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I was born in 1962 in New York City. It was a different time and New York was a different place. A much more dangerous and economically bankrupt place yet rich was with a cultural vitality that manifested itself in a do -it-yourself type mentality. I came out of all of that. I started painting trains in New York subways in 1977 . Before that graffiti was something that I looked at and wondered about . I had a lot of questions and was searching for the answers . Eventually I met people that showed me the ropes and as they say the rest was history. In the early 80's the media started to take notice. Documentaries were being shot, books were being published, history was being written. Eventually galleries took notice and I started to have gallery and museum exhibitions all over the world. I was about 19 when all of this went down. Since then I've had over 50 solo shows all over the world, hundreds of group shows and my work has been collected by many international museums . Through all of that I always took pictures. Just photos of the snapshot variety but nonetheless I was documenting my travels and experiences. During this period I was using a lot of photographic and film references for my paintings. I was inspired by the films of Martin Scorsese. Russ Meyers, Dario Argento, and Gordon Parks. I was also inspired by the Nan Goldin , Nobuyoshi Araki and Daido Moriyama. About 10 years ago I got a decent camera and started to shoot seriously. A lot of Street work, travel and women. I still live in New York, work in the Bronx, listen to music, paint, take photos , eat peanut butter and jelly daily, and sleep when I can . |
