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44-Year-Old Graffiti Artist Scared Straight After Rikers Stint
By
Jen Carlson
Published Jun 3, 2011
Modified Jun 3, 2011
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Jun 3, 2011
Modified Jun 3, 2011
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Haring and Ortiz in the '80s, via Angel Ortiz
Following a stint on Rikers Island after tagging up the East Village, graffiti artist Angel "LA II" Ortiz says he's coming clean. According to The Local the decision comes after spending more than a month at Rikers Island, where his cellmates were Bloods and Latin Kings. That's right, the 44-year-old who collaborated with Keith Haring back in the day, says he's been scared straight! He told the site, “I’m hanging up the gloves. No more spray painting in the streets. I don’t know how I’m going to do it.”
His most recent stint on the street (that landed him behind bars) included tagging the Kenny Scharf mural on Houston Street, something he said he did after his wife died; “I used the street as a canvas to express myself. It’s an emotional thing that I’m still going through.”
He says it will be hard to break the habit, but in the future he plans to keep his work in galleries and off the streets. Can he do it? Maybe not, he says, "it’s easy to destroy the streets—I want to paint them. Maybe I’ll switch my name.”
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Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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