Graffiti can either be an ugly mess or uplifting “community art”. Here, one Telford man tells BEN BENTLEY why he believes it’s the latter.

One of Toes's urban vision projects

The artist known as “Toes” picks up his aerosol can and begins to spray-paint a public wall.

Once upon a time this would have been deemed an act of vandalism and landed him in trouble with the law, but these days there is no police officer waiting to feel his collar.

“They made it legal for us to paint the wall,” says Toes about the wall in Dawley. “It was the first legal wall in Telford.”

And in the movement of the artist’s arm, the wall, next to a playground, was transformed and brought to life in a swathe of technicolour.

Today, after being made redundant from his engineering job, Toes – real name Neil Willis from Telford – has turned his passion for graffiti into a business. Through Auniqueart he is commissioned to graffiti walls across the UK and queuing up to buy his work are private clients, corporate companies, interiors and exterior shop designers, clubs and restaurants.

The 38-year-old has painted walls at the Stoke City and AFC Telford United football clubs, as well as urban shops and buildings at Brookside, Sutton Hill and Leegomery. And it’s all a million miles away from vandalising walls with the use of a can of paint and head full of expletives.

Toes encourages older people to try graffiti

The wall in Hollinswood he did in 2006 with a group of youths is sprayed with the words: “Smile, Peace, Respect” – hardly the words of angry young people trying to rage against the local community.

Of the wall that’s been dubbed the happy wall, Toes says: “It was part of the regeneration of Hollinswood. People complained how dull it looked and we put our idea to the community and the community approved.

“It got some negative response – some people said it was too like Harlem, but most said it brightened the place up, so it’s a mixed reaction from the community but most people loved it.”

He now works with local youngsters to tempt them away from graffiti-ing illegally on other people’s property. And as the work kept coming in, he worked with local youngsters in Brookside to create a racial harmony graffiti wall, while another work in Dawley turned a drab part of the town near the bus station into an underwater paradise. It features the only mermaid ever to have made a public appearance in Dawley, as well as the town’s very own cross-Channel swimmer.

“We ran two design workshops with the kids involved and the community wanted Captain Webb swimming,” says Toes. “And there was a dolphin to symbolise peacefulness and images of fishing. I put the ideas together and went away and designed it on sketches and they went up on walls at Wrekin Housing Trust. It was a consultation process, otherwise people say ‘we were never consulted’.”

By now, Toes’ handiwork was getting tongues wagging. It was a talking point and his workload was snowballing. The elves and penguins depicted at Wonderland children’s park in Telford were all born from the nozzle of his spray can.

At a study centre for youths at Wolverhampton Wanderers he did a graffiti timeline of the club’s history – ending with a spray-painted tenner to indicate the point that new Molineux boss Steve Morgan bought the club for £10. He’s also been asked to paint a part of the family stand at the ground.

In April he completed a work at the Buck’s Head featuring AFC Telford players and the team manager, while at the same time some of his more unusual commissions include graffiti art tables, vans and nightclub decor. He also gets asked to paint bedrooms and produce one-off canvas wall hangings.

Toes's graffiti at AFC Telford United's stadium

Graffiti has suddenly become the artwork to be dealing in. Work is springing up in public places – a mystery artist has been setting tongues wagging in Shrewsbury in recent weeks with a crop of smiley faces, while top artists can make up to £40,000 for a canvas piece, as stars like David Beckham turn into fans and collectors.

“It’s been spiralling and you are in a different league,” he says. “It’s been mental the past few months.”

Toes began graffiti-ing in the mid-80s when he was 14 or 15.

He explains: “Back then it was totally different. If people knew, you got moved on – now you get fined. You need more legal places for kids to express themselves. It gives people a changing environment, a continually evolving piece of art.

“I never got in trouble. I got told off but there’s no point in painting illegally. I try to teach kids in the right way and if you use the skill properly you can make a living. What’s the point of wrecking someone’s property when you can make £30 each for a painting on eBay? If you sold five a day that’s better than a job in a factory.”

And so today he holds workshops teaching disaffected youngsters how to paint. But it’s not just for the young. He’s had pensioners at his workshops ‘getting paint on their trousers’ and loving it.

Most of the youths have never designed and worked on what in the trade he calls “a piece”; they have simply sprayed their “tag” on a wall and legged it.

He says: “Everyone starts the same – with tags. But it’s how you progress that matters.”

Toes warns them of the consequences – that the law will track them down and take away their computers and exercise books in an effort to follow a spray-painted paper trail back to their offences.

Toes, whose plan is to take his work into schools, is happy to report positive progress. That the youngsters he has worked with have suddenly found pride in their work and respect from within their communities.

He recalls the “happy project” at the shops at Leegomery.

“They painted through the rain and it was unbelievable,” says Toes. “It was just lads hanging round before, but the whole project was ace. They got the most positive comments from people who might not even have talked to them before because of the stigma of hoodies.”

l For more information about Toes’ work visit www.auniqueart.co.uk