BEEN3
DATE OF INTERVIEW:
Summer 2006
1- NAMES USED:
Been3 or Bean and sometimes I put up Seal.. He was my old partner…
2- YEAR STARTED WRITING? YEAR RETIRED?
Started writing in 77'/78' stopped in 86' did a few pieces here and there... then I came back in 2001…
3- AGE WHEN YOU STARTED WRITING?
9 or 10
4- WHERE?
NYC
5- WHY DID YOU START WRITING?
The older kids on my block wrote so it was the next step for me… Jean13 aka Flare, Dean, blaze Rook aka Sean, San, Bad and some others all members of the (BYB) Bad Yard Boys…
6- WHO WERE YOUR WRITING PARTNERS (IF ANY)? STILL IN TOUCH WITH THEM TODAY?
Always in touch.. We are family.. Seal, Cad, Zar, Pas, Soner, Kare, Share37 & Toke to name a few…
7- WRITING GROUPS YOU FOUNDED OR CO-FOUNDED?
We had a crew called TUC The Ultimate Creation/ Tearing up Cars also we started something called A4 Afour… It had a few writers but it was mostly a neighborhood crew which is still going strong today…
8- WRITING GROUPS YOU BELONGED TO?
Bad Yard Boys, The Wallnuts, KD are the crews I push the most but there are too many to write down…
9- YOU WROTE YOUR FIRST TIME ON A WALL, BUS, TRAIN OR TRUCK?
It was a wall.. I guess like most writers…
10- YOUR FIRST TAG EVER - WHICH MEDIUM DID YOU USE, i.e. MARKER, SPRAY PAINT, PEN, ETC.?
It's been so long but I would say marker…
11- WHERE DID YOUR WRITING NAME COME FROM?
It came from Jean13 and Dean BYB.. I wanted to be like them so I got a name that sounded like theirs but just a bit different..
12- WHICH WAS THE FIRST TRAIN LINE YOU TAGGED? (IF YOU TAGGED TRAINS)
1 line.. beautiful line but too many writers were on that line.. it was so hard to find a spot to get up….
12A- WHAT OTHER MAJOR LANDMARKS DID YOU TAG?
Hit it all except churches and private houses…
14- WHAT YARDS & LAYUPS DID YOU WORK AT?
1 line 145st tunnel, and 3 lines Lenox terminal…
15- WHERE YOU 'KING' OF "SOMETHING"? (TRAIN LINES, WALLS, ETC.
King of my neighborhood..
16- WHO WAS YOUR MENTOR? (IF APPLICABLE) DID YOU MENTOR ANY OTHER WRITERS?
Jean13 taught me most of what I knew in the early days… I have mentored many most are not in the game today, but I continue to mentor young writers today…
17- WHICH WRITERS DID YOU LOOK UP TO? WHY?
Like I said the BYB writers.. they were the older kids in my neighborhood…
18- DID YOU INTRODUCE ANYTHING NEW TO THE WRITING MOVEMENT?
IF 'YES,' WHAT WAS IT? WHAT YEAR?
I have introduced the true panoramic photos of the large scale productions and my site which is one of the largest (if not the largest on the web) www.deepinsidethemind.com
19- HOW LONG WOULD YOU GUESSTIMATE THAT EACH GENERATION OF WRITERS LASTED?
I'm not into generations... That's an ego thing.. If you can throw down your shit will stand the test of time…
20- WHICH WERE YOUR FAVORITE COLORS TO WORK WITH?
Whatever was available at the moment…
21- WHICH BRAND OF SPRAY PAINT WAS YOUR FAVORITE TO WORK WITH?
Back then Krylon.. Today Beltons and Montana Black…
22- WHICH MARKER WAS YOUR FAVORITE?
Pilots..
23- WHICH WAS YOUR FAVORITE SPOT TO TAG YOUR NAME IN THE
TRAIN SYSTEM? (IF APPLICABLE)
On the outsides.. cause the insides were too crowded… The guys doing whole cars hated it.. cause my tag would show thru their wholecars….
24- DO YOU HAVE IN MEMORY A "FAVORITE" MASTERPIECE THAT YOU DID? IF 'YES,' WHICH ONE? WHEN? WHERE? WHY?
Now we "The Wallnuts" have many.. but the Hellboy wall is one of my favorites cause of the amount of work and the way we all worked together on it… Queens, NY 2004
25- WERE YOU EVER ARRESTED FOR WRITING? IF 'YES,' WHEN? WHERE? WITH WHOM? BY WHOM?
Never…
26- WHICH WAS YOUR FAVORITE PLACE TO GET PAINT FROM? Woolworths.. Too easy…
27- WHICH IS THE CORRECT NAME FOR THIS ART FORM:
GRAFFITI ART? AEROSOL ART? WRITING? GRAFFITI? WHY?
Writing was the early name.. now I use Aerosol art most of the time, but most people understand when you call it graffiti….
28- ARE YOU STILL WRITING / PAINTING TODAY? IF YOU USE CANVAS, YOUR FEELINGS ON PUBLIC SURFACE -VS- CANVAS?
Still paint today… To me canvas, walls fr8s.. it's all the same.. I'm out the to recreate an idea that formulated in my mind.. I don't care about the fame or what anyone else thinks… That's a waste of my time to worry about anyone…
29- WHY DO YOU THINK IT IS THAT AFTER ALL THE EVOLUTION THAT WRITING HAS EXPERIENCED SINCE ITS BEGINNINGS IN ' 69-' 70, EVOLUTION THAT INCLUDES ACCEPTANCE AND ADAPTATION BY YOUTH WORLDWIDE, EVEN ACCEPTANCE BY SOME GOVERNMENTS OUTSIDE THE U.S., THE POWERS THAT BE IN THE U.S. STILL CONSIDER THIS CULTURE AS ONLY AN EYESORE? IS RACISM TO BLAME? CLASSISM? OR BOTH?
Well it started way before that.. The Cholos were writing in LA in the 50's and maybe even before.. and Cornbread was actively bombing Philly in 65' (newspaper articles about him were written back then, with all the destruction he was creating) The bottom line is that most of graff I would not like to see on my property.. I understand the young writers bombing the streets..(rebellion and fame) but I can't understand an adult with a family going out doing any kind of street bombing… and street bombing is not asthetically appealing.. The US government does not condone anything they can not make money off of… that is the bottom line.. so they confuse the masses with propaganda about our culture and since most people are sheep they will believe anything, blindly…
30- DO YOU CONSIDER WRITING AN "ART FORM"?
Of course…
31- WHAT DO YOU DO PROFESSIONALLY TODAY?
I teach kids… at an afterschool program, within the Board of Ed…. And I am a photo specialist.. from photography to the restoring and editing of images for ads,DVD's, cd covers anything that has to do with imagery and imagination…
32- ANY ADVICE TO YOUNG WRITERS WORLDWIDE TODAY?
Go from a bomber to a muralist as soon as possible… (If you want true world wide fame).. Remember your past….Live in the present and prepare for the future…
33- ANYTHING ELSE YOU'D LIKE TO ADD?
Big ups to my Family The Wallnuts and TDM all the writiers in the Northeast Corridor of the US…
34- YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION?
Been3byb@deepinsidethemind.com
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