Steve Powers

A lady that runs a flea market on Broadway. I’m putting a fresh coat of paint on it. I

Yeah, they started out as paintings then I wanted to tell a story over a course of eight to 20 paintings.

I did. Most of the stories center around a character named Superfeen. He’s a lazy, drunken superhero that’s going to save the day, but he’s got to go see somebody first if you know what I mean.

Oh no. No chance. I couldn’t compete. I know people that get close to him.

Yeah but they were set up in different ways. A few of the stories were created and installed in a couple different places. They’re created and are meant to be signs that you see on the street. They’re painted with the same paint and on the same material, aluminum. They’re really meant to be outside until they get faded, a little bird shit on them or whatever. Some of them are just shown in galleries. I tried to make it as far from comics as possible. It’s figurative. It’s drawing people. It’s a hybrid of a couple things but it’s not done in any traditional comic way. I used sign enamel on metal. Each panel is like 24 by 48. Some of them are 36 by 60.

Yeah but I’m also lax with it too. I haven’t read comics in years. It’s only in the course of doing this book that I snuck back and looked at things again.

No, they’re all fake. For years that I was writing graffiti-like names as graffiti. I’ve accumulated names that resonate. The two names that are real, Mark and Earl, are from my brother named Mark and my father’s name is Earl.

Only now am I getting them out on the street. They’ve been locked away in galleries.

It’s not even part of the equation. It’s kind of like the money comes or it doesn’t. I try and do interesting projects and so far, so good. I get just enough money to keep it going and keep the dream alive. I’m talking to you from a sixth floor tenement walk up that really needs to be cleaned.

I just was getting really tired of graffiti. I’d been painting for 15 years at that point and I was past 30. Then the cops came. So not only was I starting to get bored but the criminal prosecution began to mount.

Just once.

They came in here and took five bags of so-called evidence out of here. They even went through my sock draw looking for evidence of crimes. But there was nothing in here. There wasn’t even a roach in the ashtray. Then when it came time to arrest me, they had to decide to either go with the firecrackers that they found or the brass knuckles that I had on my wall. So they took the brass knuckles and charged me with possession of a weapon. Whatever.

Hell yeah. What was crazy about that was I got so much work as a result. This generated a lot of attention and brass knuckles were my work for the next year and a half. Every time I painted something I would stick in a pair of brass knuckles. It became a regular motif and it was pretty great.

I was just looking outside thinking, “Wow. Signs are really cool. It looks close to what I’m trying to do.” It was a natural and smooth transition from spray paint to that stuff.

It was back and forth. It was kind of cool but fame without money doesn’t really do much for you. It doesn’t get you free food. People aren’t really falling over themselves to do anything for you. It’s the kind of thing where people point at you on the street. If I can use it to get other projects done, then great. When the attention started coming, I just tried to leverage it and get more projects going. It seemed like the most sensible thing to do with all the attention. It worked out pretty good.

The vibe is between completely jaded and completely ravished. I think the Americaphilia that they had is kind of slacking since the war. We’re going to have to wait and see. Hopefully they’ll love it. It’ll remind them of the better points of America, the bed of life, drugs, crime, street fighting, it’s all there. We’re still great. Come see us. We’re still wonderful.

From ’98 to February of this year.

Yeah, I’m fully over it.

I’m working on paintings but they’re just a little weirder. They’re a little more like spray paintings of the emotional sort. Taking it all the way back to the essence of graffiti so the way to spray paint is to paint it like a bunch of guys chasing a buffalo, you have to spear him. I paint men and women screwing each other over and the fucked up things they do to each other in the course of loving and seeing one other.

Same paint. Same kind of format. Everything is really similar but just a little different.

It’s serving its purpose man. It’s a great way to transition from being a teenager to an adult. I’d recommend it for anybody who doesn’t feel good about themselves.

Yeah, I do. But so what, get out there and write on something.

Oh dude. I married a SuicideGirl-like girl. She was punk rock, leather wearing girl that I feel in love with over the Internet. If I didn’t have her I would be all over SuicideGirls.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

SG Username: AndersWolleck