♪♪
-If I'm talking to my friends, yeah, it's graffiti,
but if it's a client that's got some money,
then yeah, it's mural art.
When I touch an aerosol can, I'm on fire.
It doesn't matter if I'm painting on a canvas,
if I'm painting on a train, if I'm painting on a wall --
whatever I'm painting, I'm on fire.
[ Can rattling ]
♪♪
-Graffiti is names -- writing your name,
getting it as many places as you could.
You've hit the walls.
You've hit the overpasses, trains, or buses.
That was originally what graffiti is.
♪♪
-A lot of people see a lot of garbage in the streets,
and it's just little stupid kids going around
without any direction.
When I was younger, I'd go out and do stupid things
'cause, you know, kids do stupid things.
But as I got older, I found that this is a sacred art form.
I specialize in burners.
I do stuff that is big, vibrant,
and is eye candy to the community.
I feel like my art is medicine to the community.
-It started in the '60s from a guy named Cornbread.
He started writing his name all over Philadelphia
to impress a girl.
Very, very quickly, at that point,
it also hit in New York,
but I think it really hit its prime time
on the elevated subway platform.
They risked life, limb, and freedom
to do what they did.
-I am at the APEX Gallery, and it is an amazing gallery.
[ Can rattling ]
Today, I am painting a portrait of Sid Vicious.
[ Can spraying ]
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-I'm John Carswell, and I'm the owner
of the APEX Everett and The DogTown Collection.
The DogTown Collection now
is the most historically complete collection
of graffiti and urban art in the world.
It started out preserving the very early guys
that first started this art genre in '69, '70,
and then it grew from there,
and as it covered the rest of the United States
and -- and the West Coast.
-So this here is a piece by Pryer One.
This is the first piece that Pryer ever did
for The DogTown Collection.
He's a huge Los Angeles legend, with Pryer's name being as big
as it was throughout the city of Los Angeles.
Those are the historical pieces that we want to collect.
-One day, I was reading an article
that had talked about New York whitewashing
a very, very famous part of a tunnel
very, very early artists had -- had done.
And it was a real time capsule, and it got whitewashed.
[ Can shaking ]
We've had to take what these guys were able to do
in the streets, on walls, subways, et cetera,
and preserve them onto canvas.
And we typically try to get something that's very historical
for the writer that's doing the piece for us,
and we get it on canvas,
and that's what we're seeing today.
-While I'm painting, I am meditating.
I lift off.
I'm in a different -- different place, different time.
This is sacred grounds for me,
'cause you see it on the poles, you see it on garbage cans,
and you know it's just a mess to the city.
But when it comes down to skill and professionalism,
this is where it's at.
-This is the only offering to the art world
from North America, modern North America,
from the United States.
Everything else came from somewhere else.
This is our contribution to the art world,
and we were whitewashing it as fast as it was going up.
And so I decided to try to get
as many of those real early pioneer guys,
the guys that started this --
just exactly what they were doing in the tunnels
or what they were doing
on the elevated subway platforms in New York.
Get it on a canvas before we lost them.
-So this here is an Ichabod piece.
Ichabod is one of the most prolific freight painters
that there is.
He is a total phantom --
has nothing online, has no online presence.
Nobody knows who he is or, like, anything about him.
Over here, we have Sane Smith.
They were two brothers off of the East Coast.
They are most famous for painting the Brooklyn Bridge.
-We lose these guys -- constantly throughout the year,
we're getting notified of another one that's passed away.
For so many of these guys,
the only last living example of what they did
is part of this collection.
And that's just -- that's the whole point
in what it is we're trying to do.
-This is a piece by my best friend Miles.
Miles was known for his incredible,
almost cartoony-looking characters.
Unfortunately, Miles passed away unexpectedly in August of 2021.
There's a very good chance that someday this will be
his only artwork that's left.
[ Can spraying ]
-Yeah. -That's cool.
-Cool. Nice to meet you, man. Yeah. Peace.
-Have a good day. -You, too. Thanks.
You know, I like to teach kids
and show them direction on how to make something beautiful,
rather than make some garbage that has to, you know,
that takes the city millions of dollars a year to paint over.
You know, I like to teach kids how to be respected,
how to work with style, how to get good
because this is sacred to me.
♪♪
-Learn more about AMGRAF
and their ongoing schedule of events at
amgraf-everett.com.
♪♪
Catch Art Zone Friday nights at 8
and anytime online at SeattleChannel.org/ArtZone.
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