I have some new artworks but before you get to see them…

if you really want to see them you can skip the text and click here…

Imagine,

It’s winter and you just came back to New York. You’ve spent all summer, the rainy season, and the harmattan reading, footballing, and playing Tenchu, that was very very much fun.

You just read that article about Doze Green and you’re seeing Swoon artwork all over town. You really like graffiti and coding and you’re also a fan of Mode2—his dance crowd drawing and mother nature pieces are <chef kisses>

You’re trying to casually run into Futura 2000, even went to the store he opened and asked if he was ever down there (lol). You’re also very much into animation. You just saw Spirited Away at the museum of moving images in Queens and it absolutely blew your mind.

The walk home was a daze, the blue of the sky looked different, so vibrant, food tasted better, coding that database was a breeze, winter felt like spring, etc. etc. 

It’s early January, a Monday, you remember because you’ve just sketched someone in the subway and you wrote the date, you leave the Borders bookstore at Union Square after spending something like 5 hrs in there. It's a habit you’ve picked up in London where you learned that you could spend a whole afternoon reading Ranma 1/2 and Lone Wolf and Cub without paying anything (niice) and you actually finished the series there.

Outside of the Borders at Union Square there are a bunch of skaters practicing falling, and getting back up, and doing some wild tricks and you decide to draw them because you read somewhere that animators could draw people in movement and you want to try.

You’re thinking that being an animator would be cool, you did just get an animation book! You don't really know what you're doing but you're trying it anyway (yay)!

Style as a method of operating.

One of them spots you, rolls over and asks 

“You write?” and you’re like “Wut? No, I’m drawing.” 

He goes “No write like tagging”

 “Noope!” you say.

He checks out your black sketch book and tells you “You should check out 5 Pointz” and you reply “Sure?” But you have no idea what he’s talking about.

Apparently it's a spot where all the writers from all over town go—5 boroughs, hence the name—and from all over the world even. He’s going there next Sunday but he can show it to you now if you want, you’ll just have to hop on the 7 train from 42nd street to Queens and it’s right after the tunnel. Now you know what he is talking about, you’ve seen the spot going home in Astoria, it’s that big building full of tags that you can see from the 7 tracks going home.

So you’re on your way, hopping on the subway, you meet Meres One (he does these cool smiley lamp tags).You learn the rules of the place—you have to show the piece you want to make (it’s a drawing in Mode2 style) and he’ll give you a spot. You show him the drawing, he looks at it for a while without saying anything.

Time stretches, starts to dilate, you notice how grey the winter sky is, it’s winter and it’s cold but you’re sweating while waiting for the answer.

Finally, you get a spot that’s really far from public view, on a roof because you don't really know how to draw (that drawing definitely doesn't look like anything like Mode2 btw) and the best writers get the best spots—visible from the train or street, but you’re still happy.

Everyone is welcome at 5 Pointz.

Style as a bunch of coincidental actions that you stumble on and try to repeat and formalize?

Sunday can't come fast enough, you are very excited, you just watched Wild Style (Doze Green is in it). You get to your spot and as soon as you press the nozzle of the can, you make a mess on the wall. Turns out different nozzle caps control the flow of spray paint. You had no idea you were using a fat cap and your skater friends explain that to you. So you go to Home Depot with your new friend to get some new caps. Okay, now it’s showtime! You make a terrible mural but you are now officially a writer from Nu Yooork Cityyyyay!

Spring rolls around and you are spending all your weekends at 5 Pointz. You go on shaky, rusty ladders, while carrying ladders on your shoulders just to get on the highest roof (WILD, would not recommend, do not try it). You can see the bridges going into Manhattan from there and at dusk the skyline is pretty cute.

In the summer Moma Ps1 moves across the street, you can see and hear the parties from the roof. It's fun, the DJs are cool, sometimes they come over to hang after their gig there. You meet writers from all over the world, it’s really fun! 

You actually meet Doze Green on Bedford Avenue on a Sunday , you chat for a bit, he checks out your black book, gives you some words of encouragement and he writes in it!! 

The walk home is a daze, the blue of the sky looks different, so vibrant, food tastes better, coding that online shop is a breeze, the beginning of Fall feels like Summer again etc. etc. (WILD!)

You start stencilling all over town that small character you made that was inspired by Noodle from Gorillaz with a word bubble that says “Do not mind me” signed fe3. The 3 looks like z bc you like things that can look like other things—things with multiple meanings. You make stickers with the free post office tags that you can get on 32nd and 9th(in front of Madison Square Garden), a red star above that character like an arrow so it would stand out, it’s fun.

Style as a thing that keeps coming back

It’s the Fall, you’re in Paname, the 1st year animation class just visited the Orsay Museum. You like Rodin, he did some really cool stuff, you like his drawings best though. Apparently he drew really fast, drawing dancers in movement that influenced his sculptures. His drawings inspired Egon Schiele and all the animation students you know love Schiele.

You’re in St Michel in the quartier latin neighbourhood in one of the bookstores and decide to check out the English book section. In the midst of a thousand books your eyes land on a book with a red cover that has a building on it that says “I NY” and it's about New York graffiti authored by Kelly Burns,

you open a few pages and you see it

“Do not mind me”

lol

You remember pasting that one in Soho on a Saturday afternoon after a nice skateboarding session. You chose a blue pole and decided to put the red star on it so it would stand out. You made the stencils in your bedroom, 2 of them, a red star and the character.

Absolutely no one believes you (make sense, that’s a WILD coincidence), Lou does, and gets you that book for your birthday 

The epigraph says: (you only read it much much later)

“Massive love, thanks and respect to all of you who stress and sweat with your spray can, your bags full of stickers and your nasty bucket of paste. You make New York happen, This Book is for you.”

Imagine

…style as something that you do not need to find because it is always here with you, you are already there at the center of it.

You just need to get better at recognizing it. 

Style as the spirit of it, the shape, the evidence of all the things unseen and felt within that seeks expression 

It's winter again and you’re making work about the mundane things that are around, hard to perceive things, stuff like transparent plastic bags. Unless you are paying attention, you don’t see them. You still like some of the same things and they are still tough to execute. You just got more confident at drawing / painting / animating / directing / making music / writing, no more time for coding but you’re learning how to make paper so that’s fun.

You’re still sketching skaters and folks in the subway. It's still hard, but it’s still very, very much fun.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

If you find something that you love, doing, that loves you back (don’t worry, you’ll know , you’ll feel it, you probably already have…) keep going. You got this.

As promised some new work in progress (more to say abt them in the next letter)

New Artworks

I have some new artwork available, you can view and purchase them here.( They are available for pickup if you are Toronto based , plz let me know what shipping options you would prefer)

Thank you again for making the time to read, reply , encourage, support, inquire, buy artwork, and for remaining on this journey with me, it is very very much appreciated.

Inspo:

The City We Became and The World We Make, Nk Jemisin

Drawn to Life, The Animation survival kit

Atomic Habits by James Clear

Doze Green “Talking to one’s self”