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Cuba Graffiti
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Old School San Francisco Graffiti
Male
45 years old
California
United States
Last Login: 11/28/2007
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Cuba Graffiti's Interests
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| General | Graffiti, Getting Up | | Music | Reggae | | Heroes | The Revolt |
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Cuba Graffiti's Details
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| Status: | Single | | Zodiac Sign: | Cancer |
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Cuba Graffiti's Blurbs |
About me:
Upcoming show:
the closing of Double Delicious, an erotic art show
My name is Clarence "Cuba" Robbs. I was born and raised on the East Coast of the United States in a blue collar, working class city called Baltimore in the state of Maryland.
I first began writing graffitti when I was 15 years old in 1979. I would tag, scrawl, or write my name almost city wide in strategic locations where seeing my name written appealed to me visually and aesthetically. I was influenced and inspired to write graffitti from an older writer from New York City who called himself The Revolt. Seein his tags in extremely key locations around Baltimore gave me a burning desire to write also.
Back in the early days of bombing, there were no other people practicing this art form. Your tags really stood out. At one point I had so many tags around the town that mine were more visible than The Revolt. I began to inspire other local writers to get their names up as well. This is another form of hip hop culture that was imported into Baltimore from NYC in 1978. A graf scene began emerging.
Grafitti art is against the law in most, if not all parts of the United States. Therefore, one must duck and hide to express one's self. I must admit that this can be down right exhilirating when you successfully place a tag. Clandestino.
By 1982 I began slowly advancing to another level creatively. I began to do what is known as piecing. Creating your name, but in a more macrocosmic and more cartoonistic form. In other words, focusing more on being a painter than just a writer.
I left home when I was 18, promising never to cross the Mississippi river again. I moved to the West Coast and San Francisco. From 1983 - 1985, I would piece and tag San Francisco, but not nearly as relentlessly as when I was a teenager. As I became older, my motivation altered. My desire to do art was more emotionally and politically driven while in high school it was more for rebelious reasons. I had a burning desire for public expression.
I basically imported this art form into San Francisco in 1983. Back then, not alot of youth caught on to what sheer fun this was. I know over the years I directly influenced, in one way or another, San Francisco most distinguished grafiti artists. Throughout the rest of the 80's and mid 90's, I lived in SF producing grafiti.
In the fall of 1995, a friend who had moved to Maui invited me to live there, so I did. I had been in SF for fifteen years and moving to Hawaii seemed like a logical progression.
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Who I'd like to meet:
Purpose
My purpose as a grafitti artist is primarily exactly that: to write grafitti. Illeagally or otherwise, I have got to paint. It truly is my career. Sometimes I get paid at my career, but I do it anyway because it is an emotional release which can sometimes be more important than money. I know this may be a rather strange thing to say coming from an American, simply because it seems like everything in the USA is for sale. I grew up in a large urban environment. Essentially in the ghetto, a young person is insignificantly marginalized. Societally there eveloves a deperation for ghetto youth to reaquire a sense of identity, especially for people who are of a non-western background. Myself having come from a background of slavery and native ancestery who were pushed off of their homelands, my name comes into question. So you create a name. Then you write it puclicly, as a reminder that you exist in an environment that constantly reminds you that you don't. Irregardless of legalitiess, an art form was invented in NYC and has now spread worldwide. It can be a very competitive art form. I personally never quite adapted to competition. Besides, who needs it? I just want expression. I prefer going to places where grafitti is not and catalystically inspire local talent. I have done just that in all of the places I lived for the last twenty years. i created an impact where there was no grafiti previously. I consider graffitti to be a form of urban hieroglyphics expressed in a modern context.
My purpose is to go out late at night and paint the town without apology.
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March, 8 2008
Grimm Image Tour w/ DJ Stereotype, Morb, and Cleen LFTB - Alterknit Lounge (Knitting Factory)
7021 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90028
$ 5
March, 9 2008
Grimm Image Tour - The Good Hurt
12249 Venice Blvd
CA 90066
March 29 2008
Grimm Image Tour w/ Cleen LFTB: The Little Rock
5507 Receda Blvd.,
Tarzana, California 91356
Cost : 5 - 7 $
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