10-Pep 101, 1980

 Even when i was first developing my style I already showed signs of being A.D.D. i just couldn't piece my tag, Paze all the time, i would get bored, also because i was doing these pieces all day long, at least 1 and sometimes as many as 3 or 4 per day. that's dedication! one of the reasons for dropping the Paze tag to Erni was i knew even if i got tired of Erni i knew i couldn't get rid of it. i recently began tagging Party Paze and doing classic PZ throws in peoples blackbooks, i been feeling quite nostalgic you could say.
Pep 101 was one of those names that i cant even remember the reason why i wrote it, i may have only done in total 2 or 3 outlines for it so it wasn't a favorite by any means but this outline, still using the heavy connected base to anchor the piece is pretty nice. The "E" starts showing signs of a more curvy style and a breakaway from using any straight lines at all in any of my pieces. i believe graffiti should curve and sway, like a dance, lines are too constricting to me.
The 101 is not colored, i did this often because i was more interested in beginning a new outline than finishing the color on the piece before.

9-Where's Rush? 1981

Since i am feeling productive today i thought i would share another (also since i missed yesterdays blog catching up makes me feel good). As an artist in general, i always have hundreds of open projects, i think its super important to finish as many as possible before creating more or you can get into a bad habit of not being able to complete something, which as an artist is ok i guess but if you are doing a project for a client, im thinking not so ok.
But i digress, this is one of those rare outlines that actually made it to a train, i made plans to piece at Morris Park with my cousin Rush but he didnt show up, it may have been my 2nd or 3rd time painting trains and although the train piece wasnt very good, i was still adjusting to the massive scale of it all, i was officially bitten by the graff bug, this piece marks when all i wanted from here was to paint trains and get my style better and better. i wish i had a photo of the train piece to show the differences and alikenesses (is that even a word) but like most graffiti the photo is but a memory now.
It took a lot of scrutiny to choose what outline (out of maybe 100) to deem worthy of putting on a train, remember, it was always showtime, best foot forward kind of thing, this piece i have to assume was the best piece i had done to that date(i know, scary huh?) but i got better. it may have been over a year past this point that things really started clicking style wise. i will get to those later, promise. I wish Rush had shone up, I never got to paint with him and he's solely responsible for getting me into graffiti in the first place! Newaveart!

8- Erni blue outline, circa 1979

Here is a really old piece, I dont even think I was down with any crews yet when I did this outline and I was using a red marker to indicate highlights which in my right mind i would never do today, i also started in lower case (e) and finished in upper case (r,n,i) which is another thing i wouldnt do today although not for any reason except my own preference, i think its the Virgo nature in me that is bothered by non matching cases in graffiti. i type these days in mostly lower case but thats because i type so slow its ridiculous.
either way i think the lack of fill in works, its a simple neat early piece, letters all leaning left and a decent flow going right. Sometimes not filling in pieces only meant that i didnt have any markers to fill them in with, graffiti back then was a poor mans game, i dont remember any wealthy graff artists at all, certainly not me.

6-Erni Alone, circa 1981

Here is just a really simple script Erni piece, back then when i wasnt tagging my actual penmanship was actually very good, my mom always wrote in a perfect script and i always wanted to to write well like she did, i guess a love for the shape of letters and alphabets was always in my being. i called this piece "alone" part 1, there was a part 2 i think, back then as know pieces reflected real life and not having a girlfriend could consume many thoughts and i remember i was not excluded from the occasional broken hearts club! Looking back its i laugh at how important i thought things were at the time, thank goodness for age since thats where wisdom comes from!