Writers Ink

FEM ONE is a sticker and graffiti artist born in San Francisco. She began her art career in 1986, putting in 31 years of work and counting. 

Where did the name FEM ONE come from?

I was given the name (like ol' school rules, how you supposed to get your name). Not like new schoolers that just pick a name, don't do their homework, and somebody else have that name for hella years #notcoolyoulooklikeatoy. Or when some fool claims "King" or "Queen" but hasn't earned it. My buddies Erase and Flyte gave me that name and I've been using it ever since. 

 What inspired you to perfect the female form?

I learned figure drawing from my fashion illustration teacher at Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM). He actually wrote the book we used for class he was super talented, but he was a fucking drunk. After role he would go to the office and sneak a drink and I would yell profanities and heckle passerby's on Powell street, (good times). 

What artists have inspired your work in the beginning of your career?

Vaughn Bode was inspirational to me. I used to read Cheech Wizard as a child and always admired his style. I am now the proud carrier of a collaboration character tattoo that his son Mark did on my arm. I am also doing art shows with Mark in San Francisco. 

You've done a lot of famous characters re-created in your own feminine form. What was your favorite one?

My favorite character changes all the time. My main character is the "Pussycat", but really all my characters are her. Right now my favorite is the anime Full Metal Alchemist Elric brothers as sisters. 

How often do you paint your characters? Or do you prefer working with stickers and canvases?

I don't paint as much as I want or should 1-5 times a month. But stickers and or canvases I work on every single day. 

What artists and writers have you had the opportunity to meet? I know the west coast breeds a lot of insane talent.

I have met so many artists and writers from all over the world I wouldn't be able to name them all.

What's your favorite medium to use?

My favorite medium is a blank half sheet shipping label (like from Office Depot). I have to sketch out my drawing first and a must have is a kneaded eraser. 

When was the first time you ever got in trouble with the law for graffiti?

I never got busted for graffiti, but one time in Jr High I was suspended for blowing up the toilet in the boys room with a M80. I was suspended for three days! If some kid did that shit today, they’d go to juvi. 

What's your motivation to keep drawing?

I keep drawing because I have to. It keeps me busy. I'm forever trying to catch up with trades and draw new stickers that I will like well enough to print for trade packs. 

How often do you do collaborations with other artists/ writers?

I collaborate with other artists quite frequently. I actually really enjoy doing them. But no more than three. If you send me a shitload of collaborations - WTF I have a life too ain't got forever to do hella free drawings. I'll spend 2 hours plus per and you want to send me 15 !? Like I got 30 extra friggen hours!? Rant, rant, rant ... 

I saw on your Instagram you started to make the sculptures. What made you decide to start making those?

If it's artsy I’ll probably like it, maybe try it. I also explore other artistic mediums as well. I can sew, sculpt, do woodwork etc...

What crews are you down with and how did you meet them?

I write with OTC and 86ed crew. I got into those crews from just being around for so long in the graffiti and sticker game. Look up my old sticker in the book  "Graffito”. 

Thank you for this opportunity FEM!

Where are you from Chris?

Staten island, NY.

Where did the idea and name for Robots Will Kill come from?

The name or site?

Both

In the early 2000's there were not a lot of art websites out there; especially ones that showcased graffiti, sticker art, wheat pastes, etc. Also around that time I was approaching galleries and they really weren't showing stuff like that either. I went into two galleries in Soho and both asked, "How old are you?" I said, “What does that matter?” They said, "Come back in a few years." I said, “But you didn't even look at my slides.” After that I had a bad feeling about galleries. So I spoke to my friend Kevin and we decided to make a website that would showcase the artwork that was overlooked. We launched in early 2001. We always said "You wouldn't give us a space, so we built one." This was before websites became easy. It was before social media. It was a great place for artists of all mediums to show what they could do. It amazed me that someone in New York could be seen by someone in Japan, and they could be seen by someone in Australia. I was up in Vermont for a month working on some stuff and one night my friend Chris Rini was working on a painting while I was doing stickers. He did this big cell phone holding a person to its "ear" and I just looked up and said, "Ha, robots will kill." It went along with the robots I was drawing so it clicked. The name for me really meant the fact that some people do something so much they become robotic. They lose interest in other things. You can work and become a robot and lose your love of art, music, fun etc.

So you got the website up and running, where did you get all of the photos from?

In the beginning the photos were ones that I took over the years. Once people started coming to the site they would email or mail copies of photos. We would then upload them. Then Kevin was able to develop an anonymous self-upload feature. That’s when everything changed. Images were pouring in and the site was updated every few hours. At the time, sites weren't live life social media.

That's insane. I remember stumbling upon the website around '07 and couldn't believe the amount of writers that were on there. How did you and Kevin promote yourselves?

Nice. In the beginning we had a big link exchange drive. A lot of sites hadn't heard of it so we would approach them about doing it. I'd advertise in a few magazines such as Peel magazine, Beautiful/Decay, and a few others. The biggest response was from the stickers. Putting them up, the trades, collaborations, etc. Link exchanges fell off because websites weren’t as important. I stopped doing magazine ads cause the big ones wanted a lot of money and the smaller ones that I liked stopped being made. By then the site had a huge following.

Time and dedication always prove to have the best results. As an artist, who has had an influence on your work?

As far as work ethic I'd say my dad and friends. People who work really hard have always surrounded me. As far as graffiti, art, and that stuff there's a huge list. One would be people I pass everyday. Seeing them and how, in their own world they are helping bring on ideas for new work. As far as style, that I'll just give a list of some artists: Veng, Vin Rega, Peeta, Jos-L, Flying Fortress, Over Under, JesseR, Mike Die, kevRWK, ECB, Gary Larson, Jim Davis, herb smith, Walt disney and his 9 old men, Sugar Fueled, NoseGo, kaNO, Lou Pimentel, Basquiat, Daniel sprick, Vers718, Big daddy Ed Roth, MQ, Emit, Sub, Gaze, Scribe, Jive, East, Cycle, Tuke, all the DF guys, Twist, Nite owl, Mike giant, Biafra, MCA/Evil design, Kem, Mike Egan, crash, Monty Montgomery, Zimad, Weirdeyeone, JPO, Chad pierce, Atoms, These are all artists I'll look at randomly and regularly. It's funny because looking at the old masters might not make sense for someone with my kind of work, but it does. The lighting, shadows, compositions all matter and those guys had so much of it down pat.

Yeah you can always apply different techniques to your own work. That's awesome. What was the biggest venue you had the opportunity to showcase your work at?

Thank you very much. Venue as far as seen by the most amount of people? Hmmm, there's been a bunch of projects that I've been lucky enough to be apart of that have large followings or get seen on a regular basis. The walls in NY can be seen by a ton of people a day. I've also done work at the World Trade Center, Spotify, Citizen M hotels, Rabbit Movers, Armani Exchange, Red Bull, and a bunch others that I'm forgetting.

That's incredible. That's got to feel really good knowing you'll have work that is basically going to last your entire lifetime and then some. How often do you sketch?

Yeah it's definitely incredible and I'm honored and humbled. Pretty much everyday. At my 9-5 job I sketch on post it notes; Ideas for paintings, characters etc.  I also sketch on my commute to work and home.

Where have you had the opportunity to travel to for your art/ RWK?

 All over parts of New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia , Connecticut, Indianapolis, parts of Florida and I just got back from Colorado and Utah.

How often do you and the team do limited releases like shirts or hats?

As far as RWK stuff it's mainly me who does the merchandise. I try and release stuff every few months. Hats a little less because of costs. Shirts and sweatshirts I've done a lot of over the years and have a bunch in the works. The limited edition enamel pins have been fun. I usually do a run of 100 and they've sold out in about 24-48 hours.

Very cool. How do you think RWK has impacted the graffiti scene?

To be honest I'm not sure. I know for years I've had people tell me stuff like "Yo I grew on that site.... I would sit for hours at the library to check it out… I was excited to see my work on there....” “It was amazing to see stuff from other countries that I would never make it to.” So by hearing that I'm hoping it made a big impact, but at the same time people forget. It's almost like it's taken for granted. People love talking about the stuff that's gone and how great it was. Yeah it was great but what happened? Why did it stop? Where is it now? We're still here. Not Done Yet, Not By Far.

