SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Graffiti still has a bad rep in certain circles but, like it or not, it's a hot art form and there's big money in it.

Artists like Banksy in the UK and the late American artists Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Herring stormed the international art scene in recent decades with their multi-million dollar graffiti art. Now there's no going back.

Kim Legler, who paints under the name Miss Kimi, poses in a photo titled "Yummy" during a recent photo shoot in Yellowknife. The painter is experimenting with modeling, photography, textile as well as her colourful new work on canvas this summer. - photo courtesy of Kimberly Legler

Even right here in Yellowknife celebrated Birchwood Gallery artist-in-residence Franklin Sinanan claims graffiti as an inspiration for his unique art.

Three local artists are also stoked about graffiti and have built individual styles influenced by the painted concrete canvases that flourish everywhere across urban North America. They're not breaking any laws but they're breaking conventions.

Impending explosive

Ben Westergreen is ambivalent about the tired debate over vandalism vs. art as it pertains to graffiti. The point is moot in Victoria, B.C., where he is in his final year of a combined computer science and fine art degree at the University of Victoria.

Unlike in Yellowknife, there Westergreen has access to a couple of legal walls where artists are encouraged to spray.

Although he uses legal canvases, he still works fast. His speed conveys an energy and passion that he describes as "impending explosive."

"I try to infuse my work with such an overload of colour that it dulls itself into a grey area," he explained. "The grey area is what interests me most - where the work and its content becomes almost meaningless from the noise contained within, although without becoming too nihilistic. I like to use themes and symbols that evoke youthfulness and joy."

Mellotronica

Kaime Tamisaq Kadjulik-di Pizzo, AKA Tams One, creates big, bold, colourful tags using clean lines and sharp contrasts on canvas, paper, shoes, shirts, hats, skateboard decks and other legal surfaces. His tools transcend spray cans and grease pens to include paint brushes, acrylics, markers and even his laptop. He designs digital graffiti art on his computer and shares designs with other artists around the country.

Much of his work incorporates anthropomorphized spray cans alongside the fat and powerful stylized letters he paints.

He did once experiment with guerrilla graffiti as a youth. He got caught and he's not into that anymore. Now he's pushing his art into public spaces via gallery shows and commissioned work.

Thrilled by graffiti, Tams One hopes to achieve a time when graffiti will be legal and accepted everywhere.

His creativity spills into music, as well. He has several complete albums recorded on his hard drive that feature an experimental genre of music he dubs Melotronic, which is a sedate variation on electronica.

Creative mind-spill

Kimberley Legler, AKA Miss Kimi, paints a wide range of subjects with a style that shifts and flexes as it rapidly matures. Her fresh and bright bubblegum style of cartoon graffiti work, which she calls "creative mind-spill," is giving way to more realism and surrealism in recent months. She is also capable of remarkable subtly-abstracted Northern landscapes and enjoys painting portraits and fantastical self-portraits.

She describes her style as feminine. Graffiti art is often a male-dominated discipline, so Legler is working hard to celebrate her gender in her art.

Her choice of media is as diverse as her imaginative style. She employs watercolour, acrylics, chalk pastels, oil, charcoal, ink, pencil, oil slicks, markers and spray paint in her work. Her canvases include wood, leather and just about any surface that paint sticks to. Also a textile artist, Legler paints, reworks and redesigns clothing, book bags, purses and shirts.

In addition to painting, Legler is an avid photographer, model and hair and makeup artist.