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On inspiration for his art

“All artwork is based on the job, it’s all about glorifying the experience of the messenger.”

“You figure with a job like that, so many humiliations, that it’s naturally inspired pride, you want to glorify it to combat the negativity of the job. It’s hard to explain. This job is like ‘anti-job for anti-hero.’ It is not easy making a delivery boy something glorified.”

“You can never separate my art from the event that goes with it. It’s like it gets pulled along with it, the art inseparable, the art and event is the same. My art never stands alone. I don’t do paintings or artwork for painting’s sake. It’s for the event.”

On track bikes

“I couldn’t even imagine how to ride a track bike. You can picture it in your head how you think it’s going to be—you have to ride it to know how it feels. I rode with front brakes for a couple of weeks, and then took it off and then learned how to ride for real. Because when you have the front brake on you don’t know how to ride fixed, you will used the brake if it there, you will go for it, so until it’s gone, you can’t ever really learn.”

On cars

“You have to go about your business despite them. You don’t belong there, the streets are not built for you. So you have to sneak around. Go through red lights. I am doing things that I am not supposed to be doing. What right do I have to be angry at some car making a legitimate left turn? You know—the nerve! Or if a car goes through a little space between the red and green light, there is a space when both the lights are red. If a car goes through there I get angry at him. But what do I get angry at him for? For being like me. That is why I am angry, because he is acting like me. I do the same thing. I am going through there.”

On accidents

“The worst—I was knocked unconscious by a food delivery guy coming the wrong way from a behind a truck. I was going full speed. I don’t remember that accident at all. I was hospitalized.”

“This job takes a lot of luck. You can look out and be careful all you want—you can still get crushed and killed at anytime and any minute. No matter how skilled, no matter how many years you have been on the road. You are never safe because you can’t take into account the distracted driver or someone not paying attention”

Illustration by Greg Ugalde, www.gregugalde.com

Raleigh