"No Swimming" 1994 Mission Beach, Ca

“No Swimming” 1994

I don’t remember who hooked this wall up. It was on the side of a pizza joint just off of Mission Boulevard in Pacific Beach. I rarely paint characters, but it seemed like the right size for something other than a graffiti piece and I’m sure that the owners wanted it to be more beach themed than street themed (people wanted art, but still didn't really understand graffiti, it challenged their sensibilities).

A friend of mine, Julia, shot this flick of me on her 35 mm camera in black-and-white. The print has aged a bit over time. After all it was 27 years ago?!?! When I say that out loud it sounds really impossible.

I only painted a small handful of commissioned murals. I had a formula for that:

Option #1: If the business owner wanted something specific, they had to pay for everything, including my time.

Option #2: If they let me have creative freedom and instead gave me a theme, I would expect them to cover the cost of supplies but I would work for free.

Option #3: If they let me do whatever I wanted with no rules, I would do it for free at no cost to them.

Nobody ever chose  number three, certainly not in 1994 in San Diego. It would be at least another decade before graffiti really started being accepted outside of places of ill repute.

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