Shy Cas

life as a real graffiti artist

Chapter 1
It was the late 80's on how all this began. I was a kid in middle school
at
the time. I grew up playing marbles with friends and walking around where I live
d when
I was in grade school and then started middle school. I used computers during
recess.
After using the computers I would eat popcorn for a dime with salt or not. All I
ever remember
in middle school was playing basketball and having fun.
When I first saw graffiti I didn't know anything about it. There were no
books about it. I can remember near the wall ball wall game
and school rooms where there was graffiti being drawn and on the fences. I didn'
t know
what to make of it. There was even a character with a circle and triangle and
skeleton bones. This was the very first time I saw graffiti.
During school kids played on bars with swings, tetherball, wall ball
and marbles. There was basketball, pots and chickenfighting. The nutcracker
was played on the bars and kids traded marbles and toys. There was a pool stick
and board game,
my favorites were four square and the wonderball. Lots of the games played as ch
ildren
disappeared because the games were banned along with marble tournaments. I still
don't know if kids played duck duck goose or turtle anymore.
Near the end of grade school, graffiti was being talked about by the
students. I can remember seeing kids looking at hand signs being made by other
students. Hand signs are hand movements that represent letters or have meanings.
An early form of graffiti was started on a wall. It was our crew writing "TIS"
in old English letters and tagging our school. This was the beginning of the ear
ly
90's for our crew.
Chapter 2
Back in the days there was school to attend, and then summer vacation be
gan .
Graffiti was in the city and every one wondered about it. People thought it was
a
pop movement and it was. I consider graffiti to be sort of a slave rebellion tha
t
occurred for our crew. After summer vacation the crew started to enroll in high
school.
High school began and the crew formed again to hang out and party. The c
rew
wore their old English caps spelling "TIS" during school. TIS meant "True Island
er
Style", our crew of people at the time. On another note, lots of graffiti was be
ing
created, in the boys' bathrooms with the whole walls and toilets literally being
tagged
all over the place before we even got there. An early form for graffiti was "TIS
"
being written on the school bars. In high school I had the graffiti name "Aso" a
nd
decided to take my friends name "Shy" and stick with it.
When I was in high school, all I ever did was make jokes and laugh with
friends.
I ate my curly fries and had hamburgers with lettuce, pickles and sauce. I would
wash
it down with choclate milk and think about graffiti. I would draw characters and
decided to walk around with a character with anime style eyes on my binder that
had my
name on it. The crew started wearing athletic apparel and baggy sweat pants. The
n the crew adopted
more of the hip hop look with jnco jeans and graffiti t-shirts. My favorite shoe
s
after my asics were adidas with fat or phat laces.
Chapter 3
In high school kids wore weed caps and shirts. Baggy pants and band aids
went
down also with graffiti letters and characters. We danced to rap and rock music.
Somebody drew the anarchy sign near the gym and people started writing graffiti
on walls.
During class people started to take notice of the surronding culture appearing.
The
international food day and school activities kept everybody busy. Break dancing
went
down during lunch, along with tap and everybody seemed happy. When I was kid, th
e older
kids used to grind on the senior lawn and laugh. "Grinding" was a form of gettin
g close to
another person in dance. One of the other dances that went down was the "running
man".
To tell the truth alot of fights went down. Hip Hop was played during al
ot of
school assemblies. Yo-yo's, stereos, magazines and water guns were fun but then
got
banned from the teachers and so was candy. During the end of high the crew got t
o be on
the radio. Some of our crew represented where we were from and battled on the ra
dio for
props. "Props" means respect in Hip Hop for being in the element. A freestyle ra
p contest
went down and people could call up and vote for who would be the winner. I decid
ed to rap
about my phat laces but took a loss. The members that rapped on the radio were P
rince Pinoy,
Fat or Phat B and Lyrical G.
But to remember even more good times,the school had a performer come to
the school.
Near the end of the senior year, Brandy, a r&b performer came to our school and
so did another
group. The school that had the most canned foods collected got to see a perfomer
and that year
the school won. Near the closing of the year more graffiti went down and everyon
e started to
move on. This was the end of high school.
Chapter 4
After high school life goes on. People find jobs, move into apartments a
nd continue
on with real life. I used to walk around or ride my bike and take the bus to the
 mall. There
was a arcade and I used to like kicking it and watch movies. "Kicking it" means
having fun
with your friends. You could see people cruising in 80's civics with rims and mo
ds and could see
lowriders playing music. The cars were called lo-lo's in the street. A popular f
ashion in
hip hop were Ben Davis pants and shirts along with adidas and fat laces. More gr
affiti started to
appear in the city. Sort of a revival of graffiti went down. I must have thrown
at least a hundered
fireballs in street fighter at the time.
Graffiti started down the street where I lived. An early form of "funk"
or "beef" went
down. "Funk" or "beef" meant that you had a disagreement with someone. Usually t
he crew gave daps
to each other meaning a hand movement for agreement and respect. Another writer
had emerged to
be the enemy along with his crew. The crew used to fight in real life and intern
et chat rooms.
Time went on and it turned the artist had passed away due to a drug over
dose. The other
crew apologized and showed us their letters. This was a early form of death as a
kid for the crew,
but I still remember the events that lead up to all of this. I would like to jus
t say to the family
of the other crew that we had nothing to do with the death of their member. May
the future bring
more good times.

