A few days back, the infamous street artist, Ghost Patrol took me for a walk to show me some of his work, in context. His detailed paste-ups and bold murals add a bit of ‘beauty’ to the otherwise bland city streets.

Although, Ghost Patrol’s work has been purchased by the National Gallery of Australia, and been shown at The National Portrait Gallery, his appearance remains undisclosed. 

You are a part of a variety of different projects, can you describe a bit about what you do?  

Alright, I am an artist. I do a bit of street art, but mainly I do drawings for exhibitions and murals and things like that. I separate things that have been done on the street illegally from murals and that.

How has skateboarding impacted your work?

I grew up skating. Most of the artists that I know have a skating background and they draw on that as a basis for this DIY cu  culture and learning to do art. If you want to make a little magazine or something, you just do–it-yourself. If you want to skate a ramp you just do-it-yourself. You don’t rely on other things to entertain you; you find it yourself.  It is that idea of using the environment, things around, buildings and stairs and that for a different use, the same applies to street art. You do not need heaps of money to buy a skateboard and turn the city into a park and even with graffiti, it does not cost much. It is a cheap way to entertain yourself.

I am not a great skater. I have been skating for like 15 years, to get around different cities. It is really nice to skate different cities; generally most skaters seem to be really chilled out, really open people. In a different city, whenever you approach a stranger who is a skater, you always know it is going to be okay, that they are regular people.

Do you think there is a strong link between skateboarding and street art?

It refers back to skateboarding as a trigger. It’s the whole sub-culture kind of mentality and that applies to other things. It is something you can be passionate about, but do your own thing within it.

How would you describe your style?

Uh I hate answering that. [Laughs]. It is just things that are in my imagination. I spend most of my time sketching in a book and work those [sketches] up into bigger pieces. I really like the idea of how you think of this idea for people; they can tell there is some kind of story, or something, behind the image.

You look at the piece and make up your own mind. It doesn’t really matter what I have intended because once the picture is done and goes up on the Internet, or into a book, or in a gallery most of that is taken away anyway. So, I like that idea.

Does the fact that your work is in galleries change it’s purpose or meaning at all?

No. When you really love making art…like for me, I do anything I can to clear all my time just to sit down and just draw all day. I make it so I don’t have to get up, so I don’t have to go too far to get a drink or something. I just want to get into that world of drawing.

How do you feel about the negative connotations associated with street art?

I guess the annoying part for me is that people prioritize the problems associated with graffiti and street art, over other things. Why would people give such a **** about a bit of paint on a wall? When there are problems with the health system and education and drunks. Why is paint on a wall such a high priority? Why is it even in the news really? They might spend 200-grand a year buffing it. What a small amount compared to a department stores advertisement on the street, they spend that in a month.

It is also really interesting to hear how hard it is for other people. I feel quite lucky in Melbourne. I have never really had much trouble, even with the change to zero tolerance. I can just walk out my door and slap stuff up during the day and get away with it. In other cities people go to jail; their work is in a completely different context. This guy from the UK, Poster Boy, he just went to jail for 11 months for cutting up billposters, the same thing that Keith Haring was doing when he was around in the early 80s. It’s pretty shit. I don’t do any of that work to ever get in trouble with the police. I understand what I am doing is illegal but I don’t want to get arrested. I love doing art but I don’t do it to go to jail.

It would be nice if people just chilled out about things.

A Walk with Ghost Patrol...

This is probably almost, maybe 10 months old or something. It is just brown paper, maybe newspaper, pasted on the wall with glue, flower and it is all starting to peel and rip off the layers of enamel. I am not even really sure how that works but it is ripping it back to the brick.

I like seeing it fall apart like that though. {Laughs} I don’t know if other people look at it and go ‘Oh that is terrible, wow he should have protected it better,’ but I think it is nice. It looks like it has been here for a 100 years. I have had my fun with it. I have seen it in its pristine state. It is nice to see it become part of the environment and kind of mend into the wall. 

I did that quite recently. I probably had the drawing of it lying around for quite a while. It is a dis-used building just covered in billposters so it is nice to put something a bit more beautiful there, well I think is beautiful. It is better then just text, advertising and stuff. I know that it is going to be ripped down at some point but that does not really matter. I have had my fun with it and a few people might see it and it might make them happier.

This little paste up is all hand drawn in pencil. I put it at the bottom of the door because that is where it fits and there wasn’t much other stuff at the bottom of the door. I though that it would be a nice spot, but within a couple days someone has just put a billposter right over the face, which seems a bit annoying but you learn that you have no control over that. The same way that you thought your work was important; other people think their thing is as well. You learn to just look at it once you have done it and just walk away; not be so precious about it. 

My favorite pieces are the hidden ones that you find by accident and you don’t even really know who did them, and then when you go to show someone else who you want to see it, and they aren’t even there. So you have that fleeting moment of being the last person to see. 

This rolly is just kind of beautiful because you can just imagine these guys in the middle of the night leaning over the edge of that building with these rollers, watering down the paint and letting it drip down the wall. {Laughs} It does not look very impressive, but I like it.

It is pretty amazing to think that there are people in society that do not want any recognition but they will risk anything to hang off the side of a bridge, or ride a train, or whatever just to put up a colourful piece of whatever they see it as and it doesn’t really matter. They are not really concerned about people trying to read it or its place in the community. They just really like going on these adventures I guess. I think that it is really amazing to think that there are people like that because most of the population just goes to work and watches T.V.