East to West

I sent this picture to Jay Cru last night. 
He said “Is that Saul Williams?”

I said “Nah” but thought “Damn. I should draw Saul….”

In actuality, that is the homey Kuasi N Imara from the Oakland side of things.

I have been rocking w/ Kuas for years. He’s an avid supporter of Stolen Outfitters (our legacy brand) and has reached out to me for work in the past.

Certain projects we had in cue asked that I grow as an artist to complete. To illustrate what that means, I would loosely quote Brooklyn MC Ka when he said it took 40 years to write his first album and he has to live some more to write some more. I am like that w/ art. It is why I challenge myself and don’t wait to be challenged. Life doesn’t stutter step when presenting an obstacle. Why would I trip when I should be overcoming?

We had a build session last night where I picked his brain about his book writing process. I’m putting one foot in front of the other on that project and all applicable advice is welcome. He instructed me to keep a journal and refer to it religiously. I agreed. Then we spoke about possible illustrations for his book. I felt they would compliment his writing style which is haiku-like. He agreed.

Afterwards, I submitted the pieces I had been working on for him. Without giving an approximate time, I will say he has more patience than any client I have ever dealt with in 17 years. Patience and understanding for the artistic process. I would apologize periodically about the wait and he would assure me that the time being taken was to guarantee the highest quality outcome and he accepted that.

I believe I delivered on my promises b/c I have gotten considerably better since the projects commenced. So much so, that I was able to gift him this piece as a token of my appreciation for his patience, understanding and patronage. It will go in my portfolio and become the 4th blog post due to nature of the back story and the depth of the illustration.