I don’t know where to start really. I am writing in an attempt to express my gratitude in respect to your amazing book. Not because I wanted to be recognized for what I painted back in those days. But because of the deeper embodiment of culture and family that was integral to the scene, that you have captured in Kings Way. And by way of inclusion with all the other writers from back in those days, I feel humbled and healed to be a part of this book.
Humbled because I only ever dreamt of meeting all the kings I admired, and healed because of the amount of shit I copped from my ‘family’ at home (whom set me up in 1989, watched me get raided, and gave the police photos of my trains!). It feels more worth it than ever, now reflecting on what we did. But more so who we did it with. I have loved being a part of the graf community ever since I was involved then.
The most dedicated, and interesting people, I have ever met are writers. My closest friends are writers; their loyalty, humour, friendship and respect have helped me in my life more than I could express. To finally have the Melbourne graf family tree, from our era, manifested as something concrete is nothing short of profound. I cannot honestly tell you how moved I am by this work, and what it represents to me.
You have expressed, and set in stone, what was so important, and often so misunderstood, for all involved in those years. The book is remarkable, because of this, and these many levels it operates on. It is far more than the visual documentation of an era. It encapsulates the dream we were all a part of, our countercultural crusade, an underground family that did something so important all those years ago. Which for me always felt somewhat unresolved. Something so personally monumental, that was a secret from the world and a legacy, that up until now remained somewhat in the limbo of our memories.
Thankyou for representing this time, these memories and our lives. I think you have healed a lot of things, for a lot of writers. How does one say thankyou for bringing this peace into ones life? I am not sure, I don’t think we could ever express our gratitude as well as you have represented us. You make me proud to be a Melbourne writer and you have made us all proud.
Thankyou and congratulations on the book. I agree with you...it is bigger than us all!
Respect always,
Rus Kitchin
Word up Rus.
ReplyDeleteCam - RFK.
nicely put rus,,big ups for making the effort to put in words what many of us are probably feeling to a more or lesser degree ;) see you at the shop sometime soon,,gaz
ReplyDeleteive got to admit that reading this book tonight i was moved to tears ,,for so long i tried to block all theese years out of my conciousness,,there were so many unbelievable happy memorys mixed in with out of proportion tragedy and loss,,so many young creative people who lost thier way and thier outlet to make sense of it all and find belonging and community,,making the decision to turn my back on graffiti back then was one of the most difficult adjustments ive ever had to make,,it was a pretty extreme lifestyle that only those at the core of the scene could ever fully understand,,it was completely lawless and detached from the regular 9-5 existance that the majority of society laboured so hard to uphold,,to walk away meant turning the volume of life down from level 110 to a quiet twighlight whisper,,by the age of 18 it was mainly the prospect of jail that spelled the end of artistic expression for most ,without the life afirming & self worth building side effects of active graffiti writing and creative expression,a large number increasingly turned to drugs to fill the void that had begun to grow within thier hearts and souls after retirement,,it was so sad to see so many close friends and people i loved either start to fade ,look for even more destructive outlets or in the worst situations die by thier own hands or by misadventure related to substance abuse,,it realy darkened my view of the world for a very long time,,there were many times there where i even tried to exit the frame,,lucky for me i somehow made it out the other side,,it still fukin drives me crazy that the law makers cant see what a valuable alternitive this culture is and that they dont realise the transformative powers it can potentialy have on a young peoples lives ?? i personaly learnt far more about myself and my abilitys through my involment in this culture then i ever did in school,,to the point were i can actualy use my expieriences as a template to be aplied to other challenges and learning curves,,its helped me to understand process and how to apply myself over prolonged periods to achieve positive outcomes in everyday tasks and bigger personal challenges that i encounter in my day to day excistance,,,maybe all schools should adopt community painting projects for every year of study and every student to participate in :) haha,,how crazy would that be :) we could start to play a part again in how our communitys look and feel ,and all have some sort of personal involvement and personal pride in our nieghborhoods,,we are tribal people and we need to belong yeah,,as things are now its like most of us have no connection or ties that bond to our immediate enviroments,,its no wonder so many people are out of fuckin order ;) haha,,oh well i guess theres no profit to be made in a happy,cohesive and functional society ? keep em all acting like animals and we can turn the misery into an industry yeah :) capitalist society,,gotta love it hahaha,,anyway im getting way of track here haha,,so all i meant to say was thanks guys for making the effort to put this all together,,its an important book in more ways than you can imagine,,trust me ;) bless
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