Who would you like to give a shout out to?

I always hate this question because I worry about forgetting people. So I won't name individuals. Family and friends, all the artists who have inspired me, artists I've worked with, all the people who have visited RobotsWillKill.com, all the people who bought stuff, all the people who helped spread the word, everyone following @chrisrwk and @robotswillkill on social media, people who doubted me, and you for interviewing me. I'm honored.

When did you start writing GOOMBA?

I've been writing since early childhood, I moved around a lot and felt a need to let people know that "I was here". Naturally I switched my name and developed my style over the years until about '05 when I finally felt I had an established identity. Which I stuck with consistently for about eight years. During that time, maybe around 2008, I came up with a character to represent the name. Somewhat of a mascot, often acting as a shorthand throwie. In about 2013 it was brought to my attention that the streets were under the impression that the name and the face were a duo and not the same writer, so I decided to roll with it, and I separated the two. At that point I had to give my character a name that the streets could associate him with. It isn't a monkey, and it isn't a human. Interestingly, it's a cryptic self portrait of myself, so the name GOOMBA came naturally. I carried two names for a few years, before dropping the other completely, and sticking with GOOMBA.

That's super unique, I don't think most writers would have thought of it as a self portrait.

Big ears, big ears, big nose, big mouth, and heightened senses. He's ugly, but you can still love him. I don't consider myself from this world, and I’m a goon. People are always surprised when I tell them its me, but after getting to know me they can really see it.

Who has influenced your style over the years?

It's tough to say, I'm really disconnected from the world, and try not to be too influenced. Surprisingly however, Keith Haring’s bold and generally curvy line work had always influenced me and I think that comes out in a lot of my work. I didn't always do characters, but coming up in the 90′s, I was always impressed when I saw graffiti characters. You know not everyone could pull it off, and it really wasn't common, but I felt like it really added something. You have these letters that maybe you can read, maybe you can't, but then you had a bboy spritzed next to it and it was like, “Aww shit,” that's fresh. In the early 200′s I’d see these production walls, all these fresh pieces, and then EWOK would tie it all in with all sorts of wild characters. I mean the guy would smash letters, but he was "the character guy" so definitely a huge influence early on. Writers like KEYS, RATES, UFO, CLAW, TWIST, and BONER, really let me know that a character can actually SPEAK your name. At that time, it was very rare in graffiti and definitely tough to be accepted. So those names are huge inspirations to me. I'm big into location, I can say that influence came from coming up and seeing heads like NARK and DRUNK ONE, KID and PK, DYRECT, and at that time the whole ACC CREW (they had uptown fire escapes and roofs on lock.) I remember these guys had the heaven spots, the forever spots, the "How the fuck?" or "What the fuck was he doing here?" type spots. I love that shit, and it lives. These days, I'm influenced more so by my peers and cats that are non-stop pushing the envelope. For example VEW, DISTORT, the WHOLE AIDS CREW, GROPE, and MECRO. I see serious innovation of graffiti through their work, and to me it influences the whole game to keep pushing for bigger, badder, and better.

That's what's up! Characters a few years back were few and far between. What type of spots do you prefer to hit? A lot of writers prefer trains, trackside walls, etc... Or would you say you have a well rounded preference?

I definitely stay well rounded in what I hit, but my intent is to live beyond my years. With that in mind, spots that are too hard to get to so they don't bother trying to buff, will live past most beef, and escape that one toy that didn't do his homework, doesn't know his history, and will end up writing on, are definitely my preference.

What's one of the highest spots you've ever hit?

I believe it was the water tower I did in my segment of the counting sheep collection. It was about a 40 story climb that took about 20 minutes.

Where else have you had an opportunity to paint outside of New York? Outside of the U.S.?

Of course the boroughs, Long Island, all over upstate, obviously New Jersey, the surrounding states, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and I was in Colorado for a decade. I'm always bouncing around, but unfortunately I haven't gotten to do a lot of major traveling and I've never left the states.

As a writer of course your main medium is spray paint, but do you other mediums do you enjoy using on a canvas or black book?

I use whatever I got, any paint (oil or acrylic), ink, or rock will do. My canvases and blackbooks tend to be a mixture of such.

Word, mixed medium pieces are always a blast. How did you get involved with the Unusual Suspects art show?

The past few months I've been putting a lot of time into experimenting with different canvas works, and getting them out there showing in various forums. I think people are starting to notice that, and recognize my versatility. So I've been getting a number of offers and invites to show work, which has been a huge honor. My buddy, who I've been building with for a while now and who I really think understands my drive, LOSTO (Get Lost Alot) was co-curating the Unusual Suspects Show along side MOR1, and reached out to me about a month ago prior join the line up. It turned out to be a really great show. (Big up and respect to GET LOST ALOT and MOR1.) Speaking of which I had my first gallery showing at OKAY SPACE, 281 n 7th st in Brooklyn, February 14th along side 10 amazing artists, for a 3 week exhibition called REAL LOVE. It was an incredible show.

What's one of the most wild experiences you've ever had getting up?

I've got a lot of good ones, but one stands out the most as being by far the most intense, and let me preface that there's no real way to understand just how nutty it was without actually being there feeling your adrenaline pumping... On what turned out to be the coldest night recorded in the winter of 2014 me and my brother SERVE(R2B) took a train out to Jersey to link up with the homies LUCK28(C2C) and ESEF(SFG) and smack some highway spots. We started kind of early, by about 1:30 A.M. we're wasted. We had already grabbed a few nice underpasses and we're going for another one. The way it worked was, we had to drive to one city on the opposite side of a river to park up, walk these train tracks BACK across the river to where this intersection of highways meet and cross. We hit the underpass (the trestle of the tracks we just walked,) then the four of us go back up to the tracks and start catching some hangovers on the trestle facing traffic... A car pulls over on the side of the highway down below, So we're all kinda peeping over the edge seeing what's good. We look up, and we see badges in the distance coming towards us on the tracks from the other side of the river (the direction we came from) and the chase began. It's now probably 2 A.M., and this is where things get hectic. When we left the car we were all amped up, drunk as fuck, came out of our car toasty, planning to bang this spot and go back to the car no problem. So we had left all of our shit in the car, jackets, loads of paint, beers, all sorts of paraphernalia, as well as our phones. So we start running down the tracks, opposite the way we came, SERVE and ESEF are ahead of me, I glance back, and I see my man LUCK28 getting cuffed, and others were hit on our tail, so I boogie, and catch up to my other two homies. We jump off the tracks, run down a highway, cross some other highway, and we’re realizing that there really isn't anywhere we can run without being spotted, and we were already seeing police cruisers and lights. We really had no clue where we were at the time, so we just slid behind some bushes along the road, laying on the ground in a position to see the street, almost right next to the street, catch our breath, and see if things would sizzle out... For about 10 minutes we were good, just watching as cops kept cruising by down different parts of these roads that we could see, when suddenly a cop car pulled up right in front of us, we weren't sure if he could see us or not, but we saw him, and we weren't going to give him the chance. I looked at ESEF and said “We out,” we all booked it, SERVE and I went one way, ESEF went another. Never saw him again that night. SERVE and I ended up in an apartment complex, basically surrounded by highway, we're in hot pursuit, but staying one step ahead of the coppers at all times and really not being seen. Before we knew it, the place was swarming with cops and we really had nowhere to go, so for the next few hours, it was the most intense game of cat and mouse. We couldn't stay in one spot longer than 10 or 15 minutes at most. I mean as soon as we dipped from one spot we would literally see them at that spot with their flashlights. It was freezing, we had no phones, no grasp of time, no idea what to do. All we saw was police car after police car, frantically searching the streets, boots, walkie talkies and flashlights spot lighting and casing the area. It was nuts. I remember thinking to myself at one point, not knowing how long this was going to go on for “Maybe just go get bagged and at least not freeze to death,” I WAS SO FUCKING COLD. I then quickly retracted that thought with a second thought of, "FUCK THAT,” at this point, they're going so hard to find us, they've already invested this much time, on foot, in the cold, etc. I don't even want to know what they might actually do to me if they DID catch me, they'd hit me with something a lot harder than a charge." I've seen several people get stabbed in front of officers and soon as the assailant took off, the cops pursued for about a block before shrugging their shoulders. So to me this was bugged out, like I legit forgot what the fuck we were even being chased for, it was so wild. I felt like we were on the run for catching a double homicide. It made no sense. There was one point we were laying up against a fence and we could feel the ground this officer was stepping on, on the other side of the fence. He was Inches from us, but on the other side of the fence. If I farted in that moment, this story may have gone in a completely different direction. There were moments where the action would slow down, you wouldn't hear much movement or see anything, and we'd almost think it was safe to start heading out of the apartment complex and start trying to figure our way home, but sure enough it would always pick back. For hours this went on, SERVE and I just straight skilling the situation, mad stealthy, on our commando A-game. When finally, the sun started coming up, at that point we finally knew what time it was, about 5:40 A.M. approaching 6 A.M. It got a little tense because now we were losing the cover of the shadows and darkness, soon enough people started walking their dogs, and people began waking up and going to their cars, so we took that opportunity to hopefully blend in and get on our escape route. So we did. Now we're walking, no longer in "hot pursuit" and let me remind you, We just went through some serious shit. Like REAL REAL stick ‘n move chase type shit, no break time just go. We are still freezing, but the sun is helping and this is the first real moment that we even get to speak to each other. Immediately we recognize that we really held it down as a team and that it took both of us being on our A-game to make it through that situation, it was a real moment. We still weren't sure what happened to ESEF, but we were out, unscathed, free, and we crushed it. We walked seven miles to the train station, ended up getting home for a victory blunt a little past 11 A.M. Turns out, both the other homies did get bagged, and the police were sweating them hard on who we were, and going ape shit trying to find us all night. Two city police departments, highway, AND railroad police were all chasing us, which ended up making sense because it felt like an army was after us. Long story, but it was a long night.

