"THE DSKYZER"

I've got to admit that reading this book tonight I was moved to tears. For so long I tried to block all these years out of my consciousness. There were so many unbelievable happy memory's mixed in with out of proportion tragedy and loss. So many young creative people who lost their way and their 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 I've 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 existence that the majority of society labored so hard to uphold. To walk away meant turning the volume of life down from level 110 to a quiet twilight 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 affirming and 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 their 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 their own hands or by misadventure related to substance abuse. It really 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 fuckin’ drives me crazy that the law makers cant see what a valuable alternative this culture is and that they don’t realise the transformative powers it can potentially have on a young peoples lives? I personally learnt far more about myself and my abilities through my involvement in this culture than I ever did in school, to the point were I could actually use my experiences as a template to be applied to other challenges and learning curves. It's 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 existence.

Maybe all schools should adopt community painting projects for every year of study and every student to participate in, how crazy would that be. We could start to play a part again in how our community’s look and feel, and all have some sort of personal involvement and personal pride in our neighborhoods. We are tribal people and we need to belong yeah, as things are now it's like most of us have no connection or ties that bond us to our immediate environments. It's no wonder so many people are out of fuckin order. Oh well I guess there's 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, got to love it ha-ha. Anyway I'm getting way of track here, so all I meant to say was thanks guys for making the effort to put this all together, it's an important book in more ways than you can imagine, trust me. ;) Bless.

DSKYZER USA CREW