Early on the morning of the 1st of September, I was woke by the phone ringing: My Piece Was Getting Buffed! I immediately went down to the river, found a crevice to hide in, so that I could watch the whole production of the piece being painted out.
Watching something that I had done 12 LONG years ago, being painted over, I didn’t expect my reaction to be what it was. I thought I’d feel horrible, it was something I had done when I was in my twenties, when I still felt invincible and had an unwavering sense of mission. But hiding there watching the workman paint, what I actually felt was a calming sense of accomplishment. What I sacrificed to create this piece, gave back to me ten fold. I never expected it to reach all corners of the world. And even though it was only a blurb in history, I feel it helped put LA graffiti on the map.
Ultimately I’m not happy with them painting over history, BUT, I won’t mind, if it means they will follow through and adopt an intelligent policy along the lines of the Friends Of The LA River’s mission:” to protect and restore the natural and historic heritage of the Los Angeles River and its riparian habitat through inclusive planning, education and wise stewardship”. Fuck it! I would rather trade shopping carts, rotting canine corpses, and florescent purple water with a shit brown tint, for clean water and a flourishing, vital habitat, wouldn’t you?.
After I got back home from the river I was inspired to make some adjustments to a small number of the river posters I have, one hundred of them in total. They were signed, dated, numbered, and hand touched, all on the day it was buffed.
Here’s what I came up with, what do you think?
