ON THE RUN BOOKS together form an encyclopedia that catalogs graffiti and urban art from around the world. Since 1990, the OTR team has built an ever-growing archive, eventually to be donated to the Museum of Urban Art, a
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project presently under development as part of the Campus of Urban Culture, which focuses on Hip Hop and graffiti culture. With every title, we digitize and preserve original material from various key artists, and bring their story to the public. All this, and in keeping with our motto: KNOW YOUR HISTORY.
whose presence has been felt in the graffiti world for years. DAZE
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GHOST was one of the last kings of the New York City train writing era. He experimented with traditional letter styles until developing his own loose, funky and psychedelic letters that sprouted from his twisted, drug-seeped brain and his passion for bombing. While most writers see a train yard as an opportunity to paint a nice colorful piece, Ghost sees the yard as a place to bomb, to do hundreds of throw-ups. He approaches his paintings with the same zest and casual grace as he does his throwups, with bold, dripping explosions of vibrant colors and freaky cartoons. Today, he exhibits his artwork in galleries worldwide and does collaborations with urban culture brands. Despite this Ghost remains an enigma; he isn’t social, and he does not want to be your friend. But both his artwork and his bombing are full of humor and hard not to like.
GHOST RIS CREW
Ghost, like his namesake, is the “phantom who you seldom see but
GHOST
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Ghost and Sash RIP / Bronx, New York, USA / 1983 Boo (Ghost) and PEAK / Queens, New York, USA / late 1981
GHOST / Bronx, New York, USA / circa 1984 / photo by WANE
GHOST: I saw a few people painting spraycans so I had to try and paint my own Jiffoam cap.
LOST and GHOST / Brooklyn, New York, USA / 1983 GHOST and Joey (STRIDER) / Manhattan, New York, USA / 1983
GHOST: Joey was hanging out and asked Strider to do an outline for him. Strider wound up doing the whole piece. 14
GHOST / Brooklyn, New York, USA / 1987
GHOST: This was from an old 1984 sketch. I wanted to finally do it on a train but didn’t get to finish it. 15
Ghost, Lost and Saint / Queens, New York, USA / 1987
Rockin’ it Suckers I’ve never claimed to be king, I’m just “a vandal doing my thing. ” ghost
Lost came up with the RIS crew in 1983. He came up with the name from a breakdance crew called Rock With Style. After some discussion we changed it to Rocking in Style. At the time I was a recruiter. We wanted to keep the crew small and consisting of writers that got up instead of having a crew filled with people that didn’t bomb. It was Lost, Neo, Dutch, Dasher, and I that started it off. Later on we added Ingy, Visa, and EA One, who were all also from Queens. After some time we realized we didn’t have much style so we changed the name of the crew to Rocking it Suckers. Since we had a lot of beef at the time, the word “suckers” represented anyone who was against us, whether cops, the MTA, or other writers. I never really looked at us as a gang or anything like that, it was just something that I wrote because it represented my attitude—that we are the RIS crew and you suck. 20
Between 1985 and 1986 I slowed down considerably but in 1987 I met up with Saint and Cro who got me back into it since they were very active at the time. One night’s mission turned into another and so on. It just flowed; the timing was right. Eventually Neo introduced me to Ven, who asked me to paint with him at the Shuttle*. The first pieces I painted at the Shuttle sucked: it was too dark and they were ugly. So I came back again to do a better piece and that turned into more. Lost used to say that we would never be satisfied because we always wanted to do one more. One more led to another and that momentum lasted for over two years. Then it wasn’t just about doing it to catch pictures. ‘Cause all of a sudden we were at war with the MTA painting clean trains, at war with people on LOST / Manhattan, New York, USA / 1983 GHOST: Lost was the president of RIS. the streets—it was just non-stop. This block letter was done along with the *Franklin Avenue Shuttle lay-up
‘Ghost-Joey’ car.
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GHOST and DERO / Manhattan, New York, USA/ photo by William “NIC One” Green
Ghost / Brooklyn, New York, USA / 1987 666 Packs (Ghost), RD One (lace 357) end-to-end / Brooklyn, New York, USA / 1988
Packs (GHOST) and VEN / Manhattan, New York, USA / 1987
GHOST: This was done with all old school Red Devil paint. One of my favorite pieces. 24
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Above: Ghost / Queens, New York, USA / 1988 below: GHOST and ESPO / Queens, New York, USA / 1998
MONE: Ghost’s graffiti really is a reflection of who he is. From the way that he does his pieces, right down to his throw-ups. Sometimes his ‘GH’ throw-up is hysterically laughing, and other times it looks like it wants to kill the world. At times his pieces seem to be partying and having fun, but then you see this one letter that is just looking dead serious. His style is not only based on skill, but it also has soul.
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Untitled / Mixed media on paper / 2009
hope that writers like him continue to “putI really up pieces and throw-ups in wild places that
shock people and make them mad, especially in this time when the movement has become so commercial and boring. I understand that a lot of writers think they deserve to earn a little money off of what they spent so many years doing but the question is if we want the movement to be something that just pleases society or if we want a part of it to stay rebellious. Cave AIS
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Untitled / Mixed media on canvas / 2009 122
Untitled / Mixed media on canvas / 2009
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