Motivations

So just a quick update. I came back from New york and things have been kinda slow in the art department. A few new sketches a few more leads a few more logo's and all that but right now I'm prioritizing things are important and believe it or not but I've grown in the last year and... I'm just going to say it... Graffiti is not the most important thing in my life anymore. I've got a future wife to think about. So second or third place goes to my spraypaint ministry. I feel less artistic and my work has been substandard (I think it's a sign to focus on what matters most right now). That all being said I've got some exciting news that I'm totally psyched about. I'm painting a gay bar! For years I have had a real soft spot in my heart for the gay community and all the struggles they go through and the unfair treatment they recieve. I love gay people and honestly want to show them the unconditional love of christ. So when the owner of a bar downtown saw my work and had an agent aproach me about doing his alley I jumped at the chance. In fact even before I herd about him wanting to paint the alley I had a desire to paint it and had drawn up a few sketches as early as a year and a half prior just with the hope to paint his wall. The mural is about Love. Pure and simple I want to show the community Love tell them about Love and bless them with a nice looking alley. I can't wait this is the one project I feel like I've gotta do and feel motivated to do. I seriously can't wait for this one. As for the rest of the projects I'm taking a break.

Piece #38

Piece #37

Piece #36

Piece #35

New Art: the destruction of beauty

Just a warning this is kinda long and boring there are going to be some people who really don't care about this subject and wished they'd spent more time doing something other that read this short essay type thing I wrote. I am not making any judgements on any art form, I'm just writing a few observations.

There are different styles and forms within art and they are not necessarily good or bad they just present different unique challenges. And as time goes on styles fall in and out of favor by people later in history. Like the Pre-Raphael's who by the name you could assume they were before Raphael but as times changed a very old form or style fell back into favor and they were (despite their name) after Raphael. Also as time goes by new styles and processes are invented that base themselves somehow on what has come before but do something relatively new and creative or at least popular. These new forms become popular because something within the form, a string of similarities or underlying attributes that as a whole is appealing. The individual works within the style will be as diverse as the creators each with their own expression of their world view. But as I said about styles within art they are not necessarily good or bad they just each have their own unique challenges and certain ideas do not lend themselves to different styles as easily as others. For example it would be harder to express ideas like humility through a booty shaking style of dance or to express more complicated ideas like the natural order of man through works similar to Jackson Pollock (He randomly splattered paint on canvas). I have noticed a new theme within art as of late that has probibly never been as prevalent within art as it is today, destruction. Within the last few years of art history destruction has become a more popular theme within art. This is exemplified in the works of graffiti, body piercing and tattoo (also quite blatantly at the burning man festival). I am not saying that all these diverse works all have the same message but there is a limitation within the form that will only allow one piece of art to exist by the destruction or alteration of annother valuable object. Most often with a focus more on the perminance of the alteration or distruction. Themes of destruction have existed within sculpture, painting, and other forms in the past but it has not taken on a popular form like this before. Even through the act of sculpting a "distructive" subject matter there would still be an element of creation whereby an object was produced and nothing was really destroyed. Now, however new forms have emerged and became popular that have within it's structure destruction.

Good Publicity?

The Old Art

"The expression of creative skill through a visual medium such as painting or sculpture. The product of such a process; paintings, drawings, and sculpture collectively." - Art as defined in the Oxford English dictionary.

When "Art" first began people wrote on walls in an imitation of nature. As time went on it was the job of most artists to skillfully recreate the beauty of nature using their creativity in the selection of subject matter and the placement of that subject matter. Later there was more of a focus on the medium and style in which the subject matter was placed. It moved from what a photograph for the purpose of documentation does into a new creation by the artist. These new creations reflected the artists opinions, ideals, thoughts their whole world view. Even through the neglect of conveying a message, an artist will still say there is nothing worthy enough to say.