Chapter 5
It was the year of 1997 that more graffiti appeared on the freights in C
alifornia. One
year after the Los Angeles riots went down. Kids used to skateboard and listen t
o rock. A new
form of hip hop was labeled called "gangsta rap". "Gangsta Rap" was a form of ga
ng music that
started in the East and then to the West coast. A sort of insane mentality was g
oing down. Lots of real
murders and actual gangbanging started to appear. Also alot of gangsters were ge
tting nationwide
attention for being in the news and making music. The gang lifestlye earned the
gangsters early
pop appeal that went worldwide.
After three to four years or even before, a certain graffiti artist star
ted to get
recognized in hip hop. It was a graffiti artist called "Shy One". "Shy One" was
a artist from
the Monterey Bay area. Shy One represents where he is from meaning he is from Ma
rina, California.
Shy One had a crew called "CAS". "CAS" stood for the "Cool Anime Style". The Coo
l Anime Style
was formed because of all day and night veiwings of anime videotapes and love fo
r hip hop culture.
Alot crews in and out of hip hop culture had taken pictures of the graff
iti movement. Shy
says "he would like give props to all those who represent today and those who we
re curious". The
Cool Anime Style started to get recognized in Mexico, Canada, Japan, both the Ea
st and West of the
U.S. and other scenes. Hip Hop was being spread to Korea and China later through
the years. PI and Hawaii are also
very important to TIS. Alot of kids wonder what early pop scenes were about. One
early form of entertainment started
in Monterey.

Chapter 6
One the early tags I remember was "UOE". It stood for Unorganized Expedi
tions Crew. It was a tag in
white and in bubble letters. More tags started to appear as time went by. It's o
ne of the rare names in graffiti
culture. I can remember going to the Monterey Fairgrounds and seeing the circus
because of the pictures our
family took before all of this. I always wondered if the circus and graffiti wer
e connected.
More graffiti started to appear as the years went by. Places like Marina
, Monterey, Seaside, Fort Ord,
Salinas, and Watsonville. Graffiti tags by the hundreds before and after all of
this had most likely went down.
Alot of popular fashions like baggy pants, cruising around, and art started to
expand all over California.
The hip hop explosion started to go global because all of these events.
An event I can remember that went down was over in Monterey near the Wha
rf was the Filipino Festival.
Alot of elements of early pop had went down. I can remember going to the first F
ilipino Festival with my
family. There was stands, music, food and dance, all of filipino culture. As tim
e went by and the festivals
got bigger more elements started to appear. Early forms of breakdancing, scratch
ing, rappers, import racers,
techno artists, r&b and even a graffit artist started to show up. These were con
sidered early forms of pop music
during the time.
The early forms of dance were about girl and guys dancing, announcements
to the crowds in Tagalog and
providing services and awareness in the community. Breakdancers wore jackets wit
h their names, pop singers sang
to the crowd and people cheered. R&B artists sang and signed autographs, a techn
o artist performed along with dancers,
rappers freestyled rap to the crowd, import racers raised their gear. A transfor
mer beat was scratched by a dj, and
even a graffiti artist had showed up. Anyone could show up and see what was goin
g on at the time. I even went to
a Korean Festival that had dancers there too.

