BrooklynnBar Mural by @DUROTHETHIRD
by Rob Sysak, September 5, 2015
Arturo “Duro The Third” Parada.
was born in Toronto, Ontario, 1976, to Chilean and Italian parents who immediately identified an incredibly talented son. He was only six years old when he joined the Lego Club and built a 4-foot working windmill demonstrating his name in lights that glowed nothing but artistic talent. His parents quickly saw the capability of his artistic talents and immediately enrolled him into a competitive art program that was held every Sunday afternoon. He quickly excelled within the program and became the star at all the local art shows, 4 years in a row.
At the beginning of his high school career, he failed a significant amount of classes because it was catered more towards academics rather than his passion, the arts. Frustrated with the way his life was unfolding, he then transferred high schools and enrolled in Wexford Arts Institute. During this time, he received exceptional press towards his Graffiti Murals. The Arts councilor of Wexford was impressed and requested a large mural in the hallway, which led to massive amounts of recognition and four additional high schools painted.
Momentum took over and Arturo started appearing in interviews on local television and radio stations. To this day he is the most published, interviewed Canadian Graffiti Artist. Achieving such accolades, his murals were featured on the front cover of the Globe and Mail Newspaper, obtained a two-page spread in the Toronto Sun and The New York Times. Duro’s television credits included: MTV, Breakfast Television and Much Music on several occasions. Arturo’s murals were also exploding with the partnerships with McDonalds, HMV, Northern Telecom, GM, Nike, and much more.
After holding the crown as Canada’s most recognised graffiti artist for two decades, Arturo was moving on into another realm of art. In the year of 2000, Arturo moved into the downtown core of Toronto and started his own graphic design agency, which evidently was a success. He quickly became the most engaged graphic designer in the city creating exceptional flyers for majority of the nightclubs in the downtown core. After becoming one of the most known providers of nightclub flyers, Arturo quickly identified his next step in his career, nightclub photography.
One of his clients convinced him to do nightclub photography due to the fact that his personable skills engaged, captured, and influenced people miraculously. He had always been a huge fan of nightclubs – he loved their energy, the dancing, the music, the strangers, everything! He had even started looking at fake ID reviews when he was 17 because he wanted to have a night out in a club as soon as possible and didn’t want to wait for his birthday! So, he decided to give it a go because it combined his passion with one of his favourite places. In 2003, Arturo developed a unique style of photography that stood out from everyone else. By 2008 he became an absolute maniac and was doing six to eight nightclubs a night dominating the nightclub photography industry. For an artist who has never been drunk or high in his life, the nightlife was starting to diminish his fulfillment towards art.
In 2007, Arturo identified that MySpace and Facebook were quickly dominating the online market as people were continuously uploading pictures of themselves. He then discovered his next step within his artistic career: Studio Photography. After investing into studio quality equipment, Arturo executed two hundred photo shoots in the year of 2009.