Owns’ graffiti emblazoned on a Bushwick wall. — Photo by photograffiti by Roman

A growing crop of expansive graffiti productions brighten the dirty industrial walls that are a prominent feature of the Morgan station area enclave. One graf writer named Owns has been integral to a good amount of these. He has organized many and painted sections of them. But this structured focus on painterly details, crisp lines, and blazing colors in cooperative works has only been of interest to the North Brooklyn native for the past couple years.

Owns started writing graffiti when he was 13 for the thrills. The scene that he knew back then was an entirely different world than what he is involved with now. Although he dabbled with intricate pieces when he was younger, it was more about the trouble he could get into – even about robbing other writers for their paint. “At that time, in the 90′s, graffiti wasn’t what it is today,” the 32-year-old recalls. “The masses didn’t appreciate it. I never saw it as something that would progress.” So he quit after a few years, and his life spiraled into a series of stints behind bars for different, more serious crimes than anything involving an aerosol can.

Eventually, Owns decided he needed something to distract him from his past lifestyle, and graffiti came back into his life: “I gotta focus on something I have a passion for, and I need something to keep me grounded. Graffiti is my personal yoga.” 

“It’s a whole new game now,” he adds. “Seeing a lot of the new skills and seeing the guys who came up when I did still doing their thing, it got me excited about it.” 

So one day, in the summer of 2008, he showed up at 5ptz, a warehouse in Queens where the landlord allows graffiti. He brought with him the painting tools of his day, unaware of the modern line of products designed especially for graf. And since then, he’s kept painting and excelling at the burners he’s now known for. Just this week he returned from painting in Puerto Rico. 

He still doesn’t consider himself anybody in the game, however. In fact, even those he does look up to shouldn’t allow themselves to get gassed up: “When people get ‘holier than thou,’ it’s discouraging. It leaves a sour taste in my mouth. I don’t give a fuck who you are.” 

In total, Owns has organized eight legal walls around Bushwick. “It helps that I’m Spanish, since most of these guys who own the walls are Hispanic,” he points out. “At first, they’re reluctant about what I’m asking. But once they see the bright colors and scale of previous works, they’re like, ‘Oh. Alright.’” Still, he gets turned down more often than he gets permission. One of the walls he put together this summer spans almost two blocks at Moore and White Streets, and is full of other members of TD4, a graffiti crew he’s part of.

Although graf has been a positive force in his life, it has also gotten him into new trouble. He’s facing possible jail time for getting caught painting freight trains. But that hasn’t quelled his urge to paint – just maybe convinced him to stick to legal walls.

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