ASKEM 132

ASKEM 132 –

Since the late 90’s I have been in the mix with graffiti culture & the hip hop movement in some way, shape or form. Coming up in Connecticut (CT), I was always looking at graffiti, reading up on it in books/zines, and was generally in awe of the letters. Due to substance abuse/addiction taking priority in my life (over all things), I only painted a few fill-ins ,maybe a simple or two in those days. Over the following years, I would catch marker tags randomly under different names, ASKEM became the name that stuck for me in 2008, however I didn’t do much with it until recently. Thought it was funny, “Whatchu write?” “Ask ‘em!” Straight up dad joke, but like I said, it stuck. Definitely was initially inspired by traditional New York style graffiti, which was brought on by train rides to the city and a young writer moving from the Bronx to my hometown during highschool, starting the WFV crew.

After years of living a healthier lifestyle one day at a time, I got inspired in the Summer 2019 by a local CT crew IGB, who got me hyped to paint the streets after years of not drawing or being interested in art. (Prob hadn’t touched spray paint in 15+ years) The past 3 years I really started taking graff seriously, painting regularly for the first time in my life. Since returning and dedicating myself to learning structure, flow, color theory and letter weight I have been fortunate to be linked up with some solid crews that I have had the opportunity to build and collaborate with on the regular. Besides IGB, I paint primarily with BLT, TVT and TF crews, which are all full of top-notch style writers. I also rep the OPM crew of my mentor, 3MODES, who continues to push me to work harder when it comes to trying new ideas and concepts. Lots of gratitude to be able to paint with some of the east coast legends I grew up admiring such as EROS 165, CURVE, and SP ONE, to name a few. Looking forward to carrying on tradition!