Rasty Knayles

Rasty is a graffiti artist living in Joburg, he’s originally from Durban, but the family moved up when he was eight. Before he began painting he wanted to be a pro football player. In his late teens he found graffiti which overtook his passion for soccer and it has now grown into a career and full time job. He remembers at first not knowing what he was doing with the art, but his persistency and the adrenalin-filled pleasure it gave him got him to where he is today.

So where IS he today? Rasty is known in Joburg as one of the city’s finest grafitti artists, he’s commissioned to do pieces on almost a daily basis, from murals in private houses right up to the big corporate jobs, pieces for commercials, and live painting at events. He’s also opened his own graffiti store called grayscale (have a look at the website or facebook group) which sells graffiti related products and also the only stockist in SA of the worlds most renowned spraycan called Montana, so here’s his story…

Although he’s a successful entrepreneur now, Rasty recalls with great enthusiasm a night (he claims long ago) running from cops and homeowners after “bombing” a residential wall on the side of a highway. The story goes that half way through doing the piece with his crew, the cops arrived and the guys had to split, he ran across the highway dodging traffic, another friend jumped over a barbed wire fence and cut himself up nicely, they hid out for a while waiting for the cops to leave, then quickly finished the piece before taking the carved up friend to hospital. 

In the morning they came back with a camera to get shots of the wall, the home owners saw them, ran after them with weapons, he once again had to run across the highway, this time with a lot more traffic, eish, hope those days are over Rasty, but something tells me once an anarchist, always an anarchist J. For those interested in graffiti, those artists wanting to turn professional, or even those wanting to open an unrelated store, here’s his advice..

Last but not least, here's the man giving his view on African Politics, thank you Rasty…