The finished piece. “Sonny 107”

I always wanted to paint on a bank in broad daylight 🙂

In October of 2013, Will Kasso got permission for a bunch of us to paint store fronts in Downtown Trenton, NJ.  The “Storm The Gates” event was amazing, and at Kasso’s invitation, I got to paint the front of an abandoned bank along the main stretch of road going through the city.

Some of the folks hanging out, some of the folks painting.

Rain and Demer on a roll down gate.

I usually don’t paint an image more than once (maybe twice!), but I was working with Flint Gennari on a series of portraits based on his own photographs of writers from back in the day.  The first in this series is Sonny 107, as the image always communicated to me, that pure joy of a young kid writing his name on a wall.

(Side-note: Flint has worked on some amazing stuff with 12oz Prophet.  Definitely worth writing more about him and this project on here in the future!)

My blank canvas, next to a spot already blessed by Kasso

Statement of Intent

After Kasso showed me where I was going to paint, and politely asked the gentleman (yes, gentleman) who was sleeping there to relocate temporarily, and I got to chat with the dude, (who was super nice and came back around ever couple of hours to watch the progress), I got to work.

Buffed and outlined

So after a couple of hours, with a DJ playing some of my favorite early-to-mid 90s hip-hop in the background, I was finished and could head home.

Work in Progress

The finished piece

Stay tuned, as I’ll be doing a write-up on my series with Flint, as well as some backstory for the Sonny 107 image.  This piece got some love from Sonny 107 himself, which for me is a big honor.