Alright so thanks for taking the time out to do this interview, can we get a brief run down of who you are and how long have you been in the game? What crew do you rep and how did you get the name this1? 

When I was young, living in NYC, I would always see different murals being painted. At this time there were a lot of FX and KD productions, so they were all dope and I always thought it was cool.  My dad growing up would also do his graffiti thing here and there and he had little sketch books but I didn’t become interested in DOING graffiti until I hit middle school. The first time I wrote THIS was probably somewhere around 2002 and 2003, and I was already messing around with graffiti before that, kinda gives you an idea how long I’ve been around, still repping TCP PFE and now BLT. 
Hey man i gotta say your work is hella dope and what i love about your work is how many collaborations you do, especially the ones you do with your wife! There is one in particular at the Elements of Life festival back in march of ’22 that is just phenomenal. Can you tell us a little about that piece and your experience with doing the Elements of Life festival? 

Yea I’ve always enjoyed painting with other people especially if they’re cool it’s just overall a good day doing what we all love to do. Thank you! That Elements of Life piece is one of my favorite ones I’ve painted with Tiff. She kills it every time and I like to believe she takes our walls to that next level and that day everything came together, color wise, letter wise, portrait wise and it was a fun event, a lot of good vibes. 

For some artists art is a solo journey, its all about my expression and my voice, but with your work it seems like doing graffiti is just as much a social thing as it is a individual expression. Would you agree with this? I feel like you must be a real chill dude and fun to kick it with if your always laying down awesome pieces with your close friends! 

Yea for sure, don’t get me wrong, I love to draw by myself. I feel like if I’m working on something small like a black book or a canvas, model train, etc. then I prefer to be alone in my zone but when it comes to painting walls and being outside, I like to share that with other writer friends. I like to take that day like a mini event, just talking shit laughing having a good ol time while spraying some paint. Then it usually turns into a good story. I guess for me it’s the overall experience. 

I see you do a lot of collaborations with WallsofPhoHoa and westartwalls_orlandofl, i’m  curious, is this common in graffiti circles that you have someone who basically sponsors and finds walls for artists that they like? How did you get in contact with someone in this space?

Nah usually you have to do your own leg work and get the walls yourself. I’m just fortunate enough to live in a city that has these places to offer to artists and they’re able to do their thing. The Nash is another spot that’s new and providing a space for artists and writers to do their thing as well. But when I lived in other states, there weren’t places like that to go to so then, at that point, your looking for your own spots, which is fun too. I’m always down for that also but why not use the resources available and make life easier right? I’m getting old, I have a whole family I’m just trying to paint some letters and still get home in time to watch Minions with my kids haha. 
What is your favorite documentary or book that covers the history or major players of graffiti and why? 

When I first started getting into graffiti I was heavy into subway art, of course, and magazines like Mass Appeal, Clout, Style File and any other graffiti magazine they had at the Tower Records, by my house growing up. I would study all the pieces and trace my favorite ones, then practice my own haha it was a whole thing. And when it comes to graffiti videos, Style Wars is just awesome to me. It never gets old and you can see the real love behind doing graffiti. These days it seems different, so seeing that movie somehow keeps me excited for graffiti. Idk 

Are you completely educated just from doing street art or did you go to school for design? Does your day job include your creativity as well or is graffiti the avenue for that only?

I didn’t go to school for art. My intro to art was graffiti when I started drawing, it was drawing letters. And when I saw you could throw characters and stuff included with your pieces then I would throw a cartoon character here and there. But it wasn’t until later later, when I met other writers. Older writers who’ve been painting for a long time or writers who knew art fundamentals, like how shadows work, color theory and other fancy art stuff that I could incorporate into my pieces. My day job doesn’t include art, I like the idea of making money off the art I make, but I don’t want to make art for money. Does that make sense? Maybe not haha 

Do you sell any of your design work? I think there are some really good pieces from your blackbook that people would dig buying if you put them up for sale somewhere, especially anything with characters in them like the simpsons ones. 

Yea absolutely, most of the time anything I draw is available for sale. At work I would draw alot and at the end of the year I had over 100 drawings, from rough sketches to full page burners. At the end of it, I had a “yard sale” and sold them all, which I think is cool. Somewhere everywhere there’s a “this” sketch haha. I’m always super grateful for everyone who supports me and my art. In either purchasing art, sharing my art on social media, or just coming to kick it with me while I paint. You know it’s cool seeing that support and love. At some point I would really like to put out a small black book with all my best sketches and make it look really nice. Maybe make a run of limited hard covers. I have some ideas…. book  people, hit me up haha. 

For people that are trying to go down the road of doing these big awesome murals, but dont know where to start what would you suggest? What advice would you have for someone wanting to do graffiti but not knowing where to start?

I’m always a big fan of learning your history first. See what came first and how this thing that you suddenly want to do first get started. Where, who and why. Learn the rules. It’ll save you trouble in the long run. Then study letters. If you’re gonna be doing graffiti please learn letters and what good style looks like. With Instagram it’s so much easier finding people who know what they’re doing to set as a foundation of what your trying to learn. And then from there, practice practice practice. Take your time and pay attention to the details. It all adds up in the bigger picture. Just know that if you’re trying to do big walls, that shit is work. You can have a good time but at the end of the day you just put in a full days work haha. And stay humble. No one likes a ego maniac in a game already driven by egos.

As far as travel goes where all have you been? Any crazy travel stories you can share?

Travel wise up and down the East coast and California. The craziest trip that stands outs to till this day is when tcp as a crew went to Los Angeles for the Miami graffiti release party or something. And it was like 10 of us. And that whole trip had comedy drama and romance haha from sleeping in the car in this random neighborhood waking up to ppl looking into the car. To painting a production in the day and painting spots at night. Running on no sleep. Catching food poisoning with the crew. The trip was a beautiful disaster. This was back in like 2007 maybe. It was a long time ago. Good times tho. 

Any shout outs you would like to give? Where can people follow you and purchase your work? 

You can follow me on Instagram @this.1 and any artwork on there you see, for the most part, can be purchased. Or if they want something custom, I can always do that as well. Walls, canvas, digital,  I do it all. And I would just like to give a shout out to my family, Tiff, Ava and Novus, they always make me wanna do my best. Big shout out to my crews, TCP, PFE, BLT, and my people Deps, Tenk2, Jae, Izzy and all the writers I’ve painted with or talked to. Anyone who shows support and all the people who appreciate what I do and show love. The places that I paint at that just let me live always: Walls of Pho Hoa, the Nash Orlando , and West Art Walls. To all of them thank you! Peace  

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