TEAM
DATE OF INTERVIEW:
Summer, 2006
1- NAMES USED:
*TEAM*
2- YEAR STARTED WRITING? YEAR RETIRED?
1972 - 1977 (retired from train bombing)
3- AGE WHEN YOU STARTED WRITING?
12
4- WHERE?
I grew up in Greenwich Village - Manhattan
5- WHY DID YOU START WRITING?
Seeing graf on subways had an energy and a vibrancy that was unavoidable to me. I love letter styles and colors. It was the early 70's and every kid in my school, girls and guys, was doin' it - on their notebooks, on the chalkboards etc...remember the intro to "Welcome Back Kotter"?
6- WHO WERE YOUR WRITING PARTNERS (IF ANY) ? STILL IN TOUCH WITH THEM TODAY?
piggy10, max 3yb, fuse, wolf1. I still hang with wolf.
7- WRITING GROUPS YOU FOUNDED OR CO-FOUNDED?
The Go Club
8- WRITING GROUPS YOU BELONGED TO?
Go, Salsa, The Rebels, Wild Style, TDA
9- YOU WROTE YOUR FIRST TIME ON A WALL, BUS, TRAIN OR TRUCK?
The stairway in my public school I.S.70 and then on trucks downtown.
10- YOUR FIRST TAG EVER - WHICH MEDIUM DID YOU USE, i.e. MARKER, SPRAY PAINT, PEN, ETC.?
El Marko - royal blue
11- WHERE DID YOUR WRITING NAME COME FROM?
I love sports and the idea of working with other people to make "it" happen.
12- WHICH WAS THE FIRST TRAIN LINE YOU TAGGED? (IF YOU TAGGED TRAINS)
I started writing on the broadway 1 line.
12A- WHAT OTHER MAJOR LANDMARKS DID YOU TAG?
I only tagged trains, trucks, schoolyards, postboxes and train stations - and the buildings of girls that I liked.
14- WHAT YARDS & LAYUPS DID YOU WORK AT?
All the broadway layups, the 1 yard, 1 tunnel, esplanade, 6 layups, Utica, New Lots yard, and the layups on the 2 and 3's in Brooklyn.
15- WHERE YOU 'KING' OF "SOMETHING"? (TRAIN LINES, WALLS, ETC.?)
I kinged broadway 1's and 3's 1976-77
16- WHO WAS YOUR MENTOR? (IF APPLICABLE) DID YOU MENTOR ANY OTHER WRITERS?
Max 3yb showed me the ropes. He was older and he lived near the 1 tunnel. He taught me the ins and outs of the tunnels and yards. I passed it on to others when I had the chance.
17- WHICH WRITERS DID YOU LOOK UP TO? WHY?
There are too many writers that I could mention. In a nutshell: "StayHigh 149" - I love the saint and his inside panel 2-tone midi tags. "Lee" - whole car themes were dope. "LSD3" - the tag was on. "tee" and "stim1 r.i.p" - I loved their partner/brother ghetto style. "MICO" - I modeled my tag off of his, I liked not writing a number. "part" and "panic" as partners had dope broadway style. "peso" - from broadway had peice style in the 70's that blows away most new jax peices today. I would love to go on and on.....
18- DID YOU INTRODUCE ANYTHING NEW TO THE WRITING MOVEMENT?
IF 'YES,' WHAT WAS IT? WHAT YEAR?
That would be for other writers to say. I can only say I strived to proliferate the style of the movement.
19- HOW LONG WOULD YOU GUESSTIMATE THAT EACH GENERATION OF WRITERS LASTED?
3 to 5 years.
20- WHICH WERE YOUR FAVORITE COLORS TO WORK WITH?
krylon baby blue and hot pink. Red devil true blue for outlines.
21- WHICH BRAND OF SPRAY PAINT WAS YOUR FAVORITE TO WORK WITH?
We used krylon, red devil, rusto, wet paint, and poly-varathane. They were all good back in the day.
22- WHICH MARKER WAS YOUR FAVORITE?
No doubt - a soaking wet uni-wide filled with opaque green flo-master ink for tagging train station tiles. Midi wides for bombing insides.
23- WHICH WAS YOUR FAVORITE SPOT TO TAG YOUR NAME IN TRAIN SYSTEM? (IF APPLICABLE)
The horizontal panel above the windows and between the doors on the inside of a subway car.
24- DO YOU HAVE IN MEMORY A "FAVORITE" MASTERPIECE THAT YOU DID? IF 'YES,' WHICH ONE? WHEN? WHERE? WHY?
The "team stone free again" and "fuse purple haze" married couple whole cars that we did on the 5's in memory of Jimi Hendrix. I only saw it once very quick several months after we did it and I never had flix of it.
25- WERE YOU EVER ARRESTED FOR WRITING? IF 'YES,' WHEN? WHERE? WITH WHOM? BY WHOM?
I was arrested several times. With max I spent a few nights in the freezer in the bronx - we got busted in the 4 yard under Tracy Towers. With Fuse we spent a few moments carving our names into those wooden holding cell benches - more than once. I ended up scrubbing stations in Bklyn on the weekends with a bunch of other writers.
26- WHICH WAS YOUR FAVORITE PLACE TO GET PAINT FROM?
There was a big hardware store (name withheld) in the east 70's in manhattan that kept every color of every brand in the back isle with no camera or mirror. It was like a dream candy store - I felt like the tin man walking out of there - nuff said.
27- WHICH IS THE CORRECT NAME FOR THIS ART FORM:
GRAFFITI ART? AEROSOL ART? WRITING? GRAFFITI? WHY?
Some people only consider themselves writers and some people fancy themselves artists. I respect both but don't ever refer to the term "aerosol art".
28- ARE YOU STILL WRITING / PAINTING TODAY? IF YOU USE CANVAS, YOUR FEELINGS ON PUBLIC SURFACE -VS- CANVAS?
I stopped writing on trains in '77 but kept on styling. I hit a bunch of walls, mostly downtown Manhattan in the 80's and 90's. I currently do graf-art canvases, graphic design and I am actively involved in piecing whenever I can get a wall, truck or blackbook. Doing public surfaces helps inspire me to work on my canvases. But I feel that whatever you can do and whatever makes you feel free is where you should be. I also like seeing the new crews out there spraying, but I always look for style.
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?
I think it is amazing the amount of cultural influence the graffiti we did in the 70's has had around the globe today. I would argue that influence has been mostly positive. And props to kids who have taken it to new levels. We could write books about the idiocracy (and hypocracy) of our government, especially the current one. I wouldn't argue against racism and classism as a focal point for the establishment's dislike for this cultural phenom. And - Isn't it something how these corporate advertisers will use a graf tag style logo to sell product (check "Kellogs' sugar pops" for one) yet prosecute the same kids they are selling to for tagging their warehouse walls, trucks or big billboards that jam us everywhere with their propoganda - whether we like it or not.
30- DO YOU CONSIDER WRITING AN "ART FORM"?
Yes
31- WHAT DO YOU DO PROFESSIONALLY TODAY?
I am an artist, a musician, a graphic designer, and I work in construction as a painter.
32- ANY ADVICE TO YOUNG WRITERS WORLDWIDE TODAY?
Practice, practice, practice, understand and respect other artists and their work.
B>33- ANYTHING ELSE YOU'D LIKE TO ADD?
New York City has become a corporate city for the rich and may never again produce a unique street/art/music culture that influences the world, as it did back in our day. Let's respect ourselves for what we did as well as anyone who has been influenced today and wants to keep it all alive.
34- YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION?
teamartnyc.com
keenecarse@earthlink.net
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