Now that we’ve started sharing where we’re at in the present, it feels like the right time to revisit the journey. “Every step forward deserves gratitude for the foundation that came before it,” is a little motto I remind myself of daily.
August 2009.
I was set on creating a piece that would inspire my dad to quit smoking.
He both bought in (he quit smoking) and bought the piece for $400.
It was my first sale.
“Try not to spend the money on anything stupid,” he told me.
Instead, I bought paper, ink, and a few screens. I’d been inspired by a book on graffiti and street art—one I mostly studied through its images. Taking a page from that world, I printed the same message and wheat-pasted it across LA, hoping it might reach someone else. It did. Understandably, some people were offended. Others thanked me. But for the first time, I knew what it meant to say something through art and have people truly feel it.
At the time, I was in high school. I’d been exposed to art my whole life and was learning about the old masters, surrounded by technique, theory, and tradition, and books my dad fed me.
I was still early in my own execution, still exploring how to take what I felt and translate it into something real.
I didn’t yet have the tools to paint like Rembrandt or sculpt like Rodin.
What I had was urgency, an idea I believed in, and a need to get it out.
So, I simplified. I told the story in one frame, which became my ethos as an artist: to simplify and tell a meaningful story.
That piece was called “Morons.”
It’s still one people ask about.
Marlboro logo with a single, pointed word. It challenged how branding can shape behavior, and how sometimes, we blindly buy into it.
This first piece sparked what would later become the “Lost Values” series: a body of work built around subverting icons, slogans, and systems we’re told to trust.
Since its debut, “Morons” has taken many forms: on posters, in ornate frames, across walls, and in three dimensions. Each version reflects a different moment in time, but the message has always been the same.
I return to it when I need a reminder.
Why I started. Who I made it for. What art can still do.
It also helped shape how I tell stories—direct, emotional, and compressed into single frames.
That instinct is what led me to create IF, my imaginary friend and guide. And, like “Morons,” IF doesn’t need a thousand words to move someone. Just one sincere idea, delivered with care.
You’ll see glimpses of Morons throughout this newsletter: early posters, street installs, and a newer impression piece titled “Morons: Strength.” Revisiting this work across different media and milestones has helped me stay grounded in purpose and remember why I still care.
Sixteen years later and my father still doesn’t smoke. But, my journey in art is far from over. 
Stay up, 
Photo Credits: Street Art NYC, Markowicz Fine Art, Kong, Photo Jen Inc
