/>ROTGUT:

“When I first started putting art outside I didn’t use a
name. Starting in middle school I began making ridiculous little stickers with
images of aliens disco dancing and Colonel Sanders with devil horns and
sunglasses and Lego men carrying guns and the Kool-Aid man committing
suicide…all Mad Magazine rip-offs. Everyday after school I’d go to the Kinko’s
off Thayer Street and make my stickers and put them all around Providence and
imagine how impressed the RISD girls would be. I started getting more interested
in proper graffiti and I sort of transitioned into writing outside with paint
markers and sharpies. Fancying myself as some sort of communist I would write
things like CHE LIVES, MOTHER RUSSIA, CCCP, and draw hammer and sickle insignias
on mailboxes and dumpsters and carry around a hip flask with Stoli in it. I
stuck with the pinko motif even as I started trying my hand (really poorly) at
using spray paint and I started signing all my work KGB. I pretty much used KGB
all through high school even as I realized romanticizing communists and naming
yourself after some brutal secret police force is ludicrous. I was also told KGB
was the name of an old Bronx crew who probably started painting before I could
walk. So when I moved to NYC I ended up pussying out and throwing an E on the
end and used KGBE instead and I picked the name ROTGUT as a crew name for me and
my friends. That’s about the time that I came to terms with the fact that I’m
really mediocre at graffiti and I started focusing on the sign work instead. Of
course my friends didn’t want to be in a crew called ROTGUT so I’ve dropped KGBE
and
just use the word ROTGUT. ROTGUT is slang for poor quality liquor
sometimes homemade. It’s probably the most apt name for the work I currently do.
I think it takes time to develop a style and name that work for you. All artists
go through awkward phases in their art but it helped build my chops up to make
those mistakes out in public for people to see and judge instead of just in some
sketchbook.”

/>O.TWO:

“As a graffiti writer, I’ve painted using a range of
different titles. I still work under different identities depending on what and
where I’m painting. Initially, I felt that a lot of artists would choose tags or
monikers, develop them into a ‘brand’ or product and then go out and work on
advertising their aesthetic.?

I wasn’t into the idea of restricting
myself like this, it all felt kind of ironic - the idea of kids thinking like ad
agencies and corporate outfits, so I came up with a title that was empty of any
meaning. It wasn’t based on a nickname, or a concept and allowed me to explore
style and aesthetic, rather than identity and notoriety.?

Since then
it’s all been downhill… I’ve forgotten my real name and apparently, O.two is
in big trouble with the law.”

MR.
WEEN:

”
I was already designing and painting under the name
“MadSTEEZ” when I was always stuck in Office Space-esque business meetings
(having a meeting to schedule a meeting), I kept drawing kock and balls all over
my “TPS Reports”. Over time my kock and balls developed eyes, a nose and a
mouth. A friend and I were out surfing and he
kept screaming, “I cut my
Ween, I cut my Ween!” I don’t know why but the word Ween sounded so naughty and
fresh to me. So at my next “scheduled meeting” as I drew my hybrid kock and
balls oh was like, “Oh snap!” that’s gotta be his name, WEEN!!!! Long story
short, I quit my job and traveled the world (Indonesia and Europe) and when I
got back I had nothing to do but paint. Then came Ween VS. Ween, Ween’s Krippled
Little Brother Latrel, Ween’s Trashman, Queen of Ween’s, Ween@S!nCity and Ween’s
Boy Petranilla Danforth. I was engulfed in the wonderful wide world of WEEN. It
wasn’t until I did a painting of Mr. T wearing a business suite, tie and glasses
when the perfect name for the piece came to me, Mr. WEEN. And Mr. WEEN meant
bidness. From that point on, when bidness needs to get handled, Mr. WEEN is
ready to drop his shit!!!!”

ASBESTOS:

/>“It’s an unfortunate truth that most artists who put work up on the street
know full well that half the people who encounter it will a) probably not notice
it or b) notice it and not interact with it. Currently our urban corridors are
saturated with ads and visuals as we’re bombarded on a daily basis with
commercial campaigns, posters and guerilla fly postering. Unfortunately a street
art poster or painting often goes unnoticed by citizens and tourists amid all of
this commercial chaos. However when a ‘normal’ person is introduced to this
other layer of aesthetic on the street it’s the beginning of a whole new, world
for them, (at least that’s what I’ve observed with several friends of mine that
I’ve introduced to street art over time). When I myself, started to notice
street art it was a real eye opener for me, the more I looked the more I saw and
the more it excited me. Then I realised that for me, the meaning of street art
was like Asbestos. Asbestos is all around us, (in the walls and in the very
fabric of many buildings) but it goes unnoticed. When we realise that it’s there
it really gets our attention and we question it and it gets discussed. When I
started out in street art, that’s what I wanted my work to do, to become part of
the fabric of towns and cities and to make people notice and question and
discuss what’s really around them and what’s this other non commercial artistic
message on the streets? The name Asbestos represents my message perfectly.”