelflife Artist Series: Cros
Our Artist Series is back! We kick off our favourite collaborative project this week with a long-time friend of Shelflife - Cros.
We caught up with one of Cape Town's finest ahead of this Saturday 12 November's release to find out about his 22-year history in graffiti and inspiration for his Shelflife Artist Tee.
See our past artist tee features here and stay tuned for fortnightly updates!
Where did you grow up?
I was born in Woodstock, but moved all over the southern suburbs as I grew up.
When did you start writing?
The first time I physically sprayed a wall was 2000 when I was 13, but my first proper piece was in 2001, things really took off in 2002 when I met DISK at school, this was also the year of my first arrest and NICRO stint.
If there was one moment that really peaked your interest leading you into graffiti, what was it and when?
In around 2000, there was a guy in my area who wrote REK FYC, his tags were the first I started noticing, but what really got me interested in graffiti was this DINOWEALZ down the side of the M5 bridge near my house, it kinda blew my mind at the time, how neat it was, the solid chrome and black against the cement, the size, the letters, everything about it was dope! From then on I made an active effort to look for new graffiti and learn how it worked.
Who / what was your biggest inspiration starting?
A few names stood out to me like Sect, Toe & RL crew, we didn’t really have access to any graffiti overseas at this time. But to be honest when I started, everything and everyone was an inspiration. Everything was new. At that time there was new graffiti going up all the time, I knew very few writers so everything was almost like an little adventure. Finding new spots, learning things, seeing new pieces pop up, it was all inspiring to push. I think being new and wanting to prove yourself, in a way doesn’t need inspiration, it was more of a natural drive to compete.
Who / what is your biggest inspiration now?
Currently, there are a load of dudes that inspire me. I’ve had the privilege of painting with quite a few heavy hitter international guys over the years, meeting them, chatting about the scenes and painting with them definitely gets the fire burning!
Has graffiti helped shape your future, if so what commercial work has lead to where you find yourself today?
I’ve always tried to keep my graffiti and my ‘real-life’ very separate. Graffiti itself has had both huge negative and positive effects on my life, its helped me grow as a person, taught me life lessons, but has also ruined relationships, cost me ridiculous amounts of money and time, and has put me in some really dodgy situations that a normal person would never get into. I’ve never actively promoted my graffiti or looked for graffiti jobs, but I have done a few commercial jobs through friends that needed a hand.
What was your specific inspiration for your SL Artist Tee?
I focussed on what I love about graffiti: style, lettering techniques and colour combinations. The graphic is a mash up of my favourite 4 letters- my tag. The subtle fill in forms the letter S for Shelflife. I then used unique finishes of my own personal style throw in, like thin cracks, drippy drips and chunky 3D.
Tell us something we don't know about you?
I’ve wrote about 5 different names before I started writing CROS.
What's the best piece of advice you can give other artists just starting along their journey?
I can only really give advice from a graffiti writers perspective, but if that was the case, I’d say learn the history about what you’re getting into, keep a level head, do your thing quietly and you’ll go far, people will notice you, trust me. Guys forget that being a writer at its core is a very anti-social behaviour, too many people want to make it into a social and social-media thing, that’s not at all what it’s about.
Shelflife Artist Tee 'Cros'
R499
S, M, L, XL, 2XL
Dropping Saturday 12 November in CPT, JHB and online.
Online at 7am, stores from 10am.