12:00a.m. 6th October 2008

| Mark Bode

’Zion’, a graffiti artist talks out about graffiti on the Sunshine Coast. Photo: Cade Mooney / 178693

Meet Zion. You don’t know him, but there’s a good chance you detest him.

Zion exists with you, although he doesn’t feel entirely at one with you.

You belong to the “normal community”. He belongs to the graffiti community.

Standing in a long alley next to Horton Park Golf Club in Maroochydore, the walls of businesses that line the alley heavily marked with graffiti, Zion agreed to talk to the Daily after a campaign was launched to rid the Coast of graffiti.

It’s his attempt at shedding light on a culture that’s repugnant to most people.

With his identity shielded by his street name and the respirator he wears when he paints, the 20-year-old looks like the archetypal Coast youngster – three-quarter pants hung low at the back, T-shirt, New York Yankees baseball cap worn slightly to one side, Adidas shoes.

For someone who devotes a large part of his life to defacing public property, he’s surprisingly respectful, referring to anti-graffiti crusader Graeme Hall as “Mr Hall”.

Zion shares at least one thing in common with Mr Hall: both have no idea what makes the other one tick.

Mr Hall’s mission is to rid the Coast and Australia of the graffiti he considers an eyesore.

Zion’s mission is to paint as many walls as possible – and he never wants to stop.

The serious element in Zion’s world refer to themselves as “writers”.

He says “taggers” are usually kids who paint their aliases on things like street signs and power boxes.

There are around 50 hard-core writers on the Coast, people like him who have reached a high level and regard themselves as artists.

“We’re just promoting art,” he says, adding the overall number of graffitists is in the hundreds.

Zion, who started as a tagger in high school, doesn’t want to talk too much about himself – he prefers to let his writing do the talking.

“It’s not about you as a person,” he says. “It’s more about your world, your art.”

A labourer who is currently between jobs, Zion reckons Mr Hall and his kind are wasting their time.

Mr Hall has painted over a large section of graffiti on the Sunshine Motorway as part of his Mission Brown initiative and secured a promise from main roads minister Warren Pitt for the government to continue the job.

Ironically, the brown paint Mr Hall uses is an eyesore to Zion – and a red flag to a bull.

“It’s a fresh canvas to me,” he says.

“It’s all about who can keep it up the longest. It could go on forever.

“It’s something in your blood. Once you have a taste for it, you don’t want to put it (the spray can) down.”

There’s a message for Mr Hall and others opposed to graffiti on one of the walls in the alley. It reads: “Mission Brown Makes Me Frown”.