style | art
Freshwater-based artist Steve Miles aka ‘Toxic’, reveals his street side to Tracy Curtis.
photos by Christian Warren W
hether you love or hate graffiti, these days there’s no denying its cultural and political relevance, as well as the skill involved that has elevated this art form from street walls to galleries and museums across the globe.
Freshwater may seem an unlikely place to find one of the stalwarts of the UK’s graffiti scene, but it’s here that Steve Miles has landed, forsaking walls and quietly building up a collection of work on canvas to excite any contemporary art connoisseur.
Steve’s electrifying, vibrant, often abstract art is displayed throughout his house. Wife Rachael smiles, “we held a party recently and the neighbours were round. They didn’t really know what Steve did, and were blown away when they found out he painted all these.” Working in mixed media, using spray paint from his sponsor Monster Colors, acrylics, and sometimes oil
pastels, he combines his passion for typography and colour to produce fine art with a street feel.
Steve was introduced to graffiti at 11 years old whilst living in Birmingham. “My next door neighbour’s cousin from America came to visit and showed us magazines about graffiti and hip hop. We used to mess about practicing breakdancing moves, and I’d always drawn so I really got into the graffiti. The idea of creating your own letter forms in bright colour schemes, rather than drawing wildlife or copying Disney characters was so different at the time, and it really stuck with me.”
Aged 14, Steve generated an alter ego, ‘Toxic’, which has been his tag on legal graffiti walls up and down the country for the past 26 years. The simple reason behind his somewhat menacing moniker was that ‘Non-toxic’ was on the back of a marker pen he had been using, and he just liked the word.
November / December 2013
87
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104