Kenmo and the Grim Reaper 1995
In 1995 things began to change for me. I was now in my early twenties, moved out of my parents house and finished school finally. Then I had to do a ridiculous job in a temping agency to be able to pay my rent before I started my civilian service instead of army. I had my first real horrifying glance into societys everyday life and it was depressing. In fact I got really depressed, so depressed that I couldn´t do any artistic work for a while. On christmas eve I was close to jump out the window of my flat in the 5th floor. Some strange pull drew me to the window, I was in a kind of trance, when suddenly two of my best friends from school ringed at the door at 12 in the night. Those two girls just had the right intuition in the right moment and went having a look for me, knowing very well about my depression at that times.
This way I survived my encounter with the 'Grim Reaper' and promised myself to never kill myself, regardless of what ever happens in my future life.
I often found my earlier art works so significant when I looked back at it later. Several times I found my art works to predict my future issues.
The Story Continues – 1994
In 1994 I continued to paint massive amounts of pieces for that time. There was nothing else I could think of, really. All I had was Hip Hop and Graffiti and I made full use of it, not being very aware yet that doing so often meant avoiding other stuff - the problems in my family especially. I think this might quite well have been the peak level of my early Graffiti 'career'.
Summer 1993
In the summer following the contest I had a good time travelling around a bit and painting a lot. I think I never painted as much as I did in that time. I was still a teenager and it felt just right. Life seemed easy for a while.
I went to Munich with a friend and I was invited to paint in Dresden, where I went with my new friends from Hamburg.
From there we moved straight forward to Itzehoe, where a big graffiti happening took place at a huge industrial area that was permitted to be painted everywhere. This area then became the biggest Hall of Fame in northern Germany for more than a decade before it was torn down finally.
And I went to Hamburg lots...
Kenmoe 1993
A designer asked me to do this piece for him. He liked my contest work so much and wanted me to do another one with black and grey. These are 6 pieces of wood which can be hung separately with each one letter on them - K E N M O E.
My first kind of Mandala I think.
Graffiti Contest, Hamburg 1993
In spring 1993 I took part in a Graffiti contest in Hamburg at the "Kampnagel"-area. You had to apply for it by sending in sketches, from which 25 participants were chosen. I just tried it out and was surprised to receive an invitation. One week off from school and they paid for the journey and the stay and of course the spraycans. I knew I was going to enjoy it!
I met writers from Dresden, Itzehoe, Lüneburg, "Sener" from Bremerhaven and "Wow123" from Bremen that I knew before, but most participants came from Hamburg. I was a bit puzzled by few people that seemed to be so overambitious and at least one person even dared to say he would 'by all means' rank in the top 4 - before he even started to paint! Some of them were very disappointed when they heard the news in the middle of the week that "Daim" was going to take part as well...
I just did my work and enjoyed the scenery. I felt glad to get to know "Jase", who by that time was quite a famous oldschool Graffiti artist and Breakdancer from the crew "The Def Stars". He´s such a nice guy and we had a good time together. We decided to do a piece together at the "Treff" the next day, after we had finished our contest paintings.
A few weeks later I was very surprised to find out that I made the second prize - right after "Daim" and "Hesh" who won the first one. As a reward I got this commissioned work to do for the boutique "Meyer´s" at the "Gänsemarkt" in the centre of town. Even the radio and the newspapers were talking about it.
