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SPAR ONE ESSAY


I started writing in late 1975 on Manhattan's Lower East Side, and considered myself a latecomer. Writing in school hallways and friend's buildings, then public parks and walls. Then in early 1976 I was tagging on trucks. What was good about hitting trucks was the mobility of the name. I preferred moving vehicles because they could bring the name further than I could, with less time and risk involved. I also liked mailboxes and phone booths because their constant use gave maximum exposure.

I was influenced by local writers who were hitting trains. Writers like AFX 2, BOMB 1, CANO 707, BEN 167 and the old TMBs WEO, CISCO, CJ, FLEA, CAZ 2, IZ the WIZ and of course LEE QUINONES of The Fabulous 5. The TMBs kinged the Avenue B busses and Fab 5 took the sanitation trucks. I aspired to catch up with them and hit what ever I could get. I would hit the sanitation garage under the Williamsburg Bridge with a homemade Uni made from a cigarette lighter and blackboard eraser.

I was attending JHS 56 in mid 1977. This is where I met EI 3 TNS. At this he was writing El ONE and KY 5. He was strongly influenced by JESTER TC. El convinced me that trains were the real place to write. He took me down to the East Broadway underpass on the F line. He took out a marker and started going off. I quickly joined in. After this New York transit was no longer off limits.

I always preferred tunnels, because I liked the seclusion. Yards and elevated layups are too high visibility. Therefore the D Yard was the only yard I went to. The only reason I went there was because it housed so many CCs, which I really wanted to hit. I went there with El 3, DY3, and CEL1. It was the first weekend of the 1980 transit strike. When we got there the yard was not filled with the usual mix of trains. There was nothing but D Ding-Dongs. I was disappointed but we went to work anyhow. We hit dozens of cars inside and out. I did LED throw-ups on half the yard. It was a real get over, but I still preferred lay-ups. The last train I hit was in 1981.

I laid low for a while and then hooked up with SENT in 1989 we did some productions in the Bronx and I've been painting on and off since.

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