Socially distant, but thankful that social media has brought us all closer together. Keeping the wheels turning, we felt it was about time we had another ‘A Word With’ chat with a chronic creative. This time around we fire a bunch of questions over to Matt Script in the ‘Windy City’, Chicago. So read on for some candid Graffiti tales, travels and dealing with Crohn’s on the move.
Hello Matt,
What’s on your desk/work space?
I travel a lot, so it’s usually dependent on the furnishings of the rental space. Our place in Cape Town had a big beer garden style table, which was great for working on, but I have cats. Trying to create artwork as an owner of two cats presents many challenges. My wife recently bought me a mini tabletop easel for our anniversary. I think that maybe her way of telling me my posture is deteriorating, she also told me my posture was deteriorating and this might help.
Whereabouts do you live? What's outside the window?
I currently live in Chicago. I haven't gotten to know the place that well yet. Our balcony is pretty much parallel to the L train, but I don't mind the sound of trains, and it was considerably cheaper than places in quieter areas.
How long have you been active in the world of Graffiti? How did you embark on this journey of self-expression? Have you always written the name Sick? Did you choose the name because of Crohn's? Any crew's you'd like to shout out?
To be honest, I have never been involved in the train scene, so I've never counted myself as a Graffiti writer, I just dabble. I have a lot of friends who really live the Graffiti life and I don’t, so I would feel like a fraud to call myself a Graffiti writer.
I took up an interest in Graffiti in 1993; I grew up in Ladbroke Grove, which many consider to be one of the pioneering little pockets of the U.K, as it had the most famous painting spot called 'The Pit' at the time. People in the 80’s and early 90’s would travel from all across the U.K just to get photos and make a pilgrimage. A lot of them got robbed; it was also famous for that reason too. I had a pretty long commute to school from a young age, I would see all the names on the tracks and it must have slowly made a subconscious imprint on me. I then met Amber and Frez and they basically explained what a tag was and it all started to make sense and I was hooked. I started writing 'Sick' whenever the film 'Trainspotting' came out. I had dabbled with different names, but everyone started calling me Sick Boy, after the film's character, as I was always off school with one thing or another. I wasn’t blessed with a great immune system and now it seems even more fitting.
Shout out to all my crews. The crews I'm in are all sorts of splinter groups from each other, so we’re pretty much all mates. I would probably look like a crew slag if I listed them all. Big up 439 TBF 1T BSD. Nasty HabitS was the first crew I was in, so can’t not mention them. If it weren't for that crew I wouldn't have gone on to meet half the people I'm friends with today.
Does your work have a defined style; I know you're big on lettering?
London 80’s style was always a big influence. The letters just looked tough, they had a sharp aggressiveness to them, they just didn't look happy and that always appealed to me. I went through a phase of Chicano script style, but I always felt a bit awkward doing that. I’m not from L.A, so it feels like a bit of a misappropriation. I prefer to keep that stuff on paper, but I will still paint something in that style occasionally.
When I lived in Bangkok, you had to paint pretty quickly to avoid heat stroke and the cops. I started doing really simple letters and that has kind of stuck. Maybe out of laziness, but I just like painting and seeing nicely shaped and proportioned letters these days. There are a lot of ‘famous’ writers out there, who if you were to give them a couple of tins of paint and 10 minutes they wouldn't have a clue what to do.
Away from the wall pieces, you create some incredibly intricate outlines and lettering on paper. Was art something you studied in school or is there another background that took you down this creative path growing up? Cartoons? Comics etc.
I have always enjoyed drawing and reading. The more I progressed through school the more apparent it became I wasn't good at maths or science, but I was creative. Just like other kids could do algebra, but couldn't even draw a stick figure. I think instead of this method of curriculum, the education system should recognise people’s skills and passions and nurture them earlier, instead of this paint by numbers, repeat after me approach.
I did try art college, mainly because I wanted the student loan, and to sit around drawing all day. I suspected I would never end up the kind of professional that could pay it back. However we were being set up and trained to go into creative agencies, rather than being taught anything practical. The focus was on how to present to a potential client somewhere down the path in our careers. We literally weren’t taught anything and were graded on our presentations. I thought I would be enjoying being creative, but it was just like school again. I’m also a terrible public speaker, which didn't help, I won't name the place but it's a famous London art college. In the end I sacked it off and got a job working in art departments for TV. That was a lot more fun and I would never have got a job in advertising anyway.
