Looking Back

Survived the freak thunderstorm/tornado/hail storm and felt the urge to put something of a different nature up on the street. I finally got the impulse to pull from some old sources and made a remix of Massacio's 'Expulsion From The Garden of Eden' (1425). My friends have been joking with me how no one in there right mind will make the connection but it definitely fits perfect with the place and the situation.

While putting it up this morning a very curious and protective woman overshadowed the whole process. I asked her if she wanted to see it before putting it up and she played aloof. Before I was through her and a man across the street began a shouting match at one another. The cussing finished just about when I finished and turning around I saw them both staring directly at me. I walked over and asked what they thought and the man, Roy, a resident of the Bed Stuy block for 43 years said he wanted to see it up closer. We all went up to examine and he pointed out the key elements right away. The iPod. And the number 86.

"Hell yeah, they're getting 86'd," exclaimed Roy.

"Don't you know it," I added.

Roy then asked, "So why the iPod?"

"Well you know how in the old story of Adam and Eve how they get kicked out for eating the Apple? Well everyone is still eating the Apple it just is a new type."

"Oh yeah, I see that. I see that," he replied.

"And what about the writing on the gate" pointing at the figure on the right.

"Oh that's about a 70-year old Doctor in Warren County who was caught tagging along the freeway. He wrote that word. Rowlow. I don't know what it's supposed to mean but it was kind of his expulsion from paradise."


Before leaving the woman finally spoke and said how the wall to the right was a Memorial to her son Pablo who was killed. She grabbed my hand and said she was just nervous that I would paint over her sons mural.

I told her not to worry and that I hope no one ever paints over the mural.

It's sad that most people think graffiti is about destruction when most people painting on the street pay more attention to architecture and property than most architects do. Talking to a writer is like sitting down with an Urban Planner. The only differnece is, at the end of the day shit gets done. Than again, there is always that one rotten apple.

Michaelangelo, 1508, Fall from Grace


Benjamin West,1791, Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise


Over Under, 2010, 86'd