When not using walls, Snacki prefers wood over canvas.

They’ve been popping up all across Chicago for the past four months: saggy-eyed and highly expressive faces are tagged across the weathered walls of Chi-town, and they’re beginning to attract a considerable following. But, for the artist known by the humble pseudonym, ‘snacki,’ graffiti is an illegal addiction to child-like behavior, and not something that’s meant to be taken too seriously.

Snacki is just simply interested in the general public getting exposed to his work; unlike galleries, which tend to only attract the “college hipsters and 40-year-old art collectors,” he wants to offer the entire general public an experience the abstract reflections of his unique perspective. In his mind, painting on billboards is just a better – and cheaper – way to reach a highly diversified audience. And, considering the city’s anti-graffiti campaign – a well-oiled machine, which happily chugs along on a $9 million street-artist-stomping budget  – it’s probably better that snacki keep his identity hidden from the world.

Typical snacki-tag face

Graffiti art isn’t just a hobby for snacki, it’s a self-proclaimed addiction; “And like any addiction,” he said, “everyone starts for a different reason.” But, unfortunately for snacki, the worst addictions can end up with thousands of dollars in fines, or a potentially serious jail sentence. Whatever happens, if the Man squashes the snacki sasquatch, at least he knows that his fans are willing to bail him out.

Long Live Graffiti.