THE MESSAGE PART 1 In graffiti there is hierarchy: tagging, bombing, piecing. All these activities are holy to D.O.T.S. (Disciples of the Spray can). D.O.T.S. believe that we as graffiti artists are reborn in the fumes of the spray can. Within the rebirth we become aware that we graffiti artists are all D.O.T.S.. That god is a spray can and the act of writing on a wall is a holy act. We believe expression and living is more important than property. This doesn't mean you should fall onto your knees and worship a fukn can. It means you are actively grabbing a better understanding of what graffiti is and it could be. Why is god a spray can? Because there is a hierarchy in graffiti and piecing is on the top. And in piecing the most wildly used tool is the spray can. It became the obvious choice for a god. Also, the belief is based on art being a holy act, meaning that art doesn't simply come from yourself but somewhere beyond yourself. For me god is a figure to explain the unexplainable. For example, the act of creating something out of nothing (such as a white wall turning to a wild style piece) is very unique act. Where does inspiration come from? Your mind? Simply from your own mind? What about influence from others, shapes and forms from nature or human made? You can't escape influences. The only way to hide from them is to lock yourself in a cave from birth and never come in contact with another living thing. I feel all art is influenced by something and because of that all art is coming out not only from the artist but also fromthe artist's surrounding world. With graffiti artists our expression is from the spay can. The act of graffiti is different from any other art in the world. It's a gift to anyone who dares to pick up a can and hit the tip and rock the walls, trains, rooftops...... So YES, GOD IS A SPRAY CAN. How to grab a better understanding of what graffiti is to you and to others: 1. Start asking yourself questions. Like: "Why the fuk am I doing this?" "What am I writing this word over and over for?" "Who is my audience?" "What justifies my actions?" "What is style?" "What is a dope style or a wak style?" 2. Ask similar questions to other writers. 3. Ask non graffiti artists what they like or hate about graffiti 4. Educate yourself. I don't mean to pick up a book and start reading it (you could do that and you probably should). What I mean is to learn from direct experience. For example, you just got arrested. What can you learn from this experience so it doesn't happen again? 5. Start looking at your neighborhood and other neighborhoods that you bomb to see what the problems are that you feel need to be responded to (poverty, homelessness, police brutality, racism, sexism and all the other fukn "isms" like capitalism, heath issues). Then how can you and your art address these issues? What does it mean to be a D.O.T.S.? 1. You have to recognize that graffiti is larger than yourself. And you want to give something back to it. 2. Promote graffiti. This could be by taking a toy under your wing. Handing out spray cans or stickers or whatever else. 3. Promoting life over property. This could be done by your art. Addressing issues like poverty, homelessness, police brutality, racism, sexism. Use the spray can to spray out ignorance. Bombers: 1 out of 5 bombs , Piecers: 1 out of 3 pieces should address an issue that you think needs to be told to the public. 4. Try to progress the art of graffiti any way you can (progress tagging by writing more than your tag and crew, write some farces or stories on the wall. Example, "WE LIVE IN THE BELLY OF THE BEAST. IT'S TIME TO BURN THE BEAST TOP TO BOTTOM, END TO END UNTIL THE BEAST IS DESTROYED FROM WITHIN. STAND UP AND FIGHT BACK." 5. Start preaching the gospel and start writing our own (become a self-righteous self-appointed Prophet of Destruction). Message to DOTS addressing the criminal system: I feel we need to tone down the ego a bit, not to the point that we just lose ourselves but to the point that we understand and respect others (other writers, people who like you, people who hate you, and even the pigs). Understand and respect the pigs? FUCK YOU BROKE. What I mean by that is to understand why the pigs do what the pigs do. Put on their shoes on for a bit. There's a war going in america: The war on drugs, war on terrorism. That's a fucken joke, the war is on the poor and minors. The foot soldiers are the pigs. Cutting welfare and the three strikes law is a direct attack on to the poor. Nationally, three strike states a criminal convicted of three violent crimes will serve 25 years, but here in California it is any three felonies which incudes 594 (vandalism). So if you are convicted three times for 594, you will do 25 years in prison mandatory; there no way out of it. Judges have no say in the punishment. All this confirms that criminals (the poor) are the real threat to the country and the Justice System becomes the number one control mechanism in the american capitalist system. The poor are a threat because we are the majority believe it or not; 80% of the wealth is controlled by 20% of the people. We have nothing to lose and everything to gain, they must keep us controlled. In an economic system such as capitalism you most look at the criminal justice system as a big business. What do police, D.A.s judges and prisons need to keep their jobs? Criminals. What does a D.A. need to seem to be doing a good job; a high conviction rate. Who would be harder to win against, a public defender or a private attorney? To answer that question just look to the prison population and their economic background. So when a person starts to speak out against these injustices within the system and also starts to organize the people to take action they become a threat. The system allows the police, FBI, ATF or DEA to just pin a crime on the person and the threat is equalized. This is what happened to the Panthers (Geronimo, Mumia, Leonard and all the other political prisoners). It's not always some great grand conspiracy coming from the White House or the Capitol. Usually it starts off from a low level pig who believes his job would be so much easier if the person speaking out would shut up, die, be killed or jailed. The conspiracy starts when the powers above do nothing to stop it and why would they; they are happy with the results. It's the pigs job to be the foot soldiers in all this bullshit, to pin the crime on the person and take the blame if they get caught. They take the blame because it's not like we are going to get rid of all the judges, police, prisons and politicians. If we did that, we'd just be killing each other or, more likely, solve all our problems. So they shell out some money to shut up the victim's family or fire a few police to appear that they are cleaning house. Where do these fired pigs go, they go to some other police department. The police are coming with a mentality of beat or shoot first and ask questions later, if at all. I hear them say it all the time on shows like pigs, I mean COPS. "I could be killed today by any kid (gang member) I come in contact with." This mentality is the same as any dumbass gang on the streets. The justice system is here to set fear into us. "That's against the law, you shouldn't do that" Saying law is just: law is true. Well, you know what, that isn't always true; 3 years then another 3 years and the next time you're caught, you're doing 25 years. Is this justice? Is this right? FUCK THEIR LAW. God is a spray can. The next time you are about to go out and write over, cross, burn or flip all the fukn toys in your city, please just ask yourself one question: Who is the true enemy? Those toys or the buffers, police or who the buffers and the police work for? We live in the belly of the beast. Can you read the writing on the wall? We as DOTS are here to burn it top to bottom and end to end to destroy the so-called leaders of the free world from within. The time is now. You have one life to live. Do you want to live your life working your ass off to feed some suppressive capitalist muthr fukrs who don't give a shit if you live or die? STAND UP AND FIGHT BACK. GOD IS A SPRAY CAN. go