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| MERZ | |||||||||
| “When I first met Peter Sutherland, I automatically had a good feeling about him and his intentions, and felt kind of honored that he would want to put me in his book with these other, more credible writers...” —MERZ Born in Cincinnati in 1980, MERZ began writing graffiti in 1995. “I was fascinated by this strange, underground subculture and knew right away that’s what I’d be doing.” Attracted to the visual stimulation of colors and letter forms, MERZ adds, “It was also the mystery of it, not knowing who these people are, or how they got to these crazy spots. A friend of mine at school was already into it, he knew everyone in the scene and showed me the ropes. “Writing was everything for me. From the ages of fourteen to twenty-one, all I would do is scope spots, hang out in freight yards, take pictures, look at pictures, travel to every city I could, paint every spot I could. There is nothing like coming off a sick highway block letter and driving past it the next day, knowing that everyone has to look at it,” MERZ states with satisfaction, before recalling some less pleasant situations. ”I’ve only been arrested three times (which isn’t that much compared to some writers), but I have spent too many nights running from cops in neighborhoods I shouldn’t have been in, hiding on rooftops, in crackhouses, and in abandoned buildings. But in a weird way, they have all been great experiences. It’s all about the story at the end of the day: being the only white dude in a huge cell block of, like, one hundred black guys, all sleeping on these bunk beds, or hiding in a trench for eight hours by myself in a town I’ve never been before, with the cops threatening to shoot me. You can’t really write and not expect this to happen. “I had one major downfall in Virginia, where I was visiting a friend for a few days, got caught, and ended up having to do hundreds of hours of community service, pay some ridiculous fines, and having to travel to some shitty town multiple times just to take care of legal business. I felt it finally caught up to me. I can’t afford the risk at this point in my life, nor do I feel like sitting in some nasty jail cell when I can barely pay rent. Part of me really wants to still be out there bombing, and I still fiend to go write because there’s nothing else that will give me that satisfaction, the release—but I feel that if graffiti isn’t fun, and it becomes more about paranoia and stress, then it’s not worth it. Since he has left the life of a graffiti writer, MERZ has focused on pursuing his career as a painter, exhibiting across the United States in group shows at Minna Gallery, San Francisco; Fahrenheit Gallery, Kansas City; GV/AS Gallery and Mccaig Welles Gallery, both in Brooklyn; Arc Gallery, Chicago; the Modart Breast Cancer Benefit at Triple Five Soul, New York; S.S. Nova Gallery, Cincinnati; and Space 1026, Philadelphia. His corporate clients include Coca-Cola, Toyota, Mavi Jeans, and Macy’s Department Store. MERZ has studied painting and drawing at The School of Visual Arts and The Art Students League of New York, both in New York. A selection of his paintings were recently published in Morning Wood, compiled by Roger Gastman and published by Ginko Press, where he explained, “I try to use everything I learn from life drawing and painting to create my own, surreal, tweaked-out world. I’m sick of of always seeing the standard, well-executed paintings of young, pretty people. I’m more interested in exploring the awkward and grotesque, what lies beneath the fake, glossy surface that we use to hide from what’s really going on.” |
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