I could legitimately picture that entire story in my mind. The fact they had two city police departments look for you is nuts.

Technically four. Yeah, they got the car, and EVERYTHING in it... Hot pursuit started at roughly 2 A.M. went on for almost five hours, and a three hour walk. That changed a lot for me. I knew after that, what I was capable of.

How did you get involved with C2C?

Back in '08 I was living in Denver. One of the first people I met and clicked with was this Rastafarian cat, MOTA. We shared a lot of similar ideologies, world views, and it turned out that he wrote as well. So we became real tight, real fast. We spent just about every day building our styles together, we'd hit the streets just about every night, from 10 P.M. to sun up. He'd show me the ins and outs of the Denver graffiti scene. This dude really knew and respected the history out there, and I respected that. I'm similar, because I know my history very well, I understand the do's and the don'ts, I know the who's or who nots. I'm about gaining and sharing knowledge. I've been in the game for a while, and I've always walked with respect regards to my surroundings. That's what we were about. We made a lot of moves, and we held each other down. At the time we used to have black book sessions day in/ day out, hangin’ at my crib with a couple other homies. FRESH who was originally coming from Cali, KUPA or KOOPA who was originally from Arkansas, and later on TEQ who was originally from Michigan. None of them pushed crews. But we were a team. MOTA and I had both pushed crews at one time that both sizzled out. We were both doing our thing, and we knew we had to form a name for ourselves so that people would know that we comin’ strong. But we wanted to be careful, we didn't want to start a gang, and we didn't want our mentalities to stray from our original and conscious ideologies...

C2C is naturally a misfit crew, although a few of us did, we didn't all grow up together, and being that our team was from all over, we called ourselves City2City/Coast2Coast... We rocked with it, put everyone in our circle down, we were a family beyond graffiti, so there were a few homies that didn't write, but they were down. C2C was growing, and making a name for itself, so other variations of the name evolved, Come2Crush, Combine2Create, Can2Can, Crew2Crazy, and wherever the fuck else you can think of... Originally it was CTC, but I think we either caught wind of another CTC crew somewhere in outer space. Sometimes we'd put a 2 instead of the T, but either way we switched it to a number two so that it didn't confuse anyone. Originally it was MOTA and I as presidents. OCAS, EGONE(who wrote WERD at the time), FRESH, CRILZ, KUPA, TEQ, DREW MILO, DOWN, and MANZ. MOTA retired from president, so its just me, OCAS is VP. Some heads stopped writing, some heads stopped repping, and there have been some that have been added to the roster. Big up my C2C family, big up our newest member to the family, ORDER C2C LOR!

Word, that's rad! It's wild how you can start a crew, and before you know it, it becomes way bigger than you expected. How do you think the internet has impacted graffiti?

The internet is gift and a curse. I believe that there's a time and place for everything, and anything in moderation. That being said, You can definitely use the internet to your benefit, but you have to be honest with yourself in order for it to not work against you. The internet has a tendency to confuse the game, people tend to misrepresent themselves, those people are often lead on to believe falsified boasting, it's perpetual to some degree. Everything I know I learned either through experience or it was passed on directly from "big homie", people that I actually looked up to because they had the knowledge that came from experience. These days, no one needs to respect you, no matter your age experience or rep. You know why? Because they can find out on the Internet, or they already looked it up, so "what can you show them?" There's no more patience to wait to learn, you can google it. Then comes "well shit, let me post myself so people see that "I do this" even though you might not really even do this. Again it's not what you do, it's how you do it... So you can say to me “Well you post your own work.” True, work that has already been seen, flicked, and reposted. So take it how you want but it's done in good taste and it works because I'm honest with myself. I know my roots, I know the tools of today, and I use them with integrity. Then you have direct accessibility to anyone, anywhere. I'm talking anyone can order the next "graffiti utensil," charge to mom or their artist major tuition. Which at first thought might seem all sweet and convenient, but this opens the "street art " and "I'm gonna write graffiti because I'm young and it's cool," flood gates. There are people running around with with Montana's, and a YouTube tutorial. Spraying shit that pre-internet days wouldn't see the light of day, let alone have the opportunity to be there in the first place. Spots are constantly put on blast. I can go on, but at the end of the day, do you homie. Are you going be honest with yourself, are you willing to do the foot work, can you keep your mouth shut? People don't realize what the internet really is because we're so engulfed in it with our EVERY step. But you put yourself out there and cats get so caught up with their image that they legit lose sight of the quality of their actual online presence that in our day and age translates to a real life cliff-note, or lasting impression. The Internet becomes reality to a lot of people.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years with your art?

Ten years is hard to fathom. I never expected to be here today, so I take it one day at a time. I strive to do better tomorrow than I did today.

Anyone you want to give a shout out to?

Yeah I got a few brothers and sisters I wanna big up, shout out the whole C2C family, ORDER, DREW MILO, LUCK21, OCAS, SERVE, WEE MAN, GIVE, J8, MANZ, DOWN, my man YAEO and MOTA out in Denver. Big ups my brother VEW GI the tri state killer. My big uncle, FORS44, out in Cali. My brother AREST KIDSET. Big up my sister J8, killin’ the sticker production game, if you haven't already, go check out STICK EM UP INC!! Shouts my guys Garden State Extracts! Big up all the OGS that laid the ground work.

If you live anywhere in Staten Island or New York City, you have most definitely seen work by the one and only GOAL. Since 1991, GOAL has been smashing property heavy and shows no signs of stopping anytime soon. Not only has GOAL been putting work in on the streets, but he has started a few trends that have become popular over the years.

So what’s good dude? You ready to smash 2017??

2017 will be no different from the last 26 years. I’ve painted steady every year of my career and have photo albums to prove it. Over the years piecing is getting a little boring, but doing fill-ins is like busting nuts.

How many names did you go through before you chose GOAL?

Well, I went to school down the block from my house and the school had a walk over bridge that was grilled. So I always saw graffiti since first grade. At that time my best friend SW had an older brother RB. I saw him paint the bridge one day during school, and was like “I need a name.” I went into the lunchroom and I had a bag lunch with an Ecto Cooler juice box. I told my boy “I’m gonna touch the box with two fingers and those two letters gonna be my tag.” It was EC… Then RB started teaching me so I tried CE, then RE, but I liked the letters EC. So I picked 10 names from the dictionary and made my mom pick one. She chose EPIC. I stayed with that till ’95-’96 then my boy started driving me painting and I told him he needed a name also. He loves soccer so he picked GOAL. I was writing both names for two years, then the heat came on with EPIC and another old-school writer was writing it in Brooklyn so I just took GOAL and stuck with it.