As much fun as it is to give an over simplified, opinionated, narrow view of the whole history of art let's bring it back to one of the first creations, one of the first "art". Genesis 1:26 "Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness'". Art is the creation of something. To me it testifies the truth of the verse (Genesis 1:26) everytime an artist does a self portrait. We are God's creation crafted in his image and because we are crafted in his image we do some of the same things. When we create sometimes, it seems natural that we make things after our own image. When a famous painter paints she/he doesn't need to sign his/her work because you know who painted it. Something of the artist is within the style the artist puts a bit of themselves in thier work and they create after thier own image. Look at the work of any artist and we get a glimpse of that person. We don't see the entirety of that person but we do see a part, as discussed earlier thier opinions, ideals, emotions, desires, thoughts, experience and world view.

Port Sydney Trip: Day 2-5

I started painting... I hung out with some people, met a fan, painted, skateborded, got stiches on my chin, got a sweater, prayed, kissed my girlfriend, played camp games, ate camp food, got a free sweater, painted, painted, painted and eventually came back home carrying 46 cans of paint on my back while I walked from London to Dorchester at 3:00 am. I prayed while I was walking asking God for the spiritual gifts that I talked about with lionheart and I began to speak in tounges for the first time. Very exciting week all in all. It was wierd meeting a fan who had a collection of pictures of my work who I've never met. People who I've met have liked my work, or strangers who are fans have contacted me and stuff but I've never stumbled accross a real fan by accident before.

Port Sydney Trip: Day 1

I got back from Ohio and I arrived in London to pick up my fiance Tara who I'd be traveling with on this trip. I was going up to a christian children's camp to paint thier skatepark and figured it'd be nice to have her around for this as sort of a vacation for her. I didn't like using just stock tips and rust-oleum paint for the last few days so I decided to stop off at the graffiti store before we left. The store was closed but the guy let me in anyways and I got some tips and 5 cans of nice paint. It was a very freeing experience to know that I would paint with good paint again, it's been a few months since I've had that luxury. The trip by bus was a lot more comfortable than any other trip because Tara was there, it was really relaxing and certain things are easier with two people (ex. I'll watch the bags you go get food). We arrived in Brace Bridge at 2:20am where we expected to be picked up but no one was there. We called the camp but no one was answering, we left messages but no one showed up to pick us up. We waited 'till 6:00am when the lady at the motel nicely hinted that maybe it was time for us to leave. So we called a cab to take us to Camp Mini-Yo-We where Oliver the guy who was supposed to come get us apologized for the mix up he thought we meant 3pm not 3am.

Ohio Trip Again: Day 4

Woke up really early and one of the Bikers gave me a ride back into town to catch my bus. Before I left Lionheart told me to seek after the spiritual gifts he's been talking about all week because I'll need them for what I'm supposed to do next. I talked with the biker who gave me a ride about the church's relationship with art from a biblical and historical perspective. I took a couple of really nice guys from Detroit out for lunch. I met a couple traveling back by bus from Guatemala and arrived back in London all set for my next trip in a few hours.

Ohio Trip Again: Day 3

Well it was the big day M:Y fest was here and I was kinda nervous , especially when lionheart told me I'd be doing some public speaking but not to prepair for it. I was part of a few skits and just told a little bit about myself and what I do. I started painting a 4x8 board some kids wanted their t-shirts painted and one guy brought over his truck to paint outta nowhere so I painted the truck. He said he was going to take it to the rodeo and show it off. The first plywood piece was raffled off to a kid who gave it to a youth centre. I finished the second painting late and after the last band played on stage at the festival Lionheart got up in front of the crowd and said he was going to raffle off the last painting. He called me up to the stage and said something like...

"we're not in the habit of glorifying anyone of us but let me tell you about this guy battle. He's been painting since 1:00 and when a truck showed up he said let's paint that too and he kept painting until 11:00. His car broke down before he came here but he said 'I still wanna come out and support M:Y fest' so he took a 12 hour bus ride to get here. You Christians wanna learn about perseverance take a lesson from Battle... and ain't nobody pay his way and he's trusting God to get him back home. We want you to know something... No matter what you've done or what you've been through Jesus is waiting to hear from you."

