Rest In Piece Belmont Tunnels
Periodically I pass by the old Belmont Tunnels and cant help but be sad as I watch the mega condo complex being constructed. To me this represents the future burying the past. There is no stopping progression.
I feel it is our job to carry on our history by sharing our photos and stories. Belmont was LA's first Red Car lay up. By the late 1950's the land was bought up by General Motors left to decay with time. These walls were bare concrete until the early 80's when an explosion of creative forces evolved a solid LA based graffiti style. Here, a high level of competition was expected.
I discovered Belmont in '89. My older cousin and her hubby drove right in. Immediately I caught the obsession. Every crew in Los Angeles was inspired to display their styles here. Belmont gave LA a clear advantage because it gave us access to the masters before us. I know that Belmont played a central role in the development of my style as an artist.
Around '95 I was inspired to paint one of my first landscapes memorializing Belmont. My Father and I went there at night to get the reference photo. We were there for 20 minutes when I noticed a crew shadows watching us. Suddenly they started banging metal pipes against a pole screaming their neighborhood. We were waiting for the long exposure to finish. The second the camera clicked we ran as fast as we could. We looked back and they were racing after us. Thank God the car started right away. One of the many times I got to see my Dad run at full speed.
Check out the many pieces my friends and I have painted there in my book...
The 710 Freeway
One of the last bridges I painted was on the 710 Freeway, and it was easily the most dangerous thing that I’ve done in my entire life. With GKAE leading the way, we hit this bridge, which helped us to achieve all-city status. This was not a large bridge, but it was particularly difficult due to the distance between the rivets, which were the only handholds for us. At one point, we had nowhere to hang onto. The ledge we had to stand on was only four or five inches wide, and that ledge itself was only six inches above the freeway, so passing semi trucks would shake the bridge relentlessly.
I kept messing up so I went over my piece like three times. It took me two hours to do a small piece, while GKAE did his in twenty minutes and waited for me to finish. Here I was, messing up left and right and going over myself, correcting my work on a bridge, like a retard. The sun was coming up and the morning traffic started up from underneath me. It was time to go. As we left the spot, we noticed a security guard just standing there in the bushes, his face white as a ghost. Who knows how long he stood there watching us, but I know he never saw anything like that again. He had been sitting there, watching us paint the property that he was supposed to guard. I think that he was just in awe.