The Ecto Cooler is a classic. RB, BOBBY, the train crusher? Every time I go to a layup I see at least five trains with his name on it. What kind of spots are your favorites to rock? Streets, track spots?

Nah RB is an old school Staten Island guy, not that toy crap. This guy has been piecing and doing highways and shit since the 80’s. I’ll paint anything, anytime, anywhere. My favorite thing to rock is a beautiful girl, I’m a sex-a-holic.

How many women do you think you’ve painted on?

I don’t know, my last girl asked me to paint her everyday, but I never did. As soon as she gets naked I just gotta fuck.

Growing up, what old school heads did you have the opportunity to meet growing up?

Well, I’m from Staten so there are a lot of people the other boroughs aren’t familiar with. These were the guys I looked up to and learned from. Such as, SCOPE2, MARS, ECHO, VERS, TEO, LEV, SIGN, FADE, but I did leave Staten Island and met a lot of people. Ones that stick out to me are guys like CAP MPC, TRACY 168, HEKTAD, COPE2, JUST WF, NOE, TYKE TFO. I always show respect to the guys that paved the way for me. Now days these new kids have no respect and they suck, no style.

And that’s a fact. A lot of cats are ready to go out and paint, but don’t know any history. What was one of the first spots you busted a nut your first time hitting?

Wow, a lot of shit. In the late 90’s, I went all city. I drove more than public transportation. So I was smashing highways like the BQE was that dope shit, roofs, all of the major avenues. I remember I linked up with JUST WF and did a few spots in the Bronx and I think I went over somebody. Soon after that I linked up with JEE and since they told me to meet them in the Bronx I trooped out there and met COPE, REMO, SPEK BTC R.I.P. and we painted the 2 and 5 lines till noon the next day. There were fill-ins on everything. I kept going to the Bronx with the WF crew and BTC crew killing shit, but that came to a halt when vandal squad caught up with me.

Oh shit, how long did they have you bagged for?

That was a long time ago and I only got community service for that case. I have been to jail for graffiti and it sucked. Sorry, but I really don’t want to talk about that part of graffiti. I feel underrated and hated on in the graffiti community. The hate and jealousy is real. If I was a bum broke toy I would be mad too. I just wish I got credit for some trends I started, like the whole collaborative fill-in collages on canvas in the 90’s. I used to always have a canvas on me and had good writers do their stamp fill-in for me. The next thing you know people realized it was a good idea. Better than a black book because you close the book and you cant see the work; the canvas is hanging.

No worries, totally understandable. How often do you like rocking canvases?

24 hours, now 20 years later every writer does it. I do pieces on canvas once a month. I do a fill-in on canvas everyday. You could ask writers like KECH REC, HEILS MIA, KEVS MIA, SERF, MINT, if I’m telling the truth. Just like SERF and MINT started the whole vinyl sticker fill-in cut outs and never get credit. I’ve seen a lot of writers come and go; jock and bite styles, and I’m still here doing my thing.

I believe you. You grew up in a different era with graffiti. Things are a lot different now then what they used to be. How many times have you ever caught somebody trying to bite off you or even your crew’s style?

I don’t mind people biting or using my ideas as influence, just show me love and respect. When I was a kid I always looked at RB, SCOPE2, MARS TNI and others. I bit and learned from them, and to this day I still show them love and respect. It’s hard to being a well-rounded graffiti artist. Learning all the letters, throwups, pieces, tags, block letters, how to bomb consistent, picking spots connecting with others, and doing piece walls. Now I think the computer is another element you have to learn to be a graffiti artist. Even the sticker game is part of it. If you’re a king you have to do it all and don’t stop doing it. There’s guys that pop up every five years and think they’re the shit. Take a hike, I’m out here 12 months a year risking it all for this sport.

What other trends have you started?

Another trend I started was when I started writing JOE GOAL. I remember seeing one old-school guy write his name before his tag, but I went crazy with it. Next thing you know anybody with the name “Joe” was writing it in front of their tag. Then the entire New York side, and even some guy from Jersey shows the kid no love.

Where else outside of New York have you had the opportunity to paint?

I’ve been all over the United States; I’ve connected with some great people. LA was fun. I have graffiti family in Baltimore. My man CASPA HITS RTH… RTH crew is worldwide and I’m a huge part of the crew so I can go anywhere and have a place to stay with a tour guide. I’ve been to Europe, which was fun. I painted non-stop everyday. Right now there’s a dope scene in New Jersey. A lot of good writers are putting in work, and I like being a part of it. My young bull DRANE RTH helps me kill shit out there. If you do your homework on RTH crew you will see how big the gang is.

That’s dope. Mad respect. What’s the highest you’ll go to hit something? Anything like highways signs?

The moon… I’ve done it all man and I’ll keep doing it. You gotta respect the art youngsters. Like in hockey you might be able to fight, but if you’ve never scored a goal you suck man. So in graff you can be a fake, immature, tough guy and try to impress people or you can act like a grown man and show your skills.

What kind of rush do you get when you hit heaven spots?

I used to get super high on some crazy drugs, so that shit doesn’t really do much for me. On a bomb after my first fill-in for the night I feel open, like I have permission to kill shit no fear, but the first fill-in always has me shook.

What type of freak things have you seen throughout your graffiti career?

Just some chases and bullshit. One time I was filming for my movie called “A Day in the Life” and I was rocking my fill-in on the street. A big silver stomper. As I’m spraying, a red laser beam is following my hand on the wall. The whole time I thought it was the camera. When I finished the fill I asked the cameraman about the red light and he said it wasn’t him. So I said, “Let’s hurry up, outline, and be out.” As I started to outline the red light came back. This time I followed it to a house across the street and got shook. The next thing I know there’s mad cops so I told the cameraman “Yo, go one way and I’ll go the other.” As the cops came down the wrong way on the street, I walk up to them and they ask to see my hands and my arm was covered in silver. So I started to jet, and made it three blocks. They hit me with the car, and beat me bad. I needed staples in my head and had a broken nose, but two weeks later I filmed for the movie. You can cop it online or go to it on Instagram.

What’s the biggest piece you’ve done to this day?

That one’s in Staten Island, by the Wu-Tang projects.

Anyone you want to give a shout out to?

Shout out to OUCH MIA, Rest In Peace. Shout out to GN RTH RIP. Shout out to Michelle Emz for being so hot. Shout out to DG NWC, SPEK BTC, ODB Wu-Tang, Erik Garner, fuck all cops. Shout out to the homeless bum that rapped MAP. Shout out to all the hookers and sluts sucking dicks. Fuck all graffiti writers, you all suck and jock each other like homos. Guys who like guys go to other art shows for an autograph. I’m the greatest NYC kid in the game. No breaks, come suck a fart out of my ass.

Born in Jamaica, Queens NERDS has been adding his own unique style to every wall he approaches. From train yards to The Bushwick Collective, NERDS has no limits. His passion and dedication to the game is unmatchable. Without further ado, Writers Ink presents NERDS 2DX!

Why “NERDS”? What inspired you to choose that combination of letters?

I was always the bad smart kid in school… lol

When did you start writing?

Shit… I started noticing graff in like 7th grade, but I didn’t start to “actively” participate until High School… So like ’99, but I didn’t write “Nerds” back then… lol

Word, so about 17 years… That’s putting in work. What were the first few words you put up? Or just one prior?

I used to write “PAER,” that was my first tag.

When was the first time you went to prison?

Mid 2000’s… Like late ’05-’07… I was living in Miami, fucking up my septum with that good oil based coke… Selling 8balls and shit… Got jammed up on some charges… …I thought they were small at the time, but Florida’s judicial system isn’t New York’s. I was basically just doing my Charlie Sheen at the time… I felt like I was lucky to get that 18+ months… This was basically the time the pill mills started popping up everywhere… We all were smoking a lot of pills, going out and robbing the dope boys… Smacking $20 rocks out of their hands and doin’ the Carl Lewis… I was glad to make it out of there alive… They can keep that 18 months… It’s a gift… lol.

That’s pretty wicked. When you were in Miami, were you still writing “PAER” or had you transitioned to “NERDS.”

