“We need diversity in art here. Most of Mobile art is beach scenes and oyster shells. We need to bring in other cultures.”

“There are social issues going on in the world and art here stays away from that. It doesn’t show the world the way it really is. There are other things here than beaches. We try to be the radical ones that throw it out there, just to get people’s minds turning.”

“Art walk is where we started and we had a little bit of a plan. We wanted to show Mobile art they haven’t seen. There were so many good vibes and it helped us get known in Mobile.  There have been all kinds of reactions to this, good and bad.”

“It has given us a new audience outside of the urban community. I was already known for doing my shirts.”

“Urban and street art should be as important as traditional art. This is popping all over the country. We wanted to bring it to Mobile, so we decided to paint some shit on the wall.”

“We do this for fun, but it does lead to jobs with businesses and restaurants who want their logo on the side of their wall.”

“This is better than a 9 to 5 job. I was a forklift operator and I hated getting up every morning. I am a night owl and that was hard, but I had to pay bills. You can’t be miserable going to a job every day.”

“I worked in the produce department at my last job. I started making custom t-shirts with my friend and it took off in the urban community.”

“I was an accessories manager. Retail was rough.

“We are artrepreneurs now. We want to open minds and be an example of making a living as artists. I want to inspire kids and show them that if you have the talent, you can be an artist instead of just falling in line with society and taking the safe route. You can get fired from that safe job. Find a way to support yourself with what makes you happy. I always liked graffiti art, I saw it for the first time on a train.”

“I used to get in trouble for drawing graffiti on bathrooms walls at school. Then I got good with the teachers and started doing their boards. I turned into the teacher’s pet.”

“I was trained classically as a fine artist. Graffiti wasn’t my first love. I specialize in portraits. Now I do portraits on walls downtown and make it street art. I did the mural in Kazoola and panicked at his hands. It was overwhelming for me. I I had to back out for a few days. You can see the labor and arthritis and where is finger was knubbed. I started on another scene where Ali is. A painting I was doing in high school and I was going to recreate it with a little more of a cultural twist. Someone came by and defaced it. That hurts. A few weeks later, Ali passed and I put him up there instead.”

“We have a few tricks to get it right on the wall. You have it in your head of what you want. The guideline drives it, but often we go off of the plan and start adding stuff.

“We want art in Mobile to get big here and want to do more and better pieces all over the city. We are staying here.”