July 30, 2012

"[Angel] Ortiz and a generation of urban latchkey kids who spray-painted their initials all over Manhattan in the 1970s and '80s and landed in the city's street art scene" are getting old.

"Fortunately, there's no forced retirement in graffiti," and life goes on:
For decades, Ortiz, 45, has been known on Manhattan's Lower East Side as LA II. A traumatic loss of a girlfriend brought him out of a 14-year hiatus from graffiti writing. He has since been caught three times spraying his tag on property, each time while walking a friend's dog.
"Everywhere that dog stopped to pee I would write my name," Ortiz says. "The streets were like my canvases. I just started writing my name everywhere."

14 comments:

Saint Croix said...

"Everywhere that dog stopped to pee I would write my name," Ortiz says. "The streets were like my canvases. I just started writing my name everywhere."

Dude, that's exactly what the dog is doing.

chickelit said...

But you see Bert only did chalk art in P L. Travers' "Mary Poppins." That's the right way to do street art--at no cost to the public to clean-up. No muss, no fuss.

Ortiz's oeuvre sounds feral and utterly disrespectful. That he "partied" with Madonna and Warhol does not make him cool. So sorry.

Eric Jablow said...

Graffiti destroys cities. It must be execrated, not celebrated.

edutcher said...

Giuliani had the right idea: grab them by the scruff of the neck and make them clean it up.

And notice Nanny Bloomberg isn't telling them what to do.

Michael said...

This is so utterly depressing. If only society had then been a bit more "judgmental" and stopped these people from effacing the property of others they might have gone on to have productive lives. Instead, their achievements are a thing of the past, a memory of partying with artists. As the progressives are wont to say: sad.

Ipso Fatso said...

What a narcissistic asshole. He should be treated the same way those dogs treat those walls. Only then he could coo about how outre he is.

AJ said...

Fox News Latino!
Neato!

glenn said...

"Everywhere that dog stopped to pee I would write my name," Ortiz says.

Dear Mr Ortiz. It's called marking turf. All the animals do it.

Known Unknown said...

I don't mind great graffiti art, but tagging is just lame.

tiger said...

Vandalism as 'art'.

How shocking.

(yawn)

jeff said...

Did they give his address? I have a can of spray paint and a urge to express myself.

bagoh20 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
gerry said...

I have a can of spray paint and a urge to express myself.

It's New York.

He's probably living in the basement of his mother's rent-controlled apartment building.

lemondog said...

Ha! Golden Age...

He has since been caught three times spraying his tag on property, each time while walking a friend's dog.

As long as the dog isn’t tagged with other than its normal tags.

Fortunately, there's no forced retirement in graffiti.

Too bad. I’m sitting here looking directly out at a new graffiti covering a wall over the exact spot which last week was cleaned of graffiti. It might be tolerable if it had style, exhibited a semblance of talent or had some artistic merit.

Curious what the exterior of his building looks like.