I’ve been known to stare at walls and trains that were painted with huge graffiti pieces ever since I was about 11 or 12. There are pieces that I saw then, in 1983 and 1984, that I can still see in my mind. Those pieces were stylized logos created by some graffiti artist for early hardcore punk bands, DK (the Dead Kennedys) and Minor Threat, amongst others. The Minor Threat piece was done with a black sploch explosion, white lettering, with an almost fluorescent outline of the explosion. I thought it was pretty cool, and it made me want to be a writer.
I also remember the tag of the artist I suspect bombed the wall of the underside of a bridge in Marblehead, Massachusetts, a town I lived in when I was young. He was known as “Bonesy”, and he was most famous for stealing a Cadillac, getting toasted, and driving at high speeds, fleeing from the police. He wrapped that Cadillac around a tree and lost his life as a result of that adventure. There was a memorial at the Middle School that I was attending when he died. I don’t know if I ever met him or not, but I saw photos of him, and I think I’d seen him around. The mystery of who was the writer of the tags on the bridge was solved for me, though, as far as I was concerned. I don’t know how old Bonesy was when he died, but he certainly wasn’t past his 20’s.
During that time period, break dancing, rap music (before it was called “hip hop”), and graffiti writing was becoming popularized in the shopping malls, the street, movies, TV, music, and album covers. MTV was new then – just a few years old. We didn’t even have the connections for cable in our neighborhood.
I did try my hand at writing; I bought some krylon. I made my block letters and outlines. My pieces were mostly on surfaces that were by the water. I used sea walls, the undersides of docks, rock outcroppings, and stairways that led down to the beaches. There were maybe five or six of them that I did – all of them in black, blue, and white.
Back then, I didn’t think to take photos of my pieces. I guess I saw them so often that I took them for granted and thought I’d always be around to see them and show them off.
Now, I’m not associated with the graffiti movement anymore, but the graffiti culture and the history of that culture still fascinates me. But, most of all, it’s the pieces that fascinate me. It’s my inability to be able to read the writing that usually keeps me staring, trying to make out what the piece says. Sometimes I think I get it; other times I can’t figure it out. However, as art goes, it doesn’t always matter whether you get it or not; what matters is that it moves you and you remember it.
- docrivs
No comments:
Post a Comment