I got the name “NERD” around ’01-’02… I didn’t add the “S” until maybe ’07-’08 when I came back from Florida… I didn’t write much in Miami… The scene was so different… I didn’t have a car either… When I did steal or “acquire” a car… I was pretty preoccupied with other crimes…

What made you decide to come back to New York?

I had nothing left for me down there… So I decided to come back and start all over…

What was the first thing you did when you came back to New York?

The first thing I did was link up with the squad… Start painting again… I felt like I needed to get back to a sense of normalcy… And that felt like the only way.

JINS, NERDS, JROZ

What kind of spots do you and the squad like to hit?

It really all depends on the mood I’m in… Sometimes it’s something very thought out and well planned… Sometimes I have to drink a lot and I’m just like “Fuck it.”… I try to keep it diverse… Most of my squad would probably agree… We all like to challenge each other, keep us all developing.

Those shredded layers you paint are staggering, what inspired that idea?

Honestly, that idea all came from me doing collages on that fine art shit… I had like garbage bags full of ripped paper in my house… One day I was blackout drunk and started visualizing these fonts all stacked up… The idea just started really basic and then developed fairly quick… Especially once I started free-styling the colors… I’m not one of those writers who has crates of paint at their house… I’m usually working with rattlers and shit I find in my back seat… lmao… No sponsors. So it just made a lot of sense to stagger them… Especially when you’re working with quarter cans and 1 good cap… Hahah. Just gimme five scraps and I’ll smoke anybody…lol… I’ll blow cans up if I have to… lmao.

Lmao, word. That’s what’s up. How long did it take to paint that mural at the Bushwick Collective Wall in 2015?

That was actually the first non-graffiti mural I’d ever done… And at the time the biggest piece of work I had ever done… I painted it on a scaffold in the rain after work everyday for three days straight… I like a challenge… lol.

Spoken like a true savage. What type of opportunities have you had to travel different places for both galleries and straight up graffiti?

In the last few years I’ve traveled a lot… Exploring different abandoned buildings on the east coast… I fell in love with that lifestyle immediately… The isolation spoke to me in some sick way… lol… I’ve been invited to a few different festivals… experienced a lot of different cultures… Met a lot of white bitches with fat asses… They’re out there… lol.

Speaking of abandos, was that phone actually working? Or was that just for the ‘gram?? Lol. How’d you even find that place?

Lmao… Nah that shit was actually working. Deadass… made some local calls on that bad boy… Abandos are a dangerous game, especially going at it alone. If you want to find them, then you have to open your eyes… They’re all around… Keep your ears to the street and keep those clippers handy… lol.

What do you think about social media and graffiti combined?

I’ve always said that the internet itself is a tool… A tool improperly used can be dangerous… With that being said a lot of good writers careers have done well because of social media… Myself included, but I’ve been doing this when social media consisted of Bombing Science magazine and ArtCrimes.com… lmao… The internet has created a lot of hybrid styles… Which I’m all for, but a lot of the community and history has been lost… I feel like it’s a double-edged sword… Styles with no master… Street art is the entitled, ungrateful offspring of graffiti… Like the crazy dad who finally makes sense when you’re older… lol.

Who would you say has influenced your style the most?

At this point in my life, I get influences from all different areas of art… That’s a loaded question… Growing up in Queens I was mentored by a lot of old school BMK crew… Optick/ Smend… As I grew up traveling around the city, I became more aware of the variance of styles… SLOPE from BK had a lot of styles… SETUP.. I was definitely influenced by ESPO and his gates…. I never wanted to feel one dimensional in a specific style… As I got older I pushed myself to be diverse… So at this point I don’t even sketch anymore… It’s just a bag of tricks at this point… I like it like that… I’m a mystery, wrapped in an enigma, rolled in a big ass cigarette with coke on the tip… Hahaha.

From your story about Miami I can tell things were pretty wild. What was a wild experience you had in NY?

A few years ago when I was shooting my video entitled “No Invite” I went to Yonkers to search out a ‘bando. I had never been there before and had no idea how to get in…(**Side-note** At this point I had been on a three day cocaine binge. I had about 2 G’s left tucked in my sock. I was really fucked up… You know the type of fucked up that every line of Coke do you do falls out of your nostrils because your septum is just overworked…) Anyway I find the entrance to the building through a basement window that had about a 12 foot drop to the ground … there was a chain attached to the wall a few feet from the window that I grab and climb down. Meanwhile I had no idea how I was going to get out of the building when I was done nevertheless …But Fuck it though……I made my Way to the third floor. I found a wall with good light and started to unpack my paint (But If You’ve never had the unfortunate pleasure of spending three days with no sleep doing cocaine like Marion Barry… Chances are you will begin to hallucinate.) All of a sudden I hear someone say “Hellooo.” I pause while going through my cans and there is the voice again “Helloooooo??? “with some weird accent. At this point I couldn’t tell whether I was hallucinating or if this was really happening. There was the voice again, “Helloooooooooooooooo” with a weird Russian Polish-ish fuckin’ accent. So all of a sudden….I couldn’t tell you why… haha… I just yell Out ..”What’s Good Nigga!!”…..I still don’t know if I’m hallucinating or not yet or if it’s the fuckin’ boys but I’m wayyyyy to fucked up to be analyzing the situation that deep…haha… The dude yells back “Hey hey hey!!!… I’m lost, I can’t find the way I came in!!!”….about 45 seconds later he comes around the corner into the room I’m in… He’s one of those German/ Polish/ Russian /Mediterranean Merrill wearing photographer urbex dudes… I tell him the way I came in and he tells me he tried it and can’t climb the chain. He’s extra flustered… I tell him “Relax… I got you…” I show him the room where I climbed in through the window… I climb back up the chain on some American drugs ninja warrior shit and dead grant out the frame of the window off with just my feet. I grab his hand and lift him to a point where’s he’s comfortable enough to scale the chain… (I swear just reliving this story is fuckin’ ridiculous…lol.) I shimmy back down the chain, he’s extremely grateful… He says something to me and gives me a salute lol, (the type of salute you see Afghanistan kids give American soldiers…lol.) I trek back upstairs to finish the piece I started… About 1 hour later it gets really dark really fast… So I make my way back to the room to climb out. It’s fuckin’ freezing, my hands are cold and stiff, the chain I have to climb is like an ice cube, and I’m totally gassed. I don’t have the energy to climb it… I start walking room to room trying to find one loose plywood board on any random window…I’m kicking shit..trying to get out by any means… I don’t even give a fuck about the cops at this point I’m freezing… Any booking is better than death…#deadass… I sit down and light a cigarette and evaluate the situation. All of a sudden a flash light hits me through the elevated window and I hear that weird ass Russian/German/ Polish niggas voice…”HELLO!?!?!?!”……I just break out laughing… (It turned out that garbled foreign shit he was sayin’ to me as he went out the window earlier was him letting me know he was coming back with friends later)..They throw down a rope ladder and climb down. We give each other pounds and exchange language neutral expressions of respect and gratitude. I climbed out the window and never saw those tourists again…karma, huh?

When have you gone to bookings and got placed in the same cell with someone you knew?

Every time I go to jail or booking or whatever I always end up with a story. I’ve got more stories than the fuckin’ bible…lol. Sometimes when I’m about to tell a story even I know how unbelievable some of this shit is…lol

So, it’s maybe 09-11…hahah…whatever. I’m walking down 62nd on the east, fresh new chrome uni. At the time I was flipping everything from dimes to biftys of green straight delivery style. I even had a beeper on some late mid 90s clockers shit (Dope Spike Lee Movie.) I just ground the tip down of this brand new uni silver from my mans “Geo” at the Scrap Yard…

I’m approaching 1st ave and there’s a fresh mailbox… I roll up on it, bust off a quick handstyle. Exclamation, swirl, all that… I keep walking… All of a sudden I hear this whistle start blowing crazy…!!!!!!!!!!!….!!!!!!!!!!!!…..!!!!!!!!!!!!!!…