And he went on to give an impassioned short message of the redemptive power of Jesus and Jesus' ability to turn a life around. I stepped off the stage with a slight feeling of embarrassment from being haled as an example of perseverance. When some guy came up to me and gave me a handshake with some bills in it. Embarrassed I reluctantly accepted it and realized Lionheart's "and ain't nobody pay his way" comment prompted this generosity. Fearing more awkward exchanges I made a bee line towards the truck where I planned to wait out the rest of the night. Then I hear a woman shouting "Battle!" but I ignored it until she was so close and so loud that I couldn't pretend I didn't hear her and another awkward exchange occurs. The second board that I painted ironically went to a fellow graffiti artist named "Windex" I talked with him for a long while about God, Graffiti and the law. Lionheart tracked me down and delivered a fist full of donations given to him on my behalf and I told him I didn't like accepting money. He told me that I better get used to it, you didn't ask for anything and these people are getting blessed by the act of giving and you are getting blessed by the act of receiving and it just covered the cost of my bus tickets.

Ohio Trip Again: Day 2

Got up in the morning and helped Lionheart and a few guys get some of the bikes ready for tomorrow. It was really cool to be working on the bikes: running cables, banging spacers, bleeding fluid, tightening stuff up and connecting wires. Three of us put together the front end of a bike and some other people watched and some polished chrome. Some neighborhood kids came by and I painted their skateboards and mopeds. Lionheart is an evangelist and he put on some pressure to tell the kids about Jesus. His style of conversation and mine are very different, Lionheart is very bold and blunt about spiritual things, I try to connect with people, listen to their issues and when they hint that they want me to respond I speak whats on my heart. I love just hanging out with Lionheart it seems that everywhere we go he's reaching out and telling people about Jesus, it's awesome to see. Lionheart talked to me about the five fold ministry, the nine spiritual gifts, speaking in tongues, demon's cast out, a blind man given sight, a cancer patient made well, two KKK members accept Jesus. It's all fresh and new since my last trip, it's amazing, and it's happening all around me, every few minutes something incredible happens. We talked about knowing the bible V.S. knowing spiritual things. I realize I may have knowledge of the bible but some things I know very little about. I gotta pray hard. I'm so thankful that God has arranged for me to be here at this time.

Ohio Trip Again: Day 1

I'm on my way to Ohio again to meet with Lionheart and paint at an outreach event the're having here. On the bus ride I talked to a buddist monk from Lao who's master died last month. I was expecting more from him. Like him to be really deep and, and have like an aura or something, he didn't, he just had a safety orange robe that made it look like he was glowing. He invited me to his temple I said I don't think I'll be going but thank you for the invitation. on the next bus I talked to a guy named Mac who was on off-Broadway actor and a christian. Nice guy, we talked about both of our failures to be evangelists in the traditional scence, ecclesiastes, art, drama, the death of a salesman etc. He liked my work so much that he wanted something I'd done so, I sketched his name with a cross and a mask and a bible quote and he said he was going to hang it in his dressing room wherever he goes so people know what he's about (the cross). He offered to pay me but, I told the customs lady that I wouldn't sell any art while I'm down here (not that I ever sell any art ever) . In Columbus I talked to a guy from Kalamazoo (where my last trip was) whose dad was a pastor. While I was on the buses and waiting at layovers two different people made the same comment to me, at different times and it's not a common comment. They said "don't give up". Lionheart is still the same friendly guy I came to love my last trip, he drove to Columbus at 2:00 am to pick me up and has been looking for a car for me last week which is really a little too generous. He's got a lot of work to do tommorrow to get ready for this event coming up.

Sketches 27

said




zeal

jesus

jesus

Piece #34

"Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age" - Jesus (Mat 28:19-20)

Dear Fasm

Dear Fasm:

I don't believe it's our duty to convince secular writers to stop writing illegally, I do however, believe it is our duty to show christian brothers the scripture that supports this idea. I don't think we should accept or reject jobs based on money. It's biblical for clients to pay us but, thier lack of adhearance to the bible shouldn't deter us in anyway from spreading the gospel through Graffiti. I believe we should accept and reject things based on the ministry opportunity and the leading of God. I don't believe we are going to heaven. It doesn't say in the bible anywhere that we're going to heaven. It says that we'll be with God, it says that we're going to paradise, new Jerusalm, etc. I believe Jesus was God and God was Jesus. He was a human but God dwelt within the human body of Jesus. The same God dwells in us all to the extent that we allow him in. I don't believe in denying anyone entrance into the crew. We should strive to be inclusive not exclusive.

