Cool Disco Dan and Dalek together!

Holy cow! I am thrilled to have met Cool "Disco" Dan AND Dalek at the opening of Dalek's show at Irvine Contemporary last night. Apologies for being a little starstruck but . . . wow! DAN is a graffiti legend and Dalek (James Marshall) is just friggin' brilliant.

DAN is a small, quiet, shy guy who doesn't draw attention to himself, an useful demeanor for one of DC's most notorious graffiti writers. Although I didn't recognize him at first, I had noticed him standing apart from the melange of collectors, art aficionados, and fashionistas who typically throng 14th Street gallery openings. He seemed to be soaking it in with bemusement.

What amazes and inspires me about DAN is that writing graffiti was a way for him to survive the brutal streets of DC during the 80s and early 90s when crack ruled and DC was our nation's murder capital. Many men his age are dead or in prison now. Instead of succumbing to vices of self-destruction, he chose to write graffiti.

I don't want to romanticize graffiti. It destroys private property. I get that and I would certainly be annoyed if someone tagged my building's wall. But I remind myself of the context in which graffiti thrives. It's a world that is alien to me and most everyone I know, a world whose inhabitants have no voice or means of expression in the larger realm. Many turn to violent crime and drugs. In this context, graffiti not only seems like a lesser vice, but maybe it can even be therapeutic. I don't know. I'm just glad that DAN lived.

Learn more about DAN here.