Graffiti spray painter turns into muralist

Victoria,British Columbia,Canada

By Mark Browne
Esquimalt News

ESQUIMALT * It doesn't take Morgan Macaulay very long to spray paint a mural.
The mural he sprayed on a wall in the Esquimalt Recreation Centre parking lot attests to that.
"I did it in a day-and-a-half," Macaulay said.
Macaulay became involved in creating the 400-square-foot mural through the Rock Solid Foundation, an organization he's been associated with for the past five years. If someone contacts Rock Solid wanting a mural done, there's a good chance that Macaulay's company, Creative Outlooks, will get the job.
"They hook me up with work. It helps me out because when I'm trying to find work on my own it's hard to find work in this city," he said.
The wall was not what could be described as aesthetically pleasing to the eye before Macaulay arrived on the scene with his spray cans.
"It was covered with tags and graffiti," he pointed out.
The graffiti is now completely covered with a long mural of a freight train passing through Esquimalt. He received the green light to paint the mural after showing a photograph of the train to the woman who owns the building.
Now 25, Macaulay was originally approached by Rock Solid Foundation director Tom Woods several years ago. Macaulay was spray-painting graffiti on a wall of a warehouse on the train tracks, which are now home to the Trackside Gallery. At the time, Woods was a constable in the now-defunct Esquimalt Police Department.
"I thought he was going to arrest me but it turned out that he wanted to talk to me," Macaulay recalled.
That was when Macaulay got his first job spray-painting murals through his company. Since then he's done murals around Greater Victoria.
"I thought why not try and make some money out of it," he recalled about his move from graffiti artist to muralist.
Macaulay has been a huge asset to Rock Solid, says Woods, who's now a member of Esquimalt Fire Rescue.
"He's exceptionally talented," Woods said.