the root of all kinds

If you are involved in minisrty (or will be invloved in the future) then continue reading if not this post is long and not very applicable. Doing ministry that costs money means the touchy and awkward subject of Money and the exchange of money. And this post is something people aren't supposed to talk about - the church and money but, I'm gonna say it anyways. I'm addressing my flaws and other peoples flaws as well as it concerns funding. Why does money bring out the worst in us? Money has been a theme with me over the last month. I don't like recieving money for my work but for some reason jealous thoughts slipped into my head and multiple times one day I had to reject those thoughts and replace them with the truth of the situation. I listen to some music and this line poked out for me.

"cuz the ground is gritty and the pavement is rough

some don't get reinbursed now so they givin up
they stop ministerin' and layin the cut
but the oportunity to bless the lord is payment enough"
-Jaz (rapper)

and I said to myself "I'm so glad that isn't me... I've got this Job lined up later which thier gonna pay me for" even though initially I didn't ask for it someone from the organization suggested that it would be foolish to do it for free. Then someone else informs me that "you know, we wont be paying you". I said "no problem" and figured they didn't have enough money and that times are hard. - nope. This is a wealthy organization who are kinda cheep. I said to myself "should I get reinbursed for buying a few hundred bucks worth of paint, a bus ticket accros the province and the time off work?" I read my bible and prayed about it and it seemed like the answer was Yes, you should get reinbursed but, you should do this anyways even if they don't give you a dime cuz it's the right thing to do. Your obedience shouldn't change because someone else doesn't understand this principle.

"When I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving...Not that I am looking for a gift" -Paul Phillipians 4:15,17

"some say thier tired of ministry cuz them churches is cheep

can't see the plot and satan's searchin for meat

so it aint about who actin funny

or frontin on money or nuttin

not matter what the liar claim

we obligated to live apon a higher plane"

Sketches 26

jesus

Sketches 25

jesus

jesus

Sketches 24

jesus

jesus


jesus

Piece #33

"We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life." Romans 6:4

Piece #32

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of christ for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes" Romans 1:16

Piece #31

"there is way that seems right to a man but in the end it leads to death" proverbs 14:12

"'come follow me' Jesus said 'and I will make you fishers of men'" Matthew 4:19

Kalamazoo Trip: Day 6

The guys left kali to go back to cali (mazoo and fornia respectively) with a little mix up at the airport they were on thier way home. My bus didn't leave till late in the evening so I busted out annothr piece at the rec centre. I worked more quickly by myself but it just wasn't the same painting by myself. I miss Camer and Fasm. The piece looked nice and Bobby liked it. On the way back home I met a muslim girl who had been harrassed, insulted and degraded by annother passenger. As she told me the story she began to tear up as she related how difficlt it was to live in a country that didn't want her there. I told her that what other people think of you is not as important as what God thinks of you. We played cards and talked religion and politics until I fell asleep on the bus and woke up back home.

Kalamazoo Trip: Day 5

The pieces at the church are finished so today we woke up at noon and ate lunch. The other guys were watching some tattoo show and wanted to get inked today so they researched local tattoo places talked to thier respective wives and sketched out some drawings. But in the end they decided they better do it some other time cuz the tattoo place wasn't that great. Cammer and Fasm both chipped in and gave me some cash for my bus ticket and expences that was really cool of hem to do. We also were gonna check out the juvinile hall but for some reason it didn't pan out. We found annother wall to do while we were down here in a rec centre called new genesis inc. It was alot of fun to do this wall because all the walls we've been doing have been formulated, consistant and constrictive. This wall was three guys free styling pieces with the last bits of paint cutting loose on the last day. The wall came off nice. We played basketball, did card tricks and played games until late. All of us miss our significant others, Cammer probibly the most though.