Is Design a full time job/career, or is there another 9-5?
It's good work if you can get it, but I would be lying if I said it was a career. It's kind of a mix between little commissions here and there and selling personal works. I make more money a day walking my wealthy neighbours dogs on average and it's only for an hour a day. I still get people messaging me regularly offering me £100 for me to spend three days hunched over a sketchbook. "No mate I'll pass thanks".
What, or who were your inspirations whilst honing your craft? Who were your mentors getting up? Who do respect/rate in the scene?
I've lived in four continents now and painted with too many people to mention over the years. If I start listing people I'm bound to forget one that will get the hump. There's a place we call the 'White City Pit' in London, on the tracks just outside the station. The first name that ever sunk into my head from my journeys to school was DIET, because he had a really nice simple letter dub there. Fast-forward a few years and there I am painting the same spot with him one night. I’m not a hero worshiper and he’s a good mate, but the next day I did think to myself "its funny how things work out".
What is your preferred medium? Can, brush, pen?
I think the last bit of artwork I made involved inks, pens, paint pens, Posca pens and spray paint. Those are my go to mediums. I will spend hours on tiny details then haphazardly start throwing a bottle of ink at it when I'm finished and hope for the best.
How did/do you cope with your Crohn's in such adrenalin fuelled arena as Graffiti?
Having an anxiety disorder and Crohn’s disease really isn't ideal in stressful situations. I honestly don't know why I put myself through it. Adrenaline and fear makes even the healthiest of people literally want to crap themselves. Let’s just say there are things out there to keep you calm, but use them responsibly kids. The more time you spend in sketchy situations the more you get used to it, I also pick who I paint with carefully, they have to be people I am comfortable around and put me at ease.
You've travelled a lot, and found yourself in some of the more hostile environments, where has been the most hectic place to paint?
There was one situation that springs to mind where a load of Bangkok cops were screaming at me in Thai to get in the back of a police truck. That place is pretty lawless, when it comes to those guys. They can do whatever they want to foreigners, with impunity. A friend of mine had a really nasty run in with them that would have gotten U.K cops locked up for years, if they had done the same. So there’s no way I'm getting in the back of their van without knowing where I'm going.
Respect is really important in Thai culture, and so is social hierarchy. So I had to make a phone call to someone from an important family to speak to them for me. After that it was all smiles, I still had to pay a fine though. Bangkok itself doesn’t really have dangerous areas; you can walk home drunk at 3am on your own and be completely safe.
Cape Town however is in the Top Ten for the most dangerous cities on the planet. It’s also the most dangerous city in South Africa and the places you paint aren't exactly the safest parts of town, but I had a lucky run.
People don’t just rob you there; if you’re robbed it's kind of 50/50 if you’re going to get killed too, or raped and killed if you're female, life is cheap. The closest run in I had was when I was painting the Metro Line and was approached by some local gangsters. One of them told me about all the people he had killed, which in Cape Town is very real. Nobody pretends to be a gangster there if they aren’t. Then he tried to take all my shit, I gave him a bit and said "Look man, I'm not giving you all my shit!" and he didn't pull out a gun. Instead I shared my bottle of JD and cigarettes with them, I think the British accent won them over, but it could have gone a different way.
Have you ever exhibited your work in the gallery setting? Where do you stand on the transition from illegal to commissioned walls, to gallery?
No galleries, a few of those bars that do gallery nights, but nothing formal. All that happens at those ‘Graffiti’ shows is a load of reprobates have a two minute look around to grab the free drinks, then everyone stands outside smoking. Some drunken guy usually does an ill judged tag and gets nicked, then we all go home, and nobody buys anything.
Commissioned walls aren't Graffiti, it might be colours and letters, but if you have permission it’s Street Art. I’m lucky enough now to turn down those jobs, the clients on those jobs are usually particularly difficult to work with, and there’s very little professional courtesy involved on their part. If Graffiti is in a gallery, again it isn't Graffiti. I think it was TLOK that said "Illegal Graffiti is like a wild lion and anything else is like seeing one in a zoo". Saying that, I have very much enjoyed watching my friends expand and develop their works, while transitioning into gallery shows over the years and establishing themselves as artists in their own right. And I like seeing a nice piece whether its legal, illegal or on a canvass.
Let's talk Crohn's disease…Yes that little shit of an illness that we share the hate/hate relationship with. How long have you been battling with the illness?