Chapter 7
The festival had went down and graffiti was alive. Later as the years ro
lled by more hip hop fashion was being
made. Anime shirts, racing shirts, shirts with old english letters had started t
o go global. Lots of other artists
had also started to emerge from the area including professional athletes, nation
wide film workers, newspaper cartoon
artists, cartoons on tv and inventors were from the neighboring cities. All thes
e artists I heard and listened to at
one time or seen their art. Alot of rock concerts were going down and the crew h
ad stickers on their cars and started going
to the concerts. Lots of stuff on the rave were places like San Francisco, Oakla
nd and Santa Cruz. The crew and our freinds
had meet so many kind people and seen so many artists, that it's hard to keep tr
ack of everything we saw. I was even in
a mosh pit during a band called Staind.
As time went by I met more rappers, saw more punk band artists in person
, looked at autographs on shirts and
continued with more graffiti. I also got to meet more graffiti artists for bette
r or for worse. Lots of new people
started to continue and develop more trends, so life was good. In the end the cr
ew played at arcades like in San Jose,
went to magic tournaments in Monterey and toked at the reggae festival there als
o. Some of the early groups we saw
were like artists from the Warped Tour, Family Values and other acts. Some artis
ts were Blink 182, Gangstarr, Linkin Park,
Korn, Rage Against The Machine, Limp Bizkit, Eek A Mouse, Blaque, Buffy, Pinay,
Slayer, Sublime and John Legend and the
Roots just to name a few.
Chapter 8
Alot of parties and club life was the life of many graffiti artists. Lot
s of club drugs were in
the streets. Stuff like RR's, Mitsubishi's and Dolphins were around. Lots of wee
d and coke was all over the place. More
music that was from the past started to come back very big. Lots of the classic
designs were used again and revamped.
On the computer when I got at home I typed in lower and uppercase letters in hip
hop slang and signed guestbooks from
friends and other people, just like in middle school. The old school became the
new school because of the different
elements and genres. I can remember one kid telling me how he went to cyberfest
and had worn adidas gear and danced
around hundreds of other kids at the time. Lots of raver kids had adopted pooka
shells, phat laces, beads and baggy shirts
and pants. Belts and beanies and lots dancing started.
Chapter 9
Dad had gone to see Elvis Presley, Mom saw the Four Seasons and the Mont
erey Pop Festival went down, so it's like
a tradition we go and see more acts because it was fun in our family. My cousin
was once a famous bodybuilder so I guess
being athletic runs naturally in the family. As time went on I decided to take a
break from graffiti. If I remember correctly, I
took about three to four years off from graffiti after nearly bombing and writin
g for twenty years. Grandma and Grandpa
once won an award for home apperance through the city so I guess art flows in th
e family. Alot of the family were
doctors, nurses and accountants but I never knew what my final occupation was go
ing to be. I earned a typing certificate
and took desktop publishing but never quite still knew what I wanted to do.
I worked as a tutor, a music and video cashier, a Macy's stocker, a car
rental attendant but still didn't know my
path in life. In college I wrote about graffiti, videogames and dreams. I decide
d to be a telephone operator
and even handled emergency situations that occur to keep myself busy. I worked 6
 days a week and listened to techno in
my white Ford escort in the mornings and night. I missed graffiti and hobbies bu
t continued with employment for cash.
Working as an operator was fun but short lived . As work went on I never quite h
ad the time to play tennis and basketball
