Wolverhampton graffiti maestro Temper – aka Arron Bird – once stated he was digging the foundations of his artistic career with the objective of ‘tagging’ as many places as he could.

Now his graffiti art adorns the walls of galleries, homes and offices the world over. His work has recently appeared on more than 100million Sprite cans and bottles and the corporate HQ of advertising supremos Saatchi & Saatchi now houses a 45ft Temper mural. Temper has freestyled his way to becoming the ‘face for graffiti’ and although he remains true to his roots, he has exposed high-quality graffiti to the public; a challenge that was 10 years in the making as he created a gap in the market that many deemed impossible. A decade later and Temper is still fighting against long-standing misconceptions.

However, since claiming that “there’s no market for widespread graffiti art yet: it’s a very specialised thing, and one artist can’t make a market ...”, Temper has gone on to become the UK’s most collected graffiti artist with even the likes of Roman Abramovic investing in his works.

He has stated previously that “people get confused over graffiti and vandalism ... aerosol is my medium, but I’m not a vandal. Graffiti artists want to create, not destroy” and his best known collection, The Good Die Young, clearly demonstrates the passion he has for his art.

His celebration of 27 iconic figures whose lives had a premature end was inspired from a note Temper had written in a sketchbook after he had lost members of his close family which said ‘Why do the good die young?’

He dealt with this loss by picking up an aerosol can and spraying his soul onto canvas, integrating the complex artistic process with emotions of innocence, pain, respect, honour, bereavement and love.

Temper’s long term aim is to protect his street culture and communicate it to the public by changing the image of graffiti art for the better in this country. He’s clearly made his mark on a once hostile market, receiving hugely positive feedback from the thousands of visitors to his exhibitions.

Temper must now battle to keep his artwork circulating in a difficult financial climate where investors become more selective in their purchases but with clients ranging from The Mailbox to Chelsea FC to Jazzy Jeff, the future could hardly be brighter.