Riding This One Out

"I was finishing up a mural on Troutman and Wyckoff [Brooklyn] when this kid skated by and started grinding the curb. Nothing fancy just grinding the iron rail embedded into the concrete curb. I stood and watched him for awhile. I hadn’t skated in years. Like him, I appreciated the simple street style of skating and the freedom and creativity it offered. To grind or rail slide a curb created a sense of weightlessness. For a brief moment your cares were whisked away and all that mattered was being there feeling the board beneath your feet and riding this one out. Just before I left I asked if I could photograph him and that I might use the photo for a painting or a mural somewhere down the line."

American Born. 1972. I was raised in the working class neighborhood of Highlandtown in Baltimore, MD. My interest in art began with NYC subway graffiti in the mid 1980s. Having learned printmaking methods in high school, I eventually shifted my technique toward stenciling. In 2000 I began exhibiting my work. Adapting images from photographs and working with spray paint, stencils, and paper to create interior/exterior works, I seek to convey an authentic contemporary document that illustrates the triumph of the human spirit as experienced by those in underrepresented urban and rural environments.

The tags on the board are hand embellished additions to this print.