Kalamazoo Trip: Day 4

We woke up kinda late at 10am and skipped breakfast to go straight to the church and get started. We finished the one large mural and started on a second mural that’s almost as big in a different room. ate breakfast at 6pm. The second mural was really confusing because there was a lot going on and three people all working with the same confusing light sources each with their own interpretation. Half way through it looked like someone threw up on a wall and then burned it to the ground. We all contributed and as we got further along it really started to come together and looked so good. Fasm finished the letters off with an amazing display of can control as he did some one shot inlines absolutely perfectly as Cammer and I sat with our jaws on the floor. We got the second mural done at something like 1:00 am it didn’t phase fasm and cammer ‘cuz their still on west coast time. I think this has been the best two murals I’ve been a part of yet.

Kalamazoo Trip: Day 3

Woke up and got to the church and painted. Ate pizza, laughed, farted, talked, climbed stuff and did a little painting. We met up with a guy named Chan from the youth group who was interested in Graff and does air brushing and has dome some spraycan work in the past. That's us at a fish place by Bobby's house (L2R: cammer, me, fasm)

We played x-box and Bobby whopped us all at some fighting game, I did some magic tricks for Bobby's wife and kids. We did alot of backround work which was kinda tedious for me but Fasm didn't mind and Cammer seemed to love it.We stayed up really late cuz Tommorrow the one wall should probibly be finished. I used a skinny cap for the first time in my life it's when you cut a hole in the cap of the spray can and it sucked I got paint on the carpet (whoops) and it splattered too much. Lots of fun today though.

Kalamazoo Trip: Day 2

Arrived safe and sound in kalamazoo and met up with Fasm, Cammer1 and Bobby. Fasm and Cammer are from my crew and Bobby is the youth minister of the church that were painting. Fasm and Cammer arrived in chicago and thier flight to kalamazoo was cancelled so Bobby the night before had driven to chicago to pick them up. It turns out that the paint supplier that they ordered the paint from messed up and was unable to send them the paint. So we had to buy cheaper domestic paint which is more difficult to use. We got started painting and it was awesome to see how Fasm or Cammer approached the wall differently in terms of colour and stuff. I don't like cheap demestic paint and it was frustrating at times becasue I felt like I was out of practice or a bad graffiti writer but really it was just the paint. But that didn't slow down Fasm he's got alot of can control and he didn't skip a beat. I had alot of fun hanging out with Cammer and Fasm there were always jokes and I laughed so hard that my stomac started to hurt. Were staying at Bobby's house and everything is just laid back and easy. Bobby likes the way the mural is turning out everyone has given us positive feedback.

Kalamazoo Trip: Day 1

So I took a bus to Kalamazoo Mi. to meet up with Cammer and Fasm from my crew gospel graffiti who are doing a mural here on the east coast. On the way I talked to alot of people on the bus a really nice football player, a palistinian who wouldn't give up on the idea that war will solve his problems but, I ran into one peticular individual who was inspirational to me and I think he felt the same way. A 33 year old from Detroit who grew up in a foster home scince he was 9 years (I work at a group home). He gave me a valuable insight into what he was thinking about durring his time in the group home and gave some really valuable advise. We continued to talk and we went through most of his life story he was an amazing person. He's seen some dark times, he was the product of a cheating spouse, he was shot by his step-father at age 9, stabbed, developed arthritis, sexually abused multiple times and abandoned by his family. But dispite being badly mistreated by a pastor of a church he saw beyond the fakeness of a religious intitution and developed a relationship with Jesus. He was the only member of his family to graduate from college (as a social worker like me). His mom (who abandoned him) was sick and he dropped everything to look after her, when his money ran out she kicked him out of her house. He was taking a bus because he was trying to start a new life after being kicked out. The amazing thing to me was his forgiving heart dispite his abuse he didn't hold things against his abusers. It was in great contrast to the palistinian who suffered as much this man but didn't forgive. He was such a great example of overcoming adverities but still there was further to go. He had such little self esteem, felt unlovable and worthless at times. I talked with him for hours and seemed to hang on my words as I hung on his. He said that he wasn't supposed to be on that bus but decided at the last minute to take a less prideful path, he believed God had a different plan for him. He kept saying I know God exists because you are here, I know God is with you I see him in you, I know that God loves me because you are here, I know God cares about me because of you.

Piece #30

"Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them saying: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." -Jesus from Matthew 5:1-12

This ally was based on the album joyful rebellion by K-OS.