Former graffiti artist tries going legit, aims for art college this fall

LEWISTON – Trading walls for windows and canvases is something new for Brian Serfes.

So are the tools. The L/A-based graffiti artist has swapped his spray cans for paint brushes, and he doesn’t miss running from the police.

“I got sick of that,” he said. “I got sick of running, of being stopped by the cops, of the search warrants.”

Serfes, 21, said he’s making every attempt now to go straight, taking his art from alleys and hidden walls to store fronts. He has his eyes on a fine arts degree, if he can raise the money and get admitted.

“I never thought go to college,” Serfes said. “Nobody in my family has gone to college, but it’s what I want to do now.”

Serfes was among a handful of local graffiti artists that made an agreement with Lewiston police and Lisbon Street’s 12 Hour Club to legalize their graffiti. They could paint on the club’s alley wall as much as they wanted, but nowhere else in town. The city boosted fines for artists that painted elsewhere, and the artists agreed to register with the city.

Artists also agreed to censor themselves, keeping profanity and drug references off the wall. They didn’t, and began painting on other alley walls. The 12 Hour Club officially evicted the graffiti writers in April.

For Serfes, graffiti writers and artists lost a great opportunity.

“When they started painting swear words and insults, I was like ‘What are you guys doing?'” Serfes said. “They were more interested in fighting and having these battles than painting, and they lost it.”

He’s no angel, and he admits it. He was charged with illegal graffiti in September, when he tagged on the wall of the city’s Centreville Parking Garage, and was forced to pay a $1,000 fine.

“I realized at that point that I’d almost ruined my life,” he said. “I was close to being charged with felony, of doing jail time. I knew I’d really screwed up.”

But he did have support, family and friends, and they encouraged him to do other things. He was approached to decorate the Lewiston Public Library’s windows in October, part of the Youth Adults Dialogue Action meetings there last fall. Then others, began approaching.

“I asked him when he was going to do my windows,” said Debbie Littleton, of Joyful Hope Gift Shop on Lisbon Street. He did, putting flowers and leaves on her window. She responded by offering him some space at the back of her store to use as a studio.

“And started thinking I could do other things,” Serfes said. Littleton found some old wooden windows salvaged from ruined buildings, and offered them to Serfes for him to paint. He’s selling some of them out of her store, and doing commissioned work for others in the community.

“So, I began applying to art schools, but they weren’t interested in the graffiti,” he said. Most of his sketch books and hand drawings were confiscated by the police, so he had little to show.

He managed to meet officials from Montserrat College of Art, in Beverly, Mass., however.

“I like them because they focus on the more abstract art and on free expression,” he said. “I think I could do really well there.”

He plans to move to Beverly later this summer, and begin applying to the art school.

“I had a tough life as a kid, but I found an outlet,” he said. “Now, I want to study to be an art teacher. And maybe I can help find that kid next time.”