JASON DAX WOODWARD aka KASINO

Kasino was born in the Sutherland area of Sydney in 1970. He first started tagging trains in Sydney in 1984 on the Cronulla line. Like most of his peers he was copying what he saw on film clips and movies like Breakdance. His school Port Hacking High had a few murals in it, the names of who he has long forgotten. He would catch the train out to Cronulla beach and he would bomb in red posca pen on the way. It was on the way to the beach that he first saw a door to door with nice clouds and he was hooked.

"...mum sent me to live with my Grandmother in 1985, she lived in Miranda, on the Cronulla line. I could do pretty much whatever I wanted over the next couple of years. So I used to travel all over Sydney, hanging and bombing with friends."

Sydney at the time was deeply tinged with a criminal element and the graffiti scene was particularly destructive. He joined the infamous Partners in Crime crew with writers such as HOOD, DIEM, LITTLE AMOS, JENO, AMOS, JECKL, JOSH SKE and others. He says" ...back then it was huge fun, you would go to the Marble at Town Hall, meet up with any number of writers and just go for a bomb... sometimes we would go bombing on the City loop with 15 guys, everyone would attack the back car until the seats were getting ripped out and thrown thru the windows and occassionally the windows would come out too...we loved when the Transits would annouce on the loudspeaker that we had caused a train to be taken out of service due to vandalism... fun times."

Destructive but still very creative. "... the guys I looked up to then were writers like SPOOK, JOKER, WINNER, BLAZE, TEEDO and of course the FAB 4. FAB 4 were of a world class standard back in the mid 80´s and I would regularly catch the Bondi train to check out walls they had done on that line and to drop a few tags as well....the wall they did still burn walls today..."

We used to panel allot at St James, Waverton, Lavender Bay in the day time. Out on the Liverpool line his friends included CRASE and Bill KRUSH. Bill was a mad letter stylist and his sister dated JOKER for a while. "...they showed me Liverpool where I did a bunch of panels including a DUPE panel (my 43rd panel in 1988), KAS, KSO etc... great yard back then and it still gets hit. I painted Sydney´s Zoo train there with the Brisbane AC boys, at Liverpool and it ran for a week..."

KASINO first went to New York City in 1992. He did five panels in a month including one of his best experiences bombing when he pannelled with SEEN UA at Westchester yards in the Bronx.

Timeline

1982-84 first starts drawing graff lettering copied from Duck Rock lp cover and small amounts of tagging.

1984 - attends Sunnybank High where he mets pioneer Brisbane writers like TEZ and JAFFA. He tags in spraypaint on a running red car on the Kuraby line.

1985-1988 Starts bombing trains regularly and travels between Brisbane and Sydney on missions.

1986-7 Does first panels ever down at Ipswich yards.

1988 First wholecar painted on a solo missions in St James and it ran. Painted with Franklins $2 chromes.

1989 Locked down at Bogga Road.

1990- 1992 "The Comeback" years including panels in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

1992 First panels in New York. Meets and paints with legends like SEEN, SENTO, WANE, REAS...

Starts Bachelor Degree in Fine Arts

First of series of running wholecars done in brisbane with ACR boys. They hit every yard hard in Brisbane over next couple of years.

1994 start Honours degree.

Trip to New York and Europe and meets and writes with legends like RENS, BATES, SHARK, CHINTZ, RIO, REW, DELTA, etc etc.

They do 9 running wholecars in ten days with the Dortmund boys, RIO, CHINTZ and SHARK.

1995-1996 bombing and working on commissions.

1997 Winston Churchill Memorial Trust fund grant to study with TWIST in San Fransicso, CRASH and DAZE in NYC and LOOMIT in Munich.

Busted doing whole coal at Redbank. Retires from illegal graffiti in Queensland.

1998 Completes Masters degree.

Trips to do panels in Auckland and Wellington in New Zealand.

Legals and lots of painting

1999 Opens Butter Beats Record Store

2001 Disrupt the System jam in Auckland with Loomit and locals.

2003 Trip to States and Mexico. Paints with SMITH, REAS, TBAG, ZEPHYR, CES, BIO TAT, STAK TFP, CYCLE...

2004 - Meets woman of his dreams...

2005 Opens second Butter Beats store.