Sug

Thank you to Bombing Science! A practitioner and aspiring historian, the name Sug, was once short for Sugarbum. Before that, I was Sugarbear. I saw the name in the book Street Writers, A Guided Tour of Chicano Graffiti by Gusmano Cesaretti, from 1975. All my first graffiti in 1988 was ripped from various pages of that book; until later that year, Subway Art showed up at Salt of the Earth Books in Albuquerque. Since then, it’s been a constant journey into Graffiti/Style Writing theory and practice. In 1993, upon the advice of Stak 2ZC AKB, I studied an Omega piece by Doze Green at page 37 of the book Spray Can Art.
In 1995, at our local flea market, I found a 12” vinyl record on the Profile label by Rammelzee and K Bob. I knew he was a Graffiti philosopher, but not much else. The theory of creating letter pieces as animals, machines, and weapons, eventually consumed my thoughts on Style Writing. Initially writers such as Tyke AWR, Cycle IMOK, Porn DTK, and Dug TMF were my inspirations. As I looked back to the origins of Style Writing, folks such as Phase 2, Dondi, Doc TC5, Vulcan, Zephyr, and Doze Green, developed hard core Style Writing theories. It was a secret art society operating in the public eye, but accessible to only a few.
In an attempt to follow their lead, one of my own Styles reaches back to the first appearances of public art by way of petroglyphs; thus bringing full circle, the basically anonymous Native American rock artists of the past. The other Style is battle ready theory taking from martial arts. Since an early age I studied Kenpo Karate, Kung Fu, Ninjutsu, Jujutsu, and Capoeira, with masters such as Bill Packer, Lee Sprague, Mike Winkeljohn, Lateef Crowder, and even a few lessons with a young Greg Jackson. I didn’t care much for Wu Tang Clan because it seemed they weren’t students of the artform, I do love Ol’ Dirty Bastard and GZA though! In the early 90’s, I often put the names of Kenpo techniques as punchlines and even did a piece to celebrate my 2nd degree black belt.
In closing I can only hope to have the longevity of my heroes such as Herby and Colossus of Roads. Colossus can be still be seen stomping across rail lines, as he has done since November 1971, in his overalls and cowboy hat with a Markal, looking like a Graffiti Hee Haw character. On Monday, February 14, 1977, next to his iconic cowboy drawing on a rail car, Colossus of Roads wrote, “Taki 183” Love to all the pioneers of this beautiful artform.