Issue link: https://tmcpulse.uberflip.com/i/662005
t m c ยป p u l s e | a p r i l 2 0 1 6 27 Before I claim to be Mexican, before I claim to be American, I claim to be 100 percent Texan. I am very proud of being from this area, and I try to take Houston and Texas anywhere I go. to me. I couldn't fathom how someone could paint that large. The mural was called 'The Rebirth of our Nationality,' and it spoke heavily on the Chicano movement of the late '60s and '70s in Houston and overall. I didn't really understand the content, but the images were so powerful, I got a lot of emotion out of it. But that really inspired me. I thought, 'Man, it would be great if one day I could create something this big.' In the mid '80s, I started listening to what was, at the time, this really underground counterculture music called rap. Back then, Houston got everything last. So hip-hop in general started filtering into Houston. And for those who don't know, rap music is one part of the hip-hop culture. So there are four elements in the hip-hop culture: rap is the vocal, DJing is the musical side, break dancing is the dance form of it and the final element is graffiti art. Graffiti is the visual language compo- nent of hip-hop. So they are called the four elements, and those four elements are what create hip-hop. Nowadays, unfortunately, it has gotten so commercial that the only thing that is highlighted when you say 'hip-hop' is the music, the rapping. But that's just one small part of a bigger culture. So that's kind of how I fell into this, through the music first, and then the break dancing, then the turntables. And this was right at the time when MTV was starting to pop up, and more content was starting to arrive, so through the music I would see the guys on the stage, and in the background was always something really colorful. And that was what started to catch my eye. Once I figured out what it was and who was doing it and how it was done, I was immediately drawn to that genre. I finally found an art form that I connected with. I found an art form that I understood and I found an art form that I felt I could use as a medium or a vehicle to express myself. Q | Graffiti has had some negative connotations in the public, as well. What is the origin of graffiti, and how did you personally find your way down this path as an artist? A | Of course, everyone has their own history and everyone has their own ver- sion of what happened. But for the most part, a big part of what we consider today to be modern-day graffiti was started in Philadelphia. Most people think it started in New York, but it started in Philadelphia and spilled over to New York. At one point, Philadelphia was considered the graffiti capital of the world. But then it spilled over to New York, and once it got attached to the subway system in New York, that's when it really just exploded. And part of the stigma is that graffiti is illegal. For the most part, a lot of it is in the sense that that's how it started. A bunch of kids were using public mass transit as their rolling billboards to con- vey their messages. So, being here in Houston, we aren't East Coast, we aren't West Coast, we are what we call the 'third coast.' And there was no graffiti, or at least nothing that I saw or could reference. Sure, there were the scribbles and miscellaneous writings on the wall, but it wasn't graffiti as in the modern-day New York style. It was just handwritten stuff. So knowing what I wanted to do, knowing there wasn't much influence here or anything I could use as a gauge, I realized I had to go research it. And this was back in the mid '80s, very early '90s, and there was no Internet. So where does one go for information? And I thought of the library. So I went to the library and I started looking for anything. I wasn't really sure what I was looking for, but I figured there had to be a book or some- thing written about it. Nowadays, if you go to the book- store, there is a whole category just dedicated to graffiti and street art. Well, back then, I wasn't so lucky. I had to dig using those ancient technologies like the card catalog. So I went through the card catalog looking for graffiti, and there was maybe one card. And the first book I found was about why people write on the bathroom walls. And I kept digging and finally found this card that said, 'The Faith of Graffiti,' so I thought that sounded promising. I went and grabbed the book and it was written by Norman Mailer, and at the time I had no clue who he was, but it turns out he is a Pulitzer Prize winner. Very famous. So I read that book, and as weird as it sounds, that was probably the first book that I ever really read, if that makes sense. I felt the book was written about me and for me at the same time. He was one of the first intellectuals to look at graffiti not as in kids who are lunatics and vandals, but he took more of an analytical perspective, and it helped me understand a lot of what was going on. So reading that book, I near memorized it, and then I started quoting it, and people thought, 'Man, this is a pretty intellectual dude.' And I would say, 'Well, it's not me, it's Norman Mailer.' I'm paraphrasing, but we live in a society where to own property is to have an identity. It's about what you drive, where you live. So when you have an area like New York back in the day, the younger people back then, you don't own things, basically you are owned. You don't have any property. To have the opportunity to be able to grab a can of paint and go to a subway train or climb a billboard and put your name on there, you are essentially letting the world know that you exist. And a lot of this was younger kids just wanting to have a voice, wanting to say that they exist, and wanting to be able to show people that whether you like it or not, I'm here and want to be heard. And that's kind of where I was at the same time. The difference was, here in Houston, there really wasn't anyone else doing it. Of course, yes, in the initial stages of this entire thing, there was that illegal aspect of it. And that's actually a big drive for the younger generation. The best way I can say it is, until you have done it, it's really easy to knock kids for doing it. But until you go out there at night with a can in your hand, and navigate through the concrete jungle, find a place to put your name, get in and get out without being caught, it's hard to describe the adrenaline. It's very romantic in a sense of a Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer adventure. Very mil- itary. You have to do your surveillance, you have to know where you are going to be, what are your exit strategies in case something happens. There is a lot that goes into it. There is a lot of pre-work before you go out and do it. And it's fun to navigate all of that. And that's how I started out doing it. I'm not a hypocrite. I don't hide my past. I would go out and become this mid- night Picasso. But even back then, I did my best to find areas that were already dilapidated, areas that people already gave up on. So for me, my mission was, 'Why can't I turn this into something beautiful? It's already decayed anyway, so why not have some beautiful decay?' So that was kind of what I was doing. But then, in 1990, I was graduating from high school and was at that point when you can go in a million different directions. And I didn't really have a vision yet. I knew that I liked art, and that was about it. I knew I was doing graffiti. So the school that I ended up graduating from brought a motiva- tional speaker to come out and he was high-fiving everyone and telling every- one, 'You're going to be somebody.' So he was talking about all of the things that people do after high school. Some of you guys are going to college, some of you are applying and got accepted. Some of you are going to the military or straight to the workforce. So he gave all of these options as to what people normally do. And I was in the back, thinking, 'Man, my life must really suck because none of those options appeal to me.' Toward the end of his speech, he said something to the effect of, 'Before you go off and do whatever it is you are going to do for the rest of your life, I will ask you one question: What's the one thing that you love to do so much that you would be willing to do it for free?' And for me, that was graffiti. I do it for free anyway. And he said, 'Whatever you are thinking about, you should do that as your career.' And that just blew my mind. Graffiti as a career? But of course, he is a motivational speaker, so he makes you believe you can do it. So I got really excited. And back then, in 1990, graffiti was still brand new in Houston.