AF89

Here is a T shirt I did back in 1989. My older sister had this stored in a box and recently gave it back. The only other person that I know of that has one, is My cousin Margot. She was actually wearing it when I went back to Saratoga Springs 2 years ago, it was in really good condition still.


The Shirt was designed for an event we were doing called Aerosol Fest. It was supposed to be at the Oceanside amphitheater during the Kumba-fest. But for some reason I can't quite remember why I didn't happen.I remember cutting the ruby lift and Doze Green's Apt in Encinitas. We also printed them at my bosses garage in Lakeside.

Front

Back

Shock...Horror.....More shock..Uh embarrassed!?!

I'm the first kid breaking that they show I'm wearing a baby blue Adidas suit.



WOW!!!! The ghost from Christmas pass caught up with me today.  I forgot about this news story, I can't believe we actually made it on the news for doing a little performance for some handicap kids. I remember a few of the Down Syndrome girls had a crush on Rich. They kept on trying to touch him and was saying he is cute. They were flirting with him the whole time.

hahah, he turned them down. No pun intended.

Rich "The heart breaker" Real

"Gravity Ground Crew"...Uh...Yeah, this had to be in 1983. 

I was wearing a freaking bandanna around my left ankle!!! And oh God!... my footwork was awful and my back spins were sloooow!!! And I was popping and breaking at the same time hahahah. holy crap! Lots of kick worms were being executed that day, that was the big power move then along with the hand spin. This was pre-windmill (continuous back spin) I was still in Junior high at the time and this was probably before we got to see "Wild Style" at the Ken theater. which blew are minds and I probably crapped my drawers at least a dozen times that night and that set me off in the right path,....Thank you MR. Charlie Ahearn!

BaG

I painted these two manga girls at the 30/60 yard in 1987. At the time I was inspired by and what we called "Japanese cartoons." The inspiration to paint this style of character instead of a "Bboy" style character or a "Bode" came by the way of me being addicted to Robotech.

"Blue and Green" by Phantasm (sake) at the 30/60 Spring Valley, CA 1987

Nightshot photo by Vapor. 

GAU and SOTA 86

This vimeo clip that I recently found on Persue's Blog, shows an 18 year old San Diegan graffiti writer, "System" (Robert Smith style hair do)  and a 19 year old Quasar (geri curl) . Who are both members of Graffiti Artist Unlimited and Phyz (flat top fade w/bright ass yellow socks) Painting at the Euclid trolley station. All three were working on a project that M.T.D.B. was putting together for a mural campaign that would have graffiti artist paint the walls that run near or next to the new expansion of the trolley line here in San Diego. My crew at the time U.G.A was apart of this project but failed in the professional side of things due to our age (I just turned 15) and lack of inexperience with business and Ideas outside of your typical "name and character based graffiti" we were not giving a wall.
*** around this tim Jim prigoff also took photos of this project for a book called "Spraycan Art" but for some reason, San Diego was left out of the book.

Quasar, System and Phyz (sota) from Mr Goose on Vimeo.

***Short side story..with the money that Quasar made from the project. He bought himself a brand new Mazda 626 4 door. While taken the turn on the 8 east, Texas st exit. He flip the car and totaled it along with a trunk full of spray paint. The spooky thing was Crayone was supposed to been in the back seat and the section he was going to be sitting in was crushed.



A random clipping I had from the San Diego Tribune / March 1986.

New Years 1984

Tazz and Kaze at the 2 yard. Spring Valley,CA. 1984/1985

We painted this on New Years night in 1984 and finished it after midnight in 1985. I was 14 at the time and I wonder what excuse I gave my mom??? It was really dark and erie. We had to duck down and hide every time a car drove by us. It had to been at least a dozen times and every time this happened my heart would stop, because I thought it was the sheriffs putting the spots on us. We dedicated the piece to our Moms. We used growco paint and the nozzles that came with the paint... stock tips. We purchased or racked the paint from the Spring Valley Swap Meet, which is a stones throw away from the 2 yard. 

Over all it's sorta "toy" but its not to bad for the times, especially from a couple of non subway writers. The "T" is terrible! I still dig the "Beetle Baily" and the "cloud" is cool. Believe it or not this piece made us famous, this is all due because of the location of the piece it was facing the only road into the Swap Meet which would get over 10,000 visitors in a weekend. This gave a lot of people its first glimpse of NYC style graffiti and inspired other kids to start writing.  This picture was probably taken by me with a 110. I really like the art deco house next to it. 

the original outline form 84 one of my oldest surviving outlines.

The 2 yard today.

The Biz

This was mine and Izzy  1st cards from 1986.

SD 85

Found this on you tube. A few typos.

R a T

 "Rock-a-Thon!" 

Our crew did make the deadline and was featured in this issue of IGT not to bad considering two out of the three were done illegally* and at night with stock tips. This issue of IGT was released sometime in 1988.

"Aerosol Art" by Phantasm (sake) and Izzy at the 30/60 yard / Spring Valley,CA. 1987

"Phan" by Phantasm (sake) at the 5 yard / Spring Valley, CA. 1987*

Daze, Izzy, Phantasm (sake) at the 5 yard wall / Spring Valley, CA. 1987*

This Month in 87

While I was digging through boxes of my graff memorabilia, I found this application for a battle called "Rock- a-Thon." This was the 4th application I sent in for the contest, some how this one never made it to NYC..... Luckily for me, now I have this cool flyer/App for a keepsake! 

(You can click on the images to expand to read)

I'm hoping to locate the actual picture of this piece that I painted for this app. I remember it clearly it said "Def" and had two manga characters next to it and was painted at the 30th and Imperial yard aka the Aqueducts.