I turn around and 2 bike cops roll up on me fast as fuck… Did the power slide and everything..Baywatch shit… At this point I’m literally on the curb standing on the sewer grate… Out of pure instinct I drop the marker in the gutter… “Where’s the marker buddy?….Where’s the cans?…Turn around …You think we didn’t see you?” I don’t say shit… They look around for a while and see it in the gutter…(* I fucking swear to you*… They brought a fucking police tow truck to lift up the grate and retrieve the marker like it was a fucking CSI investigation no lie.*)… They ship me to the precinct… From the precinct to the Tombs (my 2nd Home)… Once I make it To the second cell I’m tired and there’s no open space… I see this dude layer out across a big piece of real estate….I walk over and I don’t know why but the first thing I see is his sneakers… Some Black shell toes with rainbows stripes…(I know a nigga with those kicks…I’ve never seen anyone else with them, but they’re obviously not the only pair in existence.) His shirt is pulled over his face to block the fluorescent lighting…I tap him on the shoulder.. “Ayo…Slide down a little bit nigga…” He pulls the shirt off his head…..NEMZ ..muthafucker!!!!!! …We start bugging out… The CO is telling us calm down and shit…He got wrapped up in some other shit (that’s his story to tell..hahaha.) Anyway it turned out he’s already been here for like 24hrs. By the time we reach the lawyer cell we have been together for hrs… (Btw Shout Out To Azel Cs..Lower East side Boy…there isn’t a a bookings I’ve been in that he doesn’t have scratchies/ lighter tags u name it.) We go up to see the judge, some of his family was there and they’ve met me on different occasions…lol. So when they saw me there they thought we were co-defendants…hahahah…Let’s just say I wasn’t that welcome at the family house for a while…hahah.. #deadass… lol.

Anyone you want to give a shout out to?

First and foremost none of this would be possible without ME… So let me start by thanking myself… Big Shout Out To My Ace.. DIM TIS CSF… I never would of been in this game if it wasn’t for him… Shout out to The whole TIS Familia…SENO, SEAK, NEMZ CIR, and my nigga EONIS out in Atlanta… My 2dx family state to state…DEK, SMASH, SANS, RUKUS, MINUS, SNEK, Smirk, CRIS, ETHEK, REUP out in Baltimore and SKIZM… All My CSFamily…Brooklyn!!…GIGS, FRESH5, SLUE… All my WATCriminals…USEE, LEER, GASE EK, BIRD… My Dude RANT in Ohio… My Man CAKED WPK..”Aka” Brick Tosser…..The team is huge… Also Shout out to the homies EVAK, EGORE, CENT… My nigga OVER NFG… And Of Course The Great JIN’S 5MH…..Shout out to Queens… And Last But Not Least… RIP BAK ,RIP ZNO ,RIP PANAS, RIP YEAH ,RIP CEFR…. You’re truly Missed… We’ll paint again soon…..…I’m Out.

What’s happening dude? How has life been?

Pretty good for the most part. Working a lot, paying the bills, getting some spritzing in whenever I get the chance.

So why EGOR? How did that name come about?

Well growing up as a kid I watched a lot of Mel Brooks movies. Young Frankenstein was one of his movies in particular that I had watched a lot. Igor, played by Marty Feldman, was by far my favorite character from all of his movies. I started off like most writing a few names prior to the one I stuck with. I was doodling one day while I was watching Young Frankenstein and I guess I just liked the way it looked and liked the reference.

You’ve been writing for a while now… How long has it been?

I had always loved graffiti. I didn’t know anyone though growing up and was really ignorant when it came to computers so it was hard for me to learn the “rules” of it all. In ‘06 I moved and transferred into a new high school. That school had a good amount of writers there and a few of them were in multiple classes of mine, specifically Taks, Dang and Slakr. Those guys pretty much took me under their wing and showed me how the way to go about things right.

I know you’ve definitely hit some heaven spots. What were those experiences like?

It’s always an adrenaline high for me. Before I started writing, like a lot of others, I was big into skateboarding. I still go out here and there, but not like I used to. I guess the adrenaline rush I got from skating transferred over to painting for me, and hitting those high up spots is like skating a big stair set.

What country/ state/ island, do you think you have the most ups in? You’ve done quite a bit of traveling.

I don’t look at one area and say I have the most ups there, because I don’t know what the general graffiti world considers up now these days. Is it the amount of throwies, pieces or hours logged?

 What’s your preference as far as spots? Trains/ track spots? Street spots? Abandons?

It really all depends on where I’m at and what time of the year it is. In the summer it’s fun to paint freights and abandos. In the winter all I want to do is lurk around and bomb. Mexico is great for huge illegal throwies on Main Street. Hawaii is all about the cutty mountain waterways. New York is dope for a little bit of everything.

When you paint abandons, what’s one of the creepier things you experienced?

I have been to a good amount of spots and have experienced some messed up things. I have seen dudes shooting diesel to hookers working some johns, but anything you think is weird or creepy in the U.S. you can triple in comparison to Mexico. Drug addicts in the states can afford drugs, in Mexico you will be painting a spot and a homeless guy will be watching you and be cool as long as you supply him with a spritz of that silver paint every now and then to maintain that high. It’s pretty depressing to see a human being that low.

That Inspector Gadget piece you did at Hudson Valley was dope. Where did the idea for that come from?

That idea was actually given to me by my girl and she is going to be super hyped that I admitted that haha. I was sitting on the couch thinking of a theme to paint, pretty unsuccessful, and she gave me the idea for an inspector gadget themed piece. Loved the concept and took it from there.

 What writers have influenced your style over the years?

For the most part, my crews. I was always fortunate enough to meet up with dope writers along my way and they were the ones who really pushed me the most to points I probably wouldn’t have gone without them encouraging me to. Starting off Dang UK and Taks WL were the guys that really pushed me as far as finding my style, and getting out to go bombing with Slakr SG and Dibz SG (RIP). I then moved and started painting with Cent IMOK and Evak IMOK who really put me into that competitive mindset, and really start taking it as serious as you could get writing on other property.

What do you prefer to do more as far as styles? Throw ups? Hand styles? Pieces?

It depends on the mood that I’m in and where I’m at. I love doing big nasty fill-ins on a main road after a night out with the boys and I love kicking it in the middle of nowhere on a beautiful day taking my time on a piece.

That canvas you did for Sandy Hook was awesome. Did you ever send that over to them?

That was for Sandy Hook charity. It was a while ago so I don’t remember the full details, but there were a group of artists given one of the children who had passed away and I was given Noah Ponzer. The work was held on display at a show and then brought to the school apparently.

What would you say was your most thrilling experience painting? I know it’s a difficult question only because most nights out are always a thrill.

That’s a tough one to answer… Probably the time Siler HCNK, Beits HCNK, and I were out bombing in Mexico City. We were painting the federal highway in a pretty lit up area when the cops rolled up on us quick. They throw us in the back of the cop car and start driving away from the spot. I’m thinking “Damn I’m going to Mexican Jail,” pretty much the last place I want to be. Siler is smooth talking the cops who are asking for $300 per person to walk away. At the end of it we wound up paying $250 pesos, which at the time was about $17. We then went back to the spot and finished the fill-ins in front of the police and walked away. To Siler and Beits it was just another encounter with the police, but I had never bribed a cop before so that was a crazy experience to be apart of.

 How do you feel about floaters? I feel like their harder to accomplish/ come out clean from my experience…

I have a love hate relationship with floaters. Some of my favorite pieces of graffiti I have seen are floaters on the streets but when I see people only painting abandons with floaters it erks me. Don’t get me wrong I will paint floaters every now and again at a spot simply because I don’t want to paint over anything that may have been there for years. Its when I go to a big spot with plenty of walls and see floaters above some ill pieces is what I am not a fan of.

Does your family know you write, or has it been a well-kept secret?

Yea my whole family knows for the most part. It was kind of hard keeping it a secret getting popped a bunch, but for the most part they like it. My mom being a professional artist and my father who is anti-government actually appreciate what I do at times. Obviously a graffiti writer may not have been their first pick, but considering what was around me it was kind of inevitable.

Anyone you want to give a shout out to?

Shout out to the whole IMOK crew, Cent and Evak who are my big brothers, Jick who’s like a mentor in a way. Another goes out to the HCNK crew in Mexico, like Siler, Dunk, Beits, Saicr who showed me the wild side down south. Definitely a shout to the SG crew in Hawaii, Taks and Dang who put me under their wing when I was wet behind the ears, Slakr who was always down to get out and go. Rest In Peace to the big bad Andreis “Wicked Whyme” Costa!

