Growing up reading comic books and then painting graffiti I came across many influences in my art. Here is one of my favorite artists giving a talk at the Toronto Comicon in 1974.
Here’s a vector drawing I made of some graffiti letters. Living in New York you get to see so much great graffiti here. In my earlier years I spent a lot of time painting graffiti. I learned a lot about design and color during those years. One of the amazing aspects of working as a graffiti writer was that it created strong relationships with other artists who were painting graffiti. In the days that I painted graffiti the internet as we know it had not become what it is today. We relied on word of mouth, photos, and eventually magazines to find out what other graffiti artists were doing across the country. I’m happy to say that I was a part of this culture in my early years. I learned more about art painting with a spray can and hanging out with my fellow crew members over the years than I did in art school.