Issue link: https://tmcpulse.uberflip.com/i/662005
t m c » p u l s e | a p r i l 2 0 1 6 28 And it was definitely lumped in with gang-related activity, although I was never associated with any gang, but it was just negative—vandalism, mischief. But I had a vision. I wanted to become a full-time graffiti artist. Well, how do you do that? I don't know. That's the challenge. One of the biggest things that I had to do was shed light on what I was doing. And part of that was I had to step out from behind the shadows. I realized that people fear the unknown. So as long as everything is in the dark, it is never going to get the light of day. So at that time now, there were other people writing graffiti, and they kind of looked at me like I was crazy, like I was selling out. Why would I come out? I just figured I saw a long-term vision. I wasn't looking at today, I was looking at 15 years from now, 20 years from now, where are we going to be. So I figured there has to be a face for this—not that I was the official spokesman and represented everyone. But I thought if I could talk to people, shake someone's hand, communicate what was going on and educate the public, the easier it would be for them to appreciate or even accept. And little by little, that's what started happening. I also figured out that if you are going to make money and sell your art, you have to put it in galleries, like put it in museums. There are a lot of options. So, I went to the yellow pages—the old-school Google—and I looked up art galleries or basically anything that said 'art' in the phone book. I just went everywhere. I said, 'Hey, my name is Gonzo, I want to sell my art here.' And it was funny because pretty much every- one said, 'You're a gang member.' 'This is vandalism.' 'Graffiti isn't art.' 'Get out of here or I'm going to call the cops.' And I was really taken aback. I thought this was it, this was my ticket. At the time, it wasn't considered art. It was slowly making its way through the art community. But I realized, in the '80s, graffiti was coming off of the subway trains and it was moving above ground onto walls and into galleries, so again, going back to the library, I started digging for more info. I pulled every book off the shelf that was art in America, art news, all of the art publica- tions that they had from 1980 to 1990, because I knew that was when that transition was happening, and some- thing in there had to be something that I could use. I felt like Indiana Jones, digging through the catacombs, and sure enough, flipping through those pages, every now and then I would see an ad for an exhibition featuring 'Crash' at this gallery. Perfect. I would write down the information and go home and write letters. 'Dear so and so. My name is Gonzo. I live in Houston. I saw this ad from a magazine back in the 1980s and I am trying to get information about the artist.' Writing letters, it was like notes in a bottle. I was just throwing them out there. And this was not email. You put a stamp on it, you put it in the mailbox and you wait. It was a waiting game. And every now and then something would trickle in. But little by little, through that paper pushing and hus- tling, I started making connections, and through that, I started meeting some of the original, old-school New York subway artists. And I think, at least my impression is, that they probably took a shine to me because I was just this kid from the middle of nowhere interested in what they were doing. So I think that was helpful because we would befriend each other, and develop pen pal rela- tionships, and send photos back and forth of what was happening. So that really also helped show me the vision. Q | There seems to be a unique naming convention used among graffiti artists. Tell us a bit about that. A | In the graffiti world, looking more at the historical true nature of the game, the graffiti name is whatever name you choose to write on the wall and a number associated with it. That's a true graffiti name. Because back in the day in New York, when the kids were writ- ing graffiti, there would be one guy who was writing Cliff. And then another guy from another part of town, they have never met, he is writing Cliff on the upside of town. And the trains would cross and now there are two Cliffs on a line. Which was which? Did you see my new piece? That one wasn't mine. And so to distinguish who was who, they figured out a really cool system of adding either the street number you lived on, or the apartment number you lived in. So you can now be Cliff183, because you lived on 183rd Street. Or you could be Cliff62, because you live in apartment 62. Q | So why Gonzo? A | I needed an identity. I couldn't just go out and write my real name on the wall at night. I mean, I could, but why would you? I was trying to find an identity, and a couple things happened. Growing up, people liked to call me Gonzo, and I always thought it was a Muppet. But one day I ran across the defi- nition of the word. I had no idea it was an actual word, I thought it was just a Muppet. And when I read the defini- tion—unconventional or unrestrained, zany, eccentric, extreme—I immedi- ately connected with the definition. It described who I was, what I was doing, how I was doing it, how I was living life, and I just connected. So, being from Houston, we don't really live on numbered streets, and I never grew up in an apartment, so I had to come up with a number to make my name real. So at the time, I thought 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That was how graffiti was part of my life— constant. And I stuck with Gonzo247, and then, I want to say mid to late '90s, I was watching TV and there was a commercial about Walmart being open 24/7. Any time something gets to the Walmart level, it's dead. So I was like, 'I can't be 247. That's just not cool. That's not what I want to be any- more.' So I dropped the numbers for a while, and I was just Gonzo. But to be honest, I missed that component of my name. It was like a half name. So I thought about it and really liked the numbers, so I brought them back, but say Gonzo 2-4-7, not 24/7. So I like the traditional aspect of keeping the name and number. Nowadays though, it has gotten crazy. It's to the point where if you write the same name as someone else, there's trouble. There is no sharing of the (Photo provided by Mario Enrique Figueroa Jr.)