like I used to.
Chapter 10
As me and my crew kicked it we had lots of time to think. People will ge
t married, have kids and work for retirement.
I consider myself more of a drifter but kept in touch with freinds. I used to dr
ive my Honda accord and put my license plate
in my visor and used my fast blinker in traffic. As life continued to go on I de
cided to go back to the old school which
was graffiti. Because of work and rent, being a graffiti artist was something mo
st people would never do. I decided I had
at least hundred bombs and tags I could recall seeing. I took so many pictures i
n real life, read magazines and hung near
freights and bridges but I still liked hip hop.
I decided it was time for a new movement for graffiti. I had a friend fr
om the old school where I went which was
Las Vegas. In Las Vegas I started a new crew called "DANCE". "DANCE" stood for D
ancing At Night Clowns Energy. It was
crew that loved to dance at night. The dance members were Cyber, Shy, Dog, Warp,
Sups and Tyro from UOE. The crew did
roughly about 3-4 years of graffiti. Lots of the stuff were bubble letters with
simple color schemes and cartoon characters.
Some of the art was on the Internet on a website called Deviant Art. The crew wa
s also on another website called Soundclick.
I would like to say thanks to all the people who voted for fun.
Three to four years of graffiti will take it's toll. I even found a job
as bartender which is usually busy. Las Vegas
is a very huge city and very dangerous. It was fun looking at more graffiti arti
sts appear. One of the stickers I
can remember being seen were of these bunny rabbits. Other stickers I can rememb
er were a "arcadez" sticker and a "caso" which
lasted a day down las vegas blvd. In Las Vegas you get play lots of videogames,
gamble, watch movies and see lots of clubs.
Las Vegas is as fun as it is dangerous so I had to think twice while I was there
. In the end the crew could see about 60
pieces of graffiti all over the city while cruising.
Chapter 11
Being a graffiti artist was fun for most of my life which too almost too
k all my life, HA, HA. I became a graffiti
artist totally by accident. Sometimes I wonder if I had never became a artist,
what I would have become. So in the end, being recognized
by the real graffiti artists was good enough. So I would like to thank all the r
eal writers I met or never did for starting the movement.
It was, of course worth it. Even the kids who tag in glitter.
A graffiti artist will notice landscapes, signs, bridges and freights. G
raffiti artists wear baggy pants, draw and
post stickers. Hip Hop is worlwide so I was lucky to be in the movement even if
you never heard of it. I can still smell
the Goo Gone today as I write this. To me graffiti never did die. A real graffit
i artist is out there in the streets making
it happen. Those are the real graffiti artists on the freights anywhere in the w
orld. As veiwer you may decide what you
are reading and looking at.
Today I can still recall the can of Red Devil and the old Krylon can wit
h the different colors logo. Those are the
very cans I used when I started. In the end the crew had a message to our taggin
g and that was for people to end rape. One
of our last messages on the walls was "End Rape". So, I figure why not end on a
good note. According to the originators
anyone can speak the once underground language. So, for hip hop "one love".

sHy ONe from CaS...

would like to thank
all the readers and say peace!
The author wrote this book as a
inexpensive way of documenting
graffiti as a culture.

sHYonE would like thank TIs & friends

and SEN of FNS and friends

Chapter 1 Origins
Chapter 2 TIS
Chapter 3 High School
Chapter 4 Battle
Chapter 5 Cool Anime Style
Chapter 6 The Festival
Chapter 7 Life & Party
Chapter 8 old School
Chapter 9 Reflection
Chapter 10 The Return Of Graffiti
Chapter 11 Hip Hop Legacy