mrcenz.com

When I was about 10 yrs old I discovered hip-hop culture and it was though this that I was first introduced to graffiti art. I first familiarised myself with this new and exciting art form through the book Subway art, which I sat for hours studying and copying. When I was about 11 yrs old I began experimenting with my own ‘tags’ and ‘pieces’ and started scribbling on any available surfaces from my bedroom, school to local area. From there on my obsession with graffiti art dominated most of my early teens and I began getting quite heavily involved in the illegal scene writing the tag ‘CENCE’ alongside other writers such as ‘Crymein’, ‘kondem’, ‘Strobe’, ‘Moet’, ‘Regret’, ‘Enrol’(now known as the shoe bomber) and ‘Carve (RIP)’ the list is endless……This unfortunately led to me being arrested several times on various criminal damage charges and causing quite an upset for my parents. At this point I began to look at ways of continuing with my artwork through legal commissions where I had the opportunity to paint and to get paid. After I had left school and gone to Art College my involvement in the graffiti scene was gradually overtaken by music and clubbing. Artistically I was beginning to experiment which graphics, fine art and other forms, but throughout this developmental stage I never lost the influence of graffiti art within my artwork. Its spontaneity, bright colours and bold images continue to be an integral part of on my fine art painting style and technique today. Since graduating from university and beginning to work on community projects I found myself eager to begin painting again. Even though I never lost the interest and ability I still had a long way to go to try and keep up with the modern developments within the scene. Since 1998 I began doing my own legal painting using the slightly changed name ‘CENZ’ and working as a community graffiti artist with young people on a regular basis. This has helped my to develop into a confident painter with my own unique style.

All of the graffiti work on the site (apart from the canvases and commissions) has been produced on legal walls in London and Europe in recent years. The majority of the pieces have been painted within the last two/ three years, but there are few examples of my early work. Unfortunately most of my old photos including lots of trains painted with Carve (RIP) at old school haunts like Bellingham have gone missing over time.