in the line of duty

I’ve learned to call graffiti “aerosol art” or “spray art” when I’m talking with aficionados.

I’ve learned that “bombing” means plastering stuff almost indiscriminately, “tagging” is applying just your name or initials and “piecing” means creating a masterpiece with lots of time and multiple colors.

Websites like http://www.bombingscience.com/ cater to graffiti artists with mail order paint and other supplies like custom spray tips to create specific patterns.

Calligraphy is also a subset in the graffiti world and those who specialize in the calligraphic arts are widely admired for their “handstyles”. One of those guys was SURE.

SURE’s technique was to tag peel-and-stick labels and stick them on things around the city. His choice of label was important to him; he favored one brand over another because the smoother surface didn’t abrade his chisel point markers as quickly, allowing a cleaner line.

He ordered 1500 labels at a time and could tag them all "in about 35 minutes”. He used “red ones in Manhattan, green ones in Brooklyn, blue anywhere.”

SURE knew his pens, too, he said “Pilots are a little thinner than Sharpie and more permanent. No marker has sharper lines than a Pilot.”

In an interview last year, read what he had to say about another calligraphic artist he admired:

• “I don’t think anybody uses a chisel tip better than he does. We feel that he has great technique in his letters and the way he combines them. His letters are all individually very strong and he uses the letters that precede and follow to fill each one’s negative space. His middle letters are regimented, real solid and go up and down so well. He kicks out the “R” which complements the loop of the “T” and has a lot of form. He has ridiculously good flow– the spacing of the letters and how they interact. His letters are definitely East Coast letters but he added his touch and made it cleaner. We like the whole clean-cut look.”

SURE pix: http://www.12ozprophet.com

SURE stickers are collectors items now. He was a United States Marine with two tours in Iraq under his belt but was recently killed in the line of duty in Afghanistan. He was described as “slender and quiet” by those who knew him. I found a memorial wall here in the south Bronx by another graffiti artist known as KOSBY.

KOSBY gave him a halo, too.

These guys aren’t turning out to be who I thought they would be.