“Born in South Miami during the mid-1980’s, Emerald (also known as Echo or Lady Echo) grew up as the youngest and only daughter in a family of three boys. As a young girl, her favorite activity was riding on the back pegs of her oldest brother’s bike while being taught how to read the signatures of Graffiti artists from around their neighborhood. By 1994, Emerald had a “tag” and was learning how to use spray paint. In 1999, she began pursuing Graffiti and Art as a passion. She attended a pre-college program at Pratt Institute in New York City (just before 9/11) during the summer of 2001, receiving only a month of formal training in painting, drawing and art history. She has continued painting ever since. Many of Emerald’s works can be found interacting in public spaces throughout the United States and Europe, or rolling along freight lines from the United States to Mexico and Canada.” (Emeraldartstudio.com)

 So since your last interview in 2008, how has life been?

Life has been real! Lots of ups and downs in the past eight years. My best friend OiL died the year following that interview... I went into a bad depression. Poke BS, the only person in NYC who looked out for me at that time, died 8 months later. My older brother died a year and half after that.

In a span of 2 years, my protectors, the men who (although would give me so much shit in between us) wouldn’t let anyone fuck with me, were taken before I could realize how valuable they were. I spent the next several years in a bad place. It took a lot to figure out how to be happy again. I’m still kinda traumatized, I panic that the people I care about are going to die all the time. I panic that I’m going to die all the time – which is why I am constantly producing as much as I can. I don’t really party anymore, I don’t drink anymore, I don’t socialize very often, I stay in and I work on my legacy. I feel immense pressure to create while I still can. I feel immense pressure to leave things on good terms with people I care about as much as I can. I know how fragile life is, I’ve learned that even the strongest bonds are temporary, and I no longer take it for granted.

Also, since my last interview, Nekst - arguably one of the strongest American bombers in our current generation of Graffiti, passed away. Iz the Wiz passed away. Sace passed away. Countless other Graffiti writers have also died. Does this mean we, as Graffiti writers, are a culture of troubled people who will die young in higher percentages? I’m not sure but I’m well aware of the possibility.

Aside from that - technology has changed at a super rapid rate in the past 8 years. Smart phones became a thing, pay phones went extinct, social media emerged, instagram replaced Flickr (for me), information is being shared and spread at rates faster than ever before in our civilization, food (and nearly anything) can now be ordered through an app on your phone. It’s an interesting time to be alive!

 When did you start writing?

I learned about Graffiti as an 8 year-old in the early 90’s - and even had a tag, E.C.K.,  but didn’t actually start seriously writing until 1999.

 How many trains do you think you’ve painted since you started?

I honestly have no idea how many.. It’s gotta be in the hundreds, maybe even a thousand or more? It takes a lot of cars before you actually make a dent. I hope one day my panels get a catalogue raisonne like fancy artists do with their art works.

 What was your first train painting experience like?

Clumsy and inexperienced! Growing up in Miami, I spent most of my life in sandals. My dumb ass walked into the freight  yard with flip-flops and busted my big toe on a pile of rocks within 45 seconds of being in there.. My foot bled the entire time I painted, but I finished my piece - on a Chessie System coal car. I still have a scar from that day.

  Some writers love painting trains more than walls. What about you?

I prefer trains. I love smooth metal on clean trains but also love working on the rough, rusted surfaces of freights. Trains come more naturally to me than a clean wall. A panel that will end up moving with a train is more forgiving and less intimidating for me than a flat wall that will blatantly showcase any mistakes I make.

As an artist, what’s your favorite medium to use other than spray paint?

Stainless steel. I love welding and if you weld it properly, stainless steel will produce a rainbow of colors from the oxidation of the metal.

I also like epoxy resin, it allows me to make sculptures out of objects like used spray cans.

  What was the most thrilling experience you’ve ever had while you were out painting?

Hmmm. Graffiti is always kind of a thrill for me, regardless of how big, little or insignificant what I’m doing is.. There are different kinds of thrills for me with painting - some are fun, but some are hectic. Seeing my work running years later is a thrill for me. Discovering new mediums and new instruments is a thrill. Recently doing fire extinguisher tags thrilled the shit out of me - like, had me smiling all night and doing a little back-it-up dance kinda thrill.

Guess the most direct answer: I haven’t had a most thrilling experience yet, cuz I never know what to expect, the thrills just keep coming :)

 What type of music do you enjoy listening to while you’re painting a canvas or any type of work outside of the streets?

I listen to music literally all day (if I’m not listening to the news), it helps me work and it just feels necessary. I’m probably more into music than I am into art - even though I’ve never made music or ever had an interest in trying.

I listen to all kinds of music: Rap, Hiphop, Soul, R&B, Folk, Metal, Alternative, Jazz, Pop, Electronic, etc, etc, etc. Obscure stuff as well as super mainstream. Just depends on my mood or the feeling I need or want at the time. Music gives me a physical reaction, so certain songs feel better than others and sometimes I overdo songs that make me feel really good - to the point they no longer feel good and I can’t stand to hear them ever again.

My favorite song, since 1992, is “Minds is Playing Tricks on Me” by Gheto Boys - The melody really spoke to me as a kid and it can still give me chills if the mood is right. Since then, my other favorite is “In a Sentimental Mood” by John Coltrane.

My favorite albums of all time are “Live and Dangerous” by Thin Lizzy, “Ready to Die” by Notorious BIG, “Table Scraps” by MHZ (Megahertz), “Give Up” by The Postal Service.

I was going to start listing artists that I like but it would take forever. Instead, if people are interested in my music taste, they can check out the playlists on my youtube channel: youtube.com/c/emeraldartstudio. So far I’ve made 3 lists: Dance party station, Rap station and Soul station. I listen to these playlists all the time and I add to them whenever I have a free moment.

  What’s your favorite aspect of Graffiti? Is it piecing, hand-styles, throw-ups, or everything?

My favorite aspect of Graffiti is that one can never run out of surfaces on which to get up or instruments to do it with. I love tagging, I love throwups and I enjoy piecing too. It’s all fun to me, but some endeavors require more work than others. Tags and throwups are quick but require more strategy than a piece sometimes, even though a piece can be grueling effort-wise.

I prefer to paint super readable spots that will be seen in motion, whether the surface is moving (train, truck etc.) or the viewers are moving (trainline spot, highway spot, etc).

What’s you biggest motivator/ inspiration that drives you everyday to be creative?  That skirt you made the line of drips on was rad as hell.

My biggest motivator is death. Like I mentioned before, since so many people close to me have died unexpectedly, I have a panic inside of me that I’m gonna die very soon. I’m extremely concerned with my legacy and I think the work I leave behind is what matters.

As for inspiration - I’m just a creative person. My mind searches for that “new new” all the time. I like to experiment and try stuff that I’ve never seen, I like to put new spins on traditional things. Monotony exasperates me, I can’t even walk down my own street the same way more than a few times. I’m constantly exploring. I like to go where I’ve never been. I like to have fun and be silly, even if I’m alone, there’s never a boring day.

Glad you like the skirt with ink drips! It was a spin on an idea I had for photoshoot with black drips on skin, combined with my obsession for edding ink + the recurring theme of edding ink in my artwork. I wanted something funky to wear out that night and nothing in my closet was cool enough so somehow I had the idea of dripping black ink on my white skirt and took the risk. The dried ink was smudging at first so I sprayed it with rusto clear coat to seal it. The ink stained the vegan leather of the skirt, but the sexy surface black ended up cracking off by the end of the night. It was a one-time item, but very fun to rock!

  What’s the coolest place you’ve ever had the opportunity to paint in? (State, country, abandon spots wise.)

Hmmm… I think one of the coolest places to paint that I’ve come across is an abandoned factory in New Jersey - I have bad memory for some details so I can’t remember who took me to find it (maybe Tacoe). The factory had several floors, lots of walls, and old locker rooms for the workers, with a lot of stuff still in the lockers (including old porn magazines which I know I have photos of somewhere). For a while after we found it, I was the only person painting there along with whoever I selected from NYC to join me. I think I had like 5-6 pieces in there in the course of a few months. It was super cool to have an entire building painted with Graffiti that I basically got to curate.

