/>As we head into the Holidays, we’ve been asking people from all over the world
who their favorite “new” artists are for the past year. And probably the most
popular of all of them, is the Montreal based street artist, Roadsworth. For the
past year or so Roadsworth’s been putting out some incredibly creative, and
often mindblowingly large, “tweaks” of Montreal’s street system.

But
just a week or so ago things came crashing down on Roadsworth as he was arrested
and charged with eighty-five counts of criminal mischief. While he was in jail
being questioned, his apartment was raided and the Canadian police seized
Roadworth’s belonging including his computer and all of his supplies. Now
awaiting his trial, Roadsworth is not allowed to leave the city of Montreal.
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While we knew about Roadsworth’s arrest the day after it happened, we
decided not to put any mention of it up on the Wooster site. This was to protect
Roadsworth’s privacy and to let him deal with things a bit before people started
to find out. But as the story of Roadworth’s arrest starts to now get out in the
media, and after seeing the amazing support Roadsworth has received from the
community of artists and art lovers, we spoke with Roadsworth on the phone at
length yesterday to see how he is holding up. After hearing the details of what
happened, we told him that we would do anything we could to support him.
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Whether you condone the type of art Roadsworth does or not, his work
opens people’s eyes to new forms of creativity. His work is without question
some of the most popular photos we’ve ever put up on the Wooster site.

/>So now facing an avalanche of charges against him, we are starting to plan for
a small auction/sale of some art pieces to help raise some money for
Roadsworth’s legal defense. Most likely the benefit auction will go online in
mid to late January, so if you are interested in donating a piece of your work
to help Roadsworth out, please let us know. Artists get arrested all of the time
for doing street art, but what Roadsworth faces is far beyong what most artists
are charged with. If you can help him out, please let us know.

Marc
and Sara