Like many people, I was fobbed off by Doctors telling me it was IBS for years. It's not their fault there is only so many patients that can see in a day, and they don't want the waiting rooms filling up I guess. It was 2010 when I finally got the diagnosis, from the first colonoscopy, of what would be many more.
What was the first thing that rattled through you mind when you were told, "You have Crohn's disease", was it something you'd heard of?
My first thought was "Well thank fuck for that it’s not bowel cancer!" The Internet is not the place to go, to try and reassure yourself while you’re waiting weeks for a colonoscopy and losing blood.
My second thought was "Excellent, now I can give a Doctors letter to my boss and he will now be too scared to give me a hard time over missing work".
What medication are you currently taking? Have you made any drastic changes to your diet or routine?
Currently just Mesalazine, the Azathioprine played havoc with my liver. I’ve been through the IV steroid 'Hell Weeks' in the past. I’ve tried different routines and diets and to be honest when I was doing 10k runs and eating vegan I had to stop as it made my symptoms so much worse. "Vegan’s, STOP TELLING PEOPLE IT CURES CROHNS!"
Have you had to undergo any surgery?
No. Worst it's ever gotten was a few years ago during a bad flare. I was due to come back to London from Cape Town for a wedding, but was deteriorating by the day so thought I'd better get to the Doctor to see if it was safe for me to fly. There weren't any seats in the waiting room, so I just lay down on the floor, as I couldn't stand. The doctor took one look at me, and an hour later I was in a hospital bed. After an emergency colonoscopy the GI Doctor told me the altitude would have caused my bowel to perforate, and because of the flight path there would have been nowhere worth landing for emergency surgery, so I would have died slowly and painfully on the plane of blood poisoning.
What has been the biggest learning curve through dealing with the illness?
I’ve learned to be selfish. I used to feel bad about letting people down, or not making it to social occasions, but I no longer care, or feel any obligation to do anything I don’t want to when I'm not feeling well. I’ve learnt who my proper friends are, I also learnt how terribly disabled people are treated and how ignorant, judgmental and uncaring society and the government are. I lost my nine to five job at the time to this, as I was too ill to work, but was told by the DWP (Dept. of Work & Pensions) I was fit to work. It was a real eye opener to the world of politics.
Going back to the question regards your art and Crohn's. I've spoken to so many people with IBD who are involved somehow in an artistic or creative career. Do you think this outlet may be something we are drawn to for therapy?
I think creative people are far more likely to suffer from anxiety and depression, and the brain and the gut are more connected than we think, so it’s no coincidence there are a lot of artists who suffer from this disease. And sitting at home drawing is pretty great, when every trip outside could end in embarrassment.
What is the support network like in all the places you've resided?
My wife’s company provided us with health cover as part of the expat package, so I’ve had unlimited access to private hospitals. The NHS are amazing, but when you go private you barely have to wait a week to see a Gastroenterologist, and then three days later there’s a camera up your arse.
That was the case in Bangkok and Cape Town. It’s the same in America, except even with insurance you still have to pay a fortune out your own pocket. For example the standard blood test they give you when you have a flare is $1,600 after insurance pays the majority. A month's prescription of Pentasa is $700. You get seen quickly, but its purely for profit industry here. It exists to make money first and make people better second. Everybody knows what Crohn's / Colitis is here as biological treatments are constantly advertised on the TV in those "Ask your Doctor about Humira" adverts. It’s nice being able to say you have Crohn’s to people without a follow up explanation
How are you doing right now? Especially during this Covid 19 epidemic?
I had a flare just before all this started and am still in one, the last place I want to go right now is a hospital. So I'm hoping it's all over soon, so I can make another appointment.
To finish on a slightly lighter note, do you have any anecdotes or stories you can tell us about Crohn's or Graff vs. Crohn's?
I actually know a lot of people public defecators, who have been caught short while painting, weirdly none of them have Crohn’s! They're just savages. Even when I lived in Bangkok, which is notorious for getting diarrhea, I won’t go painting on a day if I even have the most mild, or brief cramp. And when I do, I take enough Loperamide to block up a healthy person for a month.
Another fact, I’ve had colonoscopies in four countries now!
A massive thanks to Matt for sharing her story and for being such an amazing supporter of GCASFM. You can find more of Matt’s work via his Instagram accounts @ Matt Script or @ Stacking Letters
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Words: Matt Strutt, Matt Script
Images: Matt Script
Contributors: André Leitão
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