Aside from that, I’ve had the opportunity to paint a freight spot that’s near the ocean. I’m a big fan of ocean, and a big fan of freights, so getting to combine the two is almost surreal. Imagine finishing an end to end, high as hell on paint fumes, looking up at the bright moon and stars, hearing ocean waves crashing as the moonlight melts onto your piece. It’s like a dream.

 What’s the creepiest thing you’ve ever experienced in an abandoned spot?

Never really had too many creepy things happen while painting, but the creepiest thing that’s ever happened in my life was on a “work” road trip with detour to the Grand Canyon. I was travelling with a friend, we were staying close to the monument the night before and had planned to visit  in the morning. We requested a room with two beds, but when we got to the room there was only one bed.. We soon discovered there was a door in the room which led to another room which had its own bed and bathroom. We assumed they either gave us the suite on purpose without saying so or that it was an accident, but we decided to use the second room either way.

I locked the manual door latch (which prevents the door from being opened even if someone has a key) and proceeded to wash my face and get ready for bed. B was in the room next to me and spoke to me thru the connecting door, told me he had to grab his shorts from the car so he could shower and would be right back. I was in the bathroom and heard a door slam closed.

When I finished I walked out, I heard B’s shower going next door but noticed the door latch on my door (in the second kinda sketch room) was open - which I thought was weird cuz B could have walked out of his own room - especially since we didn’t even know if we should be in the second room and he saw me make a point to latch the door when we first walked in.

I relatched the door and waited in B’s room watching tv. When B got out of the shower, I asked him if we could use his door only to go in and out of the room so that the door of the second room I was in would stay locked. I explained that when I got out of the bathroom my door latch was open and I was concerned someone could just walk in if they had the key.

“Emerald, but I didn’t go out of the door of that room. I went out of this door. Yours should have stayed locked, I didn’t unlock it.”

I looked at him in shock. “Are you fucking with me right now?”

“No, I swear.”

We both walked back into the second room and the door latch (which I had JUST reclosed) was open again. This time there was no possible way that B had opened it. We closed it again and watched to see if it was faulty and might open on its own. It didn’t. I got chills up my arms and tears started streaming down my face. B was in shock too, he didn’t know how to handle me crying but I could tell he believed I wasn’t fucking with the door latch either.

I ended up grabbing all my shit out of the second room and slept in the same bed as my homie that night. We both agreed it was probably a ghost and that the motel we were staying at had probably been built on some ancient Native American burial ground or something. I still get tears when I think of it. Creepiest shit ever.

 This is probably a difficult question to ask, but what’s the most monumental piece you’ve ever done?

Hmmmm… I hope I haven’t done it yet! I hope I still outdo everything I’ve ever done. I don’t want to be stagnant. I don’t want my highest achievement to be in the past, I want it to happen as often as possible.

 Most people probably wouldn’t know you have a dog unless they follow you on Instagram or actually know you. (Who, by the way is very cute.) What made you decide to get a dog and how has she changed your life

I’ve wanted a dog for a while and circumstances finally aligned for it to happen.

Also, after so many super disappointing experiences with disloyal people, I figured adopting a dog would be a safer bet than trying to connect with another person who betrays me. I rescued a pitbull mix and she’s changed my life in a lot of ways - it’s like having a kid, I take care of her before I take care of myself. She’s so smart and makes me laugh all the time with the things she does. She’s really strong and fast, but is the sweetest little thing ever + possibly a winner for the world’s best snuggler award.

I can’t imagine living without her but have already prepared myself for the fact that dogs have 13-15 yr lifespans. I get mixed emotions sometimes when I watch her sleep - relief and shock that they almost killed her at a shelter and then kinda sad knowing I’m probably gonna outlive her and that there will be no other creature just like her. Aside from that and all the work involved, having a dog is the coolest thing ever!

 What do your parents know about your Graffiti lifestyle?

My dad died when I was a kid, so I was raised by my mom and brothers. Yes, they know about it - in general, not necessarily all the details of what the lifestyle involves but they know I’m a writer.

When I was a kid, in the early 90s, my oldest brother wrote Graffiti and my mom was cool with it. She was cool with all his Graffiti friends hanging at our house, she even had her own tag, “Mom1” and would ask them to put her up + she would get excited when she saw them up on the highways or tags on toll booths etc.

When was 15 and started writing, and my mom found flicks, I got in so much trouble! It was OK for her son, but not for her daughter. I had to change my tag so my mom didn’t know what I wrote and I didn’t take photos of my Graffiti for the rest of the time I lived at home. During that time she found out (through one of my oldest brother’s friends) that I changed my tag to Echo but since she never caught me with photos, she could never prove any of the stuff she saw was done by me.

I moved out of her house before I graduated high school and after that she couldn’t tell me what to do so eventually I decided to be super open with her about what I was doing. In her attempts to finally have a close relationship with me, she was all of a sudden cool with it.

I remember when I lived in New Jersey at one point, she said she wanted to visit and do what I do - so I asked her if she was down to do backjumps on some subway trains and she said yes! I refused to take her but she insisted she wanted to spray. She’s never actually painted with me or really even made efforts to follow my work, but I have sent her flicks before and she has told me that she looks for “Echo” or “OiL” whenever she sees a train passing. She met OiL a few times and tells me that she remembers him fondly.

My oldest brother, who put me onto Graffiti to begin with, has reprimanded me a few times for writing on shit. Even so, I think he digs that I’ve gone so far with it and I think he respects my choices. I know he’s proud of me even if he doesn’t really think Graffiti is smart for me to do.

My older brother who passed way (I have three older brothers btw), never really liked it. He didn’t like that I would be out late at night with guys, didn’t like that I was going into train yards (with guys) and didn’t trust any of my guys friends - he was convinced my friends were going to sexually assault me or had already been trying to rape me in my sleep when I was on Graffiti roadtrips, etc.. On the other hand, he was also so amazed that I could get away with so much - like, statistically, he couldn’t believe how many times I had painted illegally and not gotten in trouble. I remember one night after telling him about a super-close call while painting in NYC, he was super stoned, got some sort of epiphany from my story, and explained to me, “The key to getting away with anything... is a girl.... All you need is a girl and you can get away with anything.”

What spots have you hit that you may have risked your life painting?

Ugh - recently did some seriously sketchy shit about 23 feet high on a ladder. The person I was painting with, who had just caught a fire extinguisher tag on the rooftop of a building - with security guard not far from us on the ground level - insisted that he could not bring the extinguisher down with him and that I needed to climb up and get it.

The logic of why he wouldn’t be able to climb down with the extinguisher and why I was able to do it made no sense to me -  but I needed him to shut up and get down, so I climbed up to get it.

The extension ladder was lifted to the max and still had a grip of space before the roof so he had to hand the extinguisher down to me from several feet above, and there was no chance of placing it into my hand - he was gonna have to drop it down (even tho there’s no logical or realistic way I could have grabbed it from the bottom). (As I’m typing this, I still don’t know how I agreed to do this). With one hand holding the ladder, I reached up above my head to have him drop a huge (way bigger than normal size) fire extinguisher into my small lady hand. I obviously couldn’t hold it and somehow (without falling off the ladder) repositioned the fire extinguisher mid-air, slid the bottom between my chest and the ladder and hugged it with my free arm and began to climb down. The entire time I was climbing down he kept going on: “Holy shit, you’re such a fucking gangster… You’re a fucking G.” I was shaking and my heart was racing from the adrenaline but I made it down safely and we didn’t get caught by the security guard. Definitely never doing that ever again.

New rule: You climb up with it, you climb down with it. Fuck that.

My final question… Are you a pizza or pasta gal?

Is both an option? I eat pizza and pasta more than once a week. If it’s a nice Italian restaurant I’m getting some form of pasta, but if it’s not boushie spot then I’ll go for the greasy pizza. Favorites: Joe’s Pizza on Carmine in Manhattan, Garage Pizza on Sunset in LA (yes, there’s decent pizza in LA!) and La Pizza on la Croisette in Cannes.

 Thank you for all of your time Echo!

Thanks for the interview! Super cool to follow-up with the same website 8 years later. I don’t do many interviews so these will be valuable one day :)

For those interested:

ECHO’s website: Emeraldartstudio.com

Instagram: @Emeraldartstudio

Facebook.com/Emeraldartstudio

OiL’s instagram: @crudeoilforever - All original flicks, no tributes!