FREEDOM – The world of street and graffiti art has erupted from the underground and abandoned its association with vandalism to generate an enormous amount of interest and acceptance in the public.

There are books and T-shirts and movies and websites and businesses and companies and growing empires all dedicated and related to street art, a style which has produced several famous names and has grown tremendously, branching off from the traditional graffiti artwork into different forms such as poster art, sticker art, stencil art, video projection, guerilla art, and the list goes on.

Though the street art style has gone world wide, the whole movement still remains underground. And it’s closer than you might think.

Meet Waterdog.

For the past three years, Waterdog has been immersed in the street art world, using his guerilla style to create pieces of art which he sells, appropriately, on the streets of cities and towns.

He recently migrated from Bloomington, Indiana, to Maine, settling in the Freedom area and has been venturing all over the region from Camden and Belfast, to Waterville and Augusta, and beyond with his artwork.

One late afternoon last summer, I rounded a street corner in Belfast and discovered a row of brightly colored, clever, and cool paintings lined up against a building. Sitting next to them was Waterdog. He and I shook hands. An artist and a filmmaker, the ice was immediately broken.

I wanted to learn more about him and his artwork so we decided to get together. The result is the included video.

Contact Wes Sterrs: wes.sterrs@gmail.com