Graff Vid & Q+A: Slick, Extended Conversation

Posted Thursday, July 17, 2008 @ 09:08 in Culture by Michael Vazquez

How did you decide what colors to use so it would be seen at night?

To figure out what color scheme for the balloon, I punched in the size, atmosphere density, along with several hundred other factors into the mainframe computer in the "BAT cave" .....ha! Nah, I went with the safest thing I know, 99¢ silver and black, the other colors were meant only for accents.  

How many cans and what kind of paint did you use?

Whenever I do a mission such as this, I try to overcompensate just in case. Especially being in the middle of the desert, I didn't want to fall short and go on a paint run. I brought over a hundred silvers, and with the Montanas another 60 cans. I ended up using even fewer of the Montana because I used the tall cans.

How did you get involved?

I know people...... I know people who know people. I got a call from an old friend of mine, the Teckster [Ed Note: URB's very own Raymond Roker). It was difficult to agree or even quote the gig for them because it was so, hush-hush. They wanted me to agree but they couldn't tell me what it was nor who it was for, it was a secret! I understand the need for secrecy but come' on.

How much advance notice did you have?

I didn't have much time to prepare for the gig...... the original guy they wanted to use probably got arrested so they called me instead.

How much time did you have and how much time did it take to get this up?

We got to the pig early in  the morning around 12:00 noon ( yah, that's morning for me!) thinking we had until 8 pm to paint. After we started, they told us we could only use the scissor lift till 4 or so, but as I said earlier, I know people so we ended up being able to paint until 7.

How was the tight deadline like going on a bombing mission? 

It was definitely a mission, not to paint but to get in to see Prince. I never seen security so tight since the president last visited LA!

How was this different from a bombing mission?

This mission was way different from your usual bombing mission. The fact we painted in 100 + degree heat was tough on us and the cans kept getting hot. I was never a train bomber and rarely a bus bomber so pig bombing came very second nature to me....Ha! Being in the desert really added a degree of difficulty that I didn't take into consideration when I took on the mission. Danny Boy got heat stroke half way through, the desert is really unforgiving. The biggest difference to actual bombing is the element of being illegal is not there, that was the excitement, the thrill. Nah, i guess the biggest difference was that it wasn't on a billboard, it was on a 40 foot inflatable PIG!

You're part of a long tradition -- Pink Floyd have a long history of floating pigs. Have you ever seen the other ones? You can look up Pink Floyd in wikipedia and search "pigs" for some examples -- what do you think of them?

They told me I was the first! Nah, preparing for the gig I did look at the other pigs. I didn't see em all, but I did see the NY pig. I wanted to do something really different from the other pigs. I wasn't sure what kinda graff Roger would like. I noticed he uses a lot of political or revolutionary style graff which usually is done by someone who isn't a graff artist therefore usually lacking any type of style whatsoever. The school of graff that I came from, is all about style, so I was torn. On the Uncle Sam side, I went with sort of a slasher type face style to push the whole idea of being led to the slaughter. On the other side, I went with simple traditional bold block letters busting out the wall ( reminiscent of train bombing from the late 70's early 80's)

What exactly happened to the pig? Was it destroyed or was it an accident? Where was it found? How'd you feel when you heard about it?

It was amazing seeing the pig paraded through the crowd, almost surreal. Then to top it off, seeing it float to outer space with everybody cheering. I felt proud to be a part of the whole experience. All these thoughts were going through my mind about where the pig floated off too, maybe some distant country or galaxy. For a few days all kinds of scenarios popped into my head. Somebody actually found the pig just a few miles up the road and killed my stoke.

The messages on the pig were cool -- did you come up with them in-committe with Roger Waters and team, or were they all yours? "Fear builds walls" was just perfect.

The slogans were all Roger's. The part with the uncle Sam with the butcher knives was a lil' Slick touch

How was your Coachella experience; what bands did you -- if you even got the chance to -- enjoy catching?

We got there the night before so we could see Prince and get an early start the next day. We didn't get our proper credentials in time so it was next to impossible to try and get in, let alone backstage as they promised. The only show we got to see was Roger. A few minutes into the show, we forgot all about the drama trying to see Prince and just soaked the whole show in. It was insane..... the music......the visuals.......a night to remember.

What's Roger Waters and the 'Floyd crew like?

Roger and the whole crew were real cool. His people were really helpful. Roger asked me if I was having fun; I was like "Fuck Yah!"

What was it like when you saw it go up during the show?

Chicken skin! Straight surreal.

Did you overhear anybody's reactions?

Everybody seemed almost as stoked as me if not more. The highlight was Everlast and Sean Penn congratulating me on my moment. 

What are some of the other crazy gigs you've been brought in to do?

I was hired to paint a gang of shit on "BILL and TED's II" The Wyld Stalyons logo on the guitars, backdrops, and vans! They flew me up to Canada for "Fantastic 4" and had us crush the city to look like NYC and ended up cutting out the whole scene.

Is this the biggest piece you ever did? How big was the pig? Must be nice to have a manlift to help you get up -- alot different from a bombing mission...or did the man-lift slow you up as it was re-adjusted?

Nah, the piece for Volkswagon was probably 5x bigger. The pig was only 25 x 40 ft..... but it had a gang of problems of its own. The wind blowing was a major factor because we were on scaffolding, there were 6 pig wranglers keeping it steady because we didn't want it to get caught on a corner and puncture. Straight lines were tough with the pig floating in the wind. The scaffolding would rub into the wet paint, smear it and we would have to keep retouching it up. We had to finish the top and work our way down. Even looking at the pig for too long on the scaffolding due to the sun's reflection blinding us became a hurdle we had to overcome. Well, just another day of gettin' up!

Tell me about your background as an artist -- you're from L.A.? What's graf like now? Is it as buffed a city as everyone says? What were your early days as a writer like?

I've been artistic for as long as I can remember. I'm actually from Hawaii and moved here in 87 to escape prosecution from graff and to pursue a career in art. I went to Otis and then Art center in Pasadena. I was an illustration major and learned from some of the best of em but I felt most my education was learned on the streets of LA. In the late 80's and the early 90's my priorities were much different. It was all about painting and burning  and bitches of course. Getting up seems so much harder now a days with cell phone cameras and surveillance cameras everywhere. I really gotta give it up to the bombers on the streets still keeping the art alive!

What are some other bands/artists you'd love to collaborate with for something like this at a festival? What can you imagine? You can choose living or deceased artists.

I would love to be involved with a project like how Gorillaz used Jamie Hewitt for the entire visual image. Maybe Devo, Kraftwerk or even Blondie! Even Kiss would have been sick to smash with (before they  lost the make-up of course)!

Please share any anecdotes, information, info on upcoming shows, etc that you'd like to.

I was still on a pig high after the fact so a few days later, i rocked a wall with Brisk, Persue, and OG Abel where I rocked a floating pig above Abel's piece. I wanna give a big shout to the crew, Abraham Kalili for the dope photos, Flesh for fills, Danny Boy O'Connor the trooper, and of course lil Tina K. 

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