They drove me around to the front of the building, and suddenly, we were all best friends. They were the nicest people on earth and truly loved our work. There’s no graffiti in Springfield or in this building. So this was their first encounter with anything like what we do. They had no negative associations with graff like most Americans do. They just saw the artwork, and they loved it. They asked us if we wanted to be Artists in Residence at the factory, something that had never been done before, and gave us a whole nine-story building to paint and do an art show in. They said they could not pay us, but we could take anything we wanted from the building and sleep here if we needed to. I thought I was dreaming. It was the craziest thing that has ever happened to me. I should have been in the back of a squad car, looking at serious problems because I already have a record for exactly what I was doing. And in America, they love to put us in jail. Instead, we were looking at this massive giant warehouse, trying to wrap our heads around this opportunity. I knew this was what I needed to do, so I packed up my life in Minneapolis and moved to Springfield, Illinois. I had run out of money for motels and was sleeping at the factory, and eventually, the local arts organization said they had some housing for visiting artists and gave us a place to stay. I spent the next six months trying to cover as much of these five massive buildings with paint as possible, which Montana Black made possible. You guys saw the vision and decided to sponsor the project with paint, and I am extremely grateful. I am trying to stay true to the art of graffiti in this project, and painting the place as if it was still a bando, but taking my time and with more thought-out ideas. I’m usually painting at night with a headlamp on, and we still go on late-night missions to get copper wire, which pays for life. They had no negative associations with graff like most Americans do. They just saw artwork and they loved it. With its dynamic shapes and bold lines, this SHOCK piece stands out against a stark white brick wall, breathing life into a once desolate space. 90 Street Report SHOCK
It was these two pieces that made the people of Springfield see SHOCK and STATIC as artists they wanted to get to know, rather than have them arrested. We put together a huge show at the building, and over 1200 people from Springfield showed up. It was amazing. Seeing graffiti bypass the normal art channels and be presented directly in its raw form as art to regular people in the middle of America was awesome. People really loved it. Immediately after that, like the next day, I left on a journey that took me to Miami for Art Basel. I was kind of lost and struggling down in Miami, but once we went to the Vitas building, I knew what to do again. For me, I was putting the same energy into it as I was in Springfield. Thinking like, we need to do something amazing here. What can I do to help make that happen? Bringing people, bringing paint in there (provided by y’all), hitting people up like, come sidebust, this its history. And then painting a giant mega wildstyle bugged out Mad Society Kings across the whole top level. That shit was incredible. Then, to see that inspire the graffiti towers in LA. And to get to go see that in person and paint something in there with the homies from MSK. I am very grateful for this life. And I plan to keep painting graffiti, making artwork, and working for humanity as long as I am alive. Seeing Graffiti bypass the normal art channels and be presented directly in its raw form, as art to regular people in the middle of America, was awesome. Street Report SHOCK 91
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