Q87

This 'Quasar" outline is in Izzy's (wst) black book from 1987.

Vapor found this

My old writing mate Vapor (dek) found this... and Emailed me the other day, thought it was funny..... I clouldnt figure out a better way to show it on my blog.

.......... so just click on the "Numbers" to expand the images.

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Heres the link.  It is from an old bart character, that I painted in 1989 and Vapor took the photo and sent it into Artcrimes in 1996.

Da Wiz

A group of Cheech Wizards I drew for High School art class in 1986.

Outline form 85

Click

Fame City Artist

This Photo was taken probably around 1988 after a recent bush and weed removal. Soon after this photo was taken the city had a graffiti clean up day and painted over this and others including a mural that I was paid to do...that's another story

I usually went out by my self on graffiti missions, this one took me longer than usual and was not completed. It was near Jamacha blvd and had to be extra careful since the parking lot to the restaurant was right above it. The house that was close to the wall had pesky dogs that kept barking. Once that happens I packed up and left. The paint I used was some krylon, crowco,national spray paint, the latter was cheap paint and faded really fast.

"Fame City" By Sake aka Taze fca*5yb*uga/1985

Unfinished

I painted a lot of unfinished pieces over the years. It too a few night to get it this far. After a few close calls and other snafus I lost interest and was anxious to get to the next burner.

sake aka Phantasm @ the 5 yard/1985

Black book blues.

      Every writer I know still has their first "black book" Except for me! well, I do have outlines from my first book which was not really a black book it was a sketch pad that was brown. does that count? My 1st traditional "Black Books" where either..... boosted our on loan to a fellow writer, who never gave them back or being stupid and giving them to an ex-girlfriend! grrrrrr...stupid stupid stupid!!!!!!! I probably had at least 5 "Black Books" meet their fate these ways and I'm pissed!!!! They were completely full that's like 80 something pages fully colored pages per Black Book. I remember one summer all I did was draw in my black book 3 months of staying in except for the occasional run to the corner store for candy or to play some Donkey kong or what ever the new game was at 7/11 and on the weekends you would find me at the swap meet trying to rack some cans for the nights mission.

sake aka Taze in Daze's black book/1985

Glory days.

In the 80's we used to hit high schools around the county from San Ysidro to Oceanside.This was one of them. I teamed up with my Izzy who is now part owner of Wild Style Technicians. Not long after we painted the piece at Valhalla High, the school went into a frenzy, copy cats and fans emerged. (we had celebrity status which was our demise) The coach of the baseball team who happens to be a Sheriff launched a full blown investigation. Almost a year later Izzy and I was pulled out of class and was arrested for painting the dug out. During the investigation, I was followed and they documented dozens of spots I painted, luckily the pieces were painted over or the property owners didn't want to press charges. Our punishment was fairly simple but embarrassing especially when your 16 and your trying to score some chicks. You really don't look to cool walking around in you shell toes and carrying a broom around your high school.

Taze and Izzy (uga) @ Valhalla High School/1986

Kick'n It Live In 85!

A few pieces from back in 1985.
       

       Times were innocent, you could take your time and work on a piece for hours. On some nights...why not order a pizza and bring a handheld radio. You can have a party while the Fuzz drives by on their beat and won't even suspect anything. Dam'n it!!!!  I really miss those days!

   The "Taze" piece below was painted next to Highway 94 in Casa De Oro. Back in the 80's this wall an open field next to it. More or less we were sitting ducks, but got away with it. The wall was visible from highway 94. I remember driving in on the East bound side of 94 and my Mum saying "Oh, look at that I wonder who did that ! " Nowadays, this wall has a hotel next to it with a bushy tree that is covering the spot were we painted. 

"Roc'n Art" by Kaze  "Taze" By Taze (Sake) and Kaze UGA 1985

*Daze also might of been present*

C.D.O wall now.

This "Tase" piece was never finished due to the cold weather and cheap paint. I would on occasion spell my name "Tase" because I liked the shape of the letter "S" painted. This piece was painted in the "5 yard" which was located on the north east corner of Jamacha and Grand Ave in beautiful Spring Valley CA.

Unfinished "Tase" piece by Taze (sake) in the 5 yard 1985/ Spring Valley, CA

      A "Hanz" Piece that was also painted in the 5 yard. I painted this for my friend named "Frizz" who also went by "Hanz" He was really good on paper and he had a great style sorta reminds me of Rob Goblin from Tempe Bronk Crew. He never painted , I was hoping this piece would inspire him to at least try. I hope to seek out some old out lines from "Frizz" and post them up some day.

"Hanz" By Taze (Sake) at the 5 yard 1985/ Spring Valley, CA

5 yard now.

1985 Article

Click to expand

(my mom is the one who scribbled on the article)

This article is from the San Diego Tribune sometime in 1985. We were trying to be apart of the mural program that was planed to be painted near Euclid ave and other destinations around the city in 1986. We didn't fit the bill. I think because of our lack of experience and a non professional presentation. we were going up against older artists like Gau which consisted of Quasar, Wizard, System they also had help from a New York graffiti artist named "Phyz" (sota) who helped put together presentation for the metro transit system.

Back in 85 the graffiti movement in San Diego was more of a mystery then a eye sore for the community do to there were probably no more than 20 kids doing it and probably no more than 5 crews in the city. I had the balls (or stupidity) to give my real name admit that I did illegal-graffiti and even told the press what high school I went to...oh brother!

Click to read part 1

Click to read part